The IRS has an uneasy relationship with tax return preparers. Preparers may ease the tax filing process and improve take-up of benefits like the earned income tax credit (EITC); however, preparers also profit from financial products sold in connection with tax preparation that have been viewed...

At the peak of the 2008 financial crisis, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued Notice 2008–83 (the Notice), administrative guidance that limited Internal Revenue Code (the Code) section 382, an important tax rule designed to discourage tax-motivated acquisitions. Although styled as a mere...

People sometimes want to harm other people. This truism points to a blind spot in law and economics scholarship, which generally assumes that people are indifferent to the effects of their actions on other people. Residing in this blind spot are diverse areas of the law, including hate crime...

The mortgage default decision is part of a complex household credit management problem. We examine how factors affecting mortgage default spill over to other credit markets. As home equity turns negative, homeowners default on mortgages and HELOCs at higher rates, whereas they prioritize...

We explore how adding prosocial preferences to the canonical precaution model of accidents changes either the efficient damages rule or the harm from accidents. For a utilitarian lawmaker, making the potential injurer sympathetic to the victim of harm has no effect on either outcome. On the...

There is concern that present-biased agents incur too much debt because of its deferred costs – concern that has influenced regulation of consumer credit. While this concern is valid when debt is used to finance current consumption, credit may increase efficiency when it is used to fund...

The use of economic statecraft is at a high-water mark. The United States uses sanctions, tariffs, and import and export controls more than ever before. But these tools have problems. They impose financial costs on domestic interests. They can induce retaliation by target states. And overuse of...