Research Papers
My profile on RePEc
"Uncovering the American Dream:
Inequality and Mobility in Social Security Earnings
Data since 1937" (with Emmanuel Saez and Jae Song). Long version:
NBER WP #13345.
Series for the figures and tables. Revision
requested by Quarterly Journal of Economics.
"Optimal Estate Taxation in the Steady
State"
"The Choice of Personal Income Tax Base" (with Roger Gordon)
"Welfare Programs Complexity and the Take Up of Social Benefits" (with Henrik Kleven)
"Women, wealth and mobility" (with Lena Edlund),
American Economic Review, forthcoming.
"Bequest and Tax Planning: Evidence from Estate Tax
Returns," Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2007, 122(4), 1801-1854.
"Electronic Filing, Tax Preparers and
Participation in the Earned Income Tax Credit" (with Kiki
Pop-Eleches), Journal of Public Economics, 2007, 91(7-8), 1351-1367.
"To Leave or Not to Leave: The
Distribution of Bequest Motives" (with Joseph Lupton), Review of Economic Studies, 2007, 74(1), 207-235.
"Putting Firms into Optimal Tax Theory" (with Joel Slemrod), American
Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 2006, 96(2), 130-134.
"Tax Bases, Tax Rates and the Elasticity of
Reported Income," Journal of Public Economics, 2005, 89(11-12),
2093-2119. The NBER
working paper version is here.
"Tax Simplification and Tax Compliance: An Economic Perspective," in Max Sawicky (ed.), Bridging the Tax Gap.
Addressing the Crisis in Tax
Administration, 2006, Washington, DC: Economic Policy Institute, 111-143.
"Denial of death and economic
behavior" (with Joel Slemrod), Advances in Theoretical Economics: 2005, Vol. 5: No. 1, Article 1.
"The Limitations of Decentralized World
Redistribution: An Optimal Taxation Approach" (with Joel Slemrod
and Shlomo Yitzhaki), European Economic Review,
2005, 49(4), 1051-1079. This is a revised version of NBER Working Paper #9186:
"Why World Redistribution
Fails".
"Top Wealth Shares in the United States,
1916-2000: Evidence from Estate Tax Returns," (with Emmanuel
Saez). Note: this is the long version of the paper that includes all
of the tables, figures and appendices. The shorter version is published in National Tax
Journal, 2004, 57(2, part 2), 445-488
and data for all
tables and figures is also available.
"The Trick is to Live: Is the Estate Tax Social Security for the Rich?",
Journal of Political Economy, 2003, 111(6), 1318-1341.
"Dying to Save Taxes: Evidence from Estate
Tax Returns on the Death Elasticity" (with Joel Slemrod),
Review of Economics and Statistics, 2003, 85(2), 256-65.
"Tax Consequences on Wealth Accumulation and
Transfers of the Rich" (with Joel Slemrod), in Death and
Dollars: The Role of Gifts and Bequests in America,
Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2003, 213-249.
"A Note on Optimal Taxation in the Presence of
Externalities," Economics Letters, 2003, 80(1),
81-86.
"The Optimal Elasticity of Taxable
Income" (with Joel Slemrod), Journal of Public Economics, 2002,
84(1), 91-112.
"The Impact of the Estate Tax on the Wealth
Accumulation and Avoidance Behavior of Donors" (with Joel Slemrod),
in William G. Gale, James R. Hines Jr., and Joel B. Slemrod (eds.),
Rethinking Estate and Gift Taxation, Brookings Institution
Press, 2001.
"Redistribution when Avoidance Behavior
is Heterogeneous," Journal of Public Economics, 2001, 81(1),
51-71.