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Fundamental Tax Reform – Issues, Choices, and Implications - MIT Press Scholarship Online
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Fundamental Tax Reform: Issues, Choices, and Implications

John W. Diamond and George R. Zodrow

Abstract

Reform of the federal income tax system has become a perennial item on the domestic policy agenda of the United States, although there is considerable uncertainty over specifics. Indeed the recent report of the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform recommended not one but two divergent policy directions (and included extensive discussion of a third). This book discusses a wide range of issues raised by the prospect of significant tax reform, identifying the most critical questions and considering whether the answers are known, unknown—or unknowable. The debates over tax reform usual ... More

Keywords: domestic policy, tax reform, income tax, businesses, investment behavior, international taxation, globalization, behavioral economics, consumption-based taxation, income-based taxation

Bibliographic Information

Print publication date: 2008 Print ISBN-13: 9780262042475
Published to MIT Press Scholarship Online: August 2013 DOI:10.7551/mitpress/9780262042475.001.0001

Authors

Affiliations are at time of print publication.

John W. Diamond, editor

George R. Zodrow, editor

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Contents

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Front Matter

Title Pages

Dedication

Contributors

List of Figures

List of Tables

Foreword by James A. Baker III

Preface

Introduction: Is It Time for Fundamental Tax Reform?

John W. Diamond, and George R. Zodrow

I Overviews

1 Tax Reform in the Twenty-first Century

Alan J. Auerbach

Discussion

Henry J. Aaron

Discussion

James M. Poterba

2 Simplifying Assumptions: How Might the Politics of Consumption Tax Reform Affect (Impair) the End Product?

Daniel Shaviro

Discussion

James Alm

Discussion

George K. Yin

II Business Issues

3 Is Tax Reform Good for Business? Is a Pro-business Tax Policy Good for America?

Joel Slemrod

Discussion

Robert D. Dietz

Discussion

Thomas S. Neubig

4 Taxation and Business Behavior: A Review of the Recent Literature

Kevin A. Hassett, and Kathryn Newmark

Discussion

Robert S. Chirinko

Discussion

Timothy S. Gunning

5 Consumption Tax Reform: Changes in Business Equity and Housing Prices

John W. Diamond, and George R. Zodrow

Discussion

Leonard E. Burman

Discussion

Alan D. Viard

III International Business Issues

6 Corporation Tax Incidence: Reflections on What Is Known, Unknown, and Unknowable

Arnold C. Harberger

Discussion

Malcolm Gillis

Discussion

Jane G. Gravelle

7 Corporate Taxes in the World Economy: Reforming the Taxation of Cross-border Income

Harry Grubert, and Rosanne Altshuler

Discussion

Charles L. Ballard

Discussion

Roger H. Gordon

IV Individual Issues

8 Evidence of Tax-Induced Individual Behavioral Responses

Thomas J. Kniesner, and James P. Ziliak

Discussion

Emmanuel Saez

Discussion

Robin Sickles

9 Comparing Average and Marginal Tax Rates under the FairTax and the Current System of Federal Taxation

Laurence J. Kotlikoff, and David Rapson

Discussion

Jane G. Gravelle

Discussion

Peter Mieszkowski

10 Behavioral Economics and Fundamental Tax Reform

Edward J. McCaffery

Discussion

Pamela H. Moomau

Discussion

Jeff Strnad

End Matter

References

Index