Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation

Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation
Name	Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation
Founded	1985
Founder	Walter J. Blum
Headquarters	New York City
Focus	Tax policy research

Contents

Institute for Research on the Economics of Taxation is an independent research institute established to analyze Taxation policy and public finance issues in the United States. The institute produced empirical studies addressing Individual income tax, Corporate tax, Estate tax, Tax incidence, and Tax reform debates, and interacted with actors across the United States Senate, United States House of Representatives, Treasury Department (United States), and state-level tax authorities. Its work was cited by scholars at Harvard University, Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Chicago, and in proceedings of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

History

The institute was formed in the mid-1980s during a period of active debate following the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 and the Tax Reform Act of 1986. Its founding involved figures associated with Columbia University, New York University, and the Brookings Institution, and it operated alongside organizations such as the American Enterprise Institute, The Heritage Foundation, and the Urban Institute. Early leaders engaged with policy discussions at venues including the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Federal Reserve Board, and the Internal Revenue Service advisory panels. Over ensuing decades the institute navigated interactions with administrations from Ronald Reagan through Barack Obama and later commentaries touching on proposals advanced during the George W. Bush and Donald Trump administrations.

The institute stated objectives emphasized empirical analysis of Individual income tax, Corporate tax, Capital gains tax, Payroll tax, Estate tax, and alternative tax instruments such as a Flat tax (United States proposal), Value-added tax, and consumption tax proposals. Research concentrated on tax incidence, distributional analysis, behavioral responses studied with methods used by researchers at National Bureau of Economic Research, Oxford University, London School of Economics, and Princeton University. Studies often drew on data sources from the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and longitudinal surveys used by teams at Yale University and University of Michigan (Michigan). The institute also engaged with debates on Tax gap (United States), compliance costs examined in reports similar to those by the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Budget Office.

The organizational model resembled nonprofit research centers such as the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution, with a board of directors, senior scholars, research fellows, and administrative staff. Leadership included economists with affiliations to Columbia University, New York University School of Law, Georgetown University, and Princeton University. The board historically featured members connected to law firms and accounting firms comparable to Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte, and KPMG in professional network terms, and it consulted with policy actors from the United States Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee. The institute hosted seminars with visiting scholars from Harvard Kennedy School, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the Wharton School.

Funding models mirrored those of policy research organizations such as RAND Corporation and American Institutes for Research, relying on a mix of foundation grants, corporate sponsorships, and private donations. Foundations that commonly support tax research include the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, and corporate supporters resembled patrons in the finance and accounting sectors like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup in giving patterns. The institute maintained affiliations and cooperative projects with university centers at Columbia Business School, NYU School of Law, and think tanks such as Tax Policy Center-adjacent groups and international organizations including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The institute published working papers, policy briefs, and commentaries analyzing the distributional impacts of the Tax Reform Act of 1986, the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and proposals for wealth tax instruments debated by figures such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Publications compared microsimulation techniques used by researchers at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center and lifecycle models like those from National Bureau of Economic Research scholars. Its authors published in venues akin to the American Economic Review, National Tax Journal, Journal of Public Economics, and contributed testimony before panels convened by the Congressional Budget Office and Joint Committee on Taxation.

The institute's analyses were cited by legislators on the House Ways and Means Committee and the United States Senate Finance Committee during markup sessions and by staff at the Treasury Department (United States), influencing debates over individual tax rates, corporate tax reform, and tax compliance. Critics compared its funding and policy recommendations to other ideologically aligned entities such as American Enterprise Institute and The Heritage Foundation, raising questions about potential conflicts of interest analogous to critiques of funded research at Cato Institute and Peterson Institute for International Economics. Academic critics from Harvard University, University of California, Berkeley, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology challenged assumptions in some studies regarding elasticity estimates and long-run behavioral responses, prompting follow-up work by scholars affiliated with National Bureau of Economic Research and London School of Economics.

Category:Tax policy think tanks