Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center

Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center
Name	Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center
Formation	2002
Type	Research institute
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
Parent organizations	Urban Institute; Brookings Institution
Key people	Eugene Steuerle; Howard Gleckman
Focus	Federal tax policy; budget analysis; fiscal distribution

Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center

The Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center is a joint venture of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution that produces analysis of United States federal budget and tax policy proposals. The center brings together scholars affiliated with institutions such as the American Enterprise Institute, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, National Bureau of Economic Research, Tax Policy Center researchers, and university departments at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology to model effects on revenue, distribution, and incentives. Its work is widely cited by offices including the Congressional Budget Office, the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Council of Economic Advisers, and legislators from the United States Senate and United States House of Representatives.

Overview

The center conducts microsimulation and macroeconomic analysis to estimate impacts of proposals such as changes to the Internal Revenue Code, adjustments to Social Security (United States), and reforms to the Affordable Care Act. Staff publish policy briefs, working papers, and publicly available models that inform debates among stakeholders like the Republican Party (United States), the Democratic Party (United States), think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation and Center for American Progress, and media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.

History and Organization

Founded in 2002 as a collaboration between the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution, the center grew from earlier tax research at Brookings by scholars associated with projects at American Tax Policy Institute and historical work by economists at Columbia University and University of Chicago. Leadership has included economists and policy analysts with ties to the Treasury Department (United States), the Federal Reserve System, and academic programs at Yale University and Princeton University. Organizationally, the center operates within the administrative structures of the Urban Institute and Brookings but maintains a rotating roster of affiliated scholars from institutions such as University of Michigan, University of California, Berkeley, and New York University.

Research and Methodology

Analytical techniques include static and dynamic microsimulation, general equilibrium modeling, and distributional incidence analysis drawing on data from the Internal Revenue Service, the Census Bureau, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Methodology papers engage with approaches developed by researchers at the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and university centers at London School of Economics and Stanford University. The center’s models incorporate behavioral responses modeled after studies published in journals like the American Economic Review and the Journal of Public Economics, and compare outcomes to metrics used by the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation.

Major Studies and Findings

Major outputs have included distributional analyses of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, revenue estimates for proposals to modify capital gains tax treatment, and assessments of child tax credit expansions. Studies quantified how changes in statutory rates and credits alter after-tax incomes across demographic groups identified in datasets tied to the American Community Survey, the Current Population Survey, and IRS Statistics of Income. Findings frequently highlight trade-offs between revenue generation, progressivity, and economic growth—echoing debates involving economists such as Martin Feldstein, Austan Goolsbee, Emmanuel Saez, and Thomas Piketty.

Policy Influence and Reception

Reports have been cited in congressional hearings, cited by administrations during rulemaking at the Department of the Treasury (United States), and referenced by bipartisan staff at the Joint Committee on Taxation. Commentators from NPR, Bloomberg, and The Economist regularly use the center’s estimates. Reception varies: some policy advocates and members of the United States Congress praise its nonpartisan framing and methodological transparency, while others compare its outputs to modeling by institutions like the Cato Institute and the Tax Foundation.

Funding and Partnerships

Funding sources include grants and contracts from foundations and institutions such as the Ford Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, and program support from philanthropic organizations active in fiscal policy. The center partners with university research centers, collaborates on workshops with the National Tax Association, and exchanges data methodologies with international organizations including the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the International Monetary Fund.

Criticism and Controversies

Critiques center on assumptions used in dynamic scoring, the sensitivity of microsimulation results to wage and labor-supply elasticities debated by scholars at University of California, Santa Cruz and Boston University, and the interpretation of distributional incidence across life-cycle versus annual measures—a topic explored in work by James Poterba and Alan Auerbach. Some critics from conservative and liberal think tanks dispute baseline choices and behavioral parameters, leading to debates in venues such as hearings of the House Ways and Means Committee and panels hosted by the American Economic Association.

Category:Think tanks based in Washington, D.C.