The Hamilton Project Blog

Romney’s Conflicting Tax Goals Make Burden Shift Likely

May 2, 2012 • The Hamilton Project • Tax Policy, Poverty

Bloomberg’s Richard Rubin cites Hamilton Project data showing the impacts of reducing income tax rates on revenues and progressivity of the tax schedule.  To reduce the top tax rate to 23 percent and still generate revenue, nearly every single tax break would need to be eliminated. The data comes from a document being released tomorrow “A Dozen Economic Facts About Tax Reform.” The document will be released at a tax policy forum in Washington, DC. A few seats remain at the event -- event information and registration are available here.

Read More

How You Can Use The Cloud For Rapid-Fire Innovation

April 30, 2012 • The Hamilton Project • Technology & Innovation

Total Factor Productivity

A Forbes guest post cites one of The Hamilton Project’s “Dozen Economic Facts About Innovation,” which shows that the pace of American innovation has slowed over the last four decades. Read more of the Project’s innovation facts here.

The Lose-Lose Job of Cutting Your Top Tax Breaks

April 27, 2012 • The Hamilton Project • Tax Policy

The Fiscal Times cites data from a forthcoming Hamilton Project document showing eliminating certain tax expenditures would have different distributional impacts on different income brackets.  The data comes from an upcoming Hamilton Project document, “A Dozen Economic Facts about Tax Reform,” which will be released at a policy forum next week that will highlight the economic context for tax reform and the economic criteria that should be used when evaluating tax reform options.  Former Council of Economic Advisers Chair Martin Feldstein and Lawrence H. Summers, former Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and former U.S. Treasury Secretary, will kick off the event with a discussion of the broad economic case for tax reform.  Event information and registration are available here.

Why we pay too little for energy

April 25, 2012 • The Hamilton Project • Energy & Environment

The Washington Post’s Wonkblog cites a new Hamilton Project paper by Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney discussing the social costs of our energy sources. These social costs include things such as damage to the environment, adverse health impacts, and weakened national security.  Read the full paper here.

JEC Hearing on Gas Prices in the Northeast

April 24, 2012 • The Hamilton Project • Energy & Environment, Effective Government

On Thursday, Hamilton Project Director Michael Greenstone will testify before the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee (JEC) on the potential impacts of closing refineries in the Northeast on gas prices.   The hearing is at 2:15 in  room G-50 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building.  The hearing will be webcast at www.jec.senate.gov.  More information on the hearing is available here.