Research in Progress
1. Corporate Taxpayer Responses to Size-Based Enforcement and Disclosure Thresholds (with Jason DeBacker and Erin Towery), Revision Requested at Journal of Public Economics.
2. Pass-Through of a Really High Excise Tax (with Tim Harris)
Publications
1. Adaptive Experimentation when you can’t Experiment (with Yao Zhao, Kwang-Sung Jun, Tanner Fiez, and Lalit Jain), 2023, Conference on Digital Experimentation @ MIT (CODE@MIT).
2. A Guide to Using the Synthetic Control Method to Quantify the Effects of Shocks, Policies, and Shocking Policies, 2022, The American Economist, 67(1): 46-63.
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3. Using a Natural Experiment in the Taxicab Industry to Analyze the Effects of Third-Party Income Reporting (Lead Author, with James Alm, Brett Collins, Michael Sebastiani, and Eleanor Wilking). 2022, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 193: 312-333.
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4. Small Business Tax Compliance under Third-Party Reporting (with James Alm and Timothy Harris). 2021, Journal of Public Economics, 203: 104514.
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How does third-party income reporting affect tax compliance? We use confidential administrative data from tax returns and information reports to estimate the impact of third-party income reporting on small business tax compliance. Since 2011, payment settlement entities (e.g., American Express) were required to report payment card transactions to both the firm and the Internal Revenue Service using Form 1099-K. This requirement made businesses’ receipts from payment cards—but not their cash receipts—third party reported. Consequently, businesses located in higher payment card use areas experienced greater levels of third-party reporting than businesses located in lower credit card use areas. We construct an index of payment card use at the commuting zone level, and we use this variation to identify the effect of Form 1099-K on reported receipts and deductions by small businesses. Overall, we find that the legislation modestly increased reported receipts without significantly increasing deductions. We also find substantial heterogeneity, with smaller firms, firms in business-to-consumer industries, and partnerships reporting a relatively large increase in receipts and a partially offsetting increase in deductions, implying a modest increase in tax compliance.
5. Decentralization and Regional Convergence: Evidence from Night-time Lights Data (with Saroj Dhital), 2021, Economic Inquiry, 59(3):1066-1088.
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6. Information Reporting and Tax Compliance (with James Alm and Timothy Harris), 2020, American Economic Association: Papers and Proceedings, 110:1-6.
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7. Does a Value-Added Tax Increase Economic Efficiency?, 2020, Economic Inquiry, 58(1): 496-517.
Media Coverage: Business Insider, Tax Foundation
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8. Can Reform Waves Turn the Tide? Some Case Studies Using the Synthetic Control Method (with Romain Duval, Bingjie Hu, and Prakash Loungani), 2018, Open Economies Review, 29(4):879-910, IMF Working Paper Version.
Media coverage: VoxEU
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9. Evaluating the Economic Effects of Flat Tax Reforms Using Synthetic Control Methods (with James Alm), 2016, Southern Economic Journal, 83(2):437–463.
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Other Publications
- Sales and Personal Income Tax Exemptions in Louisiana. (with James Alm). 2018, Tax Reform in Louisiana, Editors: James Richardson, Steven Sheffrin, and James Alm, Louisiana State University Press.
- Taxpayer Responses to Third-Party Income Reporting: Preliminary Evidence from a Natural Experiment in the Taxicab Industry (with James Alm, Brett Collins, Michael Sebastiani, and Eleanor Wilking), 2017, IRS Research Bulletin, Editor: Alan Plumley.
- Internal Revenue Services and the American Middle Class. (with James Alm). 2017, The American Middle Class: An Economic Encyclopedia of Progress and Poverty, Editor: Robert Rycroft, ABC-CLIO/Greenwood Press.
- Did Latvia’s Flat Tax Reform Improve Growth? (with James Alm). 2013, National Tax Association Proceedings from the 106th Annual Conference in Taxation, 106:1-9.















