Samuel I. Thorpe

2 months ago | brookings.edu | William G. Gale |Samuel I. Thorpe

We live in a world of trade-offs, and a looming debate in Washington will decide how trillions of dollars in government cash is spent. Republican lawmakers and President Donald Trump are eager to make permanent the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 that expire at the end of this year. This would prove quite expensive—according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, it would raise deficits by more than $5 trillion through 2035.

Jul 18, 2024 | brookings.edu | William G. Gale |Samuel I. Thorpe

The incidence and distributional effects of changes to the corporate income tax—like those in the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act—are one of the most hotly contested issues in economic policy. The debate often follows a familiar script: Republicans claim that rank-and-file workers benefit while Democrats argue that affluent shareholders reap the gains. In a new paper, forthcoming at the National Tax Journal, we find that some workers do benefit from corporate tax cuts.

Dec 21, 2023 | taxpolicycenter.org | William G. Gale |Samuel I. Thorpe

There is substantial evidence that income inequality in America rose throughout the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Influential research by Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman (PSZ) finds that inequality has risen markedly, with the top 1% of taxpayers’ share of after-tax-and-transfer income rising from 9% in 1960 to 15% in 2019. Recently published work by Gerald Auten and David Splinter (AS) paints a different picture.

Dec 21, 2023 | brookings.edu | William G. Gale |Samuel I. Thorpe

There is substantial evidence that income inequality in America rose throughout the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Influential research by Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman (PSZ) finds that inequality has risen markedly, with the top 1% of taxpayers’ share of after-tax-and-transfer income rising from 9% in 1960 to 15% in 2019. Recently published work by Gerald Auten and David Splinter (AS) paints a different picture.