How Progressive is the U.S. Tax System and How Progressive Could It Be?
In their new book, The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman present a forensic investigation into a dramatic transformation that has taken place in recent decades: even as they became fabulously wealthy, the ultra-rich have had their taxes collapse to levels last seen in the 1920s. Eschewing anecdotes and case studies, Saez and Zucman offer a comprehensive view of America’s tax system, based on new statistics covering all taxes paid at all levels of government, and propose a reinvention of taxes. This event, titled “How Progressive is the U.S. Tax System and How Progressive Could It Be?”, featured a talk by co-author Gabriel Zucman (UC Berkeley) and a discussion of the findings of the book. In response, Wojciech Kopczuk (Columbia University), a leading economist of tax policy, suggested detailed methodological and practical difficulties in both measuring the degree of progressivity and radically altering the tax system. Suresh Naidu (Columbia University) served as moderator. This event was co-sponsored by the Center on Global Economic Governance and the Program for Economic Research.
