Notes on Attilio da Empoli’s Teoria dell’Incidenza delle Imposte: Oblique tax shifting and other themes

This paper is a preliminary examination of a recently available translation of Attilio da Empoli’s 1926 Theory of Tax Incidence. This work has remained practically unknown to English readers despite considerable recognition in Italian and German journals. Compares and contrasts da Empoli and his book with two authors writing independently on tax incidence in close temporal proximity: Harry Gunnison Brown and Otto von Mering. Illustrates da Empoli’s novel ideas such as “oblique tax shifting” along with some of his numerous differences with the leading authorities of the time on the subject: Seligman, Edgeworth and Pantaleoni. Finds da Empoli’s work to be an early effort at extending questions of tax incidence beyond the boundaries of a narrow partial equilibrium approach.