In most markets, it is considered desirable for consumers to have more choices. But health insurance regulation is different. When it comes to health insurance, giving consumers more choices can result in the market collapsing — leaving the sickest and most needy consumers without any good...

This essay develops three new doctrinal arguments in support of the conclusion that a state-level carbon tax with border adjustments should be permissible under the dormant commerce clause. This essay builds on our prior work to argue against the view that a single state cannot (practically)...

This essay reports revised estimates for the tax cannibalization problem with respect to U.S. state-level corporate income taxes. The essay concludes that, although the tax cannibalization generated by state corporate income taxes has been substantially reduced since 2017, the magnitude of the...

This essay analyzes how state-level cap-and-trade regimes can be improved by incorporating tax elements. This essay explains how tax elements could improve the efficiency of auction pricing, with a focus on evaluating California's cap-and-trade regime (AB 32)

Perhaps the most fundamental questions in tax legal scholarship concern debates about what should be the ideal tax base or tax bases. In particular, scholars have vigorously disagreed about (1) whether the United States should follow other developed countries in supplementing its income tax with...

A particular methodology derived from public finance economics has become very influential in the legal literature on taxation and related topics. Sometimes called the “double-distortion” approach, this methodology forms the heart of Louis Kaplow's book “The Theory of Taxation and Public...

In nearly every area of law and governance, default policies exist when lawmakers cannot pass new legislation — typically, the status quo simply remains in effect. To its detriment, U.S. budget making at both the state and federal levels lacks effective defaults. If a new budget isn't passed...