Sensible Taxes and Practical Politics

Tax policy is a fundamental part of governance and encompasses difficult economic and political judgments and trade-offs across efficiency, equity, efficacy, and administration. Sensible Taxes and Practical Politics draws on economics and political science to argue that a desirable income tax has a narrow base and high tax rates, as currently exists in the United States and other high-income countries.

James R. Hines is L. Hart Wright Collegiate Professor of Law, Richard A. Musgrave Collegiate Professor of Economics, and research director of the business school's Office of Tax Policy Research at the University of Michigan. In 2017 he received the National Tax Association's Daniel M. Holland Medal for lifetime achievement in the study of public finance. He is a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, research director of the International Tax Policy Forum, former co-editor of the American Economic Association's Journal of Economic Perspectives, and former economist in the U.S. Department of Commerce.