About

I am an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of California, Santa Barbara; a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the Director of UCSB's Public Finance Lab.

Research topics

• Economics
• Microeconomics
• Econometrics
• Public economics
• International economics
• Monetary economics

Selected publications

• Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection in the Social Insurance Market for Entrepreneurs

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Tax Incidence Anomalies

  Annual Review of Economics · 2025-06-04

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This article reviews the literature on the incidence of commodity and labor taxes and focuses on empirical results that show stark departures from the canonical model of tax incidence, which I refer to as anomalies. In particular, there is mounting evidence questioning three fundamental implications of the canonical model: ( a ) that statutory incidence is irrelevant for economic incidence, ( b ) that the relative magnitude of the demand and supply elasticities is a sufficient statistic for tax incidence, and ( c ) that tax incidence is symmetric for increases and decreases. I review this empirical evidence and draw implications for the canonical model's relevance.

  PublisherDOI

• Tax Incidence Anomalies

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Can VAT Cuts and Anti-Profiteering Measures Dampen the Effects of Food Price Inflation?

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2024-03-01 · 8 citations

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This paper estimates the effect of a temporary and large (21 p.p.) value-added tax (VAT) cut along with anti-profiteering measures on food necessities during a period of high inflation in Argentina.Using barcode-level data across more than 3,000 supermarkets, we find that (1) absent the anti-profiteering measures, the pass-through of the temporary VAT cut to prices was asymmetric: prices responded less to the VAT cut than its repeal resulting in prices that were higher than their pre-VAT cut levels;(2) imposing anti-profiteering measures, such as setting a ceiling on price increases, led to symmetric pass-through rates.Using a household welfare model, we show that the VAT cut resulted in progressive welfare effects and that the anti-profiteering measures were successful at dampening the regressive welfare effects of the asymmetric passthrough.However, we show that these policies benefited high-income households more because pass-through rates are more asymmetric in independent grocery stores, which is precisely where low-income households tend to shop the most.

  PublisherDOI

• Can VAT Cuts and Anti-Profiteering Measures Dampen the Effects of Food Price Inflation?

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2024-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Rising Income Tax Complexity

  National Tax Journal · 2024-01-30 · 3 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  This paper provides novel estimates on the cost of filing taxes over time and in different countries. First, we ran a survey of US taxpayers. We find that taxpayers perceive that tax complexity and filing costs have been increasing and that the majority would be willing to pay for simplifying the tax system and adopting prepopulated tax returns. Second, we use word counts of the tax codes in several countries dating as far back as the early 1980s as a proxy for tax-compliance costs. This measure shows that compliance costs have been steadily increasing.

  PublisherDOI

• Tax Incidence Anomalies

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2024-08-01 · 5 citations

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This paper reviews the literature on the incidence of consumption and labor taxes and focuses on the empirical results that show stark departures from the canonical model of tax incidence, which I refer to as anomalies. In particular, there is mounting evidence questioning three fundamental implications of the canonical model: (1) that statutory incidence is irrelevant for economic incidence, (2) that the relative magnitude of the demand and supply elasticities is a sufficient statistic for tax incidence, and (3) that incidence is symmetric for increases and decreases. I review this empirical evidence and draw implications for the canonical model’s relevance.

  PublisherDOI

• Rising Income Tax Complexity

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2023-01-01 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Rising Income Tax Complexity

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2023-12-01 · 4 citations

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This paper provides novel estimates on the cost of filing taxes over time and in different countries.First, we ran a survey of US taxpayers.We find that taxpayers perceive that tax complexity and filing costs have been increasing and that the majority would be willing to pay for simplifying the tax system and adopting pre-populated tax returns.Second, we use word counts of the tax codes in several countries dating as far back as the early 1980's as a proxy for tax compliance costs.This measure shows that compliance costs have been steadily increasing.

  PublisherDOI

• Playing Hide and Seek: How Lenders Respond to Borrower Protection

  The Review of Economics and Statistics · 2022-02-04

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This paper uses the universe of mortgage contracts to estimate the response of high-interest lenders to borrower protection regulations aimed at simplifying and making loan terms more transparent. Using a quasi-experimental design, I find that lenders substantially reduce interest rates—by an average of 10%—in order to avoid being subject to borrower protection, without reducing amounts loaned or the number of loans approved. This finding is consistent with high-interest lenders preferring to issue obfuscatory mortgage contracts with lower interest rates rather than more transparent and regulated mortgages with higher interest rates.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Jarkko Harju

  41 shared

• Dorian Carloni

  26 shared

• Tuomas Kosonen

  12 shared

• Alisa Tazhitdinova

  5 shared

• Tuomas Matikka

  3 shared

• Luisa Wallossek

  Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

  2 shared

• Emiliano Huet-Vaughn

  Pomona College

  1 shared

• Santiago Garriga

  1 shared