Why Are US Infrastructure Costs So High? & How Can We Tax the Rich?
Faculty Supervisor:
Project and Position Description:
Zachary Liscow, Professor at Yale Law School, is seeking an empirical research assistant to assist with research projects. Day-to-day work includes brainstorming, conceptualization of suitable empirical methodologies, collecting and structuring datasets, performing econometric analysis in Stata and interpreting results, undertaking literature reviews, and drafting manuscripts.
Professor Liscow mainly works in two areas: First, he works to understand what drives sky-high US infrastructure construction costs. A crucial aspect of growth and economic opportunity is public infrastructure. However, as Professor Liscow has shown, infrastructure costs have skyrocketed in the US – and these costs are far higher than in other countries. We are working on understanding why by exploiting variation in policies across US states to see where costs are highest and then developing solutions where policies drive up costs with little benefit.
Second, he studies how the rich earn their income and how that income can be taxed. For example, he is currently working on a project to understand how much the super-rich use a tax strategy of borrowing instead of selling (and thus paying tax on) their assets. Members of Congress are considering targeting this strategy by taxing borrowing by the super-rich, but no one has carefully measured how common it is, which is very important to know when considering whether to target it because that determines how much money such a tax would raise.
For more information, visit his website, https://www.law.yale.edu/zachary-liscow.
If you are interested in committing to work for two years (for which we have a preference), please state that in your cover letter.
Requisite Skills and Qualifications:
• B.A. or M.A. in Economics/Statistics (or equivalent).
• Strong econometrics background and (ideally) experience programming in Stata.
• Eagerness to take initiative and solve intricate problems.