S1 E9: Research and Learning Projects that Influence Tax Policy

Host

• Kasie Whitener, Clinical Assistant Professor

Guest

• Dr. Jason DeBacker, Associate Professor, Economics

Dr. DeBacker’s route to academia went through Washington, D.C. After an undergraduate degree at University of Georgia and graduate school at the University of Texas, Dr. DeBacker worked at the Department of Treasury for the federal government. Public finance economics is his specialty and it was at Treasury that Dr. DeBacker recognized the importance of academic research in policy making. After a post at Middle Tennessee State, Dr. DeBacker joined the Darla Moore School, an R1 institution, where he continues to contribute to policy-influential research.

As a classroom Professor, Dr. DeBacker teaches Macroeconomics, a required class for undergraduates in Economics, and this year will teach a Political Economy undergraduate course. Dr. DeBacker’s classroom is focused on connecting the news students read each day with the mathematical practices that influence political initiatives. Dr. DeBacker is a contributor to the Policy Simulation Library, a non-profit open-source software hub for economic modeling. Dr. DeBacker’s research interests include environmental economics, tax code incentives, and game theory.

Conversation topics:

• Empirical analysis of public policy and tangible questions
• Policy Simulation Library - open source policy center
• Look at public policy and do it in a transparent way, make the knowledge available to the public
• Honors section of intermediate macro that will engage these tools
• Build up a macroeconomic model from scratch
• Two areas of research using IRS audit data: 1) how taxes affect business decisions and how do we administer the tax code and how compliant are people? 2) higher marginal rate encourage people to comply more or less?
• Economics major is a strong foundation for business students
• Human behavior and how humans respond to incentives
• The tools to understand the world through incentives
• Economic Policy and Innovation Center “EPIC” bringing the important questions to bear the research in the department and the students who are motivated to transfer this knowledge to the State House

To learn more about the Policy Simulation Library visit this site.

To learn more about studying Economics at the Darla Moore School visit this site.

To learn more about the Darla Moore School of Business visit this site.

To be a guest or suggest a topic for our podcast, click here.

Moore Impact is a product of the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. For episodes, notes, and links visit sc.edu/moore