Joel Slemrod as the Keynote in FIT launch on 1 Sept

The Finnish Centre of Excellence in Tax Systems Research (FIT) is delighted to have the the renowned pioneer of tax system research Joel Slemrod as the keynote speaker in the launch on 1 September. The title of the keynote is: “What We Know about Tax Systems, How We Know It, and What We Still Need to Know”. The inauguration seminar is open to all interested parties, see the programme of the launch.

Joel Slemrod is an economist and academic, currently serving as a professor of economics at the University of Michigan, and the Paul W. McCracken Collegiate Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the University of Michigan. He is also an author: in their book “Tax Systems” (2014), Joel Slemrod and Christian Gillitzer presented a novel approach to taxation that goes beyond an emphasis on tax rates to consider such aspects as administration, compliance, and remittance. In their book, Joel Slemrod and Christian Gillitzer argue that tax analysis must move beyond the emphasis on optimal tax rates and bases to consider such aspects of taxation as administration, compliance, and remittance. This tax systems approach has been adopted as the framework also by the Finnish Center of Excellence in Tax System Research. Slemrod and Gillitzer argue in the book that policy makers would be well advised to recognize the interrelationship of tax rates, bases, enforcement, and administration, and acknowledge that tax policy is really tax-systems policy.

Joel Slemrod also co-authored the recently published book Rebellion, Rascals, and Revenue: Tax Follies and Wisdom through the Ages, which is an enlightening account of taxation told through lively, dramatic, and sometimes even absurd stories drawn from around the world (Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod, 2021).