Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Eyal Reviews Guttentag's The New Law And Inequality Scholarship

This week, Mirit Eyal (Alabama; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Michael D. Guttentag (Loyola-L.A), The New Law and Inequality Scholarship, 105 B. U. L. Rev. 897 (2025).

In recent decades, both legal and economic scholarship have largely converged on the view that redistribution can be pursued through the tax system rather than through substantive legal rules. Yet, against the backdrop of persistent and, in many jurisdictions, worsening inequality, we have witnessed a growing body of scholarship is beginning to revisit this orthodoxy. Guttentag’s article joins this conversation and offers a compelling case for reexamining the role of law—tax law included—in addressing distributive concerns.

At the heart of Guttentag’s analysis is a sustained critique of the “double distortion” framework developed by Kaplow and Shavell in the 1990s (see, e.g., here. That framework holds that legal rules aimed at redistribution are inefficient because they distort both behavior and market functioning. 

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Speck Reviews Taxing Electronic Agency By Elkins & Eyal

This week, Sloan Speck (Colorado; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by David Elkins (Netanya) & Mirit Eyal (Alabama; Google Scholar), Taxing Electronic Agency. 

A defining feature of large language models and other advanced artificial intelligence (AI) systems is their opacity. Humans establish an AI’s basic framework, but enormous quantities of data drive iterative processes that ultimately determine the AI’s operation and output. From this perspective, advanced AI is a black box. In Taxing Electronic Agency, David Elkins and Mirit Eyal leverage this feature of contemporary AI systems to explore the problems with, and solutions for, taxing activities mediated by advanced AI. Elkins and Eyal argue that, in U.S. federal income taxation, opacity is neither new nor unique to advanced AI, and they deploy analogical reasoning to develop a cognizable and workable path forward for addressing the taxation of advanced AI.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Saito Reviews Zhang's The Forgotten Attribution Power

This week, Blaine Saito (Ohio State; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Alex Zhang (Emory; Google Scholar), The Forgotten Attribution Power, 135 Yale L.J. ___ (2026).

In deciding Moore v. United States, Justice Kavanaugh discussed that what was really at issue in the case was not anything regarding unrealized income, but rather a question of attribution. In the opinion, he said Congress could choose whether to attribute taxation to the entity or to have it flow-through to the owner. At the time, it felt a bit underdeveloped as an idea. But as Alex Zhang shows in his article, The Forgotten Attribution Power, 135 Yale L. J. ___ (forthcoming 2026), this concept actually has deep roots back to the early years of the modern income tax. It also shows that even after Moore, Congress does have tools, if it wants to exercise them, to attribute income and tax some level of unrealized appreciation.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Harpaz Reviews Azam's The Global Minimum Tax And Intra Western Tax Competition

This week, Assaf Harpaz (Georgia, Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Rifat Azam (Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya; Google Scholar), The Global Minimum Tax and Intra Western Tax Competition, 44 Berkeley J. Int’l L. ___ (2026).

Implementation of the OECD’s two-pillar solution, including the Global Minimum Tax, has been thrown into disarray following President Trump’s January 2025 memorandum declaring that “the Global Tax Deal has no force or effect in the United States.” The U.S.’s withdrawal from the Global Minimum Tax carries significant implications for global tax competition and multilateral tax cooperation.

In a new paper, Rifat Azam challenges the prevailing narrative under which the Global Minimum Tax should be lauded as a triumph of multilateral tax cooperation. Instead, Azam argues that the Global Minimum Tax represents a tactical maneuver within a fragmented international economic framework. 

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Kern Reviews Taxing Capital Gains At Death At A Rate Higher Than During Life By Rosenthal & McClelland

This week, Adam Kern (San Diego; Google Scholar) reviews Steve Rosenthal (Tax Policy Center) & Robert McClelland (Tax Policy Center; Google Scholar), Taxing Capital Gains at Death at a Rate Higher Than During Life, 186 Tax Notes Fed. 2417 (Mar. 31, 2025).

In left-leaning tax policy circles, much energy has focused on taxing unrealized gains. There are two main reasons why. First, the wealthiest Americans hold lots of unrealized gains—perhaps as much as $13.4 trillion—and they will avoid income tax on those gains if they simply hold their appreciated assets until death. Second, this and other aspects of current law encourage taxpayers to hold assets even when selling would make sense from an economic perspective. That “lock-in” effect is a powerful distortion.

A targeted solution to this first problem—and a partial solution to the second—is to deem death to be a realization event. If death is a realization event, unrealized gains will eventually be taxed, and the incentive to hold assets until death will be relaxed. Proposals along these lines date back to the Kennedy administration, and they were revived by Presidents Obama and Biden.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Narotzki Reviews The Flip And Flop Of Taxing Alimony By Kahn & Roman

This week, Doron Narotzki (Akron; Google Scholar) reviews a new paper by Jeffrey H. Kahn (Florida State) & Rebecca Roman (Gibson Dunn, Dallas), The Flip and Flop of Taxing Alimony, 16 Colum. J. Tax L. 131 (2025).

Kahn and Roman’s article, The Flip and Flop of Taxing Alimony, offers a rigorous and well-structured analysis of a significant yet often overlooked shift in U.S. tax policy: the treatment of alimony payments following the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA). Although the article focuses on the specific issue of alimony taxation, its analysis engages with foundational tax law concepts, including the ability-to-pay principle, progressive rate structures, the assignment of income doctrine, and the theoretical foundations of the income tax system. The authors approach the topic from multiple doctrinal, historical, and policy angles, resulting in a thorough and intellectually grounded examination.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Eyal Reviews Libby's Theories Of University Endowment Taxation

This week, Mirit Eyal (Alabama; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Lauren Libby (Ph.D. Candidate, Yale), Theories of University Endowment Taxation, 103 Wash. U. L. Rev. ___ (2025).

Recent years have witnessed growing scrutiny over the role of wealth in higher education and increasing calls for greater financial accountability from elite universities. At the heart of this debate lies the question of whether massive endowments should continue to enjoy blanket tax exemptions—or whether it’s time to revisit these privileges in light of evolving public values and fiscal policy goals. Indeed, several scholars have argued that educational tax incentives like the student loan interest deduction often disproportionately benefit lenders and universities more than the student borrowers they are intended to help (see, e.g., Dorothy Brown’s article here John  Brooks’s article here). These critiques underscore the importance of reexamining not only how we finance student learning but also how we subsidize educational capital.

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Weekly Legal Education Roundup

• ABA Journal, Continued Suspension of Diversity Standard Suggested by ABA Legal Ed Committee
• ABA Journal, More Than Half of Reporting States See Drop in February Bar Pass Rates
• Above the Law, 2025 ATL Law Revue Video Contest Finalists
• Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Employment
• Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: First-Time Bar Passage
• Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), Preview Of The 2026-27 U.S. News Law School Rankings: Ultimate Bar Passage
• Frederick Hess & Richard Keck (Manhattan Institute), It’s Time for Professors to Teach
• Indiana-McKinney, Death Of James P. White (Indiana-McKinney), ABA Consultant On Legal Education (1974-2000)

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Elkins Reviews The Normative Shift In Corporate Tax Policy After GloBE By Magalhães & Christians

This week, David Elkins (Netanya, Google Scholar) reviews Tarcisio Diniz Magalhães (Antwerp; Google Scholar) & Allison Christians (McGill; Google Scholar), The Normative Shift in Corporate Tax Policy after GloBE, 17 World Tax J. ___ (2025):

In this week’s feature article, Professors Magalhães and Christians argue that adoption of the OECD-led Global Anti-Base Erosion regime (commonly referred to by its peculiar acronym, GloBE) by an increasing number of countries necessitates a shift in the focus of academic attention with regard to the corporate income tax. Whereas pre-GloBE, the key question was the incidence of the corporate income tax, in the post-GloBE world, the key question is inter-nation distribution.

Since the introduction of the corporate income tax in 1906, economists have considered the question of who actually bears the burden of the corporate income tax, the primary candidates being shareholders, owners of capital in general, workers, and consumers. 

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Speck Reviews The Past And Future Of Taxing “Incomes” By Wallace & Wells

This week, Sloan Speck (Colorado; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Clint Wallace (South Carolina; Google Scholar) & Bret Wells (Houston; Google Scholar), The Past and Future of Taxing "Incomes", 104 N.C. L. Rev. ___ (2025).

The Supreme Court’s recent consideration of Moore v. United States has sparked a broad and deep academic interest in the history of the realization concept in U.S. income tax law. Realization, of course, refers to the mechanic, explicit or implicit across broad swaths the current Internal Revenue Code and Treasury Regulations, that measures taxpayers’ income by reference to identifiable events that fix the timing and amount of that income. Although the Moore majority sidestepped the issue of whether the Constitution requires realization when taxing income, the Moore opinions indicate that past understandings of income will inform the Court’s future forays into the constitutionality of tax statutes. History and tradition have come to federal income tax law. As Conor Clarke aptly quipped after oral arguments in Moore, “we are all tax historians now.”

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Saito Reviews Brauner's Mobility, Territory, And Exclusive Source Taxation

This week, Blaine Saito (Ohio State; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Yariv Brauner (Florida; Google Scholar), You Play, You Pay! Mobility, Territory, And Exclusive Source Taxation In The 21st Century.

The international tax system's foundation is under unprecedented strain, having weathered BEPS 1.0, BEPS 2.0 with its two pillars, and now facing a competing UN initiative. But at the base of a lot of these is a specter of residence taxation. Yariv Brauner’s You Play, You Pay Mobility, Territory, and Exclusive Source Taxation in the 21^st Century forcefully outlines the problems of residency-based system and advantages for source as the exclusive means. It also addresses many of the critiques of using source as a basis for taxation. Finally, it presents some guidance on how to think of exclusive source-based international tax rules, with an emphasis that, even here, cooperation is needed, but a first mover could push the project along.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Kern Reviews Hemel's The Constitutional Law Of Tax

This week, Adam Kern (San Diego; Google Scholar) reviews Daniel Hemel (NYU; Google Scholar), Formalism, Functionalism, and Nonfunctionalism in the Constitutional Law of Tax, 2025 Sup. Ct. Rev. __ : 

No Supreme Court case in recent memory has seized the attention of tax scholars quite like Moore v. United States. The Moores sought an answer to a question that threatened many provisions of the Code, and many reforms as well: “Whether the Sixteenth Amendment authorizes Congress to tax unrealized sums without apportionment among the states.” Ultimately, however, the Court ducked that question, instead issuing a narrow ruling that has failed to attract much attention outside of tax circles.

In “Formalism, Functionalism, and Nonfunctionalism in the Constitutional Law of Tax,” Daniel Hemel considers Moore’s broader significance. He situates Moore within general debates about constitutional interpretation. 

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Narotzki Reviews Tax Levers For A Safer AI Future By Eyal & Arbel

This week, Doron Narotzki (Akron; Google Scholar) reviews a new paper by Mirit Eyal (Alabama; Google Scholar) and Yonathan A. Arbel (Alabama; Google Scholar), Tax Levers For A Safer AI Future: 

At a time of rapid and transformative revolutions, academia serves a crucial role: to identify emerging shifts, highlight their implications, and provide the critical analysis needed to navigate their consequences. Academic researchers, drawing on their deep expertise and broad experience, have the unique ability to uncover issues that might be too complex for others to recognize, too difficult to analyze, or too fragmented to address through isolated efforts. By combining knowledge across disciplines and fostering collaboration, scholars can bridge gaps, challenge prevailing narratives, and illuminate pathways that might otherwise remain obscured. This is precisely what the authors of Tax Levers for a Safer AI Future are doing by applying their distinct expertise in tax law and artificial intelligence policy to offer a novel framework for aligning artificial intelligence development with public safety imperatives.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Kim Reviews Parada's U.N. International Tax Cooperation

This week, Young Ran (Christine) Kim (Cardozo; Google Scholar) reviews a recent article by Leopoldo Parada (King's College London; Google Scholar), U.N. International Tax Cooperation: The Terms of References Final Draft, 116 Tax Notes Int'l 771 (Nov. 4, 2024).

The 30th session of the UN Tax Committee will take place next week from March 24 to March 27, 2025, at the UN Headquarters in New York. The Committee will discuss, among others, the digitalized and globalized economy, UN Model Tax Convention updates, environmental taxation, wealth and solidarity taxes, crypto taxation (where I am a proud member of the ad hoc committee), and the relation of tax to trade and investment. Celebrating 20 years of international tax cooperation at the UN, it is worth examining the proposed U.N. Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, which aims to create a system of international tax cooperation to close gaps in existing tax systems that prevent many countries from collecting much-needed tax revenues. Leopoldo Parada (King's College London; Google Scholar)'s recent article, U.N. International Tax Cooperation: The Terms of References Final Draft, 116 Tax Notes Int'l 771 (Nov. 4, 2024), provides a comprehensive analysis of the final draft of the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the U.N. Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Eyal-Cohen Reviews Harpaz's Global Tax Wars In The Digital Era

This week, Mirit Eyal-Cohen (Alabama; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Assaf Harpaz (Georgia; Google Scholar), Global Tax Wars in the Digital Era, 75 Am. U. L. Rev. __ (2025).

Global tax has long been a tag-a-war in the international policy battleground for competing economic interests, but the rise of digitalization has intensified these tensions. The international tax system was designed for an economy built on factories and physical assets, not one where trillion-dollar businesses derive profits from digital services that transcend borders. As governments struggle to capture fair tax revenues from multinational companies like Google, Apple, and Amazon that generate billions in revenue across borders without physical presence, traditional tax rules—rooted in the early 20th century—are increasingly inadequate.

In this Article, Harpaz delves into this evolving conflict unpacking the “tax wars” between the Global North and Global South. He argues for a fundamental shift in how global tax rights are allocated toward source-based taxation and proposes a significant economic presence doctrine to modernize the rules governing international tax. 

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Weekly Legal Education Roundup

• AALS Call For Papers, Reflecting On The Journal of Legal Education
• ABA Journal, ABA Legal Ed Council Suspended Diversity Standard; AG Bondi Wants It Scrapped
• ABA Journal, Furious Bar Candidates Square Off With State Bar of California in Wake of Flubbed Exam
• ABA Press Release, ABA Section of Legal Education Releases Comprehensive Report on Bar Passage Data
• ABA Press Release, ABA Council Reiterates Access to Legal Education Standard Is Suspended
• Bloomberg Law, Law Professor's Claim Over Exam Question Gets Revived on Appeal
• Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), 2025-26 U.S. News Law School Rankings
• Paul Caron (Dean, Pepperdine), New Legal Ed Articles

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Elkins Reviews Hemel's Law And The New Dynamic Public Finance

This week, David Elkins (Netanya, Google Scholar) reviews Daniel Hemel (NYU; Google Scholar), Law and the New Dynamic Public Finance, 43 Yale J. Reg. ___ (2026).

In this week’s feature article, Professor Daniel Hemel takes us on a fascinating journey through the new dynamic public finance (NDPF), explaining its teachings and describing how they might be applied in the legal discourse.

NDPF focuses on the recognition that individuals’ skill or capacity to earn income (described in the literature as ϑ) and government policy both change over time. Prior models implicitly assumed these to be static. For example, in a groundbreaking paper (before he himself become a founding father of NDPF) Mirrlees argued that the optimal progressivity of income taxes is a function of the distribution of ϑ in society (at the extreme, were ϑ equally distributed, the government could raise revenue through a lump sum tax and avoid the distortions of an income tax) and of the elasticity of labor (the more responsive that labor-leisure choices are to the tax rate, the less we would want to tax).

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Speck Reviews Hatfield's Tax In Law Schools

This week, Sloan Speck (Colorado; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Michael Hatfield (Washington; Google Scholar), Tax in Law Schools, 78 Tax Law. 71 (2024).

The 2025 law school application cycle promises the largest—and perhaps the deepest—pool of potential law students since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. This welcome news, however, has unclear implications for specialized fields in legal education, including tax law. In Tax in Law Schools, Michael Hatfield draws on a decade of data from flagship public law schools to describe and discuss recent trends in tax course enrollment against a broader backdrop of changes in legal education. Although this article predates the current application cycle, Hatfield’s novel and compelling empirical analysis sheds light on how faculty can leverage this year’s burgeoning student interest in law school to build tax knowledge across the profession. As Hatfield argues, the stakes are civic and systemic, as well as personal to the faculty and students with interests in the area of law, policy, and practice.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Saito Reviews Brooks's Stock Dividends, The Supreme Court, And The 1929 Crash

This week, Blaine Saito (Ohio State; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by John R. Brooks (Fordham; Google Scholar), Stock Dividends, the Supreme Court, and the Great Crash of 1929:  

Technical rules are often seem “small.” Their effects are usually confined to certain areas, even if they are important. But in his piece Stock Dividends, the Supreme Court, and the Great Crash of 1929, John R. Brooks shows how seemingly minor technical can burst into a wider reach. It shows how confusion of such rules and how they interact with broader social circumstances can create major problems.

Brooks shows how in the 1920s, stock dividends led to phantom income. The creation of that phantom income aided the frothiness that eventually led to the Great Crash of 1929–30. While today we think of a stock dividend as akin to a stock split, at the time there was a significant difference. 

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Weekly Legal Education Roundup

• American Lawyer, 'None of Us Like It': How Expedited Summer Associate Recruiting Affects Law Students and the Firms Hiring Them
• Bloomberg Law, Trump Hiring Freeze Has Agencies Ditching Law School Recruiting
• Chronicle of Higher Education Op-Ed (Aaron Taylor, AccessLex), An Unprecedented Shift in Law School Admissions
• Chronicle of Higher Education, The Dark World of ‘Citation Cartels’
• Inside Higher Ed, As the DEI Crackdown Escalates, Faculty Choose Between Silence and Resistance
• Brian Leiter (Chicago), "Citation rings"?
• New Orleans Times-Picayune, LSU Must Return Law Professor Ken Levy to the Classroom, Judge Rules
• Reuters, Conservative Groups Call on EEOC to Investigate ABA Diversity Programs

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Kern Reviews The Role Of Unrealized Gains And Borrowing In The Taxation Of The Rich By Fox & Liscow

This week, Adam Kern (San Diego; Google Scholar) reviews Edward Fox (Michigan; Google Scholar) and Zachary Liscow (Yale; Google Scholar), The Role of Unrealized Gains and Borrowing in the Taxation of the Rich.

Just before Mark Zuckerberg was born, William Andrews dubbed the realization rule the “Achilles heel” of the income tax. The main costs of the rule are well-known: It allows taxes on capital income to be deferred and, in some cases, avoided entirely. Journalists report that some of the richest people in the world—including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, and, yes, Mark Zuckerberg—have deferred or avoided tax on much of their capital gains simply by declining to realize them, instead borrowing funds to finance their consumption.

But how much income actually escapes taxation due to the realization rule? And to what extent do the rich use borrowing to unlock untaxed appreciation? 

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Narotzki Reviews Adams's Did The OECD Help Reduce Multinationals' Income Shifting?

This week, Doron Narotzki (Akron; Google Scholar) reviews Jillian R. Adams (Toronto; Google Scholar), Did the OECD Help Reduce Multinationals' Income Shifting?.

Adams analyzes the effect of the OECD’s BEPS framework action items on multinational corporations’ (MNCs) tax-motivated income shifting, going beyond prior research that has mostly focused on disclosure-based measures by evaluating the full set of 15 BEPS action items. To provide a broader empirical context, Adams first examines general income shifting trends from 2010 to 2021 using a global sample of MNCs. She applies the affiliate-level income shifting model developed by Hines & Rice (1994) and Huizinga & Laeven (2008) to assess how income shifting evolved over time before examining the specific effects of BEPS action items​. In order to quantify the direct impact of BEPS, Adams modifies this income shifting model for a difference-in-differences (DiD) research design, which allows her to separate the causal effects of BEPS from other economic trends​. 

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Eyal-Cohen Reviews Mehrotra's The Intellectual Origins Of The Modern International Tax Regime

This week, Mirit Eyal-Cohen (Alabama; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Ajay K. Mehrotra (Northwestern; Google Scholar), The Intellectual Origins of the Modern International Tax Regime: Edwin R. A. Seligman, Economic Allegiance, and the League of Nations’ 1923 Report, 5 J. L. & Political Econ. 995 (2025).

As someone deeply fascinated by history and its nuanced narratives, I find immense value in exploring works that shed light on pivotal moments in intellectual and policy evolution. This Article reflects one such cornerstone of tax history literature by offering a unique opportunity to glimpse into how Edwin R. A. Seligman and the League of Nations’ 1923 Report shaped the development of international tax governance. Through a detailed exploration of historical context, intellectual contributions, and lasting impacts, Mehrotra does a great job uncovering the foundational principles that continue to influence contemporary tax policy.

The devastation of World War I left many economies in disarray, burdened with immense debts and the need for reconstruction.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Elkins Reviews Glogower's The Constitutional Limits To The Taxing Power

This week, David Elkins (Netanya, Google Scholar) reviews Ari Glogower (Northwestern; Google Scholar), The Constitutional Limits to the Taxing Power, 93 Fordham L. Rev. 782 (2024).

Moore v. United States, decided in June of this year, has sparked a renewed interest in Constitutional issues by tax scholars. Much of the discussion focuses on the issue of whether the term “income” as used in the sixteenth amendment requires realization. Others have gone further, asserting that under the original Constitution, Congress has the power to impose tax on income, whether realized or not, and the sixteenth amendment was therefore unnecessary. At the heart of this broader outlook lies the Constitutional mandate that direct taxes be apportioned among the states by population. This provision would probably invalidate almost any direct tax except a capitation tax. For example, if an income tax were to be apportioned among the states proportionally by population, the tax rate in poorer states would need to be higher than it is in richer states. Thus, a key question is what the Constitution means by the term “direct tax.” The broader one interprets this term, the more one narrows Congress’s power to choose the tax base that it wishes, and vice versa.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Eyal-Cohen Reviews A Roadmap To NIL And Taxation By Narotzki & Brauner

This week, Mirit Eyal-Cohen (Alabama; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Doron Narotzki (Akron; Google Scholar) and Yariv Brauner (Florida; Google Scholar), A Roadmap to NIL and Taxation, 14 Am. U. Bus. L. Rev. 1 (2024):

The evolution of collegiate sports has significantly shifted following the emergence of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) policies. It changed the structure and financial dynamics of collegiate sports to that of professional leagues such as the NFL, NBA, and MLB. It transformed student-athletes from non-earning amateurs into individuals capable of leveraging their personal brands for substantial financial gain. In this Article, Doron Narotzki and Yariv Brauner explore the multifaceted impact of these changes. They analyze the implications of NIL rights, particularly through the lens of taxation.  Their analysis offers a historical perspective, practical applications of NIL rights, and an exploration of the everyday tax implications. 

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Saito Reviews Reconsidering Citizenship Taxation By Dagan & Mason

This week, Blaine Saito (Ohio State; Google Scholar) reviews Tsilly Dagan (Oxford; Google Scholar) & Ruth Mason (Virginia; Google Scholar), Reconsidering Citizenship Taxation, in Taxing People: The Next One Hundred Years (Tsilly Dagan & Ruth Mason, eds. Cambridge University Press 2025). 

There is truth to the hackneyed phrase that we live in a more globalized world. Tax discussions in recent years has focused on the mobility of capital, which in turn led toward efforts to protect the tax base from multinational entities’ profit shifting techniques. The common view was that people and labor were stickier. But the results of the pandemic along with various changes in laws that allowed digital nomads and golden pathways to citizenship for wealthy people has allowed a growing group of people to break loose from the traditional bonds of community of the nation-state. In their piece Reconsidering Citizenship Taxation, which will be a chapter in their upcoming anthology Taxing People: The Next One Hundred Years, Tsilly Dagan and Ruth Mason talk about recent rumblings to use citizenship as the basis for taxation. 

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Layser Reviews Schaffa's Reimagining The Employee Compensation Deduction

This week, Michelle Layser (San Diego; Google Scholar) reviews Daniel Schaffa (Richmond; Google Scholar), Reimagining the Deduction for Employee Compensation, 57 Mich. J. L. Reform 417 (2024).

The deduction for employee compensation is among the most longstanding and least controversial deductions in the Tax Code. Unlike many deductions, which move the tax law away from a comprehensive tax base, the compensation deduction helps measure net income accurately. Perhaps for this reason, the treatment of employee wages has undergone few significant changes since the early years of the income tax. In a forthcoming article, Prof. Daniel Schaffa proposes a radical departure from the conventional approach. He reimagines the compensation deduction as an economic incentive for hiring and a subsidy for employee wages.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Kern Reviews Clausing's The Green Transformation And Tax Policy Criteria

This week, Adam Kern (San Diego; Google Scholar) reviews an article by Kimberly Clausing (UCLA), The Green Transformation and Tax Policy Criteria.

Climate change is an existential threat, and fiscal policy contains many of the tools for tackling it. But scholars of tax law have not given much attention to climate policy. (There are a few notable exceptions, including Reuven Avi-Yonah, Daniel Hemel, Mitchell Kane, Roberta Mann, Janet Milne, Tracey Roberts, Clint Wallace, and David Weisbach.) My sense is that many tax scholars shy away from climate policy because they see it as a daunting subfield that requires special technical knowledge.

In The Green Transformation and Tax Policy Criteria, Kimberly Clausing bridges this divide. She shows that traditional criteria for good tax policy—such as revenue, distribution, administrability, and efficiency—are at stake in climate policy as well.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Narotzki Reviews The Effect Of Government Transparency On Corporate Tax Avoidance

This week, Doron Narotzki (Akron; Google Scholar) reviews The Effect of Government Transparency on Corporate Tax Avoidance: Evidence from State Freedom of Information Laws by Dongdi (Grace) Gu (University of Texas-Dallas), Jiapeng He (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Ying Huang (University of Texas-Dallas), and Ningzhong Li (University of Texas-Dallas). 

They say sunlight is the best disinfectant, and in the case of corporate tax avoidance, a little transparency can go a long way. In The Effect of Government Transparency on Corporate Tax Avoidance: Evidence from State Freedom of Information Laws, Dongdi (Grace) Gu, Jiapeng He, Ying Huang, and Ningzhong Li put this idea to the test, revealing how government openness can help diminish the somewhat murky practices of aggressive tax planning.

The paper addresses a timely question: how do changes in state Freedom of Information (FOI) laws affect corporate tax behavior? Furthermore, the paper fills a notable gap in the literature by linking government transparency directly to tax compliance. The authors utilize staggered changes in FOI laws as a natural experiment, employing a difference-in-differences (DiD) methodology.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Kim Reviews Taxing The Wealthy At The State Level By Galle, Gamage & Shanske

This week, Young Ran (Christine) Kim (Cardozo; Google Scholar) reviews a recent article by Brian D. Galle (Georgetown; Google Scholar), David Gamage (Missouri; Google Scholar), & Darien Shanske (UC-Davis; Google Scholar), Money Moves: Taxing the Wealthy at the State Level, 112 California L. Rev. __ (2025). 

While there are many tax reform proposals to tax the super-rich these days, the discussion has centered on the federal or national tax level. On the other hand, Brian Galle (Georgetown), David Gamage (Missouri), and Darien Shanske (UC Davis) have been brilliantly contributing to state-level tax policies to address inequality. A notable piece is Solving the Valuation Challenge: The ULTRA Method for Taxing Extreme Wealth, 72 Duke L.J. 1257 (2023, reviewed here), where the authors developed the unliquidated tax reserve accounts (ULTRA) system as a part of drafting comprehensive annual wealth tax reform proposal for the state of California. Recently, the authors produced another excellent piece on the state-level tax proposal for taxing the super-rich—Money Moves: Taxing the Wealthy at the State Level, 112 Calif. L. Rev. ___ (2025), which is worth introducing for this week's review.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Speck Reviews A Theory Of The REIT By Oh & Verstein

This week, Sloan Speck (Colorado; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Jason Oh (UCLA) & Andrew Verstein (UCLA; Google Scholar), A Theory of the REIT, 133 Yale L.J. 755 (2024).

In A Theory of the REIT, Jason Oh and Andrew Verstein reconceptualize the connections between corporate law and tax law to illuminate the viability and attractiveness of real estate investment trusts (REITs) as an investment vehicle. Oh and Verstein ask why public equity REITs have burgeoned in size and number over the last three decades, when their “Rube Goldberg governance structure” runs contrary to well-traveled tenets of corporate law (818). More specifically, Oh and Verstein observe that REITs are largely immune to hostile takeovers and generally prohibited from retaining earnings. 

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Elkins Reviews Speck's The Realization Rule As A Legal Standard

This week, David Elkins (Netanya, Google Scholar) reviews Sloan G. Speck (Colorado; Google Scholar), The Realization Rule as a Legal Standard, 16 Colum. J. Tax L. ___ (2024):

Moore v. United States, decided by the Supreme Court in June of this year, reignited discussion about the concept of realization in the income tax. While statutory law generally conforms to the principle of realization as a matter of policy, the question raised by Moore is whether Congress could tax unrealized gain if it so desired.

In this week’s feature article, Prof. Speck begins with an extensive review of the controversy regarding the Constitutional realization requirement. He opens with the Supreme Court’s famous holding from 1920 in Eisner v. Macomber that the 16th Amendment does not authorize Congress to impose tax on unrealized income (without an impractical apportioning among the states in accordance with population). He then describes how in a 1941 article, Prof. Stanley Surrey contended that realization is not in fact a Constitutional requirement. 

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Speck Reviews Osofsky's Wellness And The Tax Law

This week, Sloan Speck (Colorado; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Leigh Osofsky (North Carolina; Google Scholar), Wellness and The Tax Law, 59 Ga. L. Rev. __ (2025).

There is little doubt that the U.S. tax system’s patchwork treatment of medical care yields significant inequities, many of which reproduce broader problems with non-tax public health policy in the United States. In Wellness and the Tax Law, Leigh Osofsky explores these inequities as they arise in the context of individuals’ spending on wellness practices that foster physical and mental well-being. Medical research shows that these wellness practices are significantly correlated with preventing, mitigating, and treating identifiable health problems, with potential savings at both the individual and societal levels. Concomitantly, tax law has deployed the concept of “medical care” in more contexts, and with less consistency. Within this dynamic context, Osofsky revisits the structure and justifications for tax benefits for health-oriented spending.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Saito Reviews Marks’s Winning By Losing: The Strategy Of Adverse Letter Rulings

This week, Blaine Saito (Ohio State; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Noah Hertz Marks (Duke), Winning by Losing: The Strategy of Adverse Letter Rulings, 66 B.C. L. Rev. __ (2025).

Tax law is rich with sources. We have sources of binding law in the forms of statutes, regulations, and court cases. But there is also a rich set of sub-regulatory guidance. One of note are Private Letter Rulings (PLRs). While PLRs are only binding on the IRS with respect to a specific taxpayer, those in practice frequently consult PLRs, as they provide insight into the IRS’s reasoning on key issues for which there may be no other form of guidance. PLRs are issued through a collaborative process. When the IRS determines that there may be an adverse ruling in a PLR, it provides numerous off-ramps. Yet, these adverse PLRs exist. Noah Marks explores this puzzle in Winning by Losing: The Strategy of Adverse Letter Rulings. Marks shows that adverse letter rulings exist for numerous reasons, including strategic normative power. His work thus adds not only to tax scholarship, but also our understanding of the long shadow of agency actions.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Kern Reviews Deferring Income With Tiered And Circular Partnerships By Sanchirico & Shuldiner

This week, Adam Kern (San Diego; Google Scholar) reviews an article by Chris William Sanchirico (Penn; Google Scholar) and Reed Shuldiner (Penn), Deferring Income with Tiered and Circular Partnerships.

Taxes can be deferred when partnerships have different taxable years from their partners. A partnership might take account of its income in, say, January, while a partner might only take account of its income in December. In that case, the partner would defer taxes on its distributive share of partnership income for 11 months.

The academic literature has assumed that this opportunity for deferral is limited. In “Deferring Income with Tiered and Circular Partnerships,” Chris Sanchirico and Reed Shuldiner show that it is not. Taxpayers can achieve a large—indeed, unbounded—extent of deferral with tiered and circular partnerships. Moreover, while the partnership structures described by Sanchirico & Shuldiner are ingenious, they are not so large or complex as to be obviously infeasible. This is a genuine opportunity that taxpayers might well seize.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Narotzki Reviews Escajeda's Bad Tax Policy Breeds Bad Blood Between Songwriters And Poets

This week, Doron Narotzki (Akron; Google Scholar) reviews an article by Hilary G. Escajeda (Mississippi College; Google Scholar), Bad Tax Policy Breeds Bad Blood Between Songwriters and Poets 183 Tax Notes Fed. 1625 (May 27, 2024).

Escajeda offers a compelling and thought-provoking critique of the U.S. tax system's treatment of artists, an area that is not often discussed. With a lively and accessible writing style, Escajeda highlights an important but often overlooked disparity in how tax policy favors songwriters over poets. Using popular cultural references, such as Taylor Swift’s music, the article skillfully engages readers while discussing the more technical aspects of tax law which makes the topic relatable and easier to digest.

Escajeda’s main argument is clear and very persuasive: current U.S. tax laws offer preferential capital gains treatment to songwriters but at the same time subject poets and other non-musical artists to ordinary income tax rates. 

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Kim Reviews Schön's International Tax Scholarship And International Tax Activism

This week, Young Ran (Christine) Kim (Cardozo; Google Scholar) reviews a recent article by Wolfgang Schön (Max Planck), International Tax Scholarship and International Tax Activism (August 2024).       

While writing a scholarly article, tax scholars sometimes develop an idea based on their personal experience or political stance in addition to a pure scientific, doctrinal analysis. What are the merits of inviting activism to tax scholarship? Is there any limitation? Wolfgang Schön (Max Planck)'s recent article, International Tax Scholarship and International Tax Activism, provides insightful answers to this question, focusing on recent international tax debate.  

The international tax community over the last couple of decades has experienced dynamic changes in focus. Prior to the late 20th century, legal scholars loved to discuss complex cases (like triangular cases on withholding taxation and entity classification) and treaty analysis at a high level.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Eyal-Cohen Reviews Weisbach's An APA For Tax

This week, Mirit Eyal-Cohen (Alabama; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by David A. Weisbach (Chicago; Google Scholar), An APA For Tax.

The Administrative Procedure Act (APA) is a cornerstone of administrative law in the United States, providing a framework for the procedures and processes that federal agencies must follow. Its relevance to tax law has become increasingly significant as tax administration faces new challenges and reforms. This Article is one more piece in a series of articles, where scholars supporting tax exceptionalism (e.g. Caron, Lederman, Puckett, Weisbach, Walace, Zelenak, and others) debate anti-tax exceptionalism colleagues (e.g. Abreu & Greenstein, Hickman, Hoffer, Johnson, Infanti, Walker, and others) on the question of whether Treasury (and the IRS as its extension) violates the requirements of administrative law as laid out by the APA.  

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Elkins Reviews Oei's Disentangling Power And Preferences In Tax Treaties Between Developing And OECD Countries

This week, David Elkins (Netanya, Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Shu-Yi Oei (Duke; Google Scholar), Disentangling Power and Preferences in Tax Treaties between Developing and OECD Countries Using Multilevel Modeling.

One of the linchpins of the international tax regime is the network of over 3,000 bilateral tax treaties. Of those, as noted by Prof. Oei, about 40% are between developed and developing countries. The primary goals of tax treaties are to prevent double taxation and to divide up taxing rights between the taxpayer’s country of residence (the home country) and the country from which the income is derived (the source country). However, it is often not necessary to conclude a tax treaty to prevent the taxation of the same income by more than one country. Foreign tax credits and territorial taxation are unilateral means by which counties can and do prevent double taxation. Moreover, these unilateral measures tend to give precedence to source countries. The question that has been raised in the literature is why developing countries, which to a great extent rely upon source taxation, would enter into treaties, the effect of which is to limit their ability to tax income deriving from their own territory.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Speck Reviews Chaim's The Common Ownership Tax Strategy

This week, Sloan Speck (Colorado; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Danielle A. Chaim (Bar-Ilan; Google Scholar), The Common Ownership Tax Strategy, 101 Wash. U. L. Rev. 501 (2023).

Over the last decade-and-a-half, economists and corporate law scholars have unpacked the consequences of index-based mutual funds’ burgeoning ownership of equity in public companies. In The Common Ownership Tax Strategy, Danielle Chaim synthesizes and extends this literature as it applies to taxation. Chaim argues that mutual funds’ substantial stakes in broad swaths of companies—“diversified-yet-concentrated” ownership—facilitate a tax avoidance strategy that Chaim terms “corporate flooding.” Essentially, firms can simultaneously increase their overall tax avoidance, overwhelming the IRS’s enforcement capacities and driving down the odds that the IRS will detect abusive practices by any one firm. This rising tide of tax avoidance raises all mutual funds’ boats, and the costs are distributional: fund managers and their moderate- to upper-income clientele benefit.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Saito Reviews The Conflictual Core Of Global Tax Cooperation By Oei & Ring

This week, Blaine Saito (Ohio State; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Diane M. Ring (Boston College; Google Scholar) & Shu-Yi Oei (Duke; Google Scholar), The Conflictual Core of Global Tax Cooperation.

In Momentum has grown around Pillar Two created through the OECD/G20’s inclusive framework. But this growing moment of unity masks the conflict between developed countries and developing countries. In their piece, The Conflictual Core of Global Tax Cooperation, Shu-Yi Oei and Diane Ring shows how developing country critics of the inclusive framework and Pillar Two and developed country proponents of it seem to talk past each other. They also show that international tax issues need to fall within the broader frames of tensions between developing and developed nations that exist outside of tax as well.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Layser Reviews Shanske's The Future Of SALT

This week, Michelle Layser (San Diego; Google Scholar) reviews Darien Shanske (UC-Davis; Google Scholar), The Future of SALT (?): Using and Improving Formulas for Apportioning Income, Residence and Intangibles, 78 Tax Law. __ (2025). 

Formulas are a common feature of state tax law. The quintessential example is the formulary apportionment of income earned by multistate corporations, but formulas are used in other contexts as well. Some states use formulas to determine how individuals should apportion their income when they work remotely. Formulas are used to apportion income earned by professional athletes (let’s go Padres!). Emerging digital sales tax laws use formulas to apportion advertising income earned by platforms like Facebook to the states where their customers live.

Formulas help solve a fundamental problem: it is often theoretically and practically impossible to determine, with absolute accuracy, where a taxpayer earned their income. Formulas provide a simple solution: estimate how much income was earned in a state based on proxies (like the location of customers, employees, or property) or time (the number of days an employee worked in each state). 

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Narotzki Reviews Utke's There Is No Carried Interest Loophole

This week, Doron Narotzki (Akron; Google Scholar) reviews Steve Utke (Connecticut; Google Scholar), There is No Carried Interest Loophole.

Steven Utke's paper presents a unique argument against the widespread criticism of the tax treatment of carried interest. Commonly referred to by many (including myself) as a "loophole," carried interest essentially allows private equity (“PE”) and hedge fund managers to lower their tax liability and pay taxes at long-term capital gains rates rather than higher ordinary income rates. Utke challenges this criticism, providing a comprehensive analysis that supports the current tax treatment mainly as both consistent with tax principles and beneficial for federal revenue.

Utke's paper makes three core arguments to support his claim: consistency with tax principles, revenue implications, and the consequences of changing the current tax treatment.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Kim Reviews Pillar One And Mobility – A Truly Global Solution? By Kostić & Navarro

This week, Young Ran (Christine) Kim (Cardozo; Google Scholar) reviews Svetislav Kostić (University of Belgrade Law School; Google Scholar) and Aitor Navarro (Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance; Google Scholar)’s recent paper, Pillar One and Mobility – A Truly Global Solution?, 51 Intertax 840 (2023).   

The multilateral instrument to implement Pillar One is scheduled to be signed by the day after tomorrow, June 30, 2024. Although officials at the OECD are still making progress on readying a treaty, many commentators, including yours truly, suspect that the June 30th deadline will be met. Earlier this week, I visited the Max Planck Institute  for a conference on the global tax deal and encountered an interesting article, Pillar One and Mobility – A Truly Global Solution?, 51 Intertax 840 (2023), by Svetislav Kostić (University of Belgrade Law School; Google Scholar) and one of the conference co-organizers, Aitor Navarro (Max Planck Institute for Tax Law and Public Finance; Google Scholar). Although the future of Pillar One is not bright, it is worth introducing this paper for this week's review as it highlights many of the concerns that developing countries have about Pillar One.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Eyal-Cohen Reviews An Originalist Analysis Of Wealth Taxes Under The Constitution By Schizer & Calabresi

This week, Mirit Eyal-Cohen (Alabama; Google Scholar) reviews David M. Schizer (Columbia) & Steven G. Calabresi (Northwestern), Wealth Taxes Under the Constitution: An Originalist Analysis, 28 Fla. Tax Rev. ___ (2024).

This Article delivers a timely and persuasive originalist examination of the federal wealth tax’s constitutionality, particularly relevant given the recent national and international initiatives to implement such taxes. Schizer and Calabresi lay out a detailed historical and legal examination and offer valuable insights into the Framers’ intent and the practical challenges of the legal concept of apportionment. They begin with the axiom that wealth taxes are “direct taxes” requiring apportionment among the states. This apportionment necessitates that each state’s contribution to the tax must be proportionate to its population, a requirement leading to significant practical challenges and undesirable consequences: states with a smaller share of national wealth would need to impose higher tax rates to meet their apportioned contribution. 

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Elkins Reviews Reis's The Gift Tax Treatment Of Loan Guarantees

This week, David Elkins (Netanya, Google Scholar) reviews Eric Reis (North Texas), Guaranteed Wealth? A New Way of Thinking About the Gift Tax Treatment of Loan Guarantees, 27 Fla. Tax Rev. _ (2024):

In this week’s feature article, Professor Eric Reis examines the gift tax consequences of gratuitous loan guarantees. A prototypical example is one in which a parent provides a guarantee for a loan to a child, where the child does not have enough assets or income to qualify for a loan on her own. As the author describes it, wealth is effectively transferred from the parent to the child because the child will benefit from the upside (if the asset appreciates more than the interest on the loan, the child will pocket the difference) but will have little to no exposure to the downside (if the asset depreciates in value, the parent will likely cover the difference). The author goes on to describe a number of similar structures involving children who are shareholders in corporations or beneficiaries of trusts and a parental guarantee of loans to the corporation or the trust.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Speck Reviews The TCJA: Sweeping Changes And An Uncertain Legacy By Gale, Hoopes & Pomerleau

This week, Sloan Speck (Colorado; Google Scholar) reviews William G. Gale (Brookings Institution; Google Scholar), Jeffrey L. Hoopes (North Carolina; Google Scholar) & Kyle Pomerleau (American Enterprise Institute), Sweeping Changes and an Uncertain Legacy: The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, 39 J. Econ. Persp. __ (2024).

Soon after the President signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in December 2017, the political push began to extend the law’s various time-limited individual and business tax provisions. This push for permanence promises to become more pressing as the 2024 election cycle unfolds—including partisan preparations to deploy the budget reconciliation process under potential majority control of both houses of Congress. The stakes are high: up to $4.6 trillion in foregone revenue, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office, as well as the shape and trajectory of the federal income tax system for years to come. A full understanding of these stakes requires context about the TCJA’s past, present, and possible futures. 

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Saito Reviews Competing Narratives On OIRA Review Of Tax Regulations By Hickman & Dooling

This week, Blaine Saito (Ohio State; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Kristin E. Hickman (Minnesota; Google Scholar) & Bridget C.E. Dooling (Ohio State; Google Scholar), Competing Narratives in OIRA Review of Tax Regulations, 19 J.L. Econ. & Pol’y __ (2024):

In 2023, the Biden Administration issued a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that exempted all tax regulations from OIRA review. Many, including readers of this blog, hailed this undoing. But in Competing Narratives on OIRA Review of Tax Regulations, Kristine E. Hickman and Bridget C.E. Dooling show that what is at play are two competing narratives. One sees OIRA review as salutary and creating greater transparency, accountability, and rigorous analysis. The other views it as meddlesome to tax regulations. They show that the second narrative stems from some key misconceptions about OIRA review of tax regulations.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Layser Reviews Cowing's Equity And Ownership In Affordable Housing

This week, Michelle Layser (San Diego; Google Scholar) reviews Adam Cowing (UC-Irvine), Equity and Ownership in Affordable Housing, 2024 U. Ill. L. Rev. 399.

In the U.S., homeownership is often essential for wealth building. For middle-income households, “home equity is the largest single financial asset,” and it accounts for 50-70% of net wealth. In 2022, the wealth gap between homeowners and renters reached a historic high, as the median wealth of homeowners rose to $85,000 and the median wealth of renters remained stable at $950. Tax-based homeownership subsidies are common (the mortgage interest deduction is one, and the exclusion of imputed rent is another), but none aim to make home ownership attainable for low-income families. Instead, tax subsidies like the Low-Income Housing Tax (LIHTC) credit (and proposed renters’ tax credits) have focused on providing affordable rental housing. Nevertheless, a new article by Professor Adam Cowing argues that the LIHTC has untapped potential to transform low-income tenants into homeowners.

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Weekly SSRN Tax Article Review And Roundup: Roberts Reviews The Missing “T” in ESG By Chaim & Parchomovsky

This week, Tracey M. Roberts (Cumberland; Google Scholar) reviews a new work by Danielle A. Chaim (Bar-Ilan; Google Scholar) and Gideon Parchomovsky (Penn; Google Scholar), The Missing “T” in ESG, 77 Vanderbilt L. Rev. 789 (2024).

In The Missing T in ESG, Danielle Chaim and Gideon Parchomovsky take a magnifying glass to ESG investing and the large asset management firms that have been promoting it in recent years. Environmental Social and Governance or “ESG” standards describe a broad array of criteria. Environmental factors examine environmental impacts (such as waste management and greenhouse gas production). Social factors focus on human rights violations and violations of labor laws (such as human trafficking and child labor in the supply chains), among other things. Governance factors consider longer-term value, positive and negative spillover effects, and whether a corporation has implemented structures and personnel with diverse perspectives to avoid the kinds of group-think that led to the mortgage crisis and Great Recession. Ultimately, ESG ratings allow investors, with an aversion to longer-term risks and with preferences beyond short term profit, to pick and choose where they invest their money.

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