The Office of Tax Policy Research recently hosted the 67th Annual Congress of the International Institute of Public Finance.  Over 350 people from 30 countries attended this 4-day event that included 5 Keynote Speakers, 75 sessions, and over 250 papers.

Below is a group photo of conference participants at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

To view pictures of the Congress, please click here.

On the second day of the Congress, participants went on an excursion to the Henry Ford Museum and a strolling dinner at the Detroit Institute of Arts.  To view pictures of the excursion, please click here.

Finally, the last night of the Congress featured a 5-course dinner and dancing.  The festivities can be viewed by clicking here.

A NOTCH Above: Automakers Manipulate Fuel Economy

With the recent announcement that the U.S. government will propose higher fuel economy standards this fall, a new study shows that automakers fine-tune vehicle fuel economy to qualify for more favorable treatment. For more than 30 years, auto companies have done just enough to improve the fuel economy of vehicles in order to lower tax rates and increase rebates imposed by governments in the United States and Canada, according to professor Joel Slemrod and colleague James Sallee of the University of Chicago.

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While policy makers struggle with identifying and enacting the appropriate short-term policy response to the recent financial crisis and economic downturn, both academics and policy makers are examining the causes of the crisis and what lessons this might bring to bear on longer-term policy. With near unanimity attention to both the causes and appropriate long-term policy response has focused on the financial sector, although fiscal policy, including tax policy, has certainly figured prominently in countries’ short-term policy response to the economic contraction. In recent months, though, officials from two international organizations, the IMF and the OECD, have produced reports addressing what aspects of the tax system may have helped cause or exacerbate the crisis, and whether tax policy needs to be re-evaluated in light of the recent events. In this article OTPR Director Joel Slemrod offers some speculations about the lessons for tax policy, and the analysis of tax policy, from the Great Recession. What did we get wrong? What did we underestimate the importance of? What do we need to think more about?