The Utah Tax Invitational is being held June 1-3 in Salt Lake City Utah. The goal of this conference is to bring together a diverse group of researchers working on tax related questions. We believe there is no better way to benefit from knowledge flows than putting smart people from different fields together in the mountains. In this collaborative environment we hope to elevate tax policy research.

Schedule

Wednesday, June 1
6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Reception Garff 4100

Thursday, June 2
6:30 am Breakfast Garff 3130

7:15 am - 9:00 am Session 1 Garff 3130
      The Effect of U.S. Country-by-Country Reporting on U.S. Multinationals' Tax-Motivated Income Shifting and Real Activities
          Michelle Nessa, Anh Vuong Persson, Jane Z. Song, Erin Towery, and Mary Vernon.
          Discussant: Laura Power, Office of Tax Analysis, U.S. Department of the Treasury

      Tax Policy, Inestment and Profit-Shifting
          Katarzyna Bilicka, Michael Devereux, and Irem Güçeri.
          Discussant: James Hines, University of Michigan

Excursion to mountains
      9:15 am Load bus to Park City.
      10:30 am Free time in Park City (hike, mountain bike, fly fish, lunch on your own).
      2:00 pm Load bus back to SLC.
      3:00 pm Hotel freshen up.

4:15 pm Session 2 Garff 3130
      The Effect of Taxes on CEO Performance
          Laura Arnemann, Florian Buhlmann, and Martin Ruf, Johannes Voget .
          Discussant: Jeff Coles, University of Utah

      Worker and Spousal Responses to Automatic Enrollment
          Elena Derby, Kathleen Mackie, and Jake Mortensen.
          Discussant: Dmitri Koustas, University of Chicago

6:30 pm Fireside chat
          Brad Wilson, Speaker of the Utah House of Represenatives
          Natalie Gochnour, Director of the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.

7:30 pm Dinner Garff 4100

Friday, June 3
7:30 am Breakfast Garff 3130

8:15 am Session 3 Garff 3130
      What Drives Tax Policy? Political, Institutional and Economic Determinants of State Tax Policy in the Past 70 Years
          Alisa Tazhitdinova and Sarah Robinson.
          Discussant: Dan Garrett, University of Pennsylvania

         
      9:15 am Load bus to Red Butte Amphitheater
      10:15 am Free time to hike, bike, Natural History Museum, or Red Butte.
      1:00 pm Box lunches at Fort Douglas Picnic Area.
      2:30 pm Walk to University Guest House
      3:15 pm Load bus to stadium club.

3:45 pm Session 4 Ken Garff Scholarship Club
      The Impact of Opportunity Zones on Commercial Investment and Economic Activity
          Kevin Corinth and Naomi Feldman.
          Discussant: David Wessel, Brookings Institute

      Government Fragmentation and Economic Growth
          Traviss Cassidy and Tejaswi Velayudhan.
          Discussant: Byron Lutz, Federal Reserve Board

5:45 pm Workshop sessions Ken Garff Scholarship Club
          See groups below

7:15 pm Reception Ken Garff Scholarship Club

8:00 pm Dinner Ken Garff Scholarship Club

Workshop sessions

W1: Hines-Riedel

Evaluating Tax Harmonization.
James R. Hines Jr.

Leveling the Playing Field: Constraints on Multinational Profit Shifting and the Performance of National Firms.
Patrick Gauss, Michael Kortenhaus, Nadine Riedel, Martin Simmler

Participants: Jennifer Blouin, Youssef Benzarti, Daniel Garret, Johannes Voget, David Wessel

W2: Henry-Stage

Do Corporate Taxes Impede Merger and Acquisition Activity? Evidence from Private Corporations.
Erin Henry, Jennifer Luchs-Nunez, Steven Utke

The Value of a Loss: Restricting Tax Loss Transfers and its Impact on Acquisition Activity.
Anna Thersa Buhrle, Elisa Casi, Barbara Stage, Johannes Voget.

Participants: Jeff Hoopes, Dan Jaqua, John Klopfer, Laura Power, Erin Towery

W3: Lurie-Berg

Does a Wealth Tax Improve Equality of Opportunity?
Kristoffer Berg and Shafik Hebous.

How Shocks to Incentives and Embeddedness Shape Millionaire Tax Flight.
Cristobal Young and Ithai Z. Lurie.

Participants: Naomi Feldman, Irem Guceri, John Guyton, Sara Malik, Matt Smith

W4: Looney-Ramnath-Velayudhan

Above all else, lower caseloads: Revisiting the effects of welfare reform and the EITC in the 1990s
Adam Looney

Medicaid-ing Uninsurance? Reducing the Duration of Uninsurance Spells
Brad Heim, Ithai Lurie, Elena Patel, Shanthi Ramnath

Does the Informal Sector Escape the VAT?
Giacomo Brusco and Tejaswi Velayudhan

Participants: Claudio A. Agostini, David Brown, Laura Kawano, Jacob Mortenson, Austin Nichols, Juliette Tennert

W5: Lay-Miller

Extending the Social Safety Net: Female Labor Supply and Rural Pension Eligibility in Brazil
Gaurav Khanna, Margaret J. Lay, Stephanie Lee, Benjamin Thompson

Employer-Sponsored Health Insurance Premiums and Income in U.S. Tax Data
Ithai Z. Lurie and Corbin L. Miller

Participants: Jason Cook, Audrey Guo, Paul Organ, Louise Sheiner, Eleanor Wilking

W6: Bradley-Gaertner

A Re-examination of Firm Size and Taxes
Fabio B. Gaertner, Brent Glover, and Oliver Levine

Property Tax Limitations and Exposure to Housing Market Risk
Sebastien Bradley, Da Huang, and Nathan Seegert

Participants: Nathan Anderson, Byron Lutz, Wojciech Kopczuk, Troup Howard, Nathan Seegert, Jane (Zhiyan) Song

W7: Belnap-Weber

Remote Authority: A Field Experiment with Out-of-state Taxpayers
Andrew Belnap, Anthony Welsch, and Braden Williams

Self-Employment Income Reporting on Surveys
Christian Imboden, John Voorheis, Caroline Weber

Participants: Giacomo Brusco, Traviss Cassidy, Elena Patel, Alisa Tazhitdinova, Allison Stashko






Thank you to the scientific committee: Claudio Agostini, Kat Bilicka, Jennifer Blouin, Sebastien Bradley, Adam Cole, Naomi Feldman, Josh Gottlieb, Erin Henry, James Hines, Jeff Hoopes, Laura Kawano, Wojciech Kopczuk, Sara LaLumia, Byron Lutz, Elena Patel, Shanthi Ramnath, Nathan Seegert, Juliette Tennert, Tejaswi Velayudhan, Caroline Weber