Center for Public Finance
Delivering research and analysis on the effects of major U.S. fiscal policies.

Featured Research
Featured Experts
Past Events
CPF Book Forum
The Center for Public Finance’s Book Forum hosts notable authors of current economics and business popular books to educate the public on important economic and business issues. The audience will be encouraged to read the book before the lecture and to participate in a lively discussion after a presentation by the author.

Research
Baker Briefing: Consumer Trends in a Post-pandemic Economy
Reflecting on the Budget Control Act of 2011 and Its Relevance Now
Recent U.S. Consumer Trends: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed — Should We Be Blue?
Assessing Recession Risk in a Post-pandemic Economy
Politicians in Texas Could be Using Anticipation Notes to Fund Projects Taxpayers Don’t Want
Paying Your Taxes in Bitcoin? Maybe Not So Fast
Past Events
Fellows and Scholars
Affiliated Experts
Mahmoud A. El-Gamal
Peter Mieszkowski
George Zodrow
About the Center
The research of the Center for Public Finance focuses on the effects of major U.S. fiscal policies. Given the complexity of the U.S. tax system and the unsustainability of current U.S. tax and spending policies, the center in 2017 received a five-year, $3.2 million grant from the Charles Koch Foundation to fund an initiative — the Dynamic Analysis Program — to study the potential effects of fiscal reforms and inform policymakers and the general public about the findings.
The Dynamic Analysis Program also will examine the challenges facing the country if policymakers continue to delay finding and implementing solutions to these critical issues. The program plans to work with other economic modeling groups to increase the accessibility of this type of analysis by creating more open-source models and training students on how to use them.
The simulation of the effects of U.S. tax reforms is accomplished using a large-scale dynamic computer general equilibrium model constructed by John Diamond and George Zodrow. Diamond and Zodrow's other work has focused on earnings volatility, income mobility and inequality, alternative funding options for public schools, state and local investment tax incentives, state sales taxation of services, the optimal taxation of electronic commerce, the effects of the property tax, the effects of adopting education vouchers, and public employee pension liabilities. In addition, they and other center scholars actively participate in the policymaking process by advising various national government agencies, state and international governments, and multilateral development institutions, as well as various key individual policymakers. Center scholars have also have been asked to testify before federal and state government committees.
For more information:
Alexandra E. Bello
Program Administrator
McNair Center for Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth
Email: alexandra.e.bello@rice.edu
Office Phone: (713) 348-3038
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