The 10 most popular Value Added posts of 2016

Does the one percent deserve what it gets? | October 4, 2016

Thinking about wealth taxes | January 11, 2016

Two papers presented earlier this year grapple with the economics of wealth taxation and how it might actually boost economic growth and affect wealth inequality.

“Throwing money at the problem” may actually work in education | March 17, 2016

The dominant education policy framework holds that more funds can’t really boost educational outcomes. Bridget Ansel writes on a new study that finds more money leads to higher test scores.

 Why slightly higher inflation might benefit the U.S. economy | August 16, 2016

Inflation might not be as harmful as many models of the economy would have policymakers believe, recent research argues. Perhaps slightly higher inflation would be a net benefit for the U.S. economy.

Intellectual property and the decline of the U.S. labor share | January 7, 2016

What’s behind the declining share of income going to labor? A paper points to the rising prevalence of intellectual property and increased investment in this kind of capital as a culprit in this trend.

U.S. democracy stuck in an “inequality trap” | July 5, 2016

Using a number of political science papers released as part of Equitable Growth working paper series, Kavya Vaghul makes the case the United States is stuck in a feedback loop of economic inequality feeding into political inequality and then back to economic inequality.

What’s the optimal tax for capital income? | September 28, 2016

How high should the tax rate on capital income be? Many economists would argue that it should be lower than the tax rate on labor income, but a new model argues that this might not also be the case.

The more elastic you are, the less you lose | February 9, 2016

Who ultimately pays a tax? Economic theory tells us the incidence of a tax can often be shifted onto someone who wasn’t the original target of the tax. Elasticity holds the key to understand who actually pays.

Appreciating the new economics of the minimum wage | March 16, 2016

On the 20^th anniversary of the release of “Myth and Measurement: The New Economics of the Minimum Wage” it’s clear how much our understanding of how low-wage labor markets work has changed since its publication.

The corporate savings glut and the economic possibilities of the future | January 25, 2016

The high savings rates of corporations doesn’t appear to be an optimistic trend for the U.S. economy. If anything, it should make us very concerned about the future pace of economic growth.

Note: This is the last Value Added of 2016. We’ll resume publishing on January 4, 2017.