register
James Alm

Tulane University, USA

Designing appropriate tax policies requires understanding the impact of tax evasion and its true effects on income distribution. We hope that this paper will help policymakers better understand these impacts

IZA World of Labor role

Author

Current position

Professor, Department of Economics, Tulane University, USA

Research interest

Public economics

Website

https://liberalarts.tulane.edu/departments/economics/people/james-alm

Positions/functions as a policy advisor

“Assessing enterprise taxation and investment climate in Pakistan,” International Studies Program, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, The World Bank, Georgia State University, USA; “South Africa’s provincial equitable share: An assessment of issues and proposals for reform,” International Studies Program, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, USA; “How large is the ‘tax gap’ for the Georgia personal income tax?” Fiscal Research Center, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, USA; “Tax policy options for Tunisia,” The Pragma Corporation and Sibley International, for USAID Tunisia; "Reforming Louisiana's tax system," State of Louisiana, USA

Past positions

Chair, Department of Economics, Tulane University, USA; Regents Professor, Chair, and Dean, Department of Economics, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, USA; Professor, Department of Economics, University of Colorado-Boulder, USA; Professor, Department of Economics, The Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, USA

Qualifications

PhD Economics, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1980

Selected publications

  • “Uncertain tax policies, individual behavior, and welfare.” The American Economic Review 78:1 (1988): 237–245.

  • “Why do people pay taxes?” Journal of Public Economics 48:1 (1992): 21–38 (with G. H. McClelland and W. D. Schulze).

  • “Institutional uncertainty and taxpayer compliance.” The American Economic Review 82:4 (1992): 1018–1026 (with B. R. Jackson and M. McKee).

  • “Spatiality and persistence in US individual income tax compliance.” National Tax Journal 62:1 (2009): 101–124 (with M. Yunus).

  • “Getting the word out: Increased enforcement, audit information dissemination, and compliance behavior.” Journal of Public Economics 93:3–4 (2009): 392–402 (with B. R. Jackson and M. McKee).

article(s)

  • Tax evasion, market adjustments, and income distribution Updated

    Market adjustments to tax evasion alter factor and product prices, which determine the true impacts and beneficiaries of tax evasion

    James AlmMatthias Kasper, February 2020
    How does tax evasion affect the distribution of income? In the standard analysis of tax evasion, all the benefits are assumed to accrue to tax evaders. However, tax evasion has other impacts that determine its true effects. As factors of production move from tax-compliant to tax-evading (informal) sectors, these market adjustments generate changes in relative prices of products and factors, thereby affecting what consumers pay and what workers earn. As a result, at least some of the gains from evasion are shifted to consumers of goods produced by tax evaders, and at least some of the returns to tax evaders are competed away via lower wages.
    MoreLess