Dr. Seth Giertz, associate professor of economics at the UNL College of Business Administration, was recently quoted in the U.S. News and World Report for a research article he published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives.

Giertz and his co-authors Dr. Emmanuel Saez and Dr. Joel Slemrod, maintain that when people anticipate a tax increase they accelerate their income so that it is taxed at a lower rate. The research is used in the article to argue against the so-called 'Buffett Rule' which has been proposed by the federal government to raise taxes, particularly among the wealthiest Americans.

The article goes on to contend that wealthy individuals would be able to use the anticipated market movement that results from potential tax hikes to actually make money based on that anticipation.

The Giertz paper titled, "The Elasticity of Taxable Income with Respect to Marginal Tax Rates: A Critical Review," surveys the large and growing literature estimating the elasticity of taxable income with respect to marginal tax rates using tax return data. Published: April 19, 2012