Emmanuel Saez

French economist

Why Is Emmanuel Saez Influential?

By Sara L. Austin, EdD

Emmanuel Saez is a professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley. Saez studied mathematics and economics at the École normale supérieure and earned a Ph.D in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

An expert in taxation and wealth distribution, Saez has published an impressive body of work relating to economic concerns of households in the United States. He has tracked household incomes for poor, middle class and rich citizens, and found that income inequality has continued to track upwards since the Great Depression. With colleague Raj Chetty, he has studied social mobility and found that depending on geography, the economic well-being of American citizens correlated to factors such as the quality of locally available education, social capital, segregation, income inequality, and family structure. With Peter Diamond, he published a provocative paper titled, “The Case for a Progressive Tax: From Basic Research to Policy Recommendation”, which recommended an increase to the marginal tax rate for the wealthiest Americans – from 42.5% to 73%.

He was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal in 2009, for his work in the economy of taxation, and for attracting the attention of new economists, and perhaps inspiring them to investigate new lines of inquiry related to income distribution.

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Featured in Top Influential Economists Today

According to Wikipedia, Emmanuel Saez is a French, naturalized American economist who is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. His work, done with Thomas Piketty and Gabriel Zucman, includes tracking the incomes of the poor, middle class and rich around the world. Their work shows that top earners in the United States have taken an increasingly larger share of overall income over the last three decades, with almost as much inequality as before the Great Depression. He recommends much higher taxes on the rich, up to 70% or 90%. He received the John Bates Clark Medal in 2009, a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship in 2010, and an honorary degree from Harvard University in 2019.

Emmanuel Saez's Published Works

Number of citations in a given year to any of this author's works

Total number of citations to an author for the works they published in a given year. This highlights publication of the most important work(s) by the author

Published Papers

Income Inequality in the United States, 1913–1998 (2003) (3221)
Top Incomes in the Long Run of History (2009) (2107)
Where is the Land of Opportunity? The Geography of Intergenerational Mobility in the United States (2014) (1937)
The Role of Information and Social Interactions in Retirement Plan Decisions: Evidence from a Randomized Experiment (2002) (1419)
How does your kindergarten classroom affect your earnings? Evidence from Project Star. (2011) (1306)
Wealth Inequality in the United States Since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax Data (2014) (1239)
The Elasticity of Taxable Income with Respect to Marginal Tax Rates: A Critical Review (2009) (1205)
The Elasticity of Taxable Income: Evidence and Implications (2000) (1020)
Using Elasticities to Derive Optimal Income Tax Rates (2000) (944)
Income inequality in the United States (2003) (936)
Unwilling or Unable to Cheat? Evidence From a Tax Audit Experiment in Denmark (2011) (896)
Do Taxpayers Bunch at Kink Points? (1999) (890)
Inequality at Work: The Effect of Peer Salaries on Job Satisfaction (2010) (791)
The Evolution of Top Incomes: A Historical and International Perspective (2006) (781)
Optimal Income Transfer Programs: Intensive Versus Extensive Labor Supply Responses (2000) (780)
Optimal Taxation of Top Labor Incomes: A Tale of Three Elasticities (2011) (713)
The Top 1 Percent in International and Historical Perspective (2013) (696)
How Elastic are Preferences for Redistribution? Evidence from Randomized Survey Experiments (2013) (640)
Distributional National Accounts: Methods and Estimates for the United States (2016) (631)
Is the United States Still a Land of Opportunity? Recent Trends in Intergenerational Mobility (2014) (628)
Inequality in the long run (2014) (611)
Earnings Inequality and Mobility in the United States: Evidence from Social Security Data Since 1937 (2010) (572)
Participation and Investment Decisions in a Retirement Plan: The Influence of Colleagues&Apos; Choices (2000) (540)
The Case for a Progressive Tax: From Basic Research to Policy Recommendations (2011) (530)
World inequality report 2018 (2018) (489)
Using Differences in Knowledge Across Neighborhoods to Uncover the Impacts of the EITC on Earnings (2013) (471)
How Progressive is the U.S. Federal Tax System? A Historical and International Perspective (2006) (405)
Welfare Reform in European Countries: A Microsimulation Analysis (2004) (398)
Mobility Report Cards: The Role of Colleges in Intergenerational Mobility (2017) (391)
Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States (Update with 2007 estimates) (2009) (359)
Teaching the Tax Code: Earnings Responses to an Experiment with EITC Recipients (2009) (355)
Participation and Investment Decisions in a Retirement Plan: The Influence of Colleagues' Choices (2000) (321)
Taxation and International Migration of Superstars: Evidence from the European Football Market (2010) (312)
The Evolution of High Incomes in Northern America: Lessons from Canadian Evidence (2005) (305)
Why Can Modern Governments Tax so Much? An Agency Model of Firms as Fiscal Intermediaries (2009) (277)
Reported Incomes and Marginal Tax Rates, 1960-2000: Evidence and Policy Implications (2004) (267)
A Theory of Optimal Inheritance Taxation (2012) (260)
The world top incomes database (2012) (250)
Optimal Labor Income Taxation (2012) (237)
Means testing and tax rates on earnings (2010) (226)
Striking it Richer: The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States (Updated with 2014 preliminary estimates) (2013) (218)
The Optimal Income Taxation of Couples (2006) (218)
Migration and Wage Effects of Taxing Top Earners: Evidence from the Foreigners&Apos; Tax Scheme in Denmark (2013) (212)
The Desirability of Commodity Taxation Under Non-Linear Income Taxation and Heterogeneous Tastes (2000) (211)
Top Incomes and the Great Recession: Recent Evolutions and Policy Implications (2013) (207)
Income and Wealth Concentration in Spain in a Historical and Fiscal Perspective (2006) (171)
Global Inequality Dynamics: New Findings from Wid.World (2017) (167)
The Effect of Marginal Tax Rates on Income: a Panel Study of &Apos;Bracket Creep&Apos; (1999) (166)
Using Elasticities to Derive Optimal Income Tax Rates (2000) (161)
Dividend and Corporate Taxation in an Agency Model of the Firm (2010) (158)
Unwilling or Unable to Cheat? Evidence from a Randomized Tax Audit Experiment in Denmark (2010) (157)
Optimal Unemployment Insurance Over the Business Cycle (2010) (157)
The Evolution of Income Concentration in Japan, 18862005: Evidence from Income Tax Statistics (2008) (148)
Income Inequality in the United States, 1913-1998 (Series Updated to 2000 Available) (2001) (130)
A Theory of Optimal Capital Taxation (2012) (129)
Expanding Access to Administrative Data for Research in the United States (2010) (125)
Earnings Determination and Taxes: Evidence from a Cohort Based Payroll Tax Reform in Greece (2010) (123)
The Effects of the 2003 Dividend Tax Cut on Corporate Behavior: Interpreting the Evidence (2006) (110)
Details Matter: The Impact of Presentation and Information on the Take-Up of Financial Incentives for Retirement Saving (2007) (110)
A Simpler Theory of Optimal Capital Taxation (2018) (108)
Reported Incomes and Marginal Tax Rates, 1960-2000: Evidence and Policy Implications (2004) (106)
Direct or Indirect Tax Instruments for Redistribution: Short-Run Versus Long-Run (2002) (100)
Payroll Taxes, Firm Behavior, and Rent Sharing: Evidence from a Young Workers' Tax Cut in Sweden (2019) (96)
The Optimal Treatment of Tax Expenditures (2000) (95)
The Desirability of Commodity Taxation Under Non-Linear Income Taxation and Heterogeneous Tastes (2002) (90)
Optimal Taxation and Social Insurance with Endogenous Private Insurance (2008) (90)
Distributional National Accounts (DINA) Guidelines : Concepts and Methods used in WID.world (2016) (89)
Optimal Minimum Wage Policy in Competitive Labor Markets (2012) (89)
What Policies Increase Prosocial Behavior? An Experiment with Referees at the Journal of Public Economics (2014) (88)
Progressive Wealth Taxation (2019) (86)
Optimal Minimum Wage Policy in Competitive Labor Markets (2008) (84)
The Evolution of Income Concentration in Japan, 1886-2002: Evidence from Income Tax Statistics (2005) (83)
The Optimal Income Taxation of Couples as a Multi-Dimensional Screening Problem (2007) (81)
A Macroeconomic Approach to Optimal Unemployment Insurance: Theory (2018) (75)
Income Segregation and Intergenerational Mobility Across Colleges in the United States* (2020) (74)
Optimal Progressive Capital Income Taxes in the Infinite Horizon Model (2002) (66)
A Macroeconomic Approach to Optimal Unemployment Insurance: Applications (2018) (64)
How progressive is the US federal tax system? A historical and international perspective (2007) (62)
Implications of Pension Plan Features, Information, and Social Interactions for Retirement Saving Decisions (2004) (58)
A Macroeconomic Theory of Optimal Unemployment Insurance (2010) (57)
TOP INCOMES IN THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA OVER THE TWENTIETH CENTURY (2005) (57)
Income and Wealth Concentration in Switzerland Over the 20th Century (2005) (55)
The Elephant Curve of Global Inequality and Growth (2018) (52)
Income and Wealth Inequality: Evidence and Policy Implications (2017) (50)
An Economical Business-Cycle Model (2014) (48)
The Top 1% in International and Historical Perspective (2013) (46)
Taxing the Rich More: Preliminary Evidence from the 2013 Tax Increase (2017) (44)
Savings Incentives for Low- and Moderate-Income Families in the United States: Why is the Saver's Credit Not More Effective? (2007) (44)
Frank-Sommeiller-Price Series for Top Income Shares by US States since 1917 (2015) (43)
An Agency Theory of Dividend Taxation (2007) (42)
Income and Wealth Concentration in a Historical and International Perspective (2004) (41)
Welfare Reform in European Countries (2005) (41)
THE ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF TAX EXPENDITURES: EVIDENCE FROM SPATIAL VARIATION ACROSS THE U.S. 1 (2013) (40)
The Effects of Taxes on Market Responses to Dividend Announcements and Payments: What Can We Learn from the 2003 Dividend Tax Cut? (2005) (38)
Do Taxpayers Bunch at Kink Points (1999) (37)
Resolving New Keynesian Anomalies with Wealth in the Utility Function (2018) (32)
Do Dividend Payments Respond to Taxes? Preliminary Evidence from the 2003 Dividend Tax Cut (2004) (29)
The Optimal Income Taxation of Couples (2006) (29)
Earnings Responses to Increases in Payroll Taxes (2006) (27)
A progressive European wealth tax to fund the European COVID response (2020) (26)
Resolving New Keynesian Anomalies with Wealth in the Utility Function (2021) (25)
Do Tax Filers Bunch at Kink Points? Evidence, Elasticity Estimation, and Salience Effects (2009) (25)
The Rise of Income and Wealth Inequality in America: Evidence from Distributional Macroeconomic Accounts (2020) (25)
Trends in Us Income and Wealth Inequality: Revising after the Revisionists (2020) (23)
Optimal Public Expenditure with Inefficient Unemployment (2018) (22)
Taxation and International Mobility of Superstars : Evidence from the European Football Market ∗ (2009) (21)
A Model of Aggregate Demand and Unemployment (2013) (20)
Optimal Taxation of Top Labor Incomes: A Tale of Three Elasticities (2011) (19)
Intertemporal Labor Supply Substitution? Evidence from the Swiss Income Tax Holidays (2017) (18)
Top Wealth Shares in the United States, 1916–2000: Evidence from Estate Tax Returns (2004) (18)
Distributional national accounts (2018) (17)
Replication data for: How Elastic Are Preferences for Redistribution? Evidence from Randomized Survey Experiments (2019) (16)
How Do Consumers Respond to Nonlinear Pricing? Evidence from Household Electricity Demand∗ (2010) (15)
Unemployment Insurance over the Business Cycle (2011) (13)
Optimal Tax Theory with Endogenous Social Marginal Welfare Weights (2012) (13)
Redistribution toward low incomes in richer countries (2002) (13)
Ending Corporate Tax Avoidance and Tax Competition: A Plan to Collect the Tax Deficit of Multinationals (2020) (13)
The Elasticity of Taxable Income: Evidence and Implications (2000) (12)
Simplified Distributional National Accounts (2019) (11)
Replication data for: Generalized Social Marginal Welfare Weights for Optimal Tax Theory (2016) (10)
The Optimal Use of Government Purchases for Macroeconomic Stabilization (2015) (9)
A THEORY OF AGGREGATE SUPPLY AND AGGREGATE DEMAND AS FUNCTIONS OF MARKET TIGHTNESS WITH PRICES AS PARAMETERS (2013) (9)
Contribution Ceilings and the Incidence of Payroll Taxes (2017) (9)
Optimal Household Labor Income Tax and Transfer Programs: An Application to the UK (2007) (9)
The Rise of Income and Wealth Inequality in America: Evidence from Distributional Macroeconomic Accounts (2020) (9)
Saving Incentives for Low- and Middle-Income Families: Why is the Saver's Credit Not More Effective? (2007) (8)
Hysteresis from Employer Subsidies (2019) (8)
Comment on “Progressive Wealth Taxation” by Saez and Zucman prepared for the Fall 2019 issue of Brookings Papers on Economic Activity (2019) (7)
Means-testing and tax rates on earnings: a contribution to the Mirrlees Review (2009) (7)
Optimal Minimum Wage in Competitive Labor Markets ∗ (2007) (6)
Optimal Taxation of Labor Income (2013) (6)
Intertemporal Labor Supply Substitution? Evidence from the Swiss Income Tax Holidays (2021) (6)
A simpler theory of capital taxation (2016) (5)
Public Economics and Inequality: Uncovering Our Social Nature (2021) (5)
Information and Behavioral Responses to Taxation: Evidence from an Experiment with EITC Clients at H&R Block (2008) (5)
An Experimental Evaluation of Tax Evasion and Tax Enforcement in Denmark ∗ (2009) (4)
The Unequal Geographic Burden of Federal Taxes and Its Consequences: A Case for Tax Deductions? (2006) (4)
Teaching the Tax Code: Earnings Responses to an Experiment with EITC Claimants (2009) (4)
$320,000 Kindergarten Teachers (2010) (4)
The Optimal Use of Government Purchases for Stabilization (2015) (4)
The Determinants of Income Segregation and Intergenerational Mobility: Using Test Scores to Measure Undermatching (2020) (4)
Using Differences in Knowledge Across Neighborhoods to Uncover the Impacts of the EITC on Earnings (2012) (4)
Make-or-Buy ? The Provision of Indigent Defense Services in the U . S . ∗ (2020) (3)
Reply on Comparing Elasticities-Based Optimal Income Tax Formulas by John T. Revesz (1998) (3)
Monetary Policy and Unemployment: A Matching Approach (2016) (3)
Towards a System of Distributional National Accounts: Methods and Global Inequality Estimates from WID.world (2020) (3)
From Basic Research to Policy Recommendations: The Case for a Progressive Tax (2010) (3)
How Progessive is the Us Federal Tax System? An Historical and International Perspective (2006) (3)
Beveridgean Unemployment Gap (2019) (3)
13. The Research Agenda after Capital in the Twenty-First Century (2017) (3)
Capital Gains Withholding (2021) (2)
Hysteresis from employer subsidies (2021) (2)
Who Benefits from Tax Expenditures on Capital? Evidence on Capital Income and Wealth Concentration∗ (2015) (2)
Aggregate Demand, Idle Time, and Unemployment CFM-DP2014-19 (2015) (2)
Income and Wealth in America (2015) (2)
Comments on Smith, Zidar and Zwick (2020) (2020) (2)
Optimal Public Expenditure with Inefficient Unemployment : Online Appendices (2018) (2)
The SOI Databank: A case study in leveraging administrative data in support of evidence-based policymaking (2018) (2)
The California Extreme Wealth Tax: Revenue, Economic, and Constitutional Analysis (2020) (2)
Essays on the economics of income taxation (1999) (1)
The myth of intertemporal labour supply substitution: Evidence from tax holidays (2018) (1)
A Network Model of Wealth Inequality and Financial Instability (2017) (1)
The Optimal Income Taxation of Couples 1 (2008) (1)
Closing the Immigrant-Native Education Gap: The Effect of Tuition Equity Reform in Texas (2017) (1)
The explosion in U.S. wealth inequality has been fuelled bystagnant wages, increasing debt, and a collapse in assetvalues for the middle classes (2014) (1)
A Model of Aggregate Demand, Labor Utilization, and Unemployment (2014) (1)
An Economical Business-Cycle Model (2014) (1)
Taxation, Incomplete Markets, and Social Security: The 2000 Munich Lectures (Book) (2004) (1)
Income and Wealth Inequality (2020) (1)
Nber Working Paper Series the Unequal Geographic Burden of Federal Taxation the Unequal Geographic Burden of Federal Taxation (2009) (1)
An Economical Business-Cycle Model (2021) (1)
Supplementary Materials for Inequality in the long run (2014) (1)
Public Economics and Inequality: Uncovering Our Social Nature (2021) (1)
Aggregate Demand, Idle Time, and Unemployment: Slides (2014) (1)
A Macroeconomic Theory of Optimal Unemployment Insurance: Slides (2014) (1)
Earnings Determination and Taxes: Evidence from a Cohort Based Payroll Tax Reform in Greece (2010) (1)
Taxes and International Mobility of Talent (2014) (0)
ASSA 2006 SESSION : New Evidence About the Impact of Taxing Corporate-Source Income ( H 2 ) (2006) (0)
The NY Billionaire Mark-to-Market Tax Act: Revenue, Economic, and Constitutional Analysis (2021) (0)
Should We Tax Wealth? (2021) (0)
Public Economics and Inequality: Uncovering Our Social Nature (2021) (0)
The Triumph of Injustice: Lessons for Distributional Tax Analysis (2019) (0)
videos (2002) (0)
Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman: The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How to Make Them Pay (2019) (0)
Welfare Reform in European Countries: A Microsimulation Analysis (2005) (0)
12. Thoughts on Taxation in the 21st Century (2011) (0)
Strategies to Reduce Inequality: An Exchange (Round Table) (2016) (0)
The California Tax on Extreme Wealth (ACA 8 & AB 310): Revenue, Economic, and Constitutional Analysis (2021) (0)
An economical business-cycle model (2021) (0)
Why CanModern Governments Tax So Much? An Agency Model of Firms as Fiscal Intermediaries By HENRIK JACOBSEN KLEVEN†, CLAUS THUSTRUP KREINER‡ and EMMANUEL SAEZ†† (2016) (0)
Hysteresis from Employer Subsidies (2019) (0)
Response by Camille Landais, Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez (2012) (0)
Income Inequality The Takeoff in Income Inequality : (2017) (0)
Simple Formulas for Optimal Monetary and Debt Policy (2014) (0)
Empirical Studies of Wealth Taxes (2019) (0)
Comments on ``Lining up: Survey and administrative data estimates of wealth concentration'' (2017) (0)
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES A THEORY OF OPTIMAL CAPITAL TAXATION (2012) (0)
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2011 with Funding from Evidence from a Randomized Experiment (2011) (0)
The Rise of Income and Wealth Inequality in America: Evidence from Distributional Macroeconomic Accounts (2020) (0)
219 Economists, Law Professors & Other Academics Urge Congress to Include the 'Billionaires Income Tax' in Build Back Better Act (2021) (0)
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES A SIMPLER THEORY OF OPTIMAL CAPITAL TAXATION (2016) (0)
Trends in Us Income and Wealth Inequality: Revising after the Revisionists (2020) (0)
How to Get $1 Trillion from 1000 Billionaires: Tax their Gains Now (2021) (0)
Semiparametric Instrumental Variable Methods for Causal Response Models (2007) (0)
Draft – October 27, 2017– Please Do Not Cite or Distribute 1 (2017) (0)
$320,000 Kindergarten Teachers: Your Kindergarten Classroom Can Leave a Lasting Impact on Your Earnings and Your Quality of Life Long after Circle Time Is a Distant Memory (2010) (0)
SERIES OPTIMAL UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE OVER THE BUSINESS CYCLE (2010) (0)
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES OPTIMAL UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE OVER THE BUSINESS CYCLE (2014) (0)
The Experience of Poverty U . S . Poverty in Perspective : (2018) (0)
Replication data for: Payroll Taxes, Firm Behavior, and Rent Sharing: Evidence from a Young Workers' Tax Cut in Sweden (2019) (0)
Replication data for: A Macroeconomic Approach to Optimal Unemployment Insurance: Applications (2019) (0)
Dividend Tax Cut on Corporate Behavior : Interpreting the Evidence By Raj Chetty and (2006) (0)
VATT Working Papers 132 (2020) (0)
AGGREGATE DEMAND , IDLE TIME , AND UNEMPLOYMENT : ONLINE APPENDICES (2015) (0)
Web Appendix of Taxation and International Migration of Superstars: Evidence from the European Football Market (2012) (0)
The Case for a Progressive Tax: From Basic Research to Policy Recommendations (2011) (0)
Reform tax credits to boost weak work incentives, says study prepared for the Mirrlees Review (2008) (0)
Classification : H 100 Keywords : inheritance , optimal taxation and wealth (2012) (0)
Means-testing and tax rates on earnings: on-line appendix (2010) (0)
No 1024 November 2010 Do Matching Frictions Explain Unemployment ? Not in Bad Times (2010) (0)
NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES TAXATION AND THE INTERNATIONAL MOBILITY OF INVENTORS (2015) (0)
Economic Mobility By raJ CHetty (0)
A plan for reforming the household tax and transfer system (2007) (0)
Empirical Tools of Public Finance (2014) (0)
Elasto-Dynamic and CA Simulation Model Studies of the Critical Point Hypothesis (2004) (0)
The Optimal Treatment of Tax Expenditures (2000) (0)
Optimal labour income tax and transfer programs for individuals and families (2006) (0)
Aggregate Demand, Idle Time, and Unemployment (2015) (0)
THE LIMITS OF EQUALITY: INSIGHTS FROM THE (2008) (0)
Keynote presentations about the Mirrlees Review (2011) (0)
WORKING PAPER SERIES BEVERIDGEAN UNEMPLOYMENT GAP (2021) (0)
Replication data for: Simplified Distributional National Accounts (2019) (0)
A Reply to Referee 1 on “Inequality in Latina America: The Role of the Nature of Trade and Partners” (2020) (0)
Questions and Answers: Income and Wealth Inequality - Evidence and Policy Implications (2017) (0)
Workers Bear the Burden of Corporate Taxation and Which Firms Can Pass It On ? Micro Evidence from Germany ∗ Clemens Fuest (2012) (0)

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Other Resources About Emmanuel Saez

en.wikipedia.org

What Schools Are Affiliated With Emmanuel Saez?

Emmanuel Saez is affiliated with the following schools:

University of California, Berkeley

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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