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Legal History

University of Michigan Law School

Law & Economics Working Papers

2021

Tax history

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Rebellion, Rascals, And Revenue: Pleasingly Gaudy And Preposterous, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah Mar 2021

Rebellion, Rascals, And Revenue: Pleasingly Gaudy And Preposterous, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Law & Economics Working Papers

Michael Keen and Joel Slemrod’s REBELLION, RASCALS AND REVENUE: TAX FOLLIES AND WISDOM THROUGH THE AGES (Princeton University Press, 2021) is a wonderful book, which should be read by any student of taxation. To most tax policy makers and academics, tax history may seem a bit arcane, because they believe that the study of taxation and especially public finance economics is a story of progress and that we know better how to design good tax systems than our ancestors. To this attitude, Keen and Slemrod offer a decisive rejoinder: We do not necessarily understand taxation better than our predecessors, and …