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Seth H. Giertz is an associate professor of economics at the University of Texas at Dallas. Previously, he has held positions at University of Nebraska--Lincoln (2008-2015) and the Congressional Budget Office's tax division (2001-2008). In 2005, while on leave from CBO, Seth served as a staff economist for the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform. His research focus is in public finance and regional economics. Much of his work examines the effects of taxation on various parts of the economy. This includes the overall efficiency costs from taxation, as well as the effects of tax policy on charitable giving, education finance and interstate migration. He also conducts research focusing on local housing markets and house-price bubbles. Here, his research is used to evaluate policies designed to improve the stability of the housing-finance industry. Seth received his PhD in economics from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University in 2001 and his BA in economics from the University of Illinois in 1994.

Articles

“Property tax capitalization, a case study of Dallas County,” Regional Science and Urban Economics, (2021). (with Rasoul Ramezani, Kurt J. Beron)

“Pricing Credit Risk for Mortgages: Credit Risk Spreads and Heterogeneity across Housing Markets,” Real Estate Economics, (2018). (with Robert M. Dunsky and James R. Follain)

“Taxation and Entrepreneurship,” Demographics and Entrepreneurship: Mitigating the Effects of an Aging Population, eds. Steven Globerman and Jason Clemens, chapter 4: 111-153, The Fraser Institute, Vancouver, Canada (2018).

“US House Price Bubbles and Busts: Implications for Property Taxation,” Public Finance Review, (2016) 44(1):132-159. (with James R. Follain)
      Earlier version: “US House Price Bubbles from 1980-2010 and the Role of Local Market Conditions,” Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, (July 2011) working paper WP11JF1.  (with James R. Follain)

"Texas," State-by-State Property Tax at a Glance, 2016. Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and George Washington Institute of Public Policy.

“Economists’ Role in Tax Policy and Enforcement,” Public Economics in the United States: How the Federal Government Analyzes and Influences the Economy, (2014) ed. Steven Payson, v2, chapter 29, Praeger (ABC-CLIO, Inc.), Santa Barbara, CA. (with Patrick Driessen)

“Recent Trends for Top Executives:  Evidence from Tax Return Data,” National Tax Journal, (2013) 66(4):913-938. (with Jacob A. Mortenson)

“Preventing House Price Bubbles: Lessons from the 2006–2012 Bust,” Policy Focus Report, (2013), Lincoln Institute of Land Policy: Cambridge, MA. (with James R. Follain)

“The Costs of Tax Policy Uncertainty and the Need for Tax Reform,” Special Report, Tax Notes, (February 25, 2013) 138(8):951-963. (with Jacob Feldman)
     Longer version: “The Economic Costs of Tax Policy Uncertainty: Implications for Fundamental Tax Reform,” Mercatus Research, (November 2012) 1-31. (with Jacob Feldman)

"The Elasticity of Taxable Income with Respect to Marginal Tax Rates: A Critical Review," Journal of Economic Literature, (2012) 50(1): 3-50 (with Emmanuel Saez and Joel Slemrod).  (earlier version NBER Working Paper No. 15012)

“Migration Elasticities, Fiscal Federalism and the Ability of States to Redistribute Income,” National Tax Journal, (2012) 65(4):1069-1092 (with Mehmet S. Tosun). (earlier version IZA Discussion Paper No. 6798)

“What We’ve Learned. What We Still Don’t Know,” Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, (September 2012) working paper WP12JF1.  (with James R. Follain)

"Using Monte Carlo Simulations to Establish a New House Price Stress Test," Journal of Housing Economics, (2011) 20(2):101-119 (with James R. Follain).

"The Disability Screening Process and the Labor Market Behavior of Accepted and Rejected Applicants:  Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study,"  Journal of Labor Research, (2011) 32(3): 237-253 (with Jeffrey D. Kubik).

“Options for Changing the Tax Treatment of Charitable Giving,” CBO Report, (May 2011) Congressional Budget Office, Washington D.C. (with Athiphat Muthitacharoen).

"Comment on Richardson: Progressive Federal Taxation Drives Redistribution from Blue to Red States," The Economists' Voice, (October 2010) 7(4):Article 5.

"The Elasticity of Taxable Income during the 1990s: New Estimates and Sensitivity Analyses," Southern Economic Journal, (October 2010) 77(2):406-433.
      Other version: “Taxable Income Responses to 1990s Tax Acts: Further Explorations,” Working Paper 2008-08, Congressional Budget Office, Washington D.C., (September 2008).

"The Elasticity of Taxable Income: Influences on Economic Efficiency and Tax Revenues, and Implications for Tax Policy," in Tax Policy Lessons from the 2000s, A. Viard (ed.), AEI Press, Washington, D.C., (2009) 101-136.

“The Elasticity of Taxable Income over the 1980s and 1990s,” National Tax Journal, (2007) 60(4):743-768.
   Other version:  “A Sensitivity Analysis of the Elasticity of Taxable Income,” Working Paper 2008-01, Congressional Budget Office, Washington D.C., January 2008.

“Panel Data Techniques and the Elasticity of Taxable Income,” National Tax Association 2009 Annual Conference Proceedings, (2010).
      Other version: “Panel Data Techniques and the Elasticity of Taxable Income,” Working Paper 2008-11, Congressional Budget Office, Washington D.C., October 2008.

“Tax Reform and Charitable Giving,” National Tax Association's 100th Annual Conference Papers and Proceedings, (2008).

“Trends in High-Income and Behavioral Responses to Taxation: Evidence from Executive Compensation and Statistics of Income Data,” Congressional Budget Office, Washington D.C., Working Paper 2006-14, (December 2006). (with Nada O. Eissa).

“Recent Literature on Taxable-Income Elasticities,” Technical Paper 2004-16, Congressional Budget Office, Washington D.C., (December 2004).

“Expenditure Tax,” The Encyclopedia of Taxation and Tax Policy 2nd edition, (edited by Joseph J. Cordes, Robert D. Ebel, and Jane G. Gravelle), The Urban Institute Press, (October 2005). (with J Fred Giertz)

“Private and Public Contributions to Financing College Education,” CBO Report, Congressional Budget Office, Washington D.C., (January 2004) (with Nabeel Alsalam and Dennis Zimmerman)
     Other version: “Federal Policy and the Financing Costs of Higher Education: An Equity Analysis within the Becker Framework,” National Tax Association 2002 95th Annual Conference Proceedings , 2003, 99-109.

“The 2002 Downturn in State Revenues: A Comparative Review and Analysis,” National Tax Journal, (2004) 57(1):111-32. (with J Fred Giertz)

“Accelerated Depreciation and State Revenues,” Institute of Government and Public Affairs Special Publication (September 2002).

“A Time-Series Econometric Model of the Upstate New York Economy,” (March 1999) Metropolitan Studies Program Series: Occasional Paper No. 195. (with Donald H. Dutkowsky and James R. Follain)

Op-Eds

"Give Texans choices in power emergencies," Dallas Morning News, February 19, 2021.
"COVID-19 and Our Flimsy Social Safety Net," American Spectator, April 12, 2020.
"How Property-Tax Caps Could Come Back to Bite Texas Republicans," Dallas Morning News, March 11, 2019.
"Privatize Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae," Washington Examiner, Washington, D.C., February 08, 2019.
"Low-income Housing tax Credit Program Deserves a Critical Evaluation," St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 13, 2018. (with Matt Kelly)
"Opportunity Zones are Just the Same Old Tax Incentives that Hardly Help the Poor," Dallas Morning News, 9A, April 12, 2018. (with Matt Kelly)
"Plan to Cut Corporate Rate has Some Troubling Holes," Dallas Morning News, 17A, May 5, 2017. (Syndicated by The Corpus Christi Caller-Times and The Huntsville Item)
"Farm Follies: Taxpayers are shortchanged by a misguided way of assessing agricultural land value," U.S. News & World Report, August 24, 2015. (with John Anderson)
"The Fiscal Cliff, Policy Uncertainty and Tax Reform," The Hill, November 30, 2012. (with Jacob Feldman)
“Economic Analysis Shows Why Buffett Tax View Off-Base,” Omaha World-Herald, August 21, 2011.
“New York is not Arkansas,” The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY), April 19, 2000, A-11. Taxes and the redistribution of federal tax dollars between states.