JW Mason

@jwmason.bsky.social

Author of Against Money. Associate professor of economics, John Jay College-CUNY; senior fellow, Groundwork Collaborative. Writing at jwmason.org. Study economics with me: https://johnjayeconomics.org. Anti-war Keynesian, liberal socialist, Brooklyn dad.

@jwmason.bsky.social

As I always say to my students (sometimes with this specific example) you really need to think about the size of the effect and not just the sign. “Do rich people move in response to tax increases?” is not the right question for policy. The right question is, *how much* do they move?

@jdcmedlock.bsky.socialReposted by @jwmason.bsky.social

I'm taking my "Norway's wealth tax didn't reduce tax revenue" victory lap.

Whether imposing higher taxes on business owners adversely affects business activity by constraining investment and inducing capitalist flight is a central question in the ongoing debate on how to tax the ultra wealthy. To shed new light, I exploit a series of related Norwegian reforms during 2021–2024 that increased dividend tax rates, removed migration-related capital gains tax loopholes, and nearly doubled the effective marginal tax rate on business wealth. These reforms spurred international debate and, allegedly, an “exodus” of Norwegian billionaires (Financial Times, 2023). While I document clear effects on migration, these responses are concentrated among the top 0.1% of the wealth distribution and mostly confined to 2022 and 2023. My results indicate that at most 100 individuals left due to the reforms. I find no evidence of significant outmigration or reduced inflows of startup founders or inventors. I estimate that absent any outmigration, wealth tax revenues would have increased by 75% from 2021 to 2024. Reform-driven outmigration lowers the revenue gain to 71.5%. My findings further show that outmigrating owners’ firms remain economically active and do not reduce investment. In a broader set of analyses, I examine whether business outcomes are affected, regardless of whether owners outmigrate, since firms may reduce investment both due to liquidity constraints or distortions to owners’ savings decisions. I compare firms owned by Norwegian individuals subject to the wealth tax with firms owned by foreigners and other tax-exempt entities. By merging historical ownership data from Orbis with the Norwegian shareholder register, I perform these analyses on both Norwegian and foreign-domiciled firms. Across settings, I find no evidence that Norwegian-owned firms pay out more dividends or invest less after the reforms, nor is there any evidence that the reform induced more bankruptcies. ...
James Medlock@jdcmedlock.bsky.social

I've spent a lot of time debunking claims that way overstate the migration impacts of wealth taxes. But fear not - if we put our minds to it, I do believe we can design a wealth tax high enough to get Elon to flee the country

@peark.esReposted by @jwmason.bsky.social

I hope Mamdani clarifies whether NYPD support for this action was at his direction or if the NYPD acted on its own; if the latter, why do they have that latitude and what is being done to reign in a rogue agency?

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