Ken Jennings

@kenjennings.bsky.social

Your Jeopardy! pal. Author of THE COMPLETE KENNECTIONS (http://bit.ly/4qUcbhK) and a bunch of other stuff.

@kenjennings.bsky.social

(waggling my eyebrows sexily at Washington State and California)

Jake Grumbach@jakemgrumbach.bsky.social

New working paper: the Norwegian wealth tax was a huge success. The "exodus" of wealthy people never happened (less than 100 individuals left). Tax revenue increased by 71.5%. No changes in business activity or investment. www.nber.org/papers/w35854

Taxing Entrepreneurial Wealth: Evidence from Norway, 2021-2025 Marius A. K. Ring WORKING PAPER 35854| DOl 10.3386/w35854 ISSUE DATE October 2026 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,…
@stevemullis.netReposted by @kenjennings.bsky.social

[car dealership waiting room] Me: [chanting] knobs, knobs- Other car buyers: knobs, KNOBS Car salesman: [pounding desk] KNOBS, KNOBS, KNOBS!

@kenjennings.bsky.social

I said this in a NY Times story last week about the WA millionaire tax, but let’s bring back shame. Even if billionaires don’t know it’s wrong to do shit like this, they should know it’s embarrassing.

@kenjennings.bsky.social

Seattle apartment buildings used to be called things like "The Cedar Arms" and now they're all called FLUX or interSector. Even if I was in tech, I would not want to live in FLUX or interSector.

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