Kimberly Clausing
@kclausing.bsky.social
Economist; Professor @law.ucla.edu; senior fellow @piie.com; former tax DAS at Treasury; Author, Open: The Progressive Case for Free Trade, Immigration, and Global Capital
Kimberly Clausing is an American economist. She is the Eric M. Zolt Chair in Tax Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law and a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. From 2021 to 2022, she was the deputy assistant secretary for tax analysis at the United States Department of the Treasury. Clausing is known for her work on international trade and tax policy, particularly the taxation of multinational corporations. .. more
Economics
51%
Business
36%
(10/) Finally, a stronger corporate tax can handle the fiscal challenges of AI. We don’t know which firms win, or how much, or whether/how much the labor share of income will fall. But corporate tax is a flexible tool for allowing society to share in business success (w/o govt taking shares!).
Lessons from three global collective action problems
This paper compares three global collective action problems, those involving climate change, international trade, and international taxation. First, each problem is assessed in terms of fundamental el...
www.piie.com
(9/10) And the rest of the world has ample incentive to tackle tax competition and boost capital taxation too; strengthening the already substantial efforts on international tax agreements (Pillar 2) should be on the agenda in 2029.
www.piie.com/publications...
www.piie.com/publications...
(8/10) The proposals in the Hamilton paper would raise about 1 pp of GDP in new revenue, and still leave US corporate tax revenues below that of peer nations as a share of GDP. It would close about half that gap.
(7/10) What about competitiveness? US corporations pay very little tax. We are more than 40 percent of the profits of the world’s biggest 2000 public corporations, a much larger share than US GDP in the world, yet we raise much less corporate revenue than peer countries.
The Impact of Deficits on Costs for Households
budgetlab.yale.edu
(6/10) And fiscal responsibility can come with its own growth enhancing effects, including lower interest rates, helping both government budgets and households’ bottom line (due to lower mortgage payments, e.g.).
budgetlab.yale.edu/research/imp...
budgetlab.yale.edu/research/imp...
Capital Taxation and Market Power
In recent decades, market power has increased substantially, according to multiple measures that describe industry concentration, mark-ups, and business profita
papers.ssrn.com
(5/ 10) What are the downsides? Some argue that a corporate tax increase with stifle growth, but they are often focused on the hit to the cost of capital. A rents-based corporate tax hits only excess returns, minimizing efficiency loss.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
(4/10) The corporate tax reaches all of US equity income, including that held by foreigners, tax exempts, or tax preferred accounts.
$15 Trillion on the Table in 2029: Ordinary Taxes to Meet an Extraordinary Fiscal Moment • The Aspen Institute Economic Strategy Group
The US national debt passed 100 percent of GDP in March 2026 and is projected to reach nearly 130 percent by 2039. This worsening fiscal outlook comes at a time when income inequality remains high and...
www.economicstrategygroup.org
(3/) The corporate tax can also be a part of raising adequate revenue to deal with US fiscal imbalances, as I argue in a joint piece with Natasha Sarin out of @aspenecon.bsky.social.
www.economicstrategygroup.org/publication/...
www.economicstrategygroup.org/publication/...
The future of US international corporate tax reform - The Hamilton Project
Kimberly Clausing proposes to strengthen and reform U.S. corporate taxation while better aligning U.S. corporate tax policy efforts with the potential of international collective action.
www.hamiltonproject.org
(2/10) This piece builds on my proposal from @hamiltonproject.org to shift the corporate tax toward a rents base, raise the rate on fewer than 2 percent of payers, and pair that rate increase with stronger minimum taxation and a new round of tax cooperation.
www.hamiltonproject.org/publication/...
www.hamiltonproject.org/publication/...
There is a smarter way to tax the rich
Increasing US corporate tax raises government revenues without harming the tax base
as.ft.com
(1/10) 🧵 In my piece in today’s FT, I argue that the corporate tax is an excellent tool for taxing the same wealth that proponents of billionaires’ taxes (or the CA wealth tax) are reaching for.
as.ft.com/r/d49ec073-c...
as.ft.com/r/d49ec073-c...