Raúl Razo-Garcia
2022 Department of Economics Inaugural Teaching Award
2019 SSHRC Insight Development Grant
Winners and Losers from the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act:
A Quantitative Evaluation with an Open-Economy Heterogeneous Household Model
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), passed by the U.S. Congress in 2017, introduced an unprecedented reduction in the American corporate tax rate: from 35% to 21%, a difference of 14 percentage points. Controversy about the short- and long-term benefits of the Act followed, with proponents claiming all taxpayers would profit, regardless of income level or source.
Meanwhile, north of the border, there has been little analysis of the effects of the legislation on the Canadian economy, despite close integration between the two economies. That’s about to change.
With the support of a $55,290 grant, Professor Razo-Garcia along with Professor Khan, and Professor Lee, will develop comprehensive models that can look at, among several aspects, how the TCJA would affect income distribution among Canadian households.
“The Canadian government hasn’t taken any action in response to the Act,” says Lee. “Our models will allow us to explore what would happen if the government changed the corporate tax rate here specifically in response to the TCJA. We hope that policymakers will use the models to formulate the optimal response to such a tax change for the Canadian economy.”