I am the Allyn R. and Gladys M. Cline Professor of Economics at Rice University; I am also a Faculty Scholar at the Center for Public Finance of the Baker Institute for Public Policy and an International Research Fellow at the Centre on Business Taxation at Oxford University.
In 2009, I received the Steven D. Gold Award, presented by the National Tax Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. This award recognizes significant lifetime contributions to state and local fiscal policy and a capacity to cross the boundaries between academic research and public policy making. In 2008, I was ranked 25th among Top Authors in Public Economics Journals by the Journal of Public Economic Theory.
My research interests are tax reform in the United States and in developing countries, state and local public finance, and computable general equilibrium models of the effects of tax reforms. My articles have appeared in numerous scholarly publications and books on taxation. A collection of my work was recently published as Taxation in Theory and Practice: Selected Essays of George R. Zodrow, which is featured at the menu tab provided above. I served for ten years as an editor of the National Tax Journal and have also been an editor of the “Policy Watch” section of International Tax and Public Finance.
I am the author of State Sales and Income Taxes and a co-editor of Prospects for Economic Growth in the United States, Is It Time for Fundamental Tax Reform, United States Tax Reform in the 21st Century, and Pathways for Fiscal Reform in the United States. My most recent book is entitled Advanced Introduction to Taxation. It is part of the Edward Elgar Publishing Advanced Introductions Series and is also featured at a menu tab provided above.
I was a visiting economist at the U.S. Treasury Office of Tax Analysis in 1984-85 during the preparation of Treasury I, the precursor to the Tax Reform Act of 1986, and have been involved in tax reform projects in numerous countries, including Aruba, Brazil, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Burundi, Canada, China, Colombia, Egypt, Guatemala, Mexico, Russia, Venezuela and Zambia. I also served as Chair of the Rice Economics Department from 1995-2000 and from 2019-2022, and have served on Rice’s Faculty Council, University Council, and Promotion and Tenure Committee.
I earned my M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from Princeton University. My Ph.D. dissertation won the Annual Competition for the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Government Finance and Taxation sponsored by the National Tax Association. I also hold B.A. (mechanical engineering and economics) and M.M.E. (master of mechanical engineering) degrees from Rice University.