Ajay Mehrotra

Mehrotra will examine why the U.S. has historically resisted a broad-based national consumption tax, such as a value-added tax (VAT), and what that resistance reveals about inequality. His historical analysis of tax policy will investigate the role of fiscal experts in advancing or inhibiting a consumption tax, how different political interests have exerted power over the lawmaking process to support or oppose such taxes, and how historical events have created obstacles for supporters of a national consumption tax.