Contact Information

Ellen R. McGrattan
4-161 Hanson Hall
612-625-6714
erm@umn.edu

Office Hours
By appointment

Mailing Address
Department of Economics
University of Minnesota
4-101 Hanson Hall
1925 4th St S
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Research Materials











Tax Compliance of Intangible-Intensive Businesses



A challenge for tax policy research is to accurately assess tax noncompliance of businesses in light of the fact that their owners make substantial investments in intangible assets that are not easily measured and generate incomes that are not easily taxed. Intangible assets include research and development, software, brands, designs, organizational capital, non-compete agreements, client lists, customer bases, and goodwill. Unlike investment in plant and equipment, investment in intangible assets affords greater opportunities to misreport incomes and valuations. In previous work, we have developed a theory-based framework to measure the aggregate stock of US business intangible assets. We have found that these assets are large and a crucial input to tax policy analysis. Through the JSRP, we will develop an empirical complement. Our previous work includes: