James R. Hines Jr. is the L. Hart Wright Collegiate Professor of Law and co-director of the Program in Law and Economics at Michigan Law. He is also the Richard A. Musgrave Collegiate Professor of Economics in U-M’s Department of Economics and serves as the research director of the Office of Tax Policy Research in U-M’s Ross School of Business.

Hines’s research focuses on various aspects of taxation. He taught at Princeton and Harvard universities before joining the U-M faculty in 1997 and has held visiting appointments at Columbia University; the London School of Economics; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Melbourne; and Harvard Law School.

In 2017 he received the National Tax Association’s Daniel M. Holland Medal for lifetime achievement in the study of public finance.

He is past president of the American Law & Economics Association, current president of the International Institute of Public Finance, a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, research director of the International Tax Policy Forum, and a former co-editor of the American Economic Association’s Journal of Economic Perspectives; once, long ago, he was an economist in the US Department of Commerce. 

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Areas of Interest

Education
  • Yale University, BA, economics
  • Yale University, MA, economics
  • Harvard University, PhD, economics

    • Recent Courses

    Featured Scholarship

    "Martin Feldstein (1939-2019)"

    The Palgrave Companion to Harvard Economics
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    "Capital Gains Realizations"

    Economics Letters
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    • Tax Law

    "The Role of Trusts in Taxing the Rich"

    Oxford Review of Economic Policy
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    • Tax Law

    "Digital Tax Arithmetic"

    National Tax Journal
    MLaw Repository WWW
    • Tax Law
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    Activities
    April 2016
    Gave the keynote address at the Second Annual Urban Economic Policy Conference: Topics in Urban Tax Policy sponsored by the Drexel School of Economics and Econsult Solutions Inc.
    April 2016
    Testified before the Senate Finance Committee at a hearing​ on possible changes to the business tax code.

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    James Hines
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    Professor James Hines Serving as President of International Institute of Public Finance

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    Michigan Law Hosts Annual Conference of American Law and Economics Association

    In the Media

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    ‘Reverse Robin Hood scam’ or windfall for middle class? Lawmakers debate Trump tax plan extensions

    Detroit Free Press

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    PBS NewsHour

    A look at how Trump’s plan to increase tariffs would affect U.S. workers and consumers

    The Wall Street Journal

    How Has Inflation Hit Your Finances? 10 People Get Candid

    The New York Times

    We Still Need to Talk About Government Debt

    Bloomberg

    Chastened Economists Hopeful for US Soft Landing, Fed Rate Cuts

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