CBER News and Events

CBER News and Events

February 25, 2012: The Disconnected Population in Tennessee, authored by Donald Bruce, William Hamblen, and Xiaowen Liu of CBER, is in the Fall/Winter 2011-12 issue of Focus, published by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Institute for Research on Poverty.

January 25, 2012: Matt Murray, CBER Associate Director and Ball Corporation Professor of Business, appointed director of the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy for three years; he will continue to work with CBER during this time.

April 19, 2011: Dr. Bill Fox has been appointed a Chancellor's Professor, the highest lifetime honor that can be accorded to a member of the faculty of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. This new designation recognizes extraordinary, nationally or internationally recognized, scholarly attainment in an individual discipline or field as well as a record of excellence in teaching and service to the Knoxville campus of the University of Tennessee.

UT Center for Sustainable Business and Tourism and CBER co-hosted the Week of Sustainable Business and Tourism Leadership on the UTK campus, March 29-April 1, 2011.

Dr. Don Bruce presented his new study regarding the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and its relationship to older Americans to the U.S. Congress, June 30, 2010, in a briefing about legislation proposed by U.S. Rep. John Duncan, Jr. The Consumer Price Index for the Elderly Act (H.R. 5305) would establish a new CPI for seniors so Social Security benefits might reflect the impact of inflation on seniors.

Ann Boyd Davis, CBER Graduate Research Assistant, is co-author of "Could FIN 48 Have Contributed to an Increase in Tax Compliance Among Non-Filers?" with Elliott Dubin of the Multistate Tax Commission (MTC). The paper was published in the Multistate Tax Commission Review, Vol. XX, No. 4. Mrs. Davis is pursuing her PhD in accounting and recently served as a policy research intern with the MTC. While there she also worked with the National Nexus Program, a program established in 1990 allowing firms to voluntarily disclose prior unpaid state tax liabilities.
CBER is honored to announce the appointment of Joan MacLeod Heminway (Distinguished Professor of Law), Michael Price (Assistant Professor of Economics), and Bruce Ralston (Professor of Geography) as faculty fellows of the center. The CBER Faculty Fellows Program is intended to create synergies across departments and fields by bringing outstanding faculty from around the university together with CBER faculty and staff.
UT-CBER conference, Mobility and Tax Policy: Do Yesterday's Taxes Fit Tomorrow's Economy?, was held October 2–3, 2008, at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Click here for details about the conference and presentations.
Don Bruce made two presentations at the 11th Annual Welfare Research & Evaluation Conference in Washington, DC, May 28—30, 2008.
- Performance-Based Contracting in Tennessee: An Examination of Employment Outcomes by Contractor Zone
- Making Administrative Data Available for Research: Best Practices from Tennessee
The conference was sponsored by the Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation in the Administration for Children & Families of the U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services.
CBER director Bill Fox and Creighton University Assistant Professor John Deskins presented Measuring Behavioral Responses to the Property Tax at Georgia State University's International Studies Program Property Tax Conference sponsored by the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy and the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. The conference was held at the Evergreen Conference Resort, Stone Mountain, Georgia, April 27—29, 2008.
Dr. LeAnn Luna presented research on 529 savings plans at the University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, January 25, 2008.
CBER researchers were active participants in the 100th Annual National Tax Association Conference on Taxation where Don Bruce served as program chair. Bill Fox presented a paper entitled "Wealth Sharing in Sudan: Designing Grant Structures to Promote National Unity" in the session Fiscal Decentralization Around the World. Dr. Fox also served as a discussant in the session Managing Local Government Finances. Matt Murray chaired the session Business Incentives and the Location of Activity, while LeAnn Luna chaired the session Taxes and Corporate Activity where Anne Boyd Watts presented her paper (co-authored with Luna) entitled "State Conformity to U.S. Federal Provisions and the Impact on State Revenue." Bryan Shone presented "Impacts of Property Tax Limitations on Education Spending," and Kate Harper presented "Tax Incentives for Investing in Low-Income Communities: Has the New Markets Tax Credit Led to Increased Investment in Targeted Communities?" Julie Marshall and Zach Richards also presented their work as part of the Graduate Student Research Forum. The conference was held in Columbus, Ohio, November 15-17, 2007.
CBER director Bill Fox delivered the University of South Carolina Moore School of Business’ 27th annual “Economic Outlook Conference” keynote address, "Sound Tax Policy for a Competitive Economy" on December 3, 2007, in Columbia, South Carolina. The conference was sponsored by the Moore School of Business and The Palmetto Institute.
CBER Assistant Professor LeAnn Luna spoke at the Federation of Tax Administrators' 2007 Revenue Estimation and Tax Research Conference, Raleigh, North Carolina, September 17, 2007.
CBER research staff attended the National Association for Welfare Research and Statistics (NAWRS) Annual Workshop, August 19-22, 2007, Charleston, West Virginia. Dr. Don Bruce spoke at the opening plenary roundtable session: "Why Are We Here? Forging Linkages in Putting Research Into Action at the State and Local Level." Presentations made:
- "On the Extent and Causes of Regional Disparities in Work Requirement Exemption and Sanction Rates in Tennessee," Don Bruce and CBER Research Associate Julie Marshall
- "An Examination of Wage Reactions to the Earned Income Tax Credit," CBER Graduate Research Assistant Zach Richards
- "From Ideas to Implementation: The Research Experience in Tennessee," Don Bruce, Paul Lefkowitz, and Kerry Mullins
Assistant Professor LeAnn Luna presented a paper at the National Tax Association’s Spring Symposium in Washington DC, May 18, 2007, that addressed federal and state cooperative initiatives.
CBER Director Bill Fox , Associate Professor Don Bruce and former CBER graduate student John Deskins co-authored "On the Extent, Growth, and Efficiency Consequences of State Business Tax Planning," published in Taxing Corporate Income in the 21st Century, A. Auerbach, J. Hines, and J. Slemrod, editors, Cambridge University Press.
CBER Assistant Professor LeAnn Luna spoke about gross receipt taxes at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, April 4, 2007.
CBER Associate Professor Don Bruce co-authored the following reports released by the Small Business Administration:
- Small Business and State Growth: An Econometric Investigation, Donald Bruce, John A. Deskins, Brian C. Hill, and Jonathan C. Rork (Feb 2007)

Bill Fox and Matt Murray attended the Special NTA September Conference: "5 Key Perspectives You Can Learn from Other Professions & Disciplines about Tax Policy" in Washington, DC, Sept. 29, 2006. Dr. Murray moderated a panel on tax administration & tax policy, and Dr. Fox spoke on tax economics & its policy implications. The conference was sponsored by the National Tax Association in partnership with the University of Michigan's Office of Tax Policy Research.

Don Bruce & CBER research staff attended the National Association for Welfare Research and Statistics (NAWRS) Annual Workshop, August 21-23, 2006, Jackson Hole, Wyoming. CBER Research Associate Julie Marshall presented "An Assessment of the Inconsistent Use of Sanctions and Exemptions."

Bill Fox spoke at the Annual Meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures on the "Vulnerability of State Tax Systems" and "Why the SSUTA is Good for the U.S." in Nashville, Tennessee, August 16, 2006.

Matt Murray delivered the keynote address "State & Local Tax Policy in a Service-Oriented Economy" at the Multistate Tax Commission's 39th Annual Conference, Topeka, Kansas, August 16, 2006.

Bill Fox spoke at the Council of State Governments-WEST 2006 CSG-WEST Annual Meeting, in Breckenridge, Colorado, August 11, 2006.

Bill Fox: "Designing Good Tax Policy" at the annual conference of the Southeastern Association of Tax Administrators (SEATA), Memphis, Tennessee, July 17, 2006.

Bill Fox received the Special Recognition Award at the 30th Annual Conference of the Institute for Professionals in Taxation (IPT), held in Huntington Beach, California, June 25-28, 2006.

Bill Fox discussed North Carolina tax revenues at "Getting Down to Specifics: Inherent Problems in North Carolina's Tax System," Leadership Discussion on North Carolina Tax Modernization. Asheville, North Carolina, June 11, 2006.

Bill Fox discussed state efforts to limit tax planning at the "State and Local Taxation & Tax Shelters Symposium," Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C., May 17, 2006.

Don Bruce presented "Do Tax Cuts Promote Entrepreneurial Longevity?" as part of the Public Finance Seminar Series, Department of Economics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, April 24, 2006.

CBER is honored to announce the appointment of Bruce Behn (Associate Professor, Accounting & Information Management); Mary Evans (Assistant Professor, Economics); and Don Leatherman (Professor of Law) as inaugural faculty fellows of the center. The CBER faculty fellows program is a new initiative intended to create synergies across departments and fields by bringing outstanding faculty from around the university together with CBER faculty and staff.

Bill Fox spoke on tax policy to a delegation of Chinese officials led by Mr. Chen Xiwen, Vice-Minister, the Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs of the Central Committee in Cambridge, Massachusetts, March 10, 2006.

Don Bruce spoke on the topic of federal tax policy and entrepreneurial activity at the Hudson Institute, Washington, D.C. on March 3. Discussant: Robert Carroll, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis, U.S. Dept. of the Treasury. (part of the Entrepreneurial Series sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kaufman Foundation)

Bill Fox was the keynote speaker for the Louisiana Bar Association Annual Mardi Gras Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, Feb. 23, 2006.

Bill Fox presented "Tax Options for the Future" at the North Carolina conference "Financing the Future" at North Carolina State University, February 6, 2006.

Bill Fox: "Fiscal Federalism and the States," the World Forum on Fiscal Federalism, Salvador, Brazil, Dec. 14, 2005.

Bill Fox spoke to the Federation of Tax Administrators Winter Commissioners Conference on "Tax Reform and the States" in Nashville, Dec. 7, 2005.

Bill Fox presented "Will Consolidation Improve Sub-National Governments?" to the Decentralization & Sub-National Economics Thematic Group, World Bank, Oct. 18, 2005.

Matt Murray presented "Bayesian Analysis of the Effect of Amnesties on Tax Revenues Using a Longitudinal Data Endogenous Treatment Model" at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, on Oct. 14, 2005.

Bill Fox spoke on international experience with territorial reform and on the implications of the international experience for Rwanda territorial reform at the Conference on Decentralization, Accountability and Service Delivery, Sept. 15-17, 2005, Kigali, Rwanda.

Don Bruce presented "Do Tax Cuts Promote Entrepreneurial Longevity?" at the University of New Hampshire Economics Department Seminar Series, Sept. 16, 2005, Durham, New Hampshire.

Bill Fox spoke at the 52nd Annual Governor's Conference on Economic & Community Development about current economic conditions in Tennessee and higher education and economic development, August 30 & 31, 2005, Nashville, Tennessee.

Don Bruce and Laura Ullrich attended the National Association for Welfare Research and Statistics (NAWRS) Annual Workshop, August 28-31, 2005, in Madison Wisconsin. Ullrich presented a paper on the educational effects of policies in the Tennessee TANF program designed to improve the educational outcomes of children of welfare recipients

Matt Murray spoke at the National Tax Association's 2005 State-Local Tax Program, Washington, D.C., May 20, 2005.

Bill Fox spoke on "The Delivery of Education Services in Bosnia" at a conference sponsored by the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, Sarajevo, Bosnia, May 20, 2005.

Bill Fox and Matt Murray presented "A National Retail Sales Tax: Consequences for the States" at the Symposium on Federal Tax Reform and States sponsored by the National Governors Association, National Conference of State Legislatures, Federation of Tax Administrators, Multistate Tax Commission, The Heritage Foundation, Tax Policy Center & Tax Analysts, Inc. at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C., May 18, 2005.

Bill Fox, Don Bruce, and John Deskins presented "On the Extent, Growth and Efficiency Consequences of State Business Tax Planning" at the Taxing Corporate Income in the 21st Century Conference sponsored by the Office of Tax Policy Research, University of Michigan, May 5 & 6, 2005.

Bill Fox spoke at the New Mexico Tax Policy Conference on the extent of business tax burdens, Santa Fe, April 19, 2005.

Don Bruce testified before the President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform, Tampa, FL, March 8, 2005.

Don Bruce moderated session on state & local entrepreneurship incentives at a conference sponsored by the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy, Washington, DC, March 7, 2005.

Bill Fox gave keynote address "Principles of Property Taxation and Local Government Finance" at the International Property Tax Forum, Beijing China, February 26, 2005.

Don Bruce presented "Taxes and Entrepreneurial Survival: An Empirical Investigation Using Longitudinal Tax Return Data" in the Economics Department Seminar Series at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, February 11, 2005.

CBER relocated to the Temple Court Building, 804 Volunteer Boulevard. All telephone and fax numbers remain the same.

Bill Fox presented "Do Economic Effects Justify the Use of Fiscal Incentives?" at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, January 24, 2005.

Tami Gurley, Ph.D. candidate in economics & graduate research assistant in CBER was awarded one of ten Kauffman Dissertation Fellowships for the 2004-2005 academic year by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation awarded. [details]

Bill Fox spoke on the "U.S. Role in an Increasingly Global World" at the University of Potsdam, December 7, 2004.

Matt Murray spoke on Economic Development Incentives at the Poverty Institute in Providence, Rhode Island, December 6, 2004.

Bill Fox, Matt Murray, Tami Gurley, John Deskins and Brian Hill presented papers at the National Tax Association's Annual Conference in Minneapolis, Nov. 11-13, 2004.

Bill Fox spoke on the "U.S. Role in an Increasingly Global World" at the University of Frankfurt, November 4.

Bill Fox spoke on Fiscal Federalism at the University of Sarajevo, October 22 & 23.

Bill Fox taught as a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in American Studies at the University of Frankfort am Main, Germany during fall semester.

CBER graduate assistant John Deskins and Assistant Professor Don Bruce awarded grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Advocacy to support their project on the effects of state-level tax policies on entrepreneurial activity. CBER graduate assistant Tami Gurley also awarded a grant from the U.S. SBA Office of Advocacy to support her project on the effects of the tax deductibility of health insurance on entrepreneurial survival.

Bill Fox spoke at the Tennessee Governor's Conference on Economic Development in Nashville September 29.

Bill Fox and Matt Murray, along with LeAnn Luna, presented paper "How Should a Tax on Multistate Business be Structured?" at the conference co-sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago & the National Tax Association at the Chicago Fed, Sept. 13, 2004.

Don Bruce served as program co-chair for the National Association for Welfare Research and Statistics (NAWRS) Annual Workshop, August 22-25, 2004. Brian Hill presented paper co-authored with Matt Murray titled "Interactions Between Local Labor Markets and Families First Caseloads."

Bill Fox spoke on tax reform at the Southern Legislative Conference in Little Rock (August 15, 2004).

Don Bruce and Bill Fox published "State and Local Tax Revenue Losses from E-Commerce: Estimates as of July 2004," in State Tax Notes (August 16, 2004).

Bill Fox spoke on designing tax reform at National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, July 22, 2004.

Bill Fox and Matt Murray published paper in the July 2004 Southern Economic Journal entitled "Do Economic Effects Justify the Use of Tax Incentives?"

Don Bruce presented CBER welfare research to Governor's Task Force on Families First, June 2004.

Matt Murray organized May 21, 2004 conference on the future of state corporation income tax in Washington, D.C. for the National Tax Association. Bill Fox and Murray presented a paper with LeAnn Luna.

Matt Murray presented a paper on state and local economic development incentives at tax and economic development conference sponsored by the Lincoln Institute for Land Policy in Boston.

CBER researchers Karie Barbour, Don Bruce, and Angela Thacker published "Welfare Program Reentry among Post-Reform Leavers" in the Southern Economic Journal (70(4): 816-836, 2004).

Bill Fox and Kelly Edmiston prepared paper on the effectiveness of national value added tax and presented it at the Georgia State University Conference on "The Challenges of Tax Reform in a Global Economy," May 2004.

Matt Murray spoke about taxes and tax reform at the Utah State Taxpayers' Association Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City..

Bill Fox presented invited paper titled "The Ongoing Evolution of State Revenue Systems," at the Marquette Law School Wisconsin State Tax Policy Colloquium, April 16, 2004. (The paper will be published in the Marquette Law Review.)

Don Bruce, John Deskins and Bill Fox published "Has Internet Access Taxation Affected Internet Use? A Panel Data Analysis" in Public Finance Review, March 2004.

Bill Fox made a presentation on what states are doing to reform their taxes at the Governing Magazine Annual Conference in Washington, D.C., February 2004.

Bill Fox published "Fiscal Federalism in Bosnia-Herzegovina: Subsidiarity and Solidarity in a Three-Nation State" with Christine Wallich in Public Budgeting and Management (Fall 2003).

Bill Fox made a presentation on the "The Role for Local Option Sales Taxes," at the National League of Cities Annual Conference in Nashville, TN (December 2003).

The Association for Public Policy and Management, National Conference of State Legislatures and National Tax Association awarded Bill Fox the Stephen Gold award that honors professionals who have made significant contributions to state and local fiscal policy, November 2003.

Bill Fox testified on tax reform to the South Carolina Joint Committee on Taxation (July 2003).

Bill Fox spent three days as a Louisiana State University Reilly Scholar. He testified to the Senate Finance Committee and made a presentation to the faculty and students.

Don Bruce received Richard Musgrave Prize for the best paper published in the National Tax Journal in 2002 for "Taxes and Entrepreneurial Endurance: Evidence from the Self-Employed."