Draft:George Zodrow

Dr. George Zodrow

George R. Zodrow, born June 5, 1950 in Brooklyn NY, is an American economist specializing in public economics. He is the Allyn R. and Gladys M. Cline Professor of Economics and Faculty Scholar, Center for Tax and Budget Policy, Baker Institute for Public Policy, at Rice University in Houston Texas, where he has taught since 1979.^[1] He has also been an International Research Fellow at the Centre on Business Taxation at Oxford University.^[2]

Zodrow is the recipient of the 2009 Steven D. Gold Award,^[3] presented by the National Tax Association, the National Conference of State Legislatures, and the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management, to recognize significant contributions to state and local fiscal policy and a capacity to cross the boundaries between academic research and public policy making.

Zodrow is married to Dorey Allbert Zodrow, who was a public affairs executive at the University of Texas Health Science Center and at the Baylor College of Medicine before her retirement. They have two adult children, Katherine and Laura, two sons-in-law, Dario Prieto and Roger Michaelides, and two granddaughters, Ophelia and Penelope.

Education and Employment

Zodrow was Chair of the Rice Economics Department from 2019 to 2022, a position he also held from 1995 to 2000.^[1] He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Economics from Princeton University, and his Ph.D. dissertation won the 1980 Annual Competition for the Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation in Government Finance and Taxation sponsored by the National Tax Association. He also holds B.A. (mechanical engineering and economics) and M.M.E. (master of mechanical engineering) degrees from Rice University and worked for several years as an engineer with General Electric and Atlantic Richfield before pursuing graduate studies in Economics.

Zodrow served at the U.S. Treasury Office of Tax Analysis^[4] in 1984-85 and participated in the preparation of "Treasury I," the study that was the precursor to the Tax Reform Act of 1986. He has been a consultant on tax reform issues to the World Bank and the Agency for International Development as well as numerous private companies and organizations, and has been involved in taxation projects in a wide range of countries, including Aruba, Brazil, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Burundi, Canada, China, Colombia, Egypt, Guatemala, Mexico, New Zealand, Russia, Venezuela and Zambia. His consulting work has examined a wide variety of issues related to both national and subnational tax reform, with an emphasis on business tax reforms. He has also served as an expert witness on court cases involving tax issues^[5].

Education

Degrees

• Ph.D., Economics, Princeton University, 1980
• M.A., Economics, Princeton University, 1977
• M.M.E., Mechanical Engineering, Rice University, 1973
• B.A., Mechanical Engineering and Economics, Rice University, 1972

Ph.D. Dissertation

• Title: Optimal Tax Reform: The Case of Property Tax Equalization
• Ph.D. Advisors: David F. Bradford and Wallace E. Oates
• Winner of the 1980 National Tax Association Annual Competition for Outstanding Doctoral Dissertations in Government Finance and Taxation

Employment

• Professor, Department of Economics, Rice University, 1991–present
• Rice Faculty Scholar, Center for Public Finance, Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, 2003–present
• International Research Fellow, Centre for Business Taxation, Said Business School, Oxford University, 2007–present
• Chair, Department of Economics, Rice University, 2019–2022
• Chair, Department of Economics, Rice University, 1995–2000
• Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Rice University, 1986–1991
• Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Rice University, 1979–1986
• Visiting Financial Economist, U.S. Treasury Office of Tax Analysis, 1984–85
• President, Tax Policy Advisers, LLC, 2004–present
• Economic Analyst, Rand Corporation, Summer, 1976
• Assistant Project Engineer, Atlantic Richfield Company, 1974–75
• Manufacturing Engineer, Manufacturing Management Program, GE, 1973–74

Editorial and Advisory Positions

• RISE (Rice Initiative for the Study of Economics) Council, 2022–present
• Editorial Advisory Board, Public Finance Review, 2017–present
• Editorial Advisory Board, National Tax Journal, 2017–present
• Editor, National Tax Journal, 2007–2016
• Editor, International Tax and Public Finance, Policy Watch, 2002–2006
• Editorial Advisory Board, National Tax Journal, 1992–1998

Research

Zodrow’s research interests are tax reform in the United States and in developing countries, state and local public finance, and dynamic computable general equilibrium models of the effects of tax reforms.^[6] He has published over a hundred articles on taxation in a wide variety of academic journals and books, some of which are reprinted in the recently published volume Taxation in Theory and Practice: Selected Essays of George R. Zodrow; other papers have been reprinted in The Economics of Taxation, Readings in Public Finance, and Readings on Taxation in Developing Countries^[1]. He served for ten years as editor of the National Tax Journal, and has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Tax Association, as editor of the “Policy Watch” section of International Tax and Public Finance, and is currently on the Editorial Advisory Boards of the National Tax Journal and Public Finance Review.

Zodrow is the author of Advanced Introduction to Taxation^[7], State Sales and Income Taxes: An Economic Analysis^[8], and Alternative Sources of State Tax Revenue (for the Texas Joint Select Committee on Public School Finance), co-author of The Taxation of Income from Business and Capital in Colombia (which examined the feasibility of implementing a consumption-based direct tax in Colombia), and a contributor to and/or an editor of Prospects for Economic Growth in the United States, Fundamental Tax Reform: Issues, Choices and Implications, United States Tax Reform in the 21st Century, Critical Issues in Taxation and Development, and Local Provision of Public Services: The Tiebout Model After Twenty-Five Years. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Columbia University Center for Global Energy Policy, the U.S. Treasury Office of Tax Analysis, the American Institute for Tax Policy, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, as well as numerous business organizations and private foundations. In 2008, he was ranked 25th among “Top Authors in Public Economics Journals” (Journal of Public Economic Theory, 2008).

Main Publications

Articles

• "Pigou, Tiebout, Property Taxation and the Under-Provision of Local Public Goods," (with Peter Mieszkowski), Journal of Urban Economics, Vol. 19:3 (May 1986), pp. 356-370.
• "Taxation and the Tiebout Model: The Differential Effects of Head Taxes, Taxes on Land Rents and Property Taxes," (with Peter Mieszkowski), Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 27:3 (September 1989), pp. 1098-1146.
• “Tax Competition and Tax Coordination in the European Union,” International Tax and Public Finance, Volume 10, Number 6 (November 2003), pp. 651-671.
• “The Property Tax as a Capital Tax: A Room with Three Views,” National Tax Journal, March 2001 (Vol. 54, No. 1), pp. 139-156.
• "On the Traditional and New Views of Dividend Taxation," National Tax Journal, Vol. 44:4 (December 1991), pp. 497-509.
• "The Incidence of the Property Tax: The Benefit View vs. The New View," (with Peter Mieszkowski), in George R. Zodrow (ed.), Local Provision of Public Services: The Tiebout Model After Twenty-Five Years, Academic Press, 1983, pp. 109-129.
• “Capital Mobility and Capital Tax Competition,” National Tax Journal, December 2010, pp. 865-902.
• "The New View of the Property Tax: A Reformulation," (with Peter Mieszkowski), Regional Science and Urban Economics, Vol. 16:3 (August 1986), pp. 309-327.
• "Treasury I and the Tax Reform Act of 1986: The Economics and Politics of Tax Reform," (with Charles E. McLure, Jr.), Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 1:1 (Summer 1987), pp. 37-58.

Books

• Advanced Introduction to Taxation, Elgar Advanced Introductions, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2025.
• Advanced Introduction to Taxation, Edward Elgar Publishing, Elgar Advanced Introductions, forthcoming.
• Prospects for Economic Growth in the United States, edited with John W. Diamond, Cambridge University Press, 2021.
• Taxation in Theory and Practice: Selected Essays of George R. Zodrow. World Scientific Press, London, 2020.
• Pathways to Fiscal Reform, edited with John W. Diamond, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 2014.
• Taxation in Developing Countries, edited with Clemens Fuest, MIT Press, Cambridge MA, 2013.
• Fundamental Tax Reform: Issues, Choices and Implications, edited with John W. Diamond, MIT Press, 2008.
• United States Tax Reform in the 21st Century, edited with Peter Mieszkowski, Cambridge University Press, 2002.
• State Sales and Income Taxes: An Economic Analysis, Texas A&M University Press, 1999.

References

1. "George Zodrow | Faculty | The People of Rice | Rice University". profiles.rice.edu. Archived from the original on 2025-06-19. Retrieved 2025-09-22.
2. "George R. Zodrow". Baker Institute. Retrieved 2025-09-22.
3. "NTA | Steven D. Gold Award". ntanet.org. Retrieved 2025-09-22.
4. "Remarks by Robert Carroll, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis U.S. Department of the Treasury Before the National Economists Club". U.S. Department of the Treasury. 2025-02-08. Retrieved 2025-09-24.
5. "About | George R. Zodrow Personal Website". georgezodrow.blogs.rice.edu. Retrieved 2025-09-24.
6. Zodrow, George R. (2020). Taxation in theory and practice: selected essays of George R Zodrow (1 ed.). New Jersey: World Scientific. ISBN 978-981-12-0513-2.
7. "Advanced Introduction to Taxation". www.e-elgar.com. Retrieved 2025-09-24.
8. Zodrow, George R. (1999). State sales and income taxes: an economic analysis. Texas A & [and] M University economics series (1. ed.). College Station, Tex: Texas A&M University Press. ISBN 978-0-89096-855-0.