Edward McCaffery (born c. 1959) is a

tax law Tax law or revenue law is an area of legal study in which public or sanctioned authorities, such as federal, state and municipal governments (as in the case of the US) use a body of rules and procedures (laws) to assess and collect taxes in a ...

professor at the

University of Southern California Law School The USC Gould School of Law, located in Los Angeles, California, is the law school of the University of Southern California. The oldest law school in the Southwestern United States, USC Law traces its beginnings to 1896 and became affiliated with ...

(USC) and also a visiting professor of Law and Economics at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

(Caltech). An internationally recognized expert in tax law, McCaffery studies

tax policy Tax policy includes the guidelines developed by a government regarding how taxes are imposed, in what amounts, and on whom. It has both microeconomic and macroeconomic aspects. The macroeconomic aspect concerns the overall quantity of taxes t ...

, tax structures,

public finance Public finance is the study of the role of the government in the economy. It is the branch of economics that assesses the government revenue and government expenditure of the public authorities and the adjustment of one or the other to achi ...

theory, including behavioral public finance, as well as property law and theory,

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

, and

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...

and

economics Economics () is the social science that studies the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work. Microeconomics analy ...

. At USC he is Robert C. Packard Trustee Chair in Law and Professor of Law, Economics and Political Science, where he teaches courses on federal income taxation, property, intellectual property, and tax policy; at Caltech, he teaches courses concerning the intersection of law and economics, and courses concerning the intersection of law and technology. McCaffery's scholarship has been widely cited by economists, government officials, journalists and policy analysts. In addition to numerous

law review A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also pr ...

articles, McCaffery has recently written two books: ''Fair Not Flat: How to Make the Tax System Better and Simpler'' (advocating a progressive consumption tax based on spending rather than income) and ''Taxing Women'' (discussing the gender inequity of the current U.S. income tax code which penalizes working women). Other publications include: ''Behavioral Public Finance'' (co-editor), ''Rethinking the Vote: The Politics and Prospects of American Election Reform'' (co-editor). Another book, ''A New Understanding of Property'', will be published later this year. His other writings include "Cognitive Theory and Tax", "Framing the Jury: Cognitive Perspectives on Pain and Suffering Awards" (with

Daniel Kahneman Daniel Kahneman (; he, דניאל כהנמן; born March 5, 1934) is an Israeli-American psychologist and economist notable for his work on the psychology of judgment and decision-making, as well as behavioral economics, for which he was awarde ...

and Matthew Spitzer), and "Slouching Towards Equality: Gender Discrimination, Market Efficiency, and Social Change." McCaffery has served as an official consultant to the Russian Federation to help design a comprehensive tax code. A summa cum laude graduate of

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

, McCaffery received his J.D. magna cum laude from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

and a master's degree in economics from the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8. ...

. He served as a clerk to Chief Justice

Robert N. Wilentz Robert Nathan Wilentz (February 17, 1927 – July 23, 1996) was Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court from 1979 to 1996, making him the longest-serving Chief Justice since the Supreme Court became New Jersey's highest court in 1948. Ea ...

of the New Jersey Supreme Court and was an attorney with Titchell, Maltzman, Mark, Bass, Ohleyer & Mishel before joining the USC Law faculty in 1989. He held the Maurice Jones, Jr., Professorship in Law from 1998 to 2004 and has served as a visiting professor of law and economics at Caltech since 1994. He has chaired the USC Institute on Federal Taxation since 1997, and he found the USC–Caltech Center for the Study of Law and Politics and served as its director from 2000 to 2003. He is an elected fellow of the American Law Institute (ALI) and the American College of Tax Counsel. McCaffery also Senior Counsel in the Los Angeles office of Seyfarth Shaw LLP.

External links

Edward McCaffery on USC Law School websiteEdward McCaffery on Seyfarth Shaw LLP website
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCaffery, Edward 1958 births Living people American legal scholars Yale University alumni Harvard Law School alumni University of Southern California alumni University of Southern California faculty