Hall, Robert E. 1943-

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HALL, Robert E. 1943-

(Robert Ernest Hall)

PERSONAL: Born August 13, 1943, in Palo Alto, CA; children: three. Education: University of California, Berkeley, B.A. (summa cum laude), 1964; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ph.D., 1967.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Economics, Stanford University, HHMB RM 138, Stanford, CA 94305-6010. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: University of California, Berkeley, assistant professor, 1967–69, acting associate professor of economics, 1969–70; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, associate professor, 1970–74, professor of economics, 1974–78; Stanford University, Stanford, CA, professor of economics and senior fellow at Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace, beginning 1978. Fellow at Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Palo Alto, CA, 1977–78. Member of National Science Foundation advisory panel for economics, 1970–72, Census Advisory Committee on Population Statistics, 1975–77, and President's Advisory Committee on Productivity, 1981–82; Brookings Panel on Economic Activity, member of panel, 1970–72, 1974–75, 1977, 1980, senior adviser, 1973, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1981–. National Bureau of Economic Research, director of Economic Fluctuations Program, 1977–, director of Project on Inflation, 1978–81, chair of Committee on Business Cycle Dating; consultant to U.S. Department of the Treasury, Justice Department, and to Federal Reserve Board.

MEMBER: National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (fellow), Econometric Society (fellow), American Economic Association, Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS: Woodrow Wilson fellow, 1964–65; Ford Foundation fellow, 1969–70; Social Science Research Council fellow.

WRITINGS:

The Village Health Worker Approach to Rural Health Care: The Case of Senegal, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY), 1981.

(Editor and contributor) Inflation: Causes and Effects, University of Chicago Press (Chicago, IL), 1982.

(With Albin Rabushka) Low Tax, Simple Tax, Flat Tax, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1983.

(With John B. Taylor) Macroeconomics: Theory, Performance, and Policy, W. W. Norton (New York, NY), 1985, 6th edition, with David H. Papell, published as Macroeconomics: Economic Growth, Fluctuations, and Policy, 2005.

(With Alvin Rabushka) The Flat Tax, Hoover Institution Press (Stanford, CA), 1985, 2nd edition, 1995.

(With John B. Taylor and Jeremy R. Rudin) Macroeconomics: The Canadian Economy, W. W. Norton (New York, NY), 1990, 2nd edition, 1995.

The Rational Consumer: Theory and Evidence, MIT Press (Cambridge, MA), 1990.

Booms and Recessions in a Noisy Economy, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1991.

(With others) Fairness and Efficiency in the Flat Tax, AEI Press (Washington, DC), 1996.

Economics: Principles and Applications, South-Western College Publishing (Cincinnati, OH), 1998, 3rd edition, Thomson/South-Western (Mason, OH), 2005.

(With Mark Lieberman) Macroeconomics: Principles and Applications, South-Western College Publishing (Cincinnati, OH), 1998, third edition, Thomson/South-Western (Mason, OH), 2005, updated edition, 2005.

(With Marc Lieberman) Microeconomics: Principles and Applications, South-Western College Publishing (Cincinnati, OH), 1998, 3rd edition, Thomson/South-Western (Mason, OH), 2005.

(With Marc Lieberman) Introduction to Economics, South-Western College Publishing (Cincinnati, OH), 2000, 2nd edition, Thomson/South-Western (Mason, OH), 2005.

Digital Dealing: How E-Markets Are Transforming the Economy, Norton (New York, NY), 2001.

Contributor to books, including The Effect of Tax Incentives on Investment, edited by G. Fromm, Brookings Institution, 1971; Price Indexes and Quality Change, edited by Zvi Griliches, Harvard University Press, 1971; Income Maintenance and Labor Supply: Econometric Studies, edited by H. Watts and G. Cain, Rand McNally, 1973; Work Incentives and Income Guarantees: The New Jersey Negative Income Tax Experiments, edited by Joseph A. Pechman and P. Michael Timpane, Brookings Institution, 1975; The Phillips Curve and Labor Markets, edited by K. Brunner and A. Meltzer, North-Holland Publishing, 1976; The Microeconomic Foundations of Macroeconomics, edited by G. Harcourt, Macmillan, 1977; Men in the Pre-Retirement Years, edited by Seymour Wolfbein, Temple University Press, 1977; Income Distribution and Economic Inequality, edited by Zvi Griliches and others, Campus Verlag-Wiley, 1978; Depreciation, Inflation, and the Taxation of Income From Capital, edited by Charles Hulten, Urban Institute, 1981; The Youth Labor Market Problem: Its Nature, Causes, and Consequences, edited by Richard B. Freeman and David A. Wise, University of Chicago Press, 1982; Industrial Change and Public Policy, 1983; To Promote Prosperity: U.S. Domestic Policy in the Mid-1980s, edited by John Moore; and Proceedings of the National Bureau of Economics Conference on Business Cycles, edited by Robert J. Gordon. Contributor to economic journals, including Energy Journal, and newspapers. Associate editor, Journal of the American Statistical Association, 1968–70, and Econometrica, 1970–74; member of board of editors, American Economic Review, 1972–75.

SIDELIGHTS: Economist Robert E. Hall first gained the attention of businessmen, the government, and the public at large when he and fellow Stanford University professor Alvin Rabushka proposed creating a flat tax system in the United States. At the time they published their thought-provoking proposal in an article for the Wall Street Journal in 1981, the U.S. tax code provided for fifteen tax brackets. Depending on a person's income, he or she could pay up to fifty percent of his or her salary and other financial resources to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) each year. Those with higher incomes were taxed so heavily, reasoned Hall and Rabushka, that this encouraged them to seek tax shelters or find other, sometimes illegal, ways to avoid paying taxes. As a result, the U.S. government not only often failed to collect on these taxes, but the IRS also spent considerable time and tax dollars trying to collect the money that was owed and paying for legal fees to prosecute tax evaders. A far better system, according to Hall and Rabushka, would be to have a flat income tax rate of nineteen percent that everyone would pay. This would not only make the system far easier to understand but it would save enormous amounts of money on clerical, legal, and accounting work.

In addition, although high-income earners would not pay as much, they would be more likely to pay the lower rate and invest the money they saved in the economy, rather than hiding it from the IRS. The flat rate tax has not become law, but Hall and Rabushka's idea did have an effect on the tax system, influencing President Ronald Reagan's efforts to simplify the tax code down to two tax brackets. The economists have published two books on the subject: Low Tax, Simple Tax, Flat Tax and The Flat Tax.

Hall has subsequently published a number of textbooks on economics. In 2001, he also released Digital Dealing: How E-Markets Are Transforming the Economy, a work about the new and often complex issues that are now arising with the establishment of the Internet economy. A reviewer for M2 Best Books complimented Hall for using real-life companies such as Amazon and Napster to illustrate points in the book, concluding, "This book would be ideal for anyone working in digital marketplaces or e-commerce or students of economics."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Spectator, January, 1984, review of Low Tax, Simple Tax, Flat Tax, p. 28.

Banker, November, 1983, review of Inflation: Causes and Effects, p. 212.

Bookwatch, September, 2003, "Deal Engines," p. 2.

Choice, July, 1983, review of Inflation, p. 1637; October, 1991, review of Booms and Recessions in a Noisy Economy, p. 322; June, 2002, B. P. Keating, review of Digital Dealing: How E-Markets Are Transforming the Economy, p. 1849.

Economic Books, June, 1984, review of Low Tax, Simple Tax, Flat Tax, p. 31; fall, 1991, reviews of The Rational Consumer: Theory and Evidence, and Booms and Recessions in a Noisy Economy, p. 16.

Economic Record, March, 1992, Kunhong Kim, review of Booms and Recessions in a Noisy Economy, p. 85.

Fortune, April 17, 1995, Bruce Bartlett, review of The Flat Tax, p. 215.

Journal of Business Forecasting, winter, 1991, review of Booms and Recessions in a Noisy Economy, p. 28.

Journal of Economic Literature, September, 1984, review of Inflation, p. 1134; September, 1991, review of Booms and Recessions in a Noisy Economy, p. 1237; March, 1992, review of The Rational Consumer, p. 253; December, 1992, Ricardo J. Caballero, review of Booms and Recessions in a Noisy Economy, p. 2146.

Journal of Legislation, winter, 1984, review of Low Tax, Simple Tax, Flat Tax, p. 190.

Journal of Policy Analysis & Management, spring, 1986, Paul N. Courant, review of The Flat Tax, p. 604.

Journal of Political Economy, April, 1984, review of Low Tax, Simple Tax, Flat Tax, p. 340; June, 1984, review of Inflation, p. 553.

Kirkus Reviews, January 1, 1983, review of Low Tax, Simple Tax, Flat Tax, p. 44; June 15, 2001, review of Digital Dealing, p. 845.

Library Journal, March 1, 1983, review of Low Tax, Simple Tax, Flat Tax, p. 487; March 1, 1984, review of Low Tax, Simple Tax, Flat Tax, p. 444; July, 2001, review of Digital Dealing, p. 104.

Los Angeles Times, April 10, 1983, Jonathan Kirsch, review of Low Tax, Simple Tax, Flat Tax, p. B6.

M2 Best Books, March 28, 2002, review of Digital Dealing

Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies, June, 1992, review of The Rational Consumer, p. 204.

Monthly Labor Review, March, 1997, Charles Muhl, "Frontiers of Tax Reform," p. 31.

National Review, August 5, 1983, Chilton Williamson Jr., review of Low Tax, Simple Tax, Flat Tax, p. 955.

New Republic, July 11, 1983, review of Low Tax, Simple Tax, Flat Tax, p. 35.

Newsweek, February 28, 1983, review of Low Tax, Simple Tax, Flat Tax, p. 62.

Publishers Weekly, August 6, 2001, Lucy Heckman, review of Digital Dealing, p. 77.

Reference & Research Book News, November, 2000, review of Macroeconomics: Principles and Applications, p. 58; May, 2004, review of Economics: Principles and Applications, p. 81, and Microeconomics: Principles and Applications, p. 82; August, 2004, review of Introduction to Economics, p. 93.

Social Science Quarterly, June, 1992, L. Randall Wray, review of Booms and Recessions in a Noisy Economy, p. 469.

UN Chronicle, May, 1983, review of Inflation, p. 79.

Wall Street Review of Books, winter, 1986, review of The Flat Tax, p. 9.

West Coast Review of Books, March, 1983, review of Low Tax, Simple Tax, Flat Tax, p. 15.