{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,17]],"date-time":"2025-12-17T18:00:09Z","timestamp":1765994409858,"version":"3.48.0"},"reference-count":44,"publisher":"Springer Science and Business Media LLC","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,17]],"date-time":"2025-12-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1765929600000},"content-version":"tdm","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"},{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,17]],"date-time":"2025-12-17T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1765929600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100008047","name":"Carnegie Mellon University","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100008047","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["link.springer.com"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Public Choice"],"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title>\n                  <jats:p>\n                    Official statistics from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics and the US Bureau of the Census have long documented differences by ethnicity in employment rates and incomes. Recently, it has been suggested that the structure of the US federal individual tax system is 'systemically racist' which we interpret to mean that the application of the Internal Revenue Code through collection of individual income taxes adversely affects African American compared to White individuals and households. This paper contributes to the public discussion of possible systemic racism in the US tax system issue by studying an unusual set of US individual income tax data. These data differ from those used in other studies in two important ways. First, race is not imputed but obtained from the administrative records of the Social Security Administration. Second, the income tax data are\n                    <jats:italic>audited<\/jats:italic>\n                    tax return data. Using these audited and administratively matched data, we estimate effective income tax functions with an explicit role for race. After accounting for the basic structure of the US tax system, we find no statistical evidence of systemic racism in the operation of the US federal individual income tax during the period under study. Our results show that once income and filing status are taken into account, the effective tax rate tax did not vary by race\u2014a finding that remains robust across multiple checks.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1007\/s11127-025-01340-y","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,17]],"date-time":"2025-12-17T17:55:46Z","timestamp":1765994146000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/springer_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Does the US individual income tax display systemic racism? Negative evidence from audited US federal tax return data for 1967\u201373"],"prefix":"10.1007","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0009-0357-6295","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Robert P.","family":"Strauss","sequence":"first","affiliation":[]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0081-0508","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Miguel","family":"Gouveia","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[]}],"member":"297","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,17]]},"reference":[{"issue":"3","key":"1340_CR1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1383","DOI":"10.1093\/qje\/qjac009","volume":"137","author":"Carlos F Avenancio-Le\u00f3n","year":"2022","unstructured":"Avenancio-Le\u00f3n, Carlos F., and Troup Howard. 2022. The assessment gap: Racial inequalities in property taxation. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 137(3): 1383\u20131434.","journal-title":"The Quarterly Journal of Economics"},{"key":"1340_CR2","volume-title":"The economics of discrimination","author":"Gary S Becker","year":"1957","unstructured":"Becker, Gary S. 1957. The economics of discrimination, 2nd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.","edition":"2"},{"issue":"2","key":"1340_CR3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"219","DOI":"10.1016\/0047-2727(93)90086-9","volume":"51","author":"Marcus C Berliant","year":"1993","unstructured":"Berliant, Marcus C., and Miguel Gouveia. 1993. Equal sacrifice and incentive compatible income taxation. Journal of Public Economics 51(2): 219\u2013240.","journal-title":"Journal of Public Economics"},{"key":"1340_CR4","unstructured":"Brookings-Urban Institute Tax Policy Center. 2024. How the federal income tax system can worsen racial disparities. Accessed 16 June 2025. https:\/\/apps.urban.org\/features\/federal-income-tax-system-can-worsen-racial-disparities\/."},{"key":"1340_CR5","volume-title":"The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans - and How We Can Fix It","author":"Dorothy A Brown","year":"2021","unstructured":"Brown, Dorothy A. 2021. The Whiteness of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans - and How We Can Fix It. New York: Crown Publishers."},{"issue":"7","key":"1340_CR6","first-page":"1661","volume":"53","author":"JC Conesa","year":"2005","unstructured":"Conesa, J. C., and D. Krueger. 2005. On the optimal progressivity of the income tax code. Journal of Monetary Economics 53(7): 1661\u20131691.","journal-title":"Journal of Monetary Economics"},{"key":"1340_CR7","unstructured":"Cronin J.A., P. De Filippes and R. Fisher. 2023. Tax expenditures by race and Hispanic ethnicity: An application of the U.S. Treasury Department's Race and Hispanic Ethnicity Imputation. Office of Tax Analysis Working Paper 122 January."},{"key":"1340_CR8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Darity, William A. and Kirsten Mullen. 2020, From here to equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the twenty-first century. (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press).","DOI":"10.5149\/northcarolina\/9781469654973.001.0001"},{"issue":"2","key":"1340_CR9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"400","DOI":"10.1257\/jel.20211690","volume":"60","author":"William A Darity","year":"2022","unstructured":"Darity, William A. 2022. Position and possessions: Stratification economics and intergroup inequality. Journal of Economic Literature 60(2): 400\u2013426. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1257\/jel.20211690.","journal-title":"Journal of Economic Literature"},{"issue":"2","key":"1340_CR10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"207","DOI":"10.1177\/1091142118816744","volume":"47","author":"J DeBacker","year":"2019","unstructured":"DeBacker, J., R. W. Evans, and K. L. Phillips. 2019. Integrating microsimulation models of tax policy into a DGE macroeconomic model. Public Finance Review 47(2): 207\u2013275. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/1091142118816744.","journal-title":"Public Finance Review"},{"key":"1340_CR11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","unstructured":"Derby, Elena, Connor Dowd and Jacob Mortenson. 2024. Statistical bias in racial and ethnic disparity estimates using BIFSG. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.2139\/ssrn.4733299.","DOI":"10.2139\/ssrn.4733299"},{"issue":"1","key":"1340_CR12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"113","DOI":"10.1093\/qje\/qjae027","volume":"140","author":"H Elzayn","year":"2025","unstructured":"Elzayn, H., E. Smith, T. Hertz, C. Guage, A. Ramesh, R. Fisher, D. Ho, and J. Goldin. 2025. Measuring and mitigating racial disparities in tax audits. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 140(1):113\u2013163. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1093\/qje\/qjae027.","journal-title":"The Quarterly Journal of Economics"},{"issue":"4","key":"1340_CR13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"953","DOI":"10.1086\/717146","volume":"74","author":"William G Gale","year":"2021","unstructured":"Gale, William G. 2021. Public finance and racism. National Tax Journal 74(4): 953\u2013974.","journal-title":"National Tax Journal"},{"issue":"4","key":"1340_CR14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"551","DOI":"10.1016\/j.red.2012.05.002","volume":"15","author":"Aspen Gorry","year":"2012","unstructured":"Gorry, Aspen, and Ezra Oberfield. 2012. Optimal taxation over the life cycle. Review of Economic Dynamics 15(4): 551\u2013572. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.red.2012.05.002.","journal-title":"Review of Economic Dynamics"},{"issue":"June","key":"1340_CR15","first-page":"317","volume":"2","author":"Miguel Gouveia","year":"1994","unstructured":"Gouveia, Miguel, and Robert P. Strauss. 1994. Effective Federal Individual Income Tax Functions: An Exploratory Empirical Analysis. National Tax Journal, XLVII 2(June): 317\u2013339.","journal-title":"National Tax Journal, XLVII"},{"key":"1340_CR16","unstructured":"Gouveia, Miguel and Robert P. Strauss. 1999. ffective tax functions for the federal individual income tax: 1966\u201389. In Proceedings 92nd Annual Conference on Taxation, 155\u2013165. (Atlanta, Georgia: National Tax Association-Tax Institute of America)."},{"issue":"4","key":"1340_CR17","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"559","DOI":"10.1016\/j.red.2014.01.003","volume":"17","author":"Guner Nezih","year":"2014","unstructured":"Nezih, Guner, Kaygusuz Remzi, and Ventura Gustavo. 2014. Income taxation of U.S. households: Facts and parametric estimates. Review of Economic Dynamics 17(4): 559\u2013581. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/j.red.2014.01.003.","journal-title":"Review of Economic Dynamics"},{"issue":"2","key":"1340_CR18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"818","DOI":"10.1093\/restud\/rdt042","volume":"81","author":"Fatih Guvenen","year":"2014","unstructured":"Guvenen, Fatih, Burhanettin Kuruscu, and Serdar Ozkan. 2014. Taxation of human capital and wage inequality: A cross-country analysis. Review of Economic Studies 81 (2): 818.","journal-title":"Review of Economic Studies"},{"key":"1340_CR19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Holtzblatt, J., S. Joshi, N. Cahill and W. Gale. 2024. Racial disparities in the income tax treatment of marriage. In Tax Policy and the Economy, Vol. 38, ed. Moffitt.","DOI":"10.1086\/730051"},{"key":"1340_CR20","unstructured":"Kerner Commission. 1968. Report on the Causes, Events, and Aftermaths of the Civil Disorders of 1967. Washington, DC: US Department of Justice."},{"key":"1340_CR21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Komlos, John. 2021. Covert racism in economics. FinanzArchiv, 33:\u00a083\u2013115.","DOI":"10.1628\/fa-2021-0003"},{"issue":"3","key":"1340_CR22","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"317","DOI":"10.1628\/001522117X14932991128976","volume":"73","author":"R Li","year":"2017","unstructured":"Li, R., and G. Ma. 2017. Personal-income-tax reforms and effective-tax functions in China. Finanz - Archiv\u202f: Zeitschrift F\u00fcr Das Gesamte Finanzwesen. 73(3): 317\u2013340.","journal-title":"Finanz - Archiv : Zeitschrift F\u00fcr Das Gesamte Finanzwesen."},{"key":"1340_CR23","volume-title":"Capitalism and Inequality - The Role of State and Market","author":"Phillip Magness","year":"2021","unstructured":"Magness, Phillip. 2021. The economic history of taxation and inequality in the United States. In Capitalism and Inequality - The Role of State and Market, ed. G. P. Manish and Stephen C. Miller. New York: Routledge."},{"key":"1340_CR24","unstructured":"Moran, Beverly and William Whitford. 1996. A black critique of the internal revenue code. Wisconsin Law Review, 751."},{"key":"1340_CR25","volume-title":"The Negro Family: The Case for National Action","author":"Daniel Moynihan","year":"1965","unstructured":"Moynihan, Daniel. 1965. The Negro Family: The Case for National Action. Washington, DC: US Department of Labor, Office of Policy, Planning and Research."},{"key":"1340_CR26","volume-title":"An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy","author":"Gunnar Myrdal","year":"1944","unstructured":"Myrdal, Gunnar. 1944. An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modern Democracy. New York: The Carnegie Foundation."},{"issue":"C","key":"1340_CR27","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"114","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jedc.2015.09.007","volume":"61","author":"Shinichi Nishiyama","year":"2015","unstructured":"Nishiyama, Shinichi. 2015. Fiscal policy effects in a heterogeneous-agent OLG economy with an aging population. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control 61(C): 114\u2013132.","journal-title":"Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control"},{"issue":"4","key":"1340_CR28","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"661","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1465-7295.1989.tb00795.x","volume":"27","author":"Jennifer Roback","year":"1989","unstructured":"Roback, Jennifer. 1989. Racism as Economic Rent Seeking. Economic Inquiry 27(4): 661\u2013668.","journal-title":"Economic Inquiry"},{"issue":"1","key":"1340_CR29","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"145","DOI":"10.1016\/S0047-2727(97)00026-1","volume":"66","author":"P-DG Sarte","year":"1997","unstructured":"Sarte, P.-D.G. 1997. Progressive taxation and income inequality in dynamic competitive equilibrium. Journal of Public Economics 66(1): 145\u2013171.","journal-title":"Journal of Public Economics"},{"issue":"2","key":"1340_CR30","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"471","DOI":"10.2307\/2525826","volume":"16","author":"Peter J Schmidt","year":"1975","unstructured":"Schmidt, Peter J., and Robert P. Strauss. 1975a. The prediction of occupation using multiple logit models. International Economic Review 16(2): 471\u2013485.","journal-title":"International Economic Review"},{"issue":"4-July","key":"1340_CR31","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"745","DOI":"10.2307\/1913083","volume":"43","author":"Peter J Schmidt","year":"1975","unstructured":"Schmidt, Peter J., and Robert P. Strauss. 1975b. Estimation of models with qualitative variables: A simultaneous logit approach. Econometrica 43(4-July): 745\u2013755.","journal-title":"Econometrica"},{"issue":"2","key":"1340_CR32","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"195","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1467-999X.1979.tb00243.x","volume":"31","author":"Peter J Schmidt","year":"1979","unstructured":"Schmidt, Peter J., and Robert P. Strauss. 1979. U.S. industrial employment patterns by industry. Metroeconomica 31(2): 195\u2013209.","journal-title":"Metroeconomica"},{"key":"1340_CR33","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1086\/717960","volume":"75","author":"Joel Slemrod","year":"2022","unstructured":"Slemrod, Joel. 2022. Group equity and implicit discrimination in tax systems. National Tax Journal 75:1.","journal-title":"National Tax Journal"},{"issue":"2","key":"1340_CR34","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"241","DOI":"10.1257\/aer.20141751","volume":"108","author":"Kamila Sommer","year":"2018","unstructured":"Sommer, Kamila, and Paul Sullivan. 2018. Implications of US tax policy for house prices, rents, and homeownership. American Economic Review 108(2): 241\u2013274. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1257\/aer.20141751.","journal-title":"American Economic Review"},{"key":"1340_CR35","unstructured":"Strand, Palma Joy and Nicholas A. Mirkay. 2020. Racialized tax inequity: Wealth, racism, and the U.S. system of taxation. 15 Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy. 265. https:\/\/scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu\/njlsp\/vol15\/iss3\/1"},{"key":"1340_CR36","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"287","DOI":"10.2307\/2553127","volume":"43","author":"Robert P Strauss","year":"1976","unstructured":"Strauss, Robert P., and Francis Horvath. 1976. Wage rate differences by race and sex in the US labor market: 1960\u20131970. Economica 43:287\u2013298.","journal-title":"Economica"},{"issue":"10","key":"1340_CR37","first-page":"815","volume":"31","author":"Robert P Strauss","year":"2004","unstructured":"Strauss, Robert P., and David A. Strauss. 2004. Residential real estate assessment fairness in four urban areas. State Tax Notes 31(10): 815\u2013820.","journal-title":"State Tax Notes"},{"key":"1340_CR38","unstructured":"Strauss, Robert P. 2013. A Sales Ratio Study of the City of Philadelphia\u2019s 2013 Certified and 2014 Proposed Real Estate Assessments a Report to the Controller of the City of Philadelphia. Philadelphia: Pennsylvania, Office of the Controller of the City of Philadelphia."},{"key":"1340_CR39","first-page":"193","volume":"172","author":"Martin A Sullivan","year":"2021","unstructured":"Sullivan, Martin A. 2021. New evidence of racial disparities in the tax code. Tax Notes Federal 172:193\u2013196.","journal-title":"Tax Notes Federal"},{"key":"1340_CR40","unstructured":"United States v. County of Nassau, 188 F.R.D. 187 (E.D.N.Y. 1999). Decided 23 Sep 1999."},{"key":"1340_CR41","unstructured":"US Bureau of the Census. 2021. Historical Income of Households. Washington, DC: US Bureau of the Census, November 2021. https:\/\/www.census.gov\/data\/tables\/time-series\/demo\/income-poverty\/historical-incomehouseholds.html"},{"key":"1340_CR42","unstructured":"US Department of Labor, Women\u2019s Bureau. 2022. Unemployment Rates by Race, Sex, and Hispanic Ethnicity. https:\/\/www.dol.gov\/agencies\/wb\/data\/latest-annual-data\/employment-rates"},{"issue":"2","key":"1340_CR43","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"321","DOI":"10.1016\/0022-0531(88)90007-5","volume":"44","author":"HP Young","year":"1988","unstructured":"Young, H. P. 1988. Distributive justice in taxation. Economic Theory 44(2): 321\u2013335. https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1016\/0022-0531(88)90007-5.","journal-title":"Economic Theory"},{"issue":"1","key":"1340_CR44","first-page":"253","volume":"80","author":"HP Young","year":"1990","unstructured":"Young, H. P. 1990. Progressive taxation and equal sacrifice. The American Economic Review 80(1): 253\u2013266.","journal-title":"The American Economic Review"}],"container-title":["Public Choice"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s11127-025-01340-y.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s11127-025-01340-y\/fulltext.html","content-type":"text\/html","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"text-mining"},{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/content\/pdf\/10.1007\/s11127-025-01340-y.pdf","content-type":"application\/pdf","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,17]],"date-time":"2025-12-17T17:55:49Z","timestamp":1765994149000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/link.springer.com\/10.1007\/s11127-025-01340-y"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,17]]},"references-count":44,"alternative-id":["1340"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/s11127-025-01340-y","relation":{},"ISSN":["0048-5829","1573-7101"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0048-5829","type":"print"},{"value":"1573-7101","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2025,12,17]]},"assertion":[{"value":"30 June 2024","order":1,"name":"received","label":"Received","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"11 September 2025","order":2,"name":"accepted","label":"Accepted","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}},{"value":"17 December 2025","order":3,"name":"first_online","label":"First Online","group":{"name":"ArticleHistory","label":"Article History"}}]}}