Peter Diamond

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Treasury Guest Lecture Peter Diamond Economic Theory and Tax and Pension Policies “Over the last decade or so, I have been involved in studying and advising about mandatory pension systems, an interest I have pursued intermittently since the mid 1970’s. Over the same period, I have returned to the study of optimal tax theory, with particular attention to the taxation of capital income. I could not avoid noticing that these two subjects intersect in the common practice of the tax-favouring of retirement savings. And I have long been concerned about the implicit methodology used by the profession in going from theoretical analyses to policy advice. In this lecture I touch on all four of these topics – pensions, capital income taxes, tax-favoured retirement savings, and methodology.” Peter A Diamond is best known for his pioneering work in optimal taxation, widely applied to the ppgricing of public utilities. In 1997, when Professor Diamond was named an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, President Charles Vest summarized his achievements, saying, "As one of the world's most distinguished economic theorists, you have enhanced our understanding of modern public finance, the role of search processes in the macroeconomy, the functioning of financial markets and the significance of fiscal policy in a growing economy. You have the respect of theorists and practitioners alike and have brought clarity and rigor to the debate over the future of social security in this country.“ Professor Diamond's earliest work analyzed the long term effects of the growing national debt on the behaviour of the economy. His second major publication (together with James Mirrlees) revolutionized the analysis of commodity taxes to combine issues of income distribution along with economic efficiency. Later research on prosperity and recession emphasized how the actions of each producer "spill over" and enlarge (or shrink) the market for other goods. Where: Level 5, The Treasury, 1 The Terrace When: 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm Tuesday 5 October 2010 RSVP: Lyn Crossley by Friday 1 October 2010 To confirm your attendance , contact: For more information, contact: Lyn Crossley Grant Scobie Program Administrator Convenor Academic Linkages Programme [email protected] [email protected] Ph: 04 917 6274 Ph: 04 917 6005.

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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE PETER DIAMOND provided by Research Papers in Economics My grandparents immigrated to the U.S. around the turn of the last cen- tury. My mother’s parents and six older siblings came from Poland. My fa- ther’s parents met in New York, she having come from Russia and he from Romania. My parents, both born in 1908, grew up in New York and never lived outside the metropolitan area. Both ﬁnished high school and went to work, my father studying at Brooklyn Law School at night while selling shoes during the day. When they married in 1929, my mother was earning $15 a week as a bookkeeper and my father, $5 a week as a novice lawyer. My brother, Richard, was born in 1934 and I in 1940. My father continued to practice law until his late 80s, but my mother had left the paid labor force by the time of my birth. She volunteered in a number of organizations after that, often serving as treasurer, drawing on her bookkeeper background. In more recent times, with better opportunities for women, she would have had a good career. I started public school in the Bronx, and switched to suburban public Figure 1. Diamond with older brother Richard and parents, summer, 1944, Battle Creek Michigan, where his father was stationed. 303 Diamond_biog_.indd 3 2011-08-29 10:31:48 schools in second grade when the family moved to Woodmere, on Long Island. Our house faced the Long Island Rail Road and was so close to the tracks that the family thought the ﬁrst train at 5 AM was coming through the bedrooms.
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