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  • On Campus
    Session Date
    -
    Application Deadline
    Program Fee
    $13,900
    Faculty Chair
    Jay Rosengard
    Program Director
    Laura Bussa
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    Program Fee: The program fee includes tuition, housing, curricular materials and most meals.
    Executive Certificate: This program is a core program in the Economic Development and Public Policy concentrations. This program can also be used as a third program for any concentration in the Executive Certificate series.
    Executive Core Qualifications (ECQs): This program aligns with one or more Executive Core Qualifications.

Program Overview

While tax theory can be straightforward, the challenge is to adapt basic principles to the complex and ever-changing variety of domestic and international economic, political, social, and historical constraints. Oftentimes, that's easier said than done.

The Comparative Tax Policy and Administration executive program provides you with the insights and tools to deal with this complex dynamic. Together with tax professionals from a range of sectors, you will deepen your knowledge of the latest approaches and tackle the most difficult topics in the design and implementation of tax systems from a strategic and tactical perspective.  

Led by Faculty Chair Jay Rosengard, this on-campus program explores which elements of taxation work best in addressing particular challenges. The curriculum stresses the importance of context and capacity in tax policy and administration rather than a unitary “best practice” model of taxation.

PROGRAM CURRICULUM

Developed by Harvard Kennedy School faculty, this executive program will help you reconcile the universal unpopularity of taxation with your need to generate significant tax revenue in an economically efficient and social equitable manner.

Comparative Tax Policy and Administration consists of live lectures with Harvard faculty, class discussions, and group exercises. To take advantage of participants’ considerable expertise and experience, the program also relies heavily on participant interaction.

The program also makes extensive use of the case study method pioneered at Harvard. Together with your peers, you will study real-world situations that place you in the role of the decision maker. Through analysis of the experience and interactive discussions about the critical choices made by key players along the way, you will gain valuable insights, training, and practice in making challenging leadership decisions.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The Comparative Tax Policy and Administration curriculum will address:

  • Taxation and national development strategies, sub-national fiscal challenges, and intergovernmental fiscal relations
  • Taxation and globalization
  • Comparative tax policy and administration, as well as the design and assessment of tax systems
  • Tax reform and alternative strategies for improving tax systems
  • The political economy of taxation
  • Taxation in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic

Application Information

Comparative Tax Policy and Administration is designed for tax policy professionals from a range of sectors, bringing different perspectives and insights into the practical aspects of tax policy issues.

Recommended applicants include:

  • Senior government tax officials
  • External tax advisors and attorneys
  • In-house private-sector tax specialists
  • Leaders of taxpayer institutions, organizations and advocacy groups
  • Providers of tax policy implementation assistance
  • Prominent scholars and researchers in the field of tax policy and administration

Comparative Tax Policy and Administration is not a program on the fundamentals of taxation. All participants are expected to be familiar with the basics. Nor does this program provide training in the implementation of a particular tax system.

View a sample program schedule.

WHAT PARTICIPANTS ARE SAYING

“This program taught me new strategic concepts and how to implement them. I now have the skills necessary to make better analyses, fully grasp everything happening around me and build stronger fiscal policies that are more proactive and less reactive.”
STEFAN VERSTRAETEN, BELGIUM
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Faculty Chair Jay Rosengard Discusses Relief and Recovery: Fiscal Policy Responses to COVID-19

Faculty & Research

Jay Rosengard Photo

Jay Rosengard

Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy

Matthew Andrews Photo

Matthew Andrews

Edward S. Mason Senior Lecturer in International Development

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Brian Arnold

Senior Adviser, Canadian Tax Foundation

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Richard M. Bird

Guest Speaker

Jason Furman Photo

Jason Furman

Aetna Professor of the Practice of Economic Policy

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Glenn Jenkins

Professor of Economics, Queen's University

Anders Jensen Photo

Anders Jensen

Associate Professor of Public Policy

Robert Lawrence Photo

Robert Lawrence

Albert L. Williams Professor of International Trade and Investment
617-495-1118
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Malcolm McPherson

Senior Research Associate with the Vietnam Program, Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

Nina Olson

Nina E. Olson

Executive Director, Center for Taxpayer Rights

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Victoria Perry

Professor in the Graduate Tax Program at Georgetown University Law Center and former Deputy Director in the Fiscal Affairs Department of the International Monetary Fund

Roger Porter Photo

Roger Porter

IBM Professor of Business and Government
617-496-4036
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Joel Slemrod

Paul W. McCracken Collegiate Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy, University of Michigan

Malcolm Sparrow Photo

Malcolm Sparrow

Professor of the Practice of Public Management

Lawrence H. Summers Photo

Lawrence H. Summers

Frank and Denie Weil Director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government
Charles W. Eliot University Professor
617-495-9322
Eric Toder

Eric Toder

Institute fellow and Co-Director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, Urban Institute

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Eric Zolt

Michael H. Schill Distinguished Professor of Law, UCLA Law

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