Len Burman

Leonard Burman is the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Professor of Public Affairs at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, an affiliated scholar at the Urban Institute, a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and senior research associate at Syracuse University’s Center for Policy Research. Previously, he was the director and co-founder of the Tax Policy Center, a joint project of the Urban Institute and the Brookings Institution. He has held high-level positions in both the executive and legislative branches, serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Tax Analysis at the Treasury from 1998 to 2000, and as Senior Analyst at the Congressional Budget Office. He is past-president of the National Tax Association. Burman is the author of Taxes in America: What Everyone Needs to Know, with Joel Slemrod, and The Labyrinth of Capital Gains Tax Policy: A Guide for the Perplexed, and co-editor of Taxing Capital Income and Using Taxes to Reform Health Insurance, and author of numerous articles, studies, and reports. Burman’s recent research has examined US federal budget dynamics, tax expenditures, financing long-term care, the individual alternative minimum tax, the changing role of taxation in social policy, and tax incentives for savings, retirement, and health insurance. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. Dr. Burman was also a Visiting Professor at Georgetown University's Public Policy Institute, and had previously taught economics at George Washington University and Bates College. Dr. Burman is the author of The Labyrinth of Capital Gains Tax Policy: A Guide for the Perplexed, and numerous articles, studies, and reports. Dr. Burman's current research is focused on the changing role of taxation in social policy, pension and retirement policy, estate taxation, the alternative minimum tax, and tax policy with respect to health insurance.