Taxation and Innovation:
What Can We Learn from Research?

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About the Event
The tax system plays a crucial role in an indivi- dual’s decision to undertake risks associated with innovation. It is, therefore, a key determinant of a country’s prosperity.

In her lecture, Prof. Stefanie Stantcheva from the Department of Economics of Harvard University will start by presenting a framework for how tax policy affects innovation. She will then consider the historical evidence of the effects of corporate and personal income taxes on innovations and inventors. Thereby, she will also cover key ele- ments for the design of R&D tax incentives for firms. Finally, she will analyze specific programs targeted at small entrepreneurs and whether they are successful.

Our speaker draws on her pathbreaking academic contributions over the last 10 years, published in the leading journals in economics, such as the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Eco- nomics, Econometrica, Journal of Political Economy and Review of Economic Studies.

Programm

Professor Stefanie Stantcheva / Speaker: 
Stefanie Stantcheva is Nathaniel Ropes Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University and the founder and director of the Social Economics Lab at Harvard. Prof. Stantcheva’s research focuses on the taxation of firms and individuals, as well as how people understand, perceive, and form their atti- tudes towards economic issues and policies. She studies the long-lasting effects of tax policy – on innovation, education, and wealth. Examples include how R&D policies can be improved to foster innovation, how income and corporate taxes have shaped innovation over the 20th century, and how student loans can be structured to improve access to educa- tion. Her recent work explores people’s attitudes towards tax- ation, trade, immigration, climate change, and social mobility using large-scale Social Economics Surveys and Experiments. Prof. Stantcheva received the prestigious 2025 John Bates Clark Medal. She was also awarded the 2020 Elaine Bennett Research Prize, a Sloan Foundation fellow, a Guggenheim fel- low, and an Andrew Carnegie Fellow, among others.

Dr. Severin Schwan / Guest on the Panel
Severin Schwan is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Roche Holding Ltd. He was CEO of the Roche Group from 2008 to 2023.

Prof. Kurt Schmidheiny / Guest on the Panel
Kurt Schmidheiny is Pofessor of Economics and Applied Econometrics at the University of Basel. He studies how local taxes affect the behavior of households and firms.

Prof. Rolf Weder / Host
Rolf Weder is Professor of International Economics at the University of Basel. He is co-leader of a research project on Innovation (innoscape.ch) at the CIEB.

Lecture Series on Innovation in the Global Economy
The Lecture Series provides a platform for renowned researchers in Business and Economics to present their research results and thoughts on “Innovation in the Global Economy” to a broad audience. The events tackle the challenges of globalization and new technologies for society, policy makers and companies. They also focus on the determinants of innovation in open econ- omies. The discussion plays an important role in the Lecture Series. We are grateful for the support by the Claudine and Hans-Heiner Zaeslin-Bustany-Foundation.