Faculty Profiles
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David Gamage
Title: Assistant Professor of Law
Office: 889 Boalt Hall
Tel: 510-643-6116
Email Address: dgamage@law.berkeley.edu
FSU Contact: Chris Swain
David Gamage joined the Berkeley Law (Boalt Hall) faculty in the fall of 2007. Previously, Gamage taught at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law as an Emerging Scholars Program Assistant Professor. Gamage has a J.D. from Yale, where he served as a senior editor on the Yale Law Journal and as a Law and Economics Fellow. Additionally, he has an M.A. in Economic and Organizational Sociology from Stanford, as well as a B.A. in Economics from Stanford. Gamage began his post-secondary studies at Clark Community College in Washington State. Gamage has prior work experience as a management consultant with the firm Bain & Company.
Gamage's research focuses on the law of taxation and of public finance. He is currently pursuing three interconnected research agendas.
Gamage's first area of research examines state and local tax policy within the United States. He is particularly interested in the optimal design of state and local tax systems and of state and local budgeting and tax lawmaking institutions. Gamage is currently finishing a multi-part project on how state tax systems should respond to fiscal volatility and to the resulting budget crises.
Gamage's second area of research examines the use of economic theory to inform tax policy. Gamage is currently working on a set of papers analyzing the extent to which the traditional models of optimal tax theory are applicable to the problems of tax evasion and tax avoidance. He is also working on an experimental project investigating the effects of tax salience on taxpayer decision making. Gamage's goal with this research is to evaluate the extent to which standard public finance models correspond with both the practical knowledge of tax practitioners and with the insights gained from psychology, sociology, and organizational theory.
Gamage's third area of research examines tax lawmaking and budget policy, at both the federal and state levels. In this area, Gamage's inquiry is focused on whether tax lawmaking norms and institutions can be reformed so as to improve the end quality of the tax laws. In addition to his work on state-level budgeting, Gamage is engaged with a project on the political economy of "hidden taxes."
Gamage's prior publications include: "Commodification and Contract Formation: Placing the Consideration Doctrine on Stronger Foundations" in the University of Chicago Law Review (2006), and "Taxing Political Donations: The Case for Corrective Taxes in Campaign Finance" in the Yale Law Journal (2004). A more complete list of publications can be found at: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=364730. Requests for drafts of works-in-progress should be e-mailed to Professor Gamage directly.
Gamage teaches courses on Federal Income Taxation, Corporate Taxation, State and Local Taxation and Finance, and Tax Policy. He accepts media requests in all of these areas.
Education:
B.A., Stanford University (1998)M.A., Stanford University (2000)
J.D., Yale Law School (2005)
