Neil H. Buchanan

Neil H. Buchanan, B.A. (Vassar College), A.M. in Economics (Harvard), Ph.D. in Economics (Harvard), J.D. (University of Michigan), Ph.D. in Laws (Monash), is an economist and legal scholar. He is the James J. Freeland Eminent Chair in Taxation and Professor of Law emeritus. He has taught economics at Harvard, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Michigan, and elsewhere; and he has taught law at The George Washington University, New York University, and Rutgers University. He is an internationally recognized scholar who speaks frequently at universities around the world and has published widely in both academic journals and major newspapers and magazines. His core areas of research are tax policy, intergenerational justice, retirement security, critical perspectives on economics as applied to law, and the future of democracy in the US and the world. In 2024-25, he is a visiting professor at the University of Toronto, and in October 2024, he will be the Sutherland Fellow at University College Dublin (Ireland).

Education

M.A., Ph.D., Harvard University, Economics
Ph.D, Monash University, Laws
J.D., University of Michigan
B.A., Vassar College, Economics

Expertise

Debt Ceiling, Deficits and National Debt, Democracy and the Rule of Law, Distributive Justice, Limits of Economic Analysis, Social Security, Tax Policy

Teaching & Scholarship

Intergenerational Justice
Interaction of Economic Issues and Constitutional Law
Social Security
Federal Deficits and Debt

Publications

Legal and Economic Commentary

• Justia’s Verdict. Regular Contributor, July 2011 – present, https://verdict.justia.com/author/buchanan.
• Dorf on Law, Regular Contributor, November 2006-Present, http://www.dorfonlaw.org.

Books

• The Debt Ceiling Disasters: How the Republicans Created an Unnecessary Constitutional Crisis and How the Democrats Can Fight Back (2013).

Articles and Chapters in Books

• Feminism, Theocracy, and Righteous Anger: Sherry Colb Unbound, 110 Cornell L. Rev. ___ (2024)
• Disability Benefits and Administrative Vulnerability: Lessons for Canada from the US’s Social Security System, 61 Osgoode Hall Law Journal __ (2024)
• Justice Delayed: Government Officials’ Authority to Wind Down Constitutional Violations, 103 Boston U. L. Rev. 2065 (2023) (with Michael C. Dorf)
• A Tale of Two Formalisms: How Law and Economics Mirrors Originalism and Textualism, 106 Cornell L. Rev. 591 (2021) (with Michael C. Dorf).
• Sustainable Tax Policy Through the Lens of Intergenerational Justice, 23 Fla. Tax Rev. 499 (2020).
• White Privilege: What It Is, What It Is Not, and How It Shapes American Discussions of Policing and Historical Iconography, 31 U. Fla. J. L. & Pub. Pol’y 99 (2020).
• Social Security Is Fair to All Generations: Demystifying the Trust Fund, Solvency, and the Promise to Younger Americans, 27 Cornell J. L. & Pub. Pol’y 237 (2017).
• Situational Ethics and Veganism, Boston U. L. Rev. Annex (Mar. 26, 2017), www.bu.edu/bulawreview/buchanan/.
• (With Michael C. Dorf.)  Don’t End or Audit the Fed: Central Bank Independence in an Age of Austerity, 102 Cornell L. Rev. 1 (2016).
• An Odd Remedy that Does Not Solve the Supposed Problem: Commentary on Comptroller of the Treasury of Maryland v. Wynne et ux., Geo. Wash. L. Rev. On the Docket (May 23, 2015), http://www.gwlr.org/comptroller-of-the-treasury-of-maryland-v-wynne/.
• (With Dorf, Michael C.) Borrowing by Any Other Name: Why Presidential ‘Spending Cuts’ Would Still Exceed the Debt Ceiling, 114 Colum.L. Rev. Sidebar 44 (Mar. 11, 2014), http://columbialawreview.org/content/borrowing-by-any-other-name-why-presidential-spending-cuts-would-still-exceed-the-debt-ceiling/.
• Owaru Kotono Nai Saimu Jogen No Kiki (The Never-Ending Debt Ceiling Crisis), Sozei Kenkyu (Tax Studies), April 2014.
• (With Dorf, Michael C.) Bargaining in the Shadow of the Debt Ceiling: When Negotiating Over Spending and Tax Laws, Congress and the President Should Consider the Debt Ceiling a Dead letter, 113 Colum. L. Rev. Sidebar 32 (Mar. 5, 2013),  http://columbialawreview.org/content/bargaining-in-the-shadow-of-the-debt-ceiling-when-negotiating-over-spending-and-tax-laws-congress-and-the-president-should-consider-the-debt-ceiling-a-dead-letter/.
• The Role of Economics in Tax Scholarship, in Beyond Economic Efficiency in United States Tax Law 11 (David A. Brennen, Karen B. Brown and Darryll K. Jones eds., 2013).
• (With Dorf, Michael C.) How to Choose the Least Unconstitutional Option: Lessons for the President (and Others) from the Debt Ceiling Standoff, 112 Colum. L. Rev. 1175 (2012).
• (With Dorf, Michael C.) Nullifying the Debt Ceiling Threat Once and For All: Why the President Should Embrace the Least Unconstitutional Option, 112 Colum. L. Rev. Sidebar 237 (Dec. 21, 2012), https://scholarship.law.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2017&context=facpub.
• Why We Should Never Pay Down the National Debt, 50 U. Louisville L. Rev. 683 (2012).
• Good Deficits: Protecting the Public Interest from Deficit Hysteria, 31 Va. Tax Rev. 75 (2011).
• What Kind of Environment Do We Owe Future Generations?, 15 Lewis & Clark L. Rev. 339 (2011).
• Medicare Meets Mephistopheles: Health Care, Government Spending, and Economic Prosperity,” 29 Miss. C. L. Rev. 319 (2010).
• Four Out of Four Panelists Agree: U.S. Fiscal Policy Does Not Cheat Future Generations, 77 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1402 (2009).
• ‘Generational Theft’? U.S. Fiscal Policy Does Not Cheat Future Generations, 52 Challenge: The Magazine of Economic Affairs 44 (Sept.-Oct. 2009).
• What Do We Owe Future Generations?, 77 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1237 (2009).
• How Realistic Is the Supply/Demand Equilibrium Story: A Simple Demonstration of False Trading and Its Implications for Market Equilibrium, 31 J. Socio-Econ. 400 (2008).
• Social Security and Government Deficits: When Should We Worry?, 92 Cornell L. Rev. 257 (2007).
• Is It Sometimes Good to Run Budget Deficits? If So, Should We Admit It Out Loud?, 26 Va. Tax Rev. 325 (2006).
• The Case Against Income Averaging, 25 Va. Tax Rev. 1151 (2006).
• The JEC’s Estate Tax Report: Myths and Legends, 111 Tax Notes 1133 (June 5, 2006).
• Playing with Fire: Feminist Legal Theorists and the Tools of Economics, in Feminism Confronts Homo Economicus: Gender, Law, and Society 61 (Martha Fineman & Terence Dougherty eds., 2005).
• Social Security, Generational Justice, and Long-Term Deficits, 58 Tax L. Rev. 275 (2005).
• The Uses of the Concept of Efficiency in Tax Analysis, in Proceedings National Tax Association, Tax Institute of America 441.
• A User’s Guide to Proposals to Replace the U.S. Tax System and Strangle Fiscal Policy.” 31 J. Econ. Issues 505 (1999).
• Taxes, Saving, and Macroeconomics,  31 J. Econ. Issues 59 (1999).
• Comparing Alternative Methods of Adjusting U.S. Federal Fiscal Deficits for Cyclical and Price Effects.