Bennett Smith-Worthington

We thank Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford Universities for research support. We are grateful to Chris Clayton, Georgy Egorov, Jim Fearon, Diana Van Patten and participants at the Barcelona School of Economics Summer Forum, the Cowles Foundation conference at Yale University, CIGS Conference on Macroeconomic Theory, European Central Bank, NBER Summer Institute, Princeton University, Stanford University, University of California Berkeley, and the Boston Fed, for helpful comments.

Talk of the young, newly powerful and outspoken congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has reached a climax with her recent announcement of advocacy for a 70 percent marginal tax rate. Since then, many outlets have published articles in support of her tax policies — Vox, the New York Times — all lauding the historical basis for her policy. Moreover, many cite the studies of economists such as Emmanuel Saez and Peter Diamond and Thomas Piketty to back up such a claim.