Major: Economics 
Houston Scholars Project: 
The Value-Added Tax in the 21st Century 
Advisor: Dr. Kei-Mu Yi

Jackson will spend the summer analyzing value-added taxes (VATs), specifically, the macroeconomics effects of VATs and how they have been adopted and restructured since 2000.  Value-added taxes are a mainstay of tax codes across the world outside of the United States, existing in 160 countries.  Like sales taxes, VATs are a consumption tax, but they are levied at each level of production.  A VAT system has yet to be adopted in the United States, but its proposal has been an occasional feature in the tax reform plans of presidential candidates. 

Jackson will update and expand on the compreshensive review of value-added taxes by Michael Keen and Ben Lockwood published in 2010.       

Future Direction:  Upon graduating, Zach intends to work as a process engineer or production engineer, ultimately obtaining his professional engineering license.