Richard Musgrave Visiting Professorship 2021: Mihir A. Desai

The Richard Musgrave Visiting Professorship 2021 was awarded to Professor Mihir A. Desai by CESifo and the International Institute of Public Finance (IIPF). He is the Mizuho Financial Group Professor of Finance at Harvard Business School, and Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. He received his Ph.D. in political economy from Harvard University; his MBA as a Baker Scholar from Harvard Business School, and a bachelor’s degree in history and economics from Brown University. In 1994, he was a Fulbright Scholar to India.

Professor Desai’s areas of expertise include finance and tax policy. He is a Research Associate in the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Public Economics and Corporate Finance Programs, and served as the co-director of the NBER’s India program. His research has been published in leading academic journals and cited in the popular press and has served as the foundation to his several testimonies to the Senate Finance Committee and House Ways and Means Committee. His research has emphasized the design of taxation in open economy settings, the behavior of multinational firms and the links between corporate governance and taxation.

Professor Desai has taught extensively as an award-winning teacher at HBS and at Harvard University. He has taught finance and international finance at HBS, Tax Law and Tax Policy at HLS and Entrepreneurship to Harvard undergraduates. Professor Desai has also created an online finance course through the HBX platform titled Leading with Finance and is co-host of the After Hours podcast on the HBR network. His books include the Wisdom of Finance: Discovering Humanity in the World of Risk and Return (longlisted for the 2017 FT/McKinsey Best Business Book of the Year) and How Finance Works: The HBR Guide to Thinking Smart about the Numbers.

His professional experiences include working at CS First Boston, McKinsey & Co., and advising a number of firms and governmental organizations. He previously served as Chair of the Doctoral Programs at HBS and as Senior Associate Dean for Planning and University Affairs.

Mihir Desai gave the 13th CESifo and IIPF Richard Musgrave Lecture on Myths and Mysteries of the Corporate Income Tax, ONLINE on 24 March 2021. The laudation was delivered by the IIPF Vice President, Victoria J. Perry (Deputy Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF).

We are very grateful for the sponsorship by Hannover Re

Proceedings were livestreamed and a recording of the event may be found below.