A native of Woodbury, Minnesota, Anthony Sax has been active in the ISU Economics Club for four years, attending the monthly meetings and the club’s annual spring trips to the Berkshire Hathaway annual meetings in Omaha.
In October, 2015, he was part of a group of 20 ISU students who participated in a special question-and-answer session with business magnate and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett.
In addition to the Economics Club, Sax is involved in the Supply Chain Management Club (a resource management organization) and the Game Development Club, where members learn about the tools, techniques, and processes used in contemporary video game development.
Through his involvement with the Economics Club, he asked to work on an economics research project with club adviser Peter Orazem. In 2015, he began working with Orazem and MaryKatherine Koithan, a 2015 economics graduate, on his paper, “Do Differences in Marginal Tax Rates at State Borders Affect Residential and Job Location?”
With Orazem’s encouragement, he submitted the paper and was notified in January of the paper’s acceptance for presentation at the Midwest Economics Association meeting in April.
The data analyzed for the paper includes the effects of seven taxes (income tax, sales tax, capital gains tax, corporate tax, property tax, workers’ compensation, and unemployment insurance tax) on resident and employment location. The results show persistent and economically important differences, including lower employment growth, in counties with higher marginal tax rates relative to their neighbors across state borders.
Sax had a positive experience in Evanston. “The meeting was very good and interesting. I learned quite a bit and got to watch some very interesting presentations.”
After graduation this spring, Sax probably won’t have much time to reminisce about his time at Iowa State. He’ll be working in Logistics Management for General Mills in Buffalo, New York.