PhD student Nick Allen has helped mainstream new tax-reform concepts for policymakers, while working to enhance MIT grad-school life.
Peter Dizikes | MIT News
Publication Date: August 20, 2025
While working to boost economic development in Detroit in the late 2010s, Nick Allen found he was running up against a problem.
The city was trying to spur more investment after long-term industrial flight to suburbs and other states. Relying more heavily on property taxes for revenue, the city was negotiating individualized tax deals with prospective businesses. That’s hardly a scenario unique to Detroit, but such deals involved lengthy approval processes that slowed investment decisions and made smaller projects seem unrealistic.
See the rest of the article in MIT News: https://news.mit.edu/2025/impactful-graduate-work-big-cities-campus-nick-allen-0820