Yoram Keyes Bauman (born November 19, 1973) is an American

economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

and

stand-up comedian Stand-up comedy is a comedy, comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up. Stand-up comedy consists of One-line joke ...

History

Bauman grew up in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. He received an undergraduate degree in mathematics at Reed College in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. In 2003, Bauman attended graduate school at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, where he obtained a Ph.D. in Economics. Bauman is an environmental economist. He works as a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who pr ...

at the University of Washington, in the Program on the Environment, Bainbridge Graduate School, and Lakeside School. He is the co-author of the 1998 book ''Tax Shift'' which advocates switching taxation from income and property to resource consumption. Bauman bills himself as the "world's first and only stand-up economist." His video ''Principles of Economics, translated'' has more than 1 million views on YouTube.

Political activism

Bauman is a strong supporter of a carbon tax, in particular, a revenue-neutral carbon tax. He started an organization called CarbonWA which gathered signatures to put a revenue-neutral carbon tax on the ballot for the Washington elections, 2016. This initiative, known as

Washington Initiative 732 Washington Initiative 732 (I-732) was a ballot initiative in 2016 to levy a carbon tax in the State of Washington, and simultaneously reduce the state sales tax. It was rejected 59.3% to 40.7%. The measure appeared on the November 2016 ballot. ...

, would have imposed a steadily increasing tax on emissions of

carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide (chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is transpar ...

, and used the revenue to offset other taxes. Washington relies on a

sales tax A sales tax is a tax paid to a governing body for the sales of certain goods and services. Usually laws allow the seller to collect funds for the tax from the consumer at the point of purchase. When a tax on goods or services is paid to a govern ...

for much of its revenue, making its state tax code one of the most regressive tax codes in the nation. Had it passed, its supporters asserted that it would have decreased the sales tax, eliminated the business and occupation tax on manufacturing, and expanded the state's earned-income tax credit for low-income households.

Selected publications

*''The Cartoon Introduction to Economics, Volume 1: Microeconomics'' (with Grady Klein) *''The Cartoon Introduction to Economics, Volume 2: Macroeconomics'' (with Grady Klein) *''Stand-Up Economics: The Micro Textbook'' *''Tax Shift'' (with Alan Durning) *''The Cartoon Introduction to Climate Change'' (with Grady Klein) *''The Cartoon Introduction to Calculus'' (with Grady Klein)

References

External links

Yoram Bauman's website
1973 births Living people Economists from California Environmental economists American male comedians Reed College alumni University of Washington College of Arts and Sciences alumni People from San Francisco Comedians from California 21st-century American economists 21st-century American comedians {{US-economist-stub