Professor Alex Raskolnikov

Alex Raskolnikov

  • Wilbur H. Friedman Professor of Tax Law
Education

J.D., Yale Law School, 1998
B.S./M.S., Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology, 1988

Areas of Specialty

Federal Income Taxation
Taxation of Financial Instruments
Tax Policy
Economic Analysis of Deterrence, Risk, and Uncertainty
Social Policy

A respected tax expert, Alex Raskolnikov also is the faculty co-chair of the Charles Evans Gerber Transactional Studies Center at Columbia Law School. His research includes federal income taxation, taxation of financial instruments, tax policy, tax administration, and economic analysis of deterrence, risk, and uncertainty. Raskolnikov has testified before Congress on the tax treatment of financial products and has lectured on this and related subjects in Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Before joining the faculty in 2004, Raskolnikov was an associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell, where he specialized in the taxation of financial instruments and financial institutions. He has received the Law School’s Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching, an annual award that is voted upon by the graduating J.D. and LL.M. classes.

Raskolnikov is an affiliated member of Columbia’s Center for Law and Economic Studies, and he serves on the boards of the Richard Paul Richman Center for Business, Law, and Public Policy, the Tannenwald Foundation, and the Columbia Journal of Tax Law. He is also a member of the American Law and Economics Association, the National Tax Association, and the Tax Club.

Publications

Selected Publications

Honors and Awards

Willis L.M. Reese Prize for Excellence in Teaching

2010

Remarks and Testimony

  • “Taxation of Financial Products: Options for Fundamental Reform,” delivered to the Joint Hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means and the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance, December 6, 2011
  • “Tax Treatment of Derivatives,” delivered to the Hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means, Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures, March 5, 2008

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