USING LEGISLATION TO REDUCE ONE‐TIME PLASTIC BAG USAGE

Plastic bag litter generates serious environmental concerns and poses a risk to wildlife. As this does not seem to be a problem which can be resolved by the private sector alone, or by ‘Coasean’ negotiation, legislation is proposed, particularly focusing on ‘one‐use’ bags. This article surveys legislation worldwide, while concentrating on lessons from the United States and the United Kingdom. The issues are more complex than is often assumed. While environmentalists argue for restriction and ultimate elimination of one‐use bags, manufacturers, especially those that have reformulated the composition of their bags, see legislation as an overreaction to a problem that is already being addressed within the industry. They cite evidence that, when used within a comprehensive recycling programme, plastic bags are not only cost‐effective but a sound use of our limited resources. Bans or restrictions can have knock‐on effects which can create new problems.     

Hard Times or Great Expectations? Dividend Omissions and Dividend Cuts by UK Firms*

This paper uncovers an increasing proportion of quoted UK companies omitting cash dividends. Using a large panel of quoted UK firms, we estimate panel data probit models for the incidence of dividend omissions and cuts as functions of financial characteristics including cash flow, leverage, investment opportunities, investment and company size. These variables account for most of the increase in omission since 1995. There is relatively little evidence to link this to the major tax reform of 1997 that abolished tax refunds on dividend income payable to tax‐exempt institutions. Significant persistence effects indicate companies are slow to adjust their balance sheets through their dividend.     

Estimating the effect of a gasoline tax on carbon emissions

Recently the proposal has been made to raise gasoline taxes in the United States to curb carbon emissions. The existing literature on the sensitivity of gasoline consumption to changes in price may not be appropriate for evaluating the effectiveness of such a tax. First, most of these studies fail to address the endogeneity of gasoline prices. Second, the responsiveness of gasoline consumption to a change in tax may differ from the responsiveness of consumption to an average change in price. We address these challenges using a variety of methods including traditional single‐equation regression models, estimated by least squares or instrumental variables methods, and structural vector autoregressions. Our preferred approach exploits the historical variation in US federal and state gasoline taxes. Our most credible estimates imply that a 10‐cent per gallon increase in the gasoline tax would reduce carbon emissions from vehicles in the United States by about 1.5%. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Managing Discretionary Accruals and Book‐Tax Differences in Anticipation of Tax Rate Increases: Evidence from China

This paper investigates how firms manage their earnings to trade off various incentives when tax rates increase. We hypothesize and find that firms generally choose to manage their taxable income upward in a book‐tax non‐conforming manner rather than in a book‐tax conforming manner before a tax rate increment, which in turn reduces the detection risk of aggressive financial reporting. These results suggest that firms give more weight to tax incentives and tax audit or regulatory inspection risks than to boosting financial reporting income in tax management. However, when firms have higher book management incentives or lower tunneling incentives (i.e., non‐state‐owned enterprises), we find that they manage their taxable income and book income upward together (i.e., in a book‐tax conforming manner), whereas their counterparts (i.e., state‐owned enterprises) do not. Overall, our paper contributes to the literature by demonstrating the interplay of tax, tunneling and financial reporting incentives in influencing tax management strategies. The findings from our paper should also help government and regulators understand more about firms’ reactions to tax rate increases.     

Web content mining for comparing corporate and third‐party online reporting: a case study on solid waste management

This study investigates the coverage of solid waste management on 1142 websites maintained by companies, news media and non‐governmental organizations to validate an automated approach to content and language analysis. First, a frequency analysis of waste management terms sheds light on the breadth and depth of their environmental discourses, revealing that corporate and media attention to waste management is small compared with that of non‐governmental organizations. Second, an investigation of their attitudes toward waste management suggests that companies avoid negative information in environmental communication, unlike news media or non‐governmental organizations. Ultimately, an automated tool for ontology building is employed to gain insights into companies' shared understanding of waste management. The ontology obtained indicates that companies conceptualize waste management as a business process rather than framing it from an ecological perspective, which is in line with findings from previous research. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Charitable Donations and the Estate Tax: A Tale of Two Hypotheses

Regression studies have suggested that reducing estate‐tax rates would lead to a net reduction in total charitable donations distributed at death. Not only is this notion counterintuitive, our empirical analysis yields the contrary conclusion: overall donations would increase. In rationalizing this donation‐decline outcome, investigators have pointed to the tax deductibility of donations in assessing estate‐tax liability. These efforts, we show, are dubious. The view that donations will decline is also shown to be inconsistent with axioms of generally accepted economic theory. Two distinct sets of indifference curves that imply these two antithetical views are suggested, their observable predictions derived and compared to the relevant evidence, showing that the increasing‐donation hypothesis is confirmed, offering overall a clear challenge to the decline‐in‐donation position. Our empirical results suggest that most estate‐tax payers possess indifference curves consistent with those that embody the increasing‐donation hypothesis.     

Tax‐avoidance strategies of American multinationals: an empirical analysis

This paper analyzes the opportunities of American multinationals to reallocate their profits into tax havens. In contrast to previous papers, a comprehensive look on the profit‐shifting process is undertaken by proposing three different tests. Multinationals in high‐tax countries have a lower equity ratio than affiliates in tax havens, indicating that income is shifted by extensively financing subsidiaries in high‐tax countries with debt. Furthermore, the share of retained earnings is lower in high‐tax countries owing to the unattractiveness of tax deferral. When testing for the outcomes of profit shifting, the results show that the pre‐tax profitability of American multinationals is higher in tax havens. This relationship is consistent with the opportunities of multinationals to shift income outside high‐tax jurisdictions. Finally, the paper shows that profit shifting largely takes place into tax havens, whereas other countries do not benefit from profit‐shifting activities. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

上海市税收增长与环境污染关系的实证研究:1985-2010

以1985年-2010年度上海市税收收入为税收增长指标,以工业固体废弃物产生量、工业废水排放量和工业废气排放量为环境污染指标,通过建立VAR模型,得出了上海税收增长与环境污染水平之间的长期均衡关系和动态影响机制。实证结果表明,上海税收增长依赖工业固体废弃物产生量和工业废气排放量的增加,并推动了工业固体废弃物产生量的增加,同时,税收增长与工业废水排放量之间存在良性互动。     

Barriers to the circular economy in European small and medium‐sized firms

The concept of the circular economy (CE) is currently gaining impetus as a way to move towards sustainable, low‐carbon, resource‐efficient, and competitive economies. However, despite the potential benefits of CE activities, their implementation remains relatively rare. We use a cross‐sectional survey of European small and medium‐sized firms (SMEs) to identify the main barriers firms face to promote the CE, focusing specifically on the following: those related to a lack of resources (human and financial) and capabilities (expertise) and those related to the regulatory framework (administrative procedures and the costs of meeting the regulations). Our results indicate that it is the complexity of administrative/legal procedures and the costs of meeting regulations/legal standards that constitute the most significant barriers, whereas the lack of human resources is also perceived to be an obstacle by firms engaged in CE activities. Those obstacles may be considered revealed barriers, and it is only when the firms become involved in these activities that they actually perceive them. Furthermore, when we consider the breadth of CE activities, administrative procedures and regulations once again emerge as the most significant obstacles. Finally, we stress the need to distinguish between different CE activities given that the perception of barriers differs substantially across these activities. Firms undertaking a disruptive innovation redesigning products and services to minimize the use of materials are more likely to perceive all barriers as important. However, firms implementing such activities as minimizing waste, replanning energy usage, and using renewable energy only perceive those obstacles related to administrative procedures and regulations.     

Voting over selfishly optimal nonlinear income tax schedules with a minimum-utility constraint

Pairwise majority voting over alternative nonlinear income tax schedules is considered when there is a continuum of individuals who differ in their labor productivities, which is private information, but share the same quasilinear-in-consumption preferences for labor and consumption. Voting is restricted to those schedules that are selfishly optimal for some individual. The analysis extends that of Brett and Weymark (2016) by adding a minimum-utility constraint to their incentive-compatibility and government budget constraints. It also extends the analysis of Röell (2012) and Bohn and Stuart (2013) by providing a complete characterization of the selfishly optimal tax schedules. It is shown that individuals have single-peaked preferences over the set of selfishly optimal tax schedules, and so the schedule proposed by the median skill type is a Condorcet winner.     

塑料供应链一体化管理新方案

进入21世纪之后,我国的塑料消费早已超过欧洲成为最大的塑料生产基地和消费基地,而临沂又是我国塑料主要贸易区域中产业规模最大,用量最多,流通最为集中的地区。塑料行业在临沂发展已有三十年,早已经形成了与之配套的产业群,现已成为临沂批发市场的支柱行业。同时,在物流服务平台化的新趋势下,传统的塑料供应链管理上也有存在传统流通和物流环节的种种弊端。针对出现的一些弊端问题,文中仅以山东华派克物流有限公司为例,浅析在临沂市场上,华派克物流结合自身的优势与经验进行了一系列的整合,建立起一套先进的解决塑料供应链的管理方案。     

Learning strategic cooperative behavior in industrial symbiosis: A game‐theoretic approach integrated with agent‐based simulation

This paper investigates the negotiation phase of industrial symbiosis relationships, where companies exchanging wastes for inputs need to develop strategies on how to share the additional costs to operate the industrial symbiosis business. The business behavior is approached as a “coopetition” problem where companies need to cooperate to reduce waste discharge costs and traditional input purchase costs and dive into competition to pay a minimum share of additional costs (i.e., waste treatment, waste transportation, and transaction costs) of operating industrial symbiosis. A noncooperative game‐theoretical model for sharing the additional costs is proposed that highlights the two strategies that companies can adopt aimed at sharing costs: a fair strategy and an opportunistic strategy. Then, an agent‐based model is used to simulate the game iterated over time and investigate how the players can adapt their strategies according to their past experience. Simulation results show that players learn that playing the fair strategy is beneficial in the long period, despite in the short period they can gain more benefit by playing the opportunistic strategy. Findings of the paper are critically important to reduce the business and managerial barriers against the formation of industrial symbiosis networks and to stimulate innovative thinking of company managers to foster the development of the circular economy. The paper proposes theoretical, managerial, and policy implications, which are discussed in detail in a comparative manner between linear and circular economy.     

Neighborhood Revitalization and New Life: A Land Value Taxation Approach

When a neighborhood declines, the poor get poorer, crime rises, and those who can leave the area. The tax base shrinks, so the rates paid by those least able to pay increase. The prevailing system of a low tax on land values leads to land speculation and private land banking, assuring that the landowner can hold out for a very high price for a very long time. A higher tax on land values (coupled with reduction in building taxes) creates an incentive to sell that land or do something with it rather than waiting. In cities that use land‐value taxes, real‐estate markets start to work again and neighborhoods recover. Clairton, Pennsylvania's adoption of a land‐value‐taxation system demonstrates the neighborhood revitalization to which it leads, as owner‐occupied residences and multi‐family units saw a relief in their tax burden. In contrast, vacant properties' contribution to the city budget tripled, providing the resources to pay for the education of Clairton's children and liberate working and middle‐class families from the bonds of labor and capital taxation.     

FDI AND TAXATION: A META‐STUDY

Abstract In this paper we extend former meta‐analyses on FDI and taxation in three ways. First, we add 16 recent publications. Second, we code additional meta‐regressor variables addressing important issues in research on FDI and taxation. Third, we refer to the sophisticated meta‐analytical methodology and present a coherent strategy to choose the meta‐regression estimator most suitable for the meta‐data at hand. As compared to prior surveys, the meta‐analysis is thus based on a much broader methodological basis and a considerably richer meta‐data set. The median tax semi‐elasticity of FDI based on 704 primary estimates is 2.49 in absolute terms. The precision weighted average of the full sample of semi‐elasticities is 2.55, again in absolute terms. Moreover, our meta‐analysis shows that there is a publication bias in the primary literature. Meta‐regressions show that studies based on aggregate data report systematically larger semi‐elasticities than firm‐level analyses, that integrating bilateral tax regulations into effective tax rates leads to more effective measurement of adverse tax incentives on foreign investment, and that tax effects are not compensated by public spending.     

借鉴国际经验完善我国促进循环经济发展的税收政策

循环经济是可持续发展的新兴经济增长模式,为了促进循环经济的发展,西方各国纷纷采用不同税收手段,如荷兰、丹麦、瑞典等国纷纷开征名目众多的环境税;美国联邦和地方政府分别开征不同的环境税;日本也在各不同环节开征环境税,与此同时,各国纷纷采用包括加速折旧、税收减免、税收抵免等税收优惠政策鼓励循环经济的发展,不断"绿化"本国税制。在借鉴这些经验的基础上,我国应完善立法、改革现行税制,开征新的税种,促进循环经济的发展。     

Political Economy of Property Tax Reform: Hawaii's Experiment with Split‐Rate Property Taxation

Economic theory suggests that switching from a general property tax to a split‐rate tax increases land use efficiency and stimulates urban core development while preserving the environment and reducing urban sprawl. Under split‐rate property taxation, land is typically taxed at a significantly higher rate than improvements. Beginning in 1965 Hawaii experimented with a statewide split‐rate property tax system to encourage economic growth and effect land reform. The experiment was ended in 1977. Following the transfer of property taxing powers to the counties in 1978, some counties brought back the split‐rate property tax at times. Since 2006, Kauai County has adopted the unusual practice of taxing improvements at a higher rate than land for most property classes. This article chronicles and explains the rationale behind Hawaii's state and county experiments with split‐rate property taxation.     

浅谈消费税在促进低碳经济中的作用

消费税制度作为一种制度安排,在促进低碳经济发展方面发挥着重要的作用。现行消费税在促进低碳经济发展方面仍存在着不足。通过改进和调整,消费税对于促进低碳经济发展将发挥更加积极的作用。     

It is not a flat world after all: Tax repatriation costs and cash value

US corporations have accumulated record‐high amounts of cash, and most of it is trapped in foreign accounts. This study tests the hypothesis that the marginal value of cash decreases in the presence of tax repatriation costs, as these costs are a strong indication that part of the cash is trapped abroad. Cash abroad is not readily available to the company because it is subject to an additional layer of tax before it can be used or distributed. Moreover, uncertainty surrounds the potential use of foreign cash, and research documents that firms holding high amounts of cash abroad are likely to invest in negative net present value activities. Finally, possible changes in tax regulation are an additional source of uncertainty. Consequently, foreign cash should be worth less than domestic cash. Using a large sample of US firms drawn from COMPUSTAT during the 1991–2012 period, the analysis suggests that shareholders value an extra dollar of cash at $1.086. However, this result changes dramatically when the change in cash is interacted with the tax cost of repatriating the earnings. That is, the marginal value of cash decreases significantly in the presence of tax repatriation costs, and shareholders discount cash when it is likely to be held abroad. This study contributes to the literature on cash holding by investigating whether tax repatriation costs affect the value of corporate cash. Moreover, the findings show that there are important economic consequences linked to the phenomenon of cash accumulation in foreign countries and therefore provide regulators with a sound foundation on which to take additional actions to require more disclosure of and transparency in the actual location of firms’ cash holdings.     

Lowering the Marginal Corporate Tax Rate: Why the Debate?

In an effort to attract new investors and retain existing producers, governments use corporate tax rates as a policy tool for industrial recruitment, resulting in inter‐state tax competition. Foreign direct investment (FDI) growth and GDP growth are the two policy outcomes gauged in inter‐state tax competition. The assumption is that lower corporate taxes lead to increases in FDI, which results in capital formation that generates GDP growth. This 60‐nation panel study tests that assumption through examining economic indicators contingent on taxation, such as FDI and mergers and acquisitions among multinational corporations between 1999 and 2009. The results suggest that reduced corporate tax rates can increase FDI but decrease annual GDP growth. The main policy implication is that tax competition may attract investment, but may not promote overall economic growth, offering support for value‐extraction theories.     

How to innovate business models for a circular bio-economy?

Shifting from a linear to a circular bio-economy requires new business models. The objective was getting insights into the uncharted research field of business model innovation for a circular and sustainable bio-economy within the agrifood sector. Eight European cases valorising agricultural waste and by-products by closing loops or cascading were studied regarding their innovation drivers and elements, via interviews, on-site visits and secondary data. In this domain, the findings highlight that business model innovations are depending on the (i) macro-environmental institutional-legal conditions and market trends, (ii) driven by internal economic, environmental and/or social objectives, but especially strongly linked to (iii) other actors often from different sectors seeking synergies and (iv) value co-creation via combined organisational and technological innovations. Business models for a circular bio-economy thus depend on various action levels and need radical combined organisational and technological innovations for a most efficient usage of agricultural waste and by-products. This also means new business configurations instead of linear innovation strategies currently still being dominant due to economic viability.