EVALUATING IMPACT EFFECTS OF TAX REFORMS

Abstract. This survey paper provides coverage of the inputs from the theory side which go into the empirical analysis of impact effects of tax reforms. Inequality, social welfare, progressivity and horizontal inequity effects are considered. The value judgements inherent in selecting the target group for analysis, specifying welfare through household utility, equivalizing incomes and otherwise incorporating differences in household needs into utilitarian analysis, are all explained. The evaluation procedures described include dominance checks and index comparisons. The inequality and social welfare tests are also applicable to other comparisons of income distribution. Standard computer software to sort, cumulate and compute covariances is all that is required to undertake the necessary computations using microdata.     

Searching for the best price: An experimental look at consumer search effort

Certain factors may influence the extent to which consumers are willing to expend effort bargaining with retailers in order to gain additional pre-purchase information. One factor could be the consumer's favorable or unfavorable orientation toward the bargaining process itself. Another factor could be consumer expectation as to whether bargaining is permitted by retailers. A third factor might be whether a consumer's actual participation in bargaining encourages, or discourages, additional search activity. This research reports the results of a shopping simulation experiment which suggests that greater search effort is associated with individuals who are favorably predisposed toward retail bargaining and/or expect bargaining to be appropriate in a given situation.     

Ultrafiltration in the Ontario Dairy Industry

The economics of introducing ultrafiltration (UF) into the Ontario dairy industry is analyzed. First, a partial budget is developed to determine feasibility of UF on the farm. The budget indicates that the great majority of Ontario dairy farms are not large enough to capture the economies of size inherent in the new technology. Second, a location-allocation model is used to determine the feasibility, number and location of UF collection centers in Ontario. The model indicates that the UF centers would capture the economies of size and the centers would benefit the dairy industry as a whole. However, processors of soft products and consumers of hard products could be worse off because of market changes caused by the UF centers Les auteurs examinent les aspects économiques de l'adoption de l'ultrafiltration (UF) dans l'industrie laitière en Ontario. En premier lieu, un budget partiel est établi pour déterminer la faisabilité de l'UF à la ferme. Il appert que la grande majorité des fermes laitières de la province ne sont pas assez grandes pour tirer parti des économies d'échelle inhérentes à la nouvelle technologie. Dans une deuxième érape, un modèle d'implantation est utilisé pour examiner l'emplacement et le nombre éventuels des centres de collecte pour UF en Ontario, ainsi que la faisabilité économique de leur installation. Le modèle montre que les centres de collecte seraient en mesure de tirer avantage des économies d'échelle et qu'en plus ils profiteraient à l'industrie laitière toute entière. Toutefois, les transformateurs de produits frais (fromage cottage, crème glacée, yogourt) et les consommateurs de produits fermes (fromages à pâte ferme, poudre de lait) se trouveraient désavantagés par les bouleversements du marché causés par l'implantation des centres UF     

Evaluation of students’ satisfaction with three all-you-can-eat university dining facilities

With the growing number of dining options, both on and off campus, university dining facilities need to assess their ability to meet the needs of the student population, considering the competitive alternate dining options. The purposes of this study were to (1) measure university students’ satisfaction with, and importance of, nine key attributes of three unique, all-you-can-eat, university dining facilities and (2) compare and contrast students’ ratings of attributes among the three dining facilities. A one-way ANOVA determined that participants at Dinning Facility 1 rated 8 of 9 attributes significantly higher on satisfaction compared to Dining Facilities 2 and 3. Attributes with highest satisfaction were cleanliness, atmosphere/environment, and image/reputation. Attributes with lowest satisfaction were menu variety, food quality, and healthy options. These results can guide dining facilities in efforts to improve customer satisfaction.     

Bank performance and executive compensation: a managerial discretion perspective

This study investigates how the relationship between bank performance and executive compensation is affected by the degree of an executive’s managerial discretion. Managerial discretion is captured by two industry-specific attributes: a bank’s strategic domain, and its regulatory environment. Executive compensation is found to be more related to bank performance in a context of high managerial discretion than in a context of low managerial discretion. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Base independence in the analysis of tax policy effects: with an application to Norway 1992–2004

The analysis contrasts results of two recently expounded microlevel data approaches to derive robust intertemporal characterizations of redistributional effects of income tax schedules; the fixed-income procedure of Kasten et al. (Tax progressivity and Income Inequality, Cambridge University Press, 1994) and the transplant-and-compare method of Dardanoni and Lambert (J. Public Econ. 86:99–122, 2002). Our study is normative in that the Blackorby and Donaldson (Can. J. Econ. 17:683–694, 1984) index of tax progressivity is employed. This enables contributions from vertical redistribution and horizontal inequity also to be assessed, using for the latter one classical measure and one no reranking measure. When the competing methodologies are applied to Norwegian data for 1992–2004, their respective strengths and weaknesses are revealed. The transplant-and-compare procedure is found to have a number of advantages.      

A supply chain management framework for services

While services represent the largest sector of the global economy, 86.8% in the United States, most supply chain management (SCM) research is focused on product flows. Executives in manufacturing firms have benefited from frameworks created to implement SCM processes, but this is not the case for their counterparts in service companies. The two most cited SCM frameworks for services have methodological and conceptual deficiencies. Drawing upon the service-dominant logic of marketing and using an empirical research approach, we developed supply chain structure maps for nine service firms. Our findings indicate that the supply chain structure maps of service companies are comparable to those in the product-based literature, which supports the service-dominant logic. Then, we identified the six key processes that constitute a framework to manage service supply chains. The customer relationship management and the supplier relationship management processes form the critical links in the supply chain, and the other four processes are coordinated through this linkage. The SCM framework for services provides direction for executives in service firms who need to increase cross-functional integration within their firms and with other members of the supply chain. For academics, 12 avenues for future research are identified.