How elastic are national corporate income tax bases in OECD countries? The role of domestic and foreign tax rates

Abstract To what extent do reductions in corporate income tax (CIT) rates attract foreign tax bases? What are the revenue implications of a unilateral tax reduction when tax bases are internationally mobile? These questions are explored using annual data from 17 OECD countries spanning the period 1982 to 2005. Controlling for fixed country effects, year effects, and country time trends, and subjecting our results to an extensive robustness analysis, we find (i) a country’s aggregate reported corporate profits are negatively and significantly affected by CIT rate reductions in neighbouring countries; (ii) a unilateral reduction in the domestic CIT rate results in lower domestic CIT revenues.     

A cross-national study of corporate governance and employment contracts

Corporate governance (CG) can be seen to operate through a 'double agency' relationship: one between the shareholders and corporate management, and another between the corporate management and the firm's employees. The CG and labour management of firms are closely related. A particularly productive way to study how CG affects and is affected by the employment relationship has been to compare CG across countries. The contributions of this paper to that literature are threefold. (1) An integration of aspects of the labour management literature in the CG debate. (2) Based on a sample of about 1000 firms from 31 countries, we find evidence of complementarities between the CG and the labour management of firms. Extreme cases, in general, outperform mixed cases. (3) Firm differences within countries are more important than scholars have assumed so far. We present the results of the study and implications for future research and for practice.     

Capital Cities in the New EU States—Economic Status Quo and Current Trends

In the course of the economic catching-up process of the new EU states, the capital cities of the countries in central and eastern Europe were the economically most successful regions in their countries. How distinct are economic disparities between the capitals and the rest of the countries today? What were the determinants of the related economic developments? And do current economic trends support the leading position of the capital cities in the new member states?      

Factors Influencing Corporate Environmental Disclosure

In this paper, we have studied the factors that influence the environmental disclosures of Italian listed companies. We also aimed to verify the effects produced by the introduction of specific legislation (albeit of a voluntary nature) on environmental disclosures. The analysis has the advantage of including all of the informational documents produced by the company. The analysis shows an (excessively) low level of disclosure of environmental information by the companies examined. The econometric analysis then shows, contrary to our hypothesis and the results of previous analyses carried out in other countries, a negative and statistically significant relationship between environmental disclosures, the presences of minority shareholders and large auditors and the listing of the company, including in foreign markets. We lastly observed that the introduction of ad hoc legislation as purely voluntary only affects the contents of quantitative environmental disclosures, which are unsuitable for a highly industrialized developed country. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Getting fourteen for the price of one! Understanding the factors that influence land value and how they affect biodiversity conservation in central Brazil

Biodiversity policies are suffering an implementation crisis; the roots are deeply entrenched in the unfair competition between the public and private interests for suitable versus available land. In this article we propose a value-based equivalence method for compensation for the 20% compulsory reserves in the Taquari River sub-catchments, as legally required for central savannas of Brazil. Using regression techniques we analyzed 106 land deals in the Pantanal's watershed and identified the most significant variables influencing land value. We argue that the commonly used area-for-area, compensation mechanism, where 1 ha of compulsory reserve is missing, requires another hectare protected in the same catchments, instead of counteract habitat loss, is in fact harmful to biodiversity, stimulating progressive habitat destruction. We identified the economic forces behind deforestation and habitat fragmentation in the central savannahs of Brazil and proposed a market-based approach to counteract these forces using tools already available in environmental economics. We suggest that a dollar-for-dollar reference to determine land equivalence and compensation can better counter-balance the incremental losses from habitat destruction, while providing objectivity and transparency for trading alternatives.     

Kosten aufgrund von DRG-Upcoding durch die Einführung der Diagnosis Related Groups in Deutschland

Heilberufe - Der Ausgabenanstieg im stationären Sektor des deutschen Gesundheitswesens wurde durch die Einführung der DRG-basierten Vergütung nicht aufgehalten. Diese...     

Strukturwandel im deutschen Verarbeitenden Gewerbe

Auch wenn die Globalisierung gegenw?rtig aufgrund der Wirtschafts- und Finanzkrise an Dynamik verloren hat, wird sie die weltweite wirtschaftliche Entwicklung zukünftig weiterhin ma?geblich pr?gen. Mittel- bis langfristig wird die Internationalisierung der Wirtschaftsbeziehungen über den Handel und den Kapitalverkehr weiter voranschreiten und die Nachfrage nach Produkten des Verarbeitenden Gewerbes weltweit wieder expandieren. Hiervon k?nnen Industriestandorte in Deutschland profitieren, wenn ihnen der Strukturwandel gelingt. Dieser wird getragen von dem zunehmenden Gewicht forschungs- und wissensintensiver Branchen sowie von technologischen Ver?nderungen.     

Controversies over fair value accounting： The case of SMEs

This study analyses IASB＇s stipulations on fair value usage in its standard designed for SMEs and the reactions of national standard setters, preparers and users of financial reporting in this respect. It tries to clarify fair value applications such as market value and value in use and the appropriateness of their usage for the case on hand. This research determines the inconsistencies within IASB ED IFRSfor SMEs （2007） related to the usage of fair value, underlined by the respondents＇ comment letters. The content analysis of all the above, conducted according to the type of economy and nature of respondent, along with the statistical techniques applied, indicates a partial approval of fair value usage under the following conditions： clarification of the concept, details on its usage in relation to market liquidity and the nature of the asset, additional guidance regarding the measurement methods. We advocate for the value in use, an application of the fair value based on internal valuations, which offers an adequate cost-benefit rate. The final version ofIFRSfor SMEs highlights both the preference of market information over the internal valuations and the insufficient information regarding solutions suited for non-liquid markets. It may be appropriate for the IASB, maybe in collaboration with the IVSC, to provide guidance and details regarding the implementation and disclosure of the valuation techniques applicable to this type of entities.     

Measures of the Amending Power of Government and Parliament. The Case of Italy 1988–2002

On the basis of a unique data set consisting of all the amendments to the Italian financial laws from 1988 to 2002, we empirically test whether and how the amending power is an instrument of the parliament or of the government and whether the use of this power was modified by the change of the electoral system in 1994. We show that, in both electoral systems, governments controlled the agenda and parliaments never exploited this power to increase the deficits beyond the planned value. The structural break of the Italian budgetary policy was determined by the Maastricht fiscal rules.     

The financing of small entrepreneurs in Italy

This paper focuses on the financing of very small entrepreneurs in Italy by using data in the Survey of Household Income and Wealth. In the period 1989–2006 only a little more than one fourth of these micro-firms used bank loans for business purposes. Supply factors may have played a role in explaining this low usage of bank loans. In this paper I look at what happens after the deregulation and innovation that started in the Italian credit market during the 1990s. Financial constraints appear to have partly lessened in the current decade. Specifically, the North/South divide is fading a little: the negative direct effect on the probability of having a bank loan for a firm located in a Southern region is less strong. However, business location still plays an important role in the process of credit allocation, though indirectly through a greater sensitivity to proxies of internal finance for small entrepreneurs located in regions that are less financially developed.