Socio-demographics,political attitudes and informal sector employment: A cross-country analysis

In this paper, we empirically investigate the relationship between informal sector employment and micro-level socio-demographic characteristics, political acts and attitudes, and individual norms. Using self-reported individual micro-level data from the World Values Survey for seven developing countries (China, Ecuador, Egypt, Mexico, Peru, South Africa and Yemen), our cross-country regressions and principal component analysis reveal that socio-demographic characteristics of individuals are strong predictors of their informal sector employment. Our estimations further document that individual preferences for an economically strong, interventionist and egalitarian state and confidence in state and political institutions are positively and significantly correlated with informal sector employment, whereas variables associated with confidence in free market institutions and support for competition are negatively and significantly correlated with informal sector employment. We also show that individuals who participate either actively or inactively in peaceful and lawful political processes are significantly less likely to work in the informal sector. Finally, we document that individual norms, such as religiosity and tax morale, are negatively correlated with informal sector employment. Throughout our analysis, instead of having to rely on ad-hoc informality categorizations of third parties, we base our measurement of informal sector employment directly on the self-evaluation of individuals, who have the best information on the degree of their informality.     

Overconfidence and tax avoidance: The role of CEO and CFO interaction

We investigate how overconfident CEOs and CFOs may interact to influence firms’ tax avoidance. We adopt an equity measure to capture overconfident CEOs and CFOs and utilize multiple measures to identify companies’ tax-avoidance activities. We document that CFOs, as CEOs’ business partners, play an important role in facilitating and executing overconfident CEOs’ decisions in regard to tax avoidance. Specifically, we find that companies are more likely to engage in tax-avoidance activities when they have both overconfident CEOs and overconfident CFOs, compared with companies that have other combinations of CEO/CFO overconfidence (e.g., an overconfident CEO with a non-overconfident CFO), which is consistent with the False Consensus Effect Theory. Our study helps investors, regulators, and policymakers understand companies’ decision-making processes with regard to tax avoidance.     

浅谈我国个人所得税存在的问题及对策

从1994年税制改革以来，个人所得税对于促进对外经济技术交流与合作，缓解社会分配不公的矛盾，增加财政收入等都发挥了积极作用。但是随着形式的发展，也暴露出不少问题和矛盾。     

中国税收流失规模估测

无论地下经济还是公开经济都存在税收流失问题.本文采用一定的方法分别对我国1982-2002年间地下经济和公开经济的税收流失规模进行了估测.从税收流失的规模角度看,我国税收的汲取能力比较弱,蕴涵着很大的税收风险.减少税收流失应作为税制改革的重要目标.     

排污权交易的非现实性和征收污染环境税的必要性

从财政的角度上来说,改革排污收费制度呼声最高的方案有两个,一是开征污染环境税,二是进行排污权的交易。但是,笔者认为现在进行排污权的交易时机还不成熟,而及时开征污染环境税则是一个可行的方案。     

Politico-economic consequences of rising wage inequality

This paper uses a dynamic political economy model to evaluate whether the observed rise in wage inequality and decrease in median to mean wages can explain some portion of the relative increase in transfers to low earnings quintiles and relative increase in effective tax rates for high earnings quintiles in the U.S. over the past several decades. Specifically, we assume that households have uninsurable idiosyncratic labor efficiency shocks and consider policy choices by a median voter which are required to be consistent with a sequential equilibrium. We choose the transition matrix to match observed mobility in wages between 1978 and 1979 in the panel study of income dynamics (PSID) data set and then evaluate the response of social insurance policies to a new transition matrix that matches the observed mobility in wages between 1995 and 1996 and is consistent with the rise in wage inequality and the decrease in median to mean wages between 1979 and 1996. We deal with the problem that policy outcomes affect the evolution of the wealth distribution (and hence prices) by approximating the distribution by a small set of moments. We contrast these numbers with those from a sequential utilitarian mechanism, as well as mechanisms with commitment.     

涉外企业税务审计中的几个问题

《涉外税务审计规程》对涉外税务审计工作的顺利开展发挥了重要作用,但也存在一些问题。为此,根据新时期的新要求,要充分运用电算化审计技术,适当调整和补充底稿范本,合理选择审计程序,不断推进涉外企业税务审计工作的科学化、规范化和程序化。     

个人所得税扣除政策绩效的评价与测度

本文基于技术经济学项目评价指标的广泛适用性,对个人所得税扣除政策的成本与收益进行了评价与测度.这种探索有助于深化个人所得税制的研究.     

公允价值的引入对投资性房地产核算的税务影响

新会计准则对企业的税务影响主要是相对影响,着重表现在对企业所得税费用的影响,但也有绝对影响,即对应纳所得税额的影响。本文结合实例分析新会计准则在投资性房地产等业务处理上适度引入"公允价值"作为会计核算计量模式后的税务影响。     

中国社会保障税税制设计的探讨——基于企业增值税代替工资总额为税基的税制设计构想

对于中国社会保障税税制的设计，以企业增值税代替现行的工资总额为税基，把“增值税”作为社会统筹部分的社会保障税税基；在提出中国社会保障税设计应遵循的原则基础上，进行社会保险税税制要素设计的若干构想；最后，分析以“增值税”为税基可能出现的问题及其完善。