Prepayments,late payments,and sales tax revenue volatility in Texas cities

Local governments with volatile revenues face a variety of managerial challenges. This study examines the impact of prepayments and late payments on sales tax revenue volatility (STRV). Prepayments and late payments have the potential of disrupting the predictability of sales tax revenue. Using a sample of 1,075 cities in Texas over a 15-year period (1998 to 2013), the study finds that late payments impact STRV while early payments do not.     

Intellectual property rights and foreign direct investment: A disaggregated analysis

This paper aims at overcoming several shortcomings of previous empirical studies on the relationship between IPR protection and FDI. First of all, we use sectorally disaggregated FDI data for a large sample of host countries. Second, we address the proposition that stronger IPR protection raises not only the quantity but also the quality of FDI. Third, we check to which extent the relationship between IPR protection and FDI is affected by applying alternative measures of IPR protection. Our empirical findings support the hypothesis that the threat of an unauthorized use of intellectual-property-related assets and, thus, FDI depends on industry as well as host-country characteristics. Furthermore, stronger IPR protection may help induce high-quality FDI. JEL no. F21, F23     

Compliance with International Food Safety Standards in Kenya's Green Bean Industry: Comparison of a Small- and a Large-scale Farm Producing for Export

European food safety standards have increased the fixed and transactions costs of Kenyan green bean farmers while requiring more stringent quality monitoring by exporting firms. This paired case study finds that large farms use owner equity to invest in improved facilities. Small farms attain scale economies by joining a marketing group that spreads facility investment costs and reduces the transaction cost to buyers of monitoring small farm performance. Green bean buyers meet the asymmetric information problem by close monitoring, the threat of contract termination, and variable product pricing to induce compliance with the standards.     

CHANGING BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS,INTERNATIONAL TRADE AND REGIONAL INTEGRATION: WHO NEEDS CAFTA?

Despite little progress in FTAA negotiations, other regional trade agreements are being considered by the US government. The recently signed CAFTA brings hope to smaller developing nations in Central America and it should offer new opportunities to US businesses. However, the new trade pact has not been free from controversy and criticism, and opposition to free trade has been stronger in the USA than in Latin America.     

THE WAGE–WAGE‐ . . . ‐WAGE–PROFIT RELATION IN A MULTISECTOR BARGAINING ECONOMY

The equalization of profit rates across industries subject to firm‐level bargaining over wages generates an interindustry wage structure with higher wages in capital‐intensive sectors. The familiar inverse wage–profit relation gives way to a wage–wage‐ . . . ‐wage–profit surface on which the profit rate can vary directly with the wage paid in an individual industry. Institutional changes that decrease workers' bargaining power and increase the incomes of the unemployed tend to compress the wage distribution; these changes draw political support from cross‐class coalitions of low‐wage workers and capital‐intensive firms. Some capital‐using, labor‐saving technical changes that raise capitalists' profits in current prices lower the equilibrium profit rate.     

Tourism industry reaction to climate change in Kgalagadi South District,Botswana

Climate change and adaptation have become major issues in contemporary tourism development and policy discussions, especially in southern Africa where the tourism industry is largely based on the natural environment and wildlife. Previous studies on tourism and climate change have mainly focused on the global north and snow-based winter tourism activities. This study aimed to fill the gap by examining tourism operators' perceptions of climate change in Kgalagadi South District, southwest Botswana, and looking at their adaptation strategies, if any. It was found that these operators were aware of the general impacts of climate change but most saw no impacts on the tourism industry and none recognised any impacts on their own operations. Most did, however, envisage challenges to future business growth and Botswana's tourism competitiveness. The perception that climate change did not currently have any impacts may explain why there were almost no adaptation strategies in place.     

STEADY‐STATE GROWTH AND DISTRIBUTION WITH AN ENDOGENOUS DIRECTION OF TECHNICAL CHANGE

A model of labor‐constrained accumulation and economically directed technical progress has a stable steady state at which the class distribution of income is invariant with respect to population and saving parameters yet sensitive to workers’ stances in wage bargaining and to the tax and transfer policies of a redistributive state.     

Eine Untersuchung der Gossenschen Gesetze

Ohne ZusammenfassungMit 3 TextabbildungenDer Verfasser wünscht, seinem in Band XXIII der Zeitschrift für Nationalökonomie veröffentlichten Aufsatz (Eine Untersuchung der Gossenschen Gesetze) einige ergänzende Bemerkungen anzufügen.