DETERMINANTS OF A FIRM'S ISO 14001 CERTIFICATION: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF TAIWAN

Abstract.   Only rarely have empirical studies analysed the responses of Taiwanese manufacturing firms to ISO 14001, despite firm responses to environmental issues being an important aspect of environmental management. This study empirically examines the determinants of firms' environmental self-governance. Export oriented Taiwanese firms, which face environmental concerns from foreign consumers, are found to be more likely than domestic focused firms to adopt ISO 14001. This study also finds that several firm attributes are decisive for firm adoption of ISO 14001. However, this study does not find any significant impact of local governors' political party affiliation on firms' ISO 14001 certifications.     

Fiscal decentralization and multinational firms’ ownership: evidence from China

China’s fiscal decentralization increases the incentive for local governments to maintain economic prosperity and improve institutional environments for multinational firms. This study investigates the impact of fiscal decentralization on the ownership shares of multinational firms in China. Multinational firms located in regions with higher degrees of fiscal decentralization are found to own larger shares of their foreign subsidiaries. This result is consistent under various robustness checks, including instrumental variables estimations. The finding suggests that multinational firms respond to local fiscal decentralization by increasing their participation in investment. This study therefore provides additional evidence for the beneficial effect of fiscal decentralization on China’s economic growth by highlighting the risk-mitigating role of fiscal decentralization.     

The Tax Effect on Taxable Income from Privately Held Businesses

The implications of the tax elasticity of taxable income have been widely discussed in the literature. This study uses the reported rate of return to capture the effects of tax changes on taxable income from privately held businesses. Households' decisions concerning reporting rates of return are embedded in a selection model of business investment decisions. With 1983-1989 Survey of Consumer Finances panel data, the tax elasticity of the reported rates of return on privately held businesses is found to be positive and large. The tax elasticity of taxable income from privately held businesses is thus crucial for policy evaluation. Several reasons for the high tax elasticity and the implications of it are also discussed.     

Corruption and cross-border investment by multinational firms

Motivated by previous studies on the effect of corruption on foreign direct investment, we examine the impact of a distance measure of corruption between host and source countries on cross-border direct investment and find that corruption distance deters cross-border investment. The evidence indicates that corruption distance is not as serious a deterrent of outward direct investment from more-corrupt countries as it is from less-corrupt countries. We conclude that multinational firms with the capacity to engage in bribery can disregard this activity in transparent environments, whereas multinational firms accustomed to operating in transparent environments find it difficult to overcome the administrative complexities in corrupt environments. Journal of Comparative Economics 34 (4) (2006) 839–856.     

Does charitable gambling crowd out charitable donations? Using matching to analyze a policy reform

The impact of charitable lotteries on charitable donations depends on the motives of charitable donations, and is thus more an empirical question. Utilizing the propensity score matching method to overcome sample selection bias, this study estimates the effect of lotto outlays on direct charitable donations based on Taiwan’s experience of introducing a lottery in 2002. We find that people’s lottery spending neither crowds out nor crowds in charitable donations after the control group for lottery players is matched by propensity scores. The evidence thus suggests that people are more concerned about how they make their donations.