The incentive to locate a multinational firm: The effect of tax reforms in the United Kingdom

The advent of the single European market has focused attention on the structure of international tax incentives for the location of multinational business. Multinationals that channel foreign income through the United Kingdom have been likely to suffer double taxation in the form of surplus advance corporation tax when they subsequently distribute the income to a foreign parent. This paper shows that the 1993 U.K. tax reforms create a significant reduction in the tax cost of locating in the United Kingdom, relative to traditionally favorable tax regimes such as the Netherlands.     

理顺分配关系是构建和谐社会主义分配制度的关键

党的十六大报告明确指出:"理顺分配关系,事关广大群众的切身利益和积极性的发挥."我们要在党的十六大和十六届六中全会精神指引下,按照科学发展观要求,通过积极采取措施来理顺分配关系,如必须坚持以公有制为主体多种经济形式共同发展的方针、正确处理公平与效率的关系、强化税收对收入分配的调节力度、建立和完善社会保障制度等,这对于体现社会公平,维护市场经济次序,构建和谐社会主义分配制度,更好地完善社会主义市场经济体制,都具有重要的现实意义.     

On the (in)feasibility of covered interest parity as a solution to the forward bias puzzle

This paper examines Pippenger's (2011) proposed solution to the forward bias puzzle, which is based on the covered interest parity (CIP) condition. It is argued that the CIP-based approach does not solve this well known and long-standing puzzle in international finance in a meaningful way. Moreover, it is shown that empirical results from such an approach follow mechanically from the identity-like nature of the theory of covered interest parity, which, aside from small deviations due to transaction costs, is assumed to hold in all periods (as if it were an identity). We show that rather than leading to new insights, the simple reconfiguration of CIP to solve for the time t + 1 spot exchange rate leads to tautological expressions that, when estimated, might appear to successfully explain the forward bias, but in actuality are trivial. Results from simple simulation exercises further illustrate the inconclusiveness of the proposed solution method.     

Money Laundering as a Crime in the Financial Sector: A New Approach to Quantitative Assessment,with an Application to Italy

This study provides an answer to the question of how much cash deposited via a financial institution can be traced back to criminal activities, by developing a new approach to measure money laundering and proposing an application to Italy. We define a model of cash in‐flows on current accounts considering, besides “dirty money” to be laundered, also the legal motivations to deposit cash and the role of the shadow economy. We find that the average amount of cash laundered in Italy is around 6% of GDP. These findings are coherent with estimates of the nonobserved economy obtained in previous studies.