A model for risky cash flows and tax shields

We extend the WACC and APV frameworks by incorporating risky cash flows and the potential loss of tax shields. A closed-form solution is derived for the expected effective tax shields. Our model explains the under-leverage puzzle, and provides better estimates for the required equity return through the improved WACC and APV formulae. It offers four empirically testable predictions.     

Voluntary contributions and local public goods in a federation

This paper considers nonneutral effects of government spending in a federation of multiple jurisdictions. Both government spending and private donations finance local public goods, redistributive programs, that provide transfers for the poor. In the standard model, government spending has no effect on the public goods, as donors reduce their donations one for one in response to an increase in government spending. In a federation, donors of a jurisdiction donate, through federal charities, to help the poor in the jurisdiction and the poor in other jurisdictions as well. Jurisdictions are thus linked through donations. Such linkage influences donors' behavior beyond the traditional crowding-out effect. As a result, government spending has nonneutral effects on the level of public goods.     

On the optimal design of disaster insurance in a federation

Recent experience with disasters and terrorist attacks in the US indicates that state and local governments rely on the federal sector for support after disasters occur. But these same governments invest in infrastructure designed to reduce vulnerability to natural and man-made hazards. We show that when the federal government is committed to full insurance against disasters, regions will have incentives to under-invest in ex-ante protective measures. We derive the structure of the optimal second-best insurance system when regional governments choose investment levels non-cooperatively and the central government cannot verify regional investment choices. For low probability disasters this will result in lower ex-post intergovernmental transfers (and hence less ex-post redistribution) and greater ex-ante investment. However, the second-best transfer scheme suffers from a time-inconsistency problem. Ex-post, the central government will be driven towards full insurance rather than the second-best grants, which results in a type of soft budget constraint problem. Sub-national governments will anticipate this and reduce their investment in protective infrastructure even further. The result is that the central government may be better off suffering the underinvestment that results with first-best transfers because investment is even lower under second-best transfers when the central government is unable to commit.     

The future international tax environment and European tax harmonization: a personal view

This study examines whether the decision to voluntarily (i.e. without a statutory obligation) employ two audit firms to conduct a joint audit is related to audit quality. We use separate samples and empirical designs for public and privately held companies in Sweden, where a sufficient number of companies have a joint audit on a voluntary basis. Our empirical findings suggest that companies opting to employ joint audits have a higher degree of earnings conservatism, lower abnormal accruals, better credit ratings and lower perceived risk of becoming insolvent within the next year than other firms. These findings are robust to the use of a propensity score matching technique to control for the differences in client characteristics between firms that employ joint audits and those that use single Big 4 auditors (i.e. auditor self-selection). We also find evidence that the choice of a joint audit is associated with substantial increases in the fees paid by the client firm, suggesting a higher perceived level of quality. Collectively, our analyses support the view that voluntary joint audits are positively associated with audit quality in a relatively low litigious setting both for public and private firms.     

Property tax revaluation and tax levy growth

Jurisdiction-wide property revaluation, like many administrative reforms, may have unintended consequences. This paper examines one such potential consequence. By pooling 18-year time series for each of 39 Massachusetts cities (17 of which revalued) and 270 Massachusetts towns (202 of which revalued), we examine the hypothesis that politicians take advantage of the confusion generated by revaluation and raise property taxes by more than they otherwise would have. We observe such a response in cities but not in towns and attribute this difference to differences in their governmental structures.     

Other-regarding preferences and giving decision in a risky environment: experimental evidence

Review of Economic Design - We investigate whether and how an individual giving decision is affected in risky environments in which the recipient’s wealth is random. We demonstrate that,...     

Reducing tax receipt volatility in a developing country

This paper reports on a study that examines how tax revenue instability can be minimized by a developing country. The empirical analysis employed in the study identifies a combination of taxes that can be used to obtain both an acceptable rate of growth and the minimum variability of receipts for that rate of growth in revenues. An analysis of empirical results demonstrates how a government can have a growing, but relatively stable tax structure.     

Effects of a mileage tax for trucks

We evaluate the effect of the introduction of a mileage tax for trucks in Switzerland in 2001 on traffic volume and externalities. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find a reduction in overall truck traffic of around 4–6%, no effects on car traffic and time-shifted placebos, suggestive evidence for traffic substitution toward rail, and negative effects on nitrogen oxides at curbside monitors. Complementary estimates on the effects of the German mileage tax and complementary estimates based on the synthetic control method are broadly consistent with our main results, although the latter are not statistically significant. Depending on prevailing levels of transportation costs, mileage tax-induced transportation cost increases may accelerate or reverse spatial economic concentration processes. Such implications for economic geography featured prominently in Switzerland and are a promising area for future research.     

服务联盟与协同演化策略研究

文章提出了一种新的服务联盟与协同演化策略,在新的联盟对策中效益产生分为联盟扩张效益与对外提供服务效益两种,用联盟收益率与服务收益率来评价联盟与服务的活力指标,并提出了按贡献大小划分的效益分配原则。新的协同策略通过联盟交互的信任理论关系来完成。经过理论分析与实验结果表明,提出的联盟与协同对策改善了利益分配的合理性,增加了对服务实体协同工作演化过程贡献的表达,具有较强的联盟内聚力与有序进化能力,对构建有序演化的协同科学计算环境具有较好的指导意义。     

Inter-temporal preference for flexibility and risky choice

We derive an inter-temporal theory of choice, in the spirit of Kreps and Porteus [Kreps, D.M., Porteus, E.L., 1978. Temporal resolution of uncertainty and dynamic choice theory. Econometrica 46, 185–200], where decision makers have incomplete preferences. This can be used to model indecisiveness as well as unforeseen contingencies. The key to our approach is a time consistency condition and therefore the normative connection between ex-ante and ex-post choice. The time consistency condition enables a representation that is a straight forward extension of recursive utility with the exception that it features an inter-temporal ‘utility for flexibility’.     

德国税收制度和税收稽查制度概述

去年下半年,笔者有幸对德国税收制度进行了实地考察。鉴于德国税收稽查与我国审计有不少相似之处,笔者对其税收稽查制度作了重点了解。现将考察情况简要介绍如下,以供同行比较借鉴。 　　一、德国税收制度 　　德国作为西方资本主义国家的重要代表之一,市场经济较为发达,税收制度较为完备,联邦宪法、各州法律都对税收征管作了明确规定,特别是联邦宪法,该法作为一切税收立法的基础,第 104～ 144条集中规定了税收制度。根据联邦宪法规定,联邦和州都有税收立法权,但联邦主要负责联邦税、共享税税法的立法工作,各州主要负责地方税税…     

Globalization and tax policy

Globalization is thought to reduce the ability of governments to collect taxes. If labor and capital can move between jurisdictions, then attempts to tax these factors will lead to a “vanishing taxpayer” as factors flee from high- to low-tax regions. More broadly, globalization suggests that there will be some convergence in tax rates across countries. This paper questions this view by examining the impact of globalization on taxation using a two-country, two-factor, two-good model. In particular, we ask how globalization, measured by increased international factor mobility, affects the ability of governments to tax factors. Our quantitative analysis indicates that, while increased mobility reduces revenues to some extent, governments still retain significant ability to collect taxes.     

Linkage Measures: a Revisit and a Suggested Alternative

This paper examines major linkage measures in the literature from different perspectives and attempts to clarify some of the controversies over them. The examination and clarification suggest more refined backward and forward linkage measures for linkage indices construction. The measures are then applied to analyse the linkages of Hawaii’s agriculture sectors.     

外资企业避税与反避税:税收法律制度的完善与调整

目前 ,外资企业避税的方式呈现出以下新特征 :通过关联企业间提供中介服务如咨询费、租赁费、逆向避税等方式进行。对这种更为隐蔽的避税行为 ,我国的税收法律制度显得无奈与尴尬 ,缺乏反避税的正式约束规则。必须完善反避税的相关法律制度 ,制订统一的反避税条款 ,建立反避税机构体系。     

The spatial effects of a tax on housing and land

This paper analytically investigates the spatial consequences of a tax on housing and land. In general, a property tax is not spatially neutral; instead it disproportionately affects certain parts of the city. The property tax can therefore create distributional inequities and can distort the pattern of residential and industrial location. We derive conditions on locational preferences and housing production that determine which parts of a city will be disproportionately affected by a property tax. Empirical estimates suggest that central locations will be disproportionately affected by property taxes.     

建筑施工企业如何积极应对“营改增”

文章通过分析营改增政策对建筑施工企业的影响,针对性地提出了建筑施工企业应对营改增的措施和策略,以期提供借鉴参考。。     

Lobbying and tax competition in an oligopolistic industry: a reverse home-market effect

This paper studies tax competition between two asymmetrical countries for an oligopolistic industry with many firms. Each government sets its tax rate strategically to maximize the weighted sum of residents’ welfare and political contributions by owners of firms. It is shown that if the governments care deeply about contributions and trade costs are low, the small country attracts a more than proportionate share of firms by setting a lower tax rate. The well-known home-market effect, which states that countries with a larger market attract a more-than-proportionate share of firms, may be reversed as a result of tax competition by politically interested governments.     

Bicyclist risks and helmet usage patterns: An analysis of compensatory behavior in a risky recreational activity

This article evaluates the risk- and safety-related behavior of adult bicyclists. Probit regression models are applied to national survey data to determine the relationship between accident risks and helmet use. Compensatory behavior, measured in the form of chanes in the likelihood of helmet use, is quantified for discrete changes in risk factors. The results are supportive of the risk compensation hypothesis: changes in the risk of head injury tend to be offset by changes in helmet use. However, the analysis provides no evidence that the magnitude of the compensatory response overwhelms the direct impacts of changes in the risk environment.