A competitive model of the informal sector

In developing nations, formal workers tend to be more experienced, more educated, and earn more than informal workers. These facts are often interpreted as evidence that low-skill workers face barriers to entry into the formal sector. Yet, there is little empirical evidence that such barriers are important. This paper describes a model where, in equilibrium, the characteristics of formal and informal workers differ systematically, even though labor markets are perfectly competitive. The informal sector emphasizes low-skill work, as in the data, because informal managers have access to less outside financing, and choose to substitute low-skill labor for physical capital.     

Revenue and welfare effects of financial sector VAT exemption

This paper provides an analysis of revenue and welfare effects associated with a VAT exemption of financial services, which is common among OECD countries. We follow a general equilibrium approach that considers effects of repealing the VAT exemption not only on consumer demand and intermediate-input demand for financial services, but takes account also of the VAT distortion of labor supply. We derive formal expressions for revenue and welfare effects, which can be quantified with a minimum of information about behavioral effects. Using VAT statistics as well as national accounts, we provide quantitative estimates of the effects of repealing the VAT exemption in Germany. Our baseline estimate indicates that tax revenues would increase by some €1.7 billion or 1.3 % of VAT revenues (excluding import turnover tax). Provided these revenue gains are used to finance a reduction in the VAT rate or in other distortive labor taxes our results indicate a modest welfare gain of about €1 billion, or 0.04 % of GDP.     

Efficiency in the UK life insurance industry: Mutual firms versus proprietary firms

The paper discusses the main tenets of stakeholder theory and agency theory and goes on to analyse the relative performance of a sample of 100 mutual and proprietary life insurance companies in the UK during the period 1992–1996. The paper concludes that there is weak evidence to support the contention that mutual life insurers are relatively more cost efficient than proprietary insurers. Mutual companies in the sample perform well relative to proprietary companies in terms of annual surpluses and expenses ratios. There is also evidence that fund managers in mutual companies perform at least as well on average as those in proprietary companies.     

Changes in the marketing and operational capacity of retail sector firms through corporate securitization

Corporate securitization is a structured finance product that retail companies use to raise funds on the back of their operating assets. We investigate whether corporate securitization enhances the retail firm's marketing and operational capacity through a set of structural enhancements including operating covenants. Operating covenants are designed to mitigate the financial and operating risks of a securitized business and improve its marketing potential. Using the case of a retail firm's securitization, the United Kingdom's Mitchell's & Butler's, we find some support for this conjecture. We also find that corporate securitization is more successful where managers have considerable scope for making changes in the retail firm's operating and marketing environment.     

Zero‐Rating versus Cash Transfers under the VAT

To reduce the tax burden on the poor, nearly every VAT system allows for special treatment of certain goods or services. Zero‐rating the supply of certain foodstuffs is a prominent example of this practice. Using data on South Africa, this paper considers whether taxing foodstuffs alongside compensating cash transfers may be preferred to zero‐rating foodstuffs in a developing country context. The results show that cash transfers may be preferred if all the additional revenue from eliminating the zero rate can be earmarked and government is perfectly efficient. In the likely absence of earmarking and perfect efficiency, developing countries may need to apply special treatment to some foodstuffs to protect the poor. If this is the case, it is proposed that zero‐rating can be preferred to the exemption of certain foodstuffs.     

Relationship-based debt financing of Chinese private sector firms: The role of social connections to banks versus political connections

We study whether a firm's social connections to banks can augment its political connections to help it obtain loans. In China, Regulation No. 18 (announced in 2013) prohibits all high-level government officials from being independent directors of firms. As a result, many firms lost their political connections. We find that after firms lose their politically connected independent directors, firms having no social connections to banks experience, on average, a 12% decrease in the bank loan ratio relative to the median ratio; but those whose board chairs or CEOs are socially connected to local bank branch heads experience a 22% increase in the loan ratio relative to the median. However, this positive effect is short lived and thus not a new equilibrium. Overall, our findings support the hypothesis that a firm's social connections to banks can augment its political connections to help it get bank financing.     

Shadow banking of non-financial firms: Arbitrage between formal and informal credit markets in China

In China's credit markets with financial repression, state-controlled non-financial firms (SOEs) are privileged in gaining access to bank credit, while non-SOEs, especially those small- and medium-sized firms, are disadvantaged. Corporate re-lending emerges as a response wherein the former secure bank loans and then re-lend to the latter. We document the characteristics of inter-corporate loans from a sample of legal cases. We employ four empirical strategies to conduct a forensic study of re-lending by detecting abnormal relations between financial accounts of listed firms. State-controlled companies conduct more re-lending, and firms with better growth opportunities, stronger corporate governance, and more financial constraints engage less. We compare re-lending with entrusted loans and find that firms extending nonaffiliated entrusted loans conduct re-lending actively, while firms offering affiliated entrusted loans do not. We also compare inter-corporate loans with micro-credit company loans in a review of legal cases.     

Capital structure in new technology-based firms: Evidence from the Irish software sector

Using a sample of 117 Irish software companies, we examine the capital structure of new technology-based firms. Consistent with the findings on financing for other small businesses, internal funds are the most important source of funding in new technology-based firms. However, in apparent contradiction to the pecking order hypothesis, the use of debt is rare and equity financing is the prime source of external finance. By questioning chief executive officers via survey on their perceptions and opinions on various financing issues, we are able to conclude that in many cases software firm founders prefer outside equity to debt. The dearth of debt in the capital structure of new technology-based firms cannot be wholly explained by financing constraints due to information asymmetries in the banking sector.     

Social protection and private insurance: Reassessing the role of public sector versus private sector in insurance

This paper first discusses the standard reasons why private insurance cannot be expected to function well and why public intervention in or public provision of insurance can improve on private market outcomes. These arguments are based on efficiency but also on equity considerations. Then the paper turns to new developments in modern societies that might affect the balance between social and private insurance. They pertain to the current working of labor markets, to the openness of our economies and the ensuing fiscal competition, and to the crediblity and commitment problems faced by the state. The paper concludes that the public sector will find it less and less affordable to provide both insurance and assistance and recommends that it focus on the latter objective by awarding tax-financed uniform benefits on the basis of specified contingencies.     

Financial effects of an uncertain change in VAT rates in the EU

The paper analyses how close relationships to banks influence a firm’s choice of financing its debt through publicly marketed bonds or bank loans. It is shown that large Japanese firms use less bank debt, if banks own shares in the firm or bank employees are members of the firm’s board. This result supports a theoretical framework, where banks are able to control agency problems associated with debt. Firms use bank loans in order to be monitored, which enables them to access cheaper bond finance. Closer bank–firm relationships facilitate monitoring for the bank and reduce therefore the need for bank finance.     

Increased presence of foreign investors and dividend policy of Japanese firms

This paper investigates the impact of the increased presence of foreign investors on the dividend policy of Japanese firms. A choice-to-pay model, estimated with a random-effects binary probit method, shows that a higher level of foreign ownership is associated with a significantly higher probability of dividend payouts. A choice-to-change model, estimated with a random-effects generalized ordered probit method, shows that a higher level of foreign ownership is associated with a significantly higher (lower) probability of an increase (no change) in dividends, while a larger 1-year increase is associated with a significantly higher (lower) probability of an increase (decrease).     

Social capital and access to informal finance – evidence from Chinese private firms

This study investigates how firms’ social capital affects their access to informal finance. We argue that social capital helps reduce information asymmetry, increase trust between related parties and enforce lending contracts, so it has positive effects on firms’ access to informal finance. Using novel survey data of Chinese private firms, we find that firms with more social capital have more access to informal finance with lower costs. Further tests show that the effect of social capital is more significant when firms are located in regions with less developed market and lower community’s social capital and during the 2008 financial crisis.     

国内外关于环境关税的研究进展及评论

环境关税体现了关税的环境保护功能。美国、日本以及OECD的大多数成员国已确立了环境保护思想在关税制度中的重要地位,并把环境关税的结构性调整作为21世纪关税制度改革的重要内容。本文在回顾国内外相关研究文献的基础上,详细阐述了环境关税的理论、政策与应用情况,并提出了建立中国环境关税体系需要探索和研究的几个问题。     

Goals versus institutions: the development of performance measurement in the Swedish university sector

This paper contrasts goal-directed and institutional approaches to the development of performance measurement (PM) in the Swedish university sector, which has been subject to increasing emphasis on management by objectives since the early 1990s. We adopt a macro perspective, focusing on recent changes in PM related to governmental control of universities and colleges and combine an extensive review of archival data with interviews in our empirical analysis. It is concluded that although the goal-directed model cannot be completely rejected as a heuristic informing recent changes in PM, a process-orientated institutional perspective considerably enriches the analysis by making it less static and more contextually informed. In particular, the latter perspective better explains the evolution of loose couplings between formally stated goals and performance indicators and between different systems for PM by directing attention to the complex interplay between conflicting constituent interests in the evolution of resource and cost allocation practices and quality control procedures. However, our empirical analysis also leads us to reconsider the conceptions of loose coupling as either a “given” feature of institutionalised organizations or an outcome of more pro-active resistance at the micro level prevailing in much earlier work in institutional theory.     

Exploitation versus exploration in multinational firms: Implications for the future of international business

Given the economic weight of multinational corporations and their privileged access to resources, many different scenarios can be built about the future of international business and about the future impact of international business on economic, technological, and social development. In this paper, we argue that multinationals do not form a uniform organisational population, and we provide empirical evidence of the existence of traditional, rigid entities seeking benefits from low-risk exploitative strategies on one hand, and of flexible multinationals seeking higher performance levels by balancing the trade-offs between exploration and exploitation on the other hand. As these two sub-populations compete with one another for resources, we use a population ecology perspective to study likely ecological scenarios for the future. Our conclusion is that traditional multinationals tend to prevail over flexible multinationals, and the conditions required for a future society to allow a genuine growth of flexible multinationals are unlikely. This implies that multinationals remain primarily exploitative, and that as such, they will only be associated with marginal economic, technological, and social developments in the future. Other organisational forms, such as entrepreneurial small business and communities of practices are shown to be much more likely vehicles through which society can progress and innovate.     

Strategic provision of local public inputs for oligopolistic firms in the presence of endogenous location choice

We develop a model in which two regional governments compete for a mobile oligopolistic firm by providing local public inputs. The central mechanism of our model is the interaction of an agglomeration advantage (partial nonrivalness of the local public inputs) and an agglomeration disadvantage (costs associated with the change of location of firms). We show that a central government of both regions induces an interregionally optimal allocation of firms by providing the optimal levels of local public inputs. The decentralized provision of local public inputs by regional governments, however, leads in most cases to a (interregionally) suboptimal allocation.     

Political connections,auditor choice and corporate accounting transparency: evidence from private sector firms in China

This article investigates the way in which political connections impact auditor choice. Using a political connection index constructed based on the bureaucratic ranks of executive managers and board members in Chinese private sector firms, we find that for firms with weak political connections, the likelihood of hiring high‐quality auditors increases with the degree of political connectedness, while it decreases with political connectedness for firms with strong political connections. This inverse U‐shaped relationship is particularly pronounced for firms with ownership structures that intensify agency problems. Finally, we find that political connections and accounting transparency also have an inverse U‐shaped relationship.     

Impact of exchange rate movements on exports: An analysis of Indian non-financial sector firms

We explore the real effective exchange rate (REER) effects on the share of exports of Indian non-financial sector firms for the period 2000–2010. Our empirical analysis reveals that, on average, there has been a strong and significant negative impact from currency appreciation and currency volatility on Indian firms' export shares. Labor costs are found to intensify the exchange rate effects on trade. Further, there is evidence that the Indian firms considered here respond asymmetrically to exchange rates. For instance, the REER change effect is more likely to be driven by a negative appreciation effect than a depreciation effect. Also, Indian firms that have smaller export shares tend to have a stronger response to both REER change and volatility. Compared with those exporting goods, firms that export services are more affected by exchange rate fluctuations. The findings, especially those on asymmetric responses, have important policy implications.     

对增值税改革问题的思考

转型和扩围是当前增值税改革的两个热点问题.本文在分析当前增值税转型必要性和可能性基础上,认为今年是增值税转型最佳时机,同时对增值税如何转型提出了设想,对增值税扩围问题,本文在分析有关制约扩围因素的基础上,提出重点是内涵式扩围,外延式扩围的条件尚不具备.     

对含税销售额不宜用简算法计算应缴纳的增值税额

增值税是价外税,以不含税的销售额为税基.对此,增值税暂行条例第六条明确规定,纳税人销售货物或者应税劳务的销售额,不包括收取的销项税额,并在该条例实施细则第十四条规定,纳税人采取销售额和销项税额合并定价的,应将含税销售额折算为不含税销售额,再乘以税率计算应纳增值税额.其计算公式为: