The determinants of tax morale in comparative perspective: Evidence from European countries

Applying a multilevel model, we argue that tax morale is a function of individual- and contextual-level variables. Evidence presented in this article, based on the 2004–2005 European Social Survey and information on institutional settings, shows that tax morale in European countries varies systematically with socio-demographic characteristics, personal financial experiences, political attitudes, on the one hand, and regional GDP and tax arrangements on the other hand. Moreover, cross-national differences in tax morale are also related to ethnic and linguistic fractionalizations.     

个人所得税收入能力与税收流失的实证研究——以山东省为例

本文以山东省为例,把个人所得税收入能力分为现实收入能力和潜在收入能力两个层面。山东省个人所得税现实收入能力较全国平均水平为低,更远远低于国际水平。而从潜在收入能力来看,山东省个人所得税潜在收入能力巨大,但转化能力不足,税收流失率从2000年的37.75%增加到2007年的58.70%。究其根源,信息不对称、征管权与收入归属权不匹配、纳税人遵从率低和税制的低效等是造成这一现象的主要原因。     

Measuring Attitudes Towards Inequality

Individuals' attitudes to inequality aversion are measured using survey data, based on the leaky-bucket experiment, for several groups of students in Australia and Israel. Three forms of social welfare function are estimated. It is found that measures of inequality aversion can be obtained with some precision and that these estimates are substantially lower than the values typically used by those measuring inequality and examining optimal tax structures. Furthermore, a welfare function based on the Gini inequality measure is generally found to give a better fit than forms based on constant relative or constant absolute inequality aversion.
JEL Classification : C 91; D 63     

Employment and growth in an aging society: a simulation study for Austria

In this study we use a long run macroeconomic model for Austria to simulate the effects of aging on employment, output growth, and the solvency of the social security system. By disaggregating the population into six age cohorts and modelling sex specific participation rates for each cohort we are able to account for the future demographic trends. Apart from a baseline scenario, we perform three alternative simulations that highlight the effects of aging from different perspectives. These include (1) purely demographic developments, (2) increasing labour market imperfections, and (3) higher economic growth due to a productivity shock.     

地方税收效率及公平性实证研究

在现行经济及税收制度下,增值税和行为税收入比重提升会提高资本要素的产出效率;营业税和企业所得税比重的增加在提高资本要素产出效率的同时,却会降低劳动要素的产出效率;个人所得税和财产税比重提高有助于提升劳动要素的产出效率,而后者同时会降低资本产出效率;资源税类收入比重提高将会降低资本要素产出效率;流转税、所得税、行为税和财产税占税收收入比重的增加都会引起经济的总体产出的减少;我国地方税收收入具有显著的公平效应,其中所得税和财产税的公平效应相对更强,资源税及增值税也具有明显的公平收入分配的作用。     

增税与发债:理论比较与现实选择

增税与发债都是为财政支出融资的方式.本文从理论上分析了二者对经济影响的差别.在中国近年积极财政政策的实施过程中,税收收入出现较快增长,但实际税收负担的增长低于统计显示的水平.在分析这一情况时,要看到税收收入增长的深层原因.而发行国债,则能将居民储蓄转化为公共投资,改善基础设施现状,因而是较为理想的融资工具.     

正式体制与血缘亲情——地方干部对农村宗族的立场与态度分析

对待农村宗族,地方干部往往呈现复杂甚至矛盾的态度.当面对的是一般性的宗族,他们往往将它看成比较负面的问题;而如果面对的是"生我养我"的宗族,他们则往往会以多种方式参与、支持乃至组织它的活动.这就是地方干部对待宗族的体制性立场与亲情性立场.这种多元的矛盾立场,反映了国家意识形态建设与社会现实和人性取向的偏差与背离.     

The demand for money in Austria

In this paper, the demand for real money M1, M2, and M3 is estimated for Austria over the time period 1965–96. The modelling takes place within the framework of a small vector autoregression. To estimate the demand for money, two-equation error-correction models are constructed, which contain the short-run dynamics and the long-run economic equilibrium. It is found that a stable money demand exists for all monetary aggregates. The long-run equilibrium of M1, after accounting for a structural break in 1979, can be characterised as a classical type of money demand, with no interest rate effects and an elasticity of one for real GDP. In the case of M2 and M3, we find a unit coefficient on income and a significantly negative influence of a long-term interest rate. The statistical properties of the estimated short-run money demand equations – considering in-sample and out-of-sample tests – are generally very good. First version received: October 1996/Final version received: April 2000     

Asset Prices and History: The Case of Austria

Historical events are reflected in asset prices. Looking at Austrian government bond prices traded on the Swiss stock exchange during WWII provides therefore a useful way of interpreting the importance the thousands of people directly and indirectly engaged in stock markets attributed to various war events. An econometric analysis of the relationship between government bond values and events in Austrian history reveals that some generally considered crucial events connected with WWII are clearly reflected in Austrian government bond prices. This holds, in particular for the beginning and the end of the war. The annexation of Austria by Germany in 1938 which seemingly looked as being overwhelmingly and passionately welcomed by the Austrian population negatively affected the evaluation of Austrian government bonds, i.e. it was considered to be to the disadvantage of Austria by the people who put their own personal fortune at risk.     

The Incidence of Social Security Contributions: An Empirical Analysis

We estimate the effect of social security contributions on wagecosts with sectoral panel data from Eurostat. More than half of the burden of thesecontributions is borne by the employees. Shifting of the burden towards theemployees is more pronounced if the reciprocity between contributions and benefits is stronger. These findings are in line with the predictions derived from anefficient bargaining model.     

新疆社会保障水平分析：2000年～2010年

社会保障支出在一定程度上影响着经济和社会的发展。本文依据2000年～2010年新疆社会保障支出的数据,从社会保障财政支出和非社会保障财政支出规模、城乡间社会保障支出、新疆社会保障支出与经济状况、社会保障财政投入、社会保险覆盖面等多角度对新疆社会保障支出水平进行分析。在已有学者推算出的社会保障适度水平计算公式的基础上,计算测度新疆社会保障适度水平的公式参数,检验新疆社会保障适度水平。结果表明,新疆社会保障总支出规模逐年增加,人均社会保障总支出也逐年增加,且增速较快,但目前新疆社会保障支出总体看处于不适度水平,且社会保障支出与经济发展状况不相适应。     

The relationship between efficiency and profitability with respect to the size of firms: An empirical investigation for Austria

In this paper, an attempt is made to investigate the performance of Upper-Austrian firms by size class. Considering the six derived hypotheses, why small firms have a better performance measure, some of the hypothesis with respect to profitability and labour cost efficiency are confirmed. On average, the gross residual quota (profitability measure) of small firms is higher than the one of medium-sized and large firms. However, a similar result could not be found for the productivity development. Considering the influence of the firm size on the productivity measure, there is in three out of four cases no statistically significant influence at all and in one case the opposite result is obtained indicating the larger the firm, the higher is the productivity. In the case of labour cost efficiency, the hypothesis (the smaller the firm the lower the labour cost per employee) is clearly confirmed.     

Tax Ratios in Macroeconomics: Do Taxes Really Matter?

In various empirical studies so-called tax ratios (tax revenues expressed as a ratio of some aggregate tax base) are employed as approximations for tax burdens. The most difficult problem in calculating tax ratios is the way in which personal income tax revenues are attributed to labour and capital. We argue that the methodology of Mendoza et al. (1994) is seriously flawed in this respect. Using information from national sources, we calculate more accurate tax ratios for eight OECD countries that differ substantially from those of Mendoza et al. (1997). Still, the results of the empirical analysis of Mendoza et al. (1997) do not change significantly if we use our tax ratios instead of those of Mendoza et al.. However, the results change once country specific effects are taken up in the model. Capital taxes are, e.g., shown to reduce economic growth. We find that the results of Daveri and Tabellini (2000) are neither sensitive to the use of the tax ratios nor to the specification of the model: high labour taxes have increased unemployment in Europe.     

The Social Norm of Tipping: Does it Improve Social Welfare?

Some economists believe that social norms are created to improve welfare where the market fails. I show that tipping is such a norm, using a model in which a waiter chooses service quality and then a customer chooses the tip. The customer’s utility depends on the social norm about tipping and feelings such as embarrassment and fairness. The equilibrium depends on the exact social norm: higher sensitivity of tips to service quality (according to the norm) yields higher service quality and social welfare. Surprisingly, high tips for low quality may also increase service quality and social welfare.     

Megatrends as perceived in Turkey in comparison to Austria and Germany

Countries and companies use foresight studies to manage uncertainty. Environmental scanning and trend analyses are important tools for identifying and monitoring change. Trend analysis requires more than simply extrapolating to the future. The content of communication serves as the basis of inference so those trends could be explored.This research uses an interdisciplinary approach combining media content analysis and factor analysis to discover many ways Turkey and the world may restructure and what the new society may look like as perceived by the individuals who participated in the survey. It determines six types of individuals in Turkey with different personal attitudes towards megatrends. Similarities and dissimilarities with previous studies in Austria and Germany are identified and discussed.     

Persistence of Shocks to Output in Austria and Theories of Economic Growth

The paper analyzes the degree of output persistence in GDP in order toempirically discriminate between the Solow growth model, the perfect competition endogenous growth model and the imperfect competition endogenous growth model for the case of Austria. Wefind that a shock in the growth rate of output induces a permanent and larger effect on the level of GDP. This leads us to refute the Solow growth model and the perfect competition model of endogenous growth.We may not reject the imperfect competition growth model.     

Designing tax policy in federalist economies: An overview

The emerging economic federations of the European Union, Russia, and South Africa, along with the established federations in Australia, Canada, and the United States, confront the task of designing the institutions for federal fiscal policy. This paper reviews the literature on the design of tax policy in federalist economies. We conclude that taxation by lower level governments can lead to significant economic inefficiencies and inequities. The usual ‘assignment’ view of federalis recommends central government policies — for example, resident-based taxation or grants-in-aid — to correct these failures. These recommendations assume that the central government will act as a benevolent social planner. The ‘political economy’ view of federalism suggests that this assumption is in error and that additional federalist institutions must be considered. Alternative legislative structures and constitutional rules are considered.     

The effect of capital requirement regulation on the transmission of monetary policy: evidence from Austria

This paper analyzes the role of banks’ regulatory capitalization in the transmission of monetary policy. We use a confidential dataset for Austrian banks spanning from the first quarter of 1997 to the fourth quarter of 2003. We find evidence that Austrian banks react in an asymmetric way to monetary policy depending on their regulatory excess capitalization, i.e. low capitalized banks react more restrictively to a monetary tightening than their highly capitalized peers.

Grade Dropping: An Empirical Analysis

The Test of Economic Literacy (TEL), revised in 1985, is a nationally normed instrument for measuring economic understanding of senior high school students. Walstad and Soper trace its development, validation, and norming and present the findings from the pretest analysis.