Educating Europe: Should Public Education be Financed with Graduate Taxes or Income-contingent Loans?

The mobility of labor reduces national incentives to investin internationally applicable education. The European Unioncould overcome this by allowing member states to institute graduatetaxes or income-contingent loans, collected also from migrants.Graduate taxes or income-contingent loans result in higher welfarethan financing education with employment-based taxes. (JEL H24,H52, I28, F22)     

Efficiency and Equality in the Labour Market

I review theoretical arguments suggesting that certain labourmarket institutions can be justified for economic efficiencyreasons. In models with intrinsic market failures, "rigidities"like employment protection legislation and institutional wagecompression may push the economy closer to the efficient frontier.I discuss recent empirical evidence on income inequality, povertyand income mobility in OECD countries, and I conclude that thewelfare states of Northern Europe score relatively well on allcounts. Finally, I discuss labour market reforms that may improveefficiency without violating European voters' preference forequality.(JEL H30, J30, J50)     

EU Enlargement, Migration and the New Constitution

The paper deals with the effects of migration resulting fromEU Eastern enlargement on the welfare states of Western Europe.Although migration is good in principle, as it yields gainsfrom trade and specialization for all countries involved, itdoes so only if it meets with flexible labour markets and ifit is not artificially induced by gifts of the welfare state.This is not the present state of affairs in Western Europe.In addition to measures that make labour markets more flexible,the introduction of delayed integration of working migrantsand the home country principle for nonworking migrants is arational reaction of the state. The proposed new EU constitution,which contains far-reaching rules for a European social union,should be amended accordingly. (JEL E2, F2, H0, J3, J6)     

Formal and Informal Labour Markets: Challenges and Policy in the Central and Eastern European New EU Members and Candidate Countries

The paper aims at comparing the formal and informal labour marketsin the Central and Eastern European new EU Member States andcandidate countries of the European Union. First, the currentsituation of the labour market is described, focusing on therecent developments since the breaking up of the East. Thenthe policy design of these labour markets is depicted and itseffects on formal and informal labour markets. The most importantchallenges for employment policy as well as the effects of enlargementon the labour markets are analysed. The paper ends with a shortsummary. (JEL J21, J23, H26, H11, O17, O57)     

Harmonisation of Old-age Security Within the European Union

Not sufficiently harmonised national pension systems withinthe European Union distort the allocation of labour and endangerredistributive activities. This paper identifies the most decentralisedlevel of harmonisation which guarantees efficient allocationand enables redistribution. For this, we build on theoreticalresults from the literature to evaluate the realised distributionof the legal power between the European Union and the MemberStates and the resulting level of harmonisation. We find thatharmonisation is sub-optimally low. Binding rules guaranteedby the European Union are needed implying that the Member Stateshave to concede more fundamental responsibilities to the EuropeanUnion. (JEL F22, H55, K33, N34)     

A general framework for measuring VAT compliance rates

Summary measures of Value Added Tax (VAT) compliance rates are valuable for identifying problem areas in VAT implementation. They are also essential for meaningful crosscountry and crosstime comparisons of VAT compliance. We present a comprehensive and general framework for calculating VAT compliance rates at both the economy wide and detailed sectoral levels. Unlike existing measures of VAT compliance, our framework isolates a compliance measure from the effects on VAT receipts of detailed features of VAT systems as actually implemented by tax authorities. These features include multiple VAT rates, exemptions, registration rates, refund limitations, informal activity, taxation of domestic nonresidents and undeclared imports. We implement our comprehensive VAT compliance measure for Vietnam, a country with a complex VAT system. Our estimate of Vietnam's VAT compliance rate is about 13 percentage points higher than that calculated by the most popular measure of compliance, Collection Efficiency (CE). Our method facilitates decomposition of the difference between CE and our VAT compliance measure into individual contributions by the statutory and structural features of Vietnam's VAT regime.     

National Policy Interests in the Duty-Free Market

In 1999 the EU abolished duty-free on intra-EU travel. OtherEuropean countries and many countries outside Europe still retainduty-free shopping for international travellers, as does theEU in relation to external travel. This paper looks at nationalpolicy interests in the retention, or further abolition, ofduty-free. We note that these will relate closely to the structureof competition in the duty-free market, and to the tax levelson high-street sales in different countries. The existence ofduty-free trade requires that countries have reasons both toadmit duty-free goods and to permit their sale to departingpassengers. We argue that low-tax countries might be more likelyto perceive gains from unilateral abolition of duty-free salesto departing passengers, while high-tax countries would onlybenefit from concerted action to abolish duty-free. (JEL D4,H2, H87)     

增值税“扩围”改革面临的难题与对策研究

在我国增值税转型改革完成后,扩大增值税征收范围随之提上议程。增值税"扩围"涉及中央地方财政收入分享、国地税征管权限、税收征管能力、地方税体系、通货膨胀等诸多难题,能否破解这些难题对于稳步推进增值税"扩围"改革意义重大。破解增值税"扩围"改革面临的难题需循序渐进,分步推进;协调中央财政和地方收入的关系;变革税收征管机制;高度重视通货膨胀问题。     

NEW ORGANIZATIONAL MODELS IN EUROPEAN LOCAL PUBLIC TRANSPORT: FROM MYTH TO REALITY*

ABSTRACT: The Europeanization of public services is frequently considered to have created pressure for Member States to progressively converge towards a new dominant organizational model, based on deregulation, de‐integration and privatization. However, while in some sectors European directives played a crucial role in boosting a common evolutionary path, in other cases, mainly related to local public services, this influence remained feeble and more uncertain. The empirical insight on EU Local Public Transport Services carried out in this paper aims at investigating if and to what extent this new dominant paradigm actually emerges, or if and to what extent more fragmented and heterogeneous outcomes prevail. The main outcome is that the public role in Local Public Transport is still widespread and that a major theoretical and analytical focus should be directed to the ability of the principal‐competent public administration to play its role in an effective and sound manner, while often too much attention is paid to the characteristics of the agent‐operator (public‐private, big or small, foreign or national, etc.).     

Is an unfunded social security system good or bad for growth? A theoretical analysis of social security systems financed by VAT

This study investigates how unfunded public pensions financed by value added tax (VAT), as discussed in Japan, affect economic growth and whether payroll tax (PT) or VAT is the more growth‐friendly tax structure for financing public pensions. We examine these issues using overlapping generations models with parental altruism and find that a public pension system financed by VAT may increase economic growth when bequests are operative. By contrast, when bequests are inoperative, public pensions hinder growth unless agents are sufficiently patient. Finally, public pensions financed by VAT are more growth‐friendly than those financed by PT.     

THE IMPACT OF TAX REGIMES ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE PATTERNS

This paper discusses the trade implications of value‐added taxes (VATs) that refund domestic taxes paid by exporters of domestic production while imposing taxes on imports of foreign production. VATs are used by over 140 countries of the world, including every member of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development except the United States. An investigation of the implications of border‐adjustable taxes on the U.S. trade balance suggests that VATs positively affect trade competitiveness but with differing impacts by sector. These results do not necessarily extend to the conclusion that a U.S. VAT would increase U.S. exports; such a prediction requires economic forecasting and appropriate simulations. The present results do imply that the adoption of VATs by other countries appears to have benefited U.S. trade. Panel data over 20 years, 29 industries, and 145 countries is used to conduct the analysis. (JEL F10, H20, K34)     

Participation and the provision of discrete public goods: a strategic analysis

This paper considers the Nash equilibria to a game where a discrete public good is to be provided. Each individual may participate by making a fixed contribution. If a sufficient number of contributions are made, the good is provided. Otherwise, the good is not provided. One variant of the rules allows for contributions to be refunded when the good is not provided. For pure strategies, we find that the Nash equilibria with a refund are a superset of those without a refund. For both rules, the efficient number of players contributing is an equilibrium. For mixed strategies, to every equilibrium without a refund there is a corresponding equilibrium with a refund with a higher number of expected contributors. Mixed strategy equilibria ‘disappear’ as the number of players grows large. Some results reported in the experimental literature are discussed in light of these theoretical results.     

Going-Private Decisions and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002: A Cross-Country Analysis

This article investigates whether the passage and the implementationof the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) drove firms out of thepublic capital market. To control for other factors affectingexit decisions, we examine the post-SOX change in the propensityof American public targets to be bought by private acquirersrather than public ones with the corresponding change for foreignpublic targets, which were outside the purview of SOX. Our findingsare consistent with the hypothesis that SOX induced small firmsto exit the public capital market during the year followingits enactment. In contrast, SOX appears to have had little effecton the going-private propensities of larger firms. (JEL G30,G34, G38, K22)     

VAT Evasion and VAT Avoidance: Is there a European Laffer curve for VAT?

This paper estimates the VAT revenue maximising rate of VAT for the European Union for given conditions of non-compliance and other black economy transactions. It estimates a Laffer curve for the standard rate of VAT using a pooled sample of data of revenue statistics for 14 countries in the EU. The results confirm that the efficiency of the VAT system declines as the VAT rate increases. The decline in efficiency is due to a mixture of a reduction in the VAT base, and VAT evasion and avoidance. As a result of the single market, the EU Commission has proposed a common or closely converged rate of VAT within Europe. The actual common rate of VAT has yet to be decided. This paper contributes to this policy debate.     

Adam Smith and the division of labour: is there a difference between organisation and market?

The paper claims that, in The Wealth of Nations, the divisionof labour refers simultaneously to two different things: a socialdivision of labour and an organisational division of labour.The central point is that the organisation of work (the organisationaldivision of labour) in the firm is the logical counterpart ofthe social division of labour, and that these reflect two inseparableaspects of the process of the division of labour. Smith is thusconcerned with organisations as well as with markets, each functioningaccording to the same principle. Hence, Smith does not believethat the organisational and the social divisions of labour arefundamentally different, although he does recognise some variationbetween them and describes different states of the divisionof labour within the firm, liberal and capitalist.     

Economics as progress: the LSE approach to econometric modelling and critical realism as programmes for research

In the face of claims that economics is increasingly drivenmerely by fashion, this paper draws out certain similaritiesand differences between two self-consciously progressive anddevelopmental research programmes—namely the LSE approachto econometric modelling and critical realism in economics.The argument is that, while these two programmes of researchshare a common point of departure and possess many common elements,what at root distinguishes them is their adoption of opposingphilosophical orientations. The comparison enables both thenature of each programme, and the relevance of their commonconcerns, to be more easily appreciated and helps clarify thesort of evidence that would provide a basis for selecting oneproject over the other.     

Carbon tax simulations using a household demand model

The main objective of this paper is to analyse consumer response and welfare effects due to changes in energy or environmental policy. To achieve this objective we formulate and estimate an econometric model for non-durable consumer demand in Sweden that utilises micro- and macro-data. In the simulations, we consider two revenue neutral scenarios that both imply a doubling of the CO₂ tax; one that returns the revenues in the form of a lower VAT and one that subsidise public transport. One conclusion from the simulations is that the CO₂ tax has regional distribution effects, in the sense that household living in sparsely populated areas carry a larger share of the tax burden.     

Notes and comments. On the sustainability area as a simplifying didactic device

Recently, the sustainability area of public finance has beenlaunched as a simplifying screening device for the analysisof fiscal sustainability. In this comment, it is argued thatthe novel notion of the sustainability area (reflecting, inturn, a simple notion of public debt sustainability) does not,by itself, have any bearing on the sustainability of publicfinances: being positioned within the sustainability area cannotserve as a reasonable criterion of fiscal sustainability.     

Simultaneous versus sequential public good provision and the role of refunds — An experimental study

We experimentally study contributing behavior to a threshold public good under simultaneous and sequential voluntary contribution mechanisms and investigate how refund policies interact with the mechanism. We find that, for a given refund rule, efficiency is greater under a sequential contribution mechanism than under a simultaneous contribution mechanism. Furthermore, for a given order of contributions, we find that full refund unambiguously achieves higher efficiency in the simultaneous mechanism while this is not the case in the sequential mechanism.     

Innovation and social probable knowledge

In this paper, some elements of Keynes's theory of probabilityare used to understand the process of diffusion of an innovation.Based on work done elsewhere, it is argued that this processcan be viewed as a process of dealing with the collective uncertaintyabout how to sort out a technological problem. Expanding theconcepts of weight of argument and probable knowledge to dealwith this kind of uncertainty, we argue that the concepts ofsocial weight of argument and social probable knowledge canbe very helpful in understanding the process of diffusion ofan innovation.