Sound taxation? On the use of self-declared value

In the 16th century, foreign ships passing through the Sound had to pay ad valorem taxes, known as the Sound Dues. To give skippers an incentive to declare the true value of their cargo, the Danish Crown reserved the right to purchase it at the declared value. We show that this rule does not induce truth-telling, but does allow the authorities to effectively implement a given tax rate.     

Think-tanks,policy formation,and the ‘revival’ of classical liberal economics

The Review of Austrian Economics - There is a widespread view that the ‘rise of neo-liberalism’ was a deliberate and designed phenomenon, brought about by ideologically motivated...     

On the Developing Strategy of Taiyuan in the Growing-up of the Middle Area

It is urgent that how the middle part of China plays its unique role during the development process of northeast, west and east area. This paper analyses the environment pollution problems caused by economic development of Taiyuan and points out that Taiyuan should accurately locate and seize the opportunities for the growing-up of the west area and make Taiyuan become one of the economic growth poles in the central China.     

Does the law of one price hold in a high-inflation environment? A tale of two cities in Turkey

This study addresses the price convergence in two cities in Turkey (Istanbul and Ankara) using annual data over the three-quarters of the twentieth century (1922–1998), characterized by prevailing high inflation rates for most of the period. In contrast to the rest of the literature addressing convergence in price levels with a typical result of extremely slow convergence rates at best, we argue that convergence is much easier detected in growth rates rather than levels of prices. We suggest using the bounds testing procedure of Pesaran et al. (2001) for this purpose. We find a clear-cut evidence on the existence of a common driving force behind inflation dynamics in Istanbul and Ankara – a finding that is in contrast with the results typically reported in related literature.     

On Efficiency of the Compulsive Institution in the Environment Governance

Limited by the condition of information, technology and natural elements, the compulsive institutions in the environment governance can not form a “hard constraint” to the individuals. Because of the individual‘s speculative behaviors, the government‘s deviation from its environmental governance, and the non-cooperative game between individuals and the legal organization, the implementation of the compulsive institutions is not as good as being expected. Through analyzing the mechanism of the compulsive institutions, this paper puts forward some suggestions to enhance the efficiency of such institutions‘ implementation.     

Can price discrimination improve the performance of online retail platforms?

Online retail platforms are the core of online retail activities, but due to increased competition among the platforms, traditional sources of revenue such as the membership and transaction fees alone cannot guarantee platform profitability. Thus, platform enterprises are looking for other sources of revenue. In this article, we focus on the role of value-added services fees charged by platforms. Specifically, we show that price discrimination exercised by platform enterprises in value-added services fees can increase the user access scale, platform profit as well as the social welfare.     

Do central bank law reforms affect the term in office of central bank governors?

In this paper we confirm the hypothesis that central bank independence reforms reduce the likelihood that a central bank governor will be replaced. However, the strength of this effect depends on the rule of law and the degree of political polarization.     

Who is afraid of capital mobility? on taxation of labor income and the level of public services in an open economy

This paper deals with the effects of international capital mobility on the taxation of labor income and on the size of the public sector. It employs a model of the labor market where national trade unions set the wage level in their country and national governments set the tax rate of a proportional labor-income tax. The tax revenues are used to finance a public good and unemployment benefits. In this model, competition between the national trade unions caused by international capital mobility leads to full employment, and the governments supply the public good on the first best level. As no unemployment benefits have to be financed, the tax on labor income may decline with the introduction of capital mobility. These tax cuts may even overcompensate the unions for the wage decline.     

Is it possible to speak English without thinking American? On globalization and the determinants of cultural assimilation

Using individual and city-level data from Canada, we study how some variables related to globalization, such as immigration, television viewing, borders, and residence history of the individuals, determine cultural assimilation. Results show that actual contact is an important determinant.     

Tullock on the common law: a loose-cannon iconoclast in action?

Gordon Tullock has been celebrated as an innovative thinker in many areas of public choice. He was also among the first to analyze the law based on the economic approach, yet, his contributions to Law and Economics have been met with skepticism or even outright ignorance. In this paper, I focus on Tullock’s papers dealing with the common law and argue that they contain important insights that have been ignored in the debate regarding legal origins.     

On the Fabrication of Structural Model of Quality System of Urbanization in China

This paper classifies the factors related with the quality system of the urbanization into three dimensions as quality planning, quality realization and quality improvement according to the relationship of their mutual actions. Then it fabricates a three-dimension space structural model. In order to achieve sustainable improvement on urbanization quality improvement, this paper puts forward the measures of controlling the operation of the quality system of urbanization to make it run effectively and smoothly.     

On the Neutrality of Profit Taxation in a Mixed Oligopoly

This paper investigates the neutrality of profit taxation in a mixed oligopoly where one (partially) public firm competes with private firms. We find that the neutrality of a profit tax is robust under a general cost and a general demand function as long as the degree of privatization is endogenously determined. This result is also true when product heterogeneity is considered under both Cournot and Bertrand competition. By contrast, if the degree of privatization is exogenously given, the profit tax neutrality holds only in the cases where the public firm is fully privatized or fully state-owned; otherwise, the neutrality breaks down.     

On Hegel’s Interpretation of the Conflict in Antigone

This essay will argue that Hegel’s balanced interpretation of the Antigone is the correct one on the grounds that any interpretation that favors either Creon or Antigone or reduces the conflict to one of personalities and not values would render Antigone a weaker tragedy.     

On the Linkages of the Stock Markets of the NAFTA Countries: Fundamentals or Speculative Bubbles?

We analyze whether the linkages between the stock markets of the NAFTA member countries (Canada, Mexico, and the United States) reflect movements in fundamentals or speculative bubbles. To this end, we estimate a state-space model to decompose the stock market indexes of the three NAFTA member countries into fundamentals and speculative bubbles. We analyze the linkages of the three stock markets by means of cointegration techniques. Evidence of cointegration linkages between fundamentals is stronger than evidence of cointegration linkages between speculative bubbles.     

Who Gains from the “No War No Peace” Situation? A Critical Analysis of the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

Since the outbreak of the conflict in the second half of the 1980s, Nagorno-Karabakh has been represented from two perspectives of ethnic incompatibility, which justifies ethnic cleansing by matching the state borders with ethnic ones, and the Great Game narrative, which examines the conflict as part of the global power struggle in the Eurasian continent by disregarding societies and undemocratic regimes in the region. However, time has revealed that these perspectives neither appreciate the internal conditions of the conflict nor offer a way out of the current impasse. By criticising the ‘commonsense’ and ‘realness’ of these representations, this study argues that analysing who gains from the current status quo will offer solutions for a sustainable peace in the region. As long as undemocratic regimes of Azerbaijan and Armenia are satisfied with the status quo and outside powers maximise their interests, the ‘no war no peace’ situation will not be challenged. A way out is only possible by including the people, who are actually on the losing side, in the decision-making and peace-making process.     

Decentralized planning in a market economy? On the nature of Coase’s research program

By drawing attention to the planning islands of firm organizations in a market economy, Coase makes us believe that besides the price mechanism, there is another means of coordination, namely deliberate coordination. With the firm as an exemplary case of deliberate coordination was introduced into landscape of economics, Coase initiated a new research program which is to inquire into how efficiency is (and could be) achieved via various kinds of institutional arrangements, from the price mechanism, to firms, to government regulations. This paper acknowledges the positive role Coase has played in drawing economists’ attention to the generally neglected field of organizational research. It criticizes, however, his research program for viewing the economy, or society, from the perspective of some concrete decision-making entity.     

Changes in cyclical patterns of the USA labor market: from the perspective of nonlinear Okun’s law

The validity of Okun’s law has been debated because of the increase in cyclicality in aggregate hours after 1985. To investigate this, I measure Okun’s coefficients in three phases of the business cycle – recession, early, and late expansions. I found that an increased coefficient for aggregate hours is due to the increased responsiveness of the employment rate during late expansions and to the increased responsiveness of hours per employee during early expansions. These findings question the flexible labor market hypothesis focusing on firms’ firing behaviors during recessions. Rather, working hours’ flexibility represents a more prominent feature of the post-1985 USA labor market.     

Too much of a good thing? On the growth effects of the EU's regional policy

The European Union (EU) provides grants to disadvantaged regions of member states from two pools, the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund. The main goal of the associated transfers is to facilitate convergence of poor regions (in terms of per-capita income) to the EU average. We use data at the NUTS3 level from the last two EU budgetary periods (1994–1999 and 2000–2006) and generalized propensity score estimation to analyze to which extent the goal of fostering growth in the target regions was achieved with the funds provided and whether or not more transfers generated stronger growth effects. We find that, overall, EU transfers enable faster growth in the recipient regions as intended, but we estimate that in 36% of the recipient regions the transfer intensity exceeds the aggregate efficiency maximizing level and in 18% of the regions a reduction of transfers would not even reduce their growth. We conclude that some reallocation of the funds across target regions would lead to higher aggregate growth in the EU and could generate even faster convergence than the current scheme does.