On the Neutrality of the Resource Rent Tax*

This paper investigates the existence of an investtnent'neutral Resource Rent Tax using a model of optimal investment to extract an unknown quantity of resource stock. This model is solved by numerical methods to show that the levels of profit margin and resource stock uncertainty are key parameter values in determining both the existence and the characteristics of an investment-neutral Resource Rent Tax.     

Mineral Exploration and the Neutrality of Rent Royalties*

Bayesian techniques are used to analyze the effect on mineral project selection of the imposition of an ideal form of resource rent tax in which all costs, including exploration costs, are fully deducted from taxable income. It is demonstrated that higher rates of resource rent tax generally will alter the a priori probability of a deposit being mined due to a direct risk-sharing effect as well as indirectly by changing the amount of exploration undertaken before the firm decides whether to mine or not.     

From Industrial Policy to Innovation Policy: Japan's Pursuit of Competitive Advantage*

Japan faces significant challenges in encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship. Attempts to formally model past industrial policy interventions uniformly uncover little, if any, positive impact on productivity, growth, or welfare. The evidence indicates that most resource flows went to large, politically influential “backwards” sectors, suggesting that political economy considerations may be central to the apparent ineffectiveness of Japanese industrial policy. Rather than traditional industrial or science and technology policy, financial and labor market reforms appear more promising. As a group, Japan's industrial firms are competitive relative to their foreign counterparts. Where Japan falls behind is in the heavily regulated service sector. The problems appear to be due less to a lack of industrial policy than to an excess of regulation. Japan may have more to gain through restructuring the lagging service sector than by expending resources in pursuit of marginal gains in the industrial sector.     

State-Federal Resource Tax Rivalry: The Queensland Railway and the Federal Export Tax*

This paper presents a stylized account and analysis of the implications of the intergovernmental tax rivalry which arises between the Queensland and Federal governments in their efforts to tax resource rents. In particular, coal is taxed explicitly through the Federal export levy and implicitly through the Queensland railways ‘excess rail freight’. A game-theoretic environment thus arises. It is shown that if each government sets its tax rate optimally in reaction to the other government's tax polity, then less revenue is generated at a higher deadweight cost. The optimal cooperative solution is compared to the non-cooperative equilibrium and the resulting welfare gains are identified.     

Security Returns and Tax Aversion Bias: Behavioral Responses to Tax Labels

This article studies behavioral responses to taxes in financial markets. It is motivated by recent puzzling empirical evidence of taxable municipal bond yields significantly exceeding the level expected relative to tax exempt bonds. A behavioral explanation is a tax aversion bias, the phenomenon that people perceive an additional burden associated with tax payments. We conduct market experiments on the trading of differently taxed and labeled securities. The data show an initial overvaluation of tax payments that diminishes when subjects gain experience. The tax deduction of expenses is valued more than an equivalent tax exemption of earnings. We find that the persistence of the tax aversion bias critically depends on the quality of feedback. This suggests that tax aversion predominantly occurs in one-time, unfamiliar financial decisions and to a lesser extent in repetitive choices.     

财税政策调整与财政风险预警研究——基于CGE模拟分析

在我国中央财政赤字增加和地方债务不断累积的情况下,观察财政风险的变化情况尤其重要。本文首先总结财政风险预警研究的最新进展,构建了一个在复杂现实背景下分析财税政策调整对财政风险影响的CGE模型,模拟了增加财政支出、提高税负和提高利率的三种情形,研究发现:在宏观经济运行的内外部条件没有改变的前提下,今后五年的财政风险都将继续加大。因此,建议对后金融危机时代的财政风险状况变化给予高度关注,提高财政透明度,设立财政偿债基金,建立风险管理及预警机制,确保风险在可控的范围内。     

Tax Policy and Tax Administration in Russia: The Case of the Banking Sector

The 'informal' sector of an economy is generally seen as a private sphere, where agents seek to escape the reach of the state and, in particular, the tax organs. However, given the weakness of the Russian state and the enormous scale of informal economic activity, the fiscal authorities try to cope, at least in part, by adopting informal strategies of their own. This paper aims to deepen our understanding of how this informal fiscal system actually works. While the analysis here focuses on the banking system, its implications for tax and accounting reform extend far beyond the banking sector.     

Political Competition, Rent Seeking and the Choice of Environmental Policy Instruments: Comment

In this comment, I analyze Damania's political economy model (Environmental and Resource Economics 13: 415–433, 1999), correcting some flaws and clarifying some ambiguities. I arguethat the political parties are identical at the outset of the game. Onlyafter the parties have chosen the instrument (standards or taxation) and thestrictness of environmental policy do the environmentalists and thepolluting firms know which party to support in the election campaign. Inequilibrium, both parties choose the same platform, so that both have anequal probability of winning the election.     

论环境税"双盈"效应与中国环境税制建设的政策取向

本文探讨了环境税“双盈”效应理论及其适应性，分析了环境税“双盈”效应在我国的有限性，提出了在市场机制尚不十分健全的中国加强环境税制建设的基本思路。     

Asymmetric Responses of the Underground Economy to Tax Changes: Evidence From New Zealand Data

This paper considers the relationship between taxes and the size of the New Zealand underground economy. Previous studies indicate that a positive relationship exists in this and certain other countries. This paper addresses the question: 'Is the response of the underground economy to an increase in taxes the same as its response to a decrease in taxes?' We find that although the effect on the underground economy of an upward movement in the effective tax rate is numerically greater than that of a downward tax movement, this difference is not statistically significant.     

Unemployment Responses to 'Skill-biased' Technology Shocks: the Role of Labour Market Policy

Do skill-biased shocks that increase the spread of labour productivities, interacting with different policy regimes, explain the rise in unemployment in Europe relative to the United States in the 1980s and 1990s? The hypothesis is an implication of a version of the Mortensen and Pissarides (1994) model of equilibrium unemployment which allows for worker heterogeneity. A calibrated version of the model implies that a similar unemployment increase would have occurred in the United States over this period, given changes in relative productivity by education implied by observed wage changes, had unemployment compensation and employment protection policies been at European levels.     

A Tax Package to Reduce the Marginal Rate of Income Tax and the Wage Demands of Trade Unions*

To reduce the level of tax evasion, a shift of taxation away from income tax and towards a consumption tax has been proposed in Australia. This paper shows that for such a shift to maintain revenue but not induce trade unions to raise their wage demands, it is necessary that the income tax threshold be increased. Numerical examples of desirable tax packages are given.     

联盟网络与持续竞争优势:基于关系资源的视角

以关系资源为切入点,分析了核心企业如何通过联盟网络获取和维持其竞争优势。首先,基于资源共享性与战略行动的意识性两个维度,提出了一个基于关系资源的竞争优势模型,认为关系资源优势来源于资源共享机制、资源挖掘机制和资源溢出机制,并受到核心企业在联盟网络中的位置、吸收能力、治理机制等因素的影响。其次,深入分析了核心企业关系资源隔离机制。认为因果关系的模糊性、形成过程的历史依赖、联盟资源的稀缺性、关系资源的不可分离性以及社会关系的复杂性构成了关系资源的隔离层。该隔离体系的完备性决定了其竞争优势的持续性。     

Micro-simulation and Normative Policy Evaluation: An Application to Some EU Tax Benefits Systems

In this work we explore the impact of alternative tax benefits systems on household welfare. The framework of our analysis is the theory of optimal taxation with the distribution of potential wages replaced by the distribution of household abilities. The latter has been calculated by inversion of the household's utility maximization problem. This methodology has then been implemented in order to compare the tax benefits systems of France and the United Kingdom. We have employed a behavioral micro‐simulation model that has been applied on samples extracted from the “Households Budget Survey 1989” of INSEE and from the “Family Expenditure Survey” of ONS.     

发展现代服务业的财税政策研究

随着经济全球化和信息资源进入现代主流经济,现代服务业将发展成为最具活力的产业部门.大力发展现代服务业对推动经济增长方式转变和加快构建和谐社会都具有极其重要的意义.本文从现代服务业概念和特点入手,阐述了当前我国现代服务业发展中存在的主要问题,并对当前制约现代服务业发展的财税政策因素进行了分析和研究,最后提出了发展现代服务业的财税政策应采取的措施.     

利率市场化的风险约束及改革思路

本文对利率市场化的风险约束进行了分析。作者指出 ,利率市场化改革是充满风险的 ,一是利率水平升高有可能带来投资的减少 ,引起通货膨胀 ;二是金融机构有可能利用贷款价格制定的权力搞“人情利率”或提高贷款利率 ;三是利率放开 ,银行有可能冒着高风险以获取高收益 ,企业则以高利率争取贷款 ,导致不良信贷资产的增加 ;四是放开贷款利率有可能导致过度竞争 ,造成银行体系的不稳定。为此 ,利率市场化改革的思路应是 :坚持有效性、规范性、灵活性和渐进性的原则 ,审时度势 ,分步推进 ,逐步到位。     

Capital Inflows to Hungary in 1995–96 and the Accompanying Policy Responses

In order to analyze the composition and effects of, and the policy responses to, capital inflows to Hungary during 1995–96, we present an analytical framework that emphasizes the distinction between net capital flows to the private and public sectors (the latter includes the government and the central bank). This distinction is essential in Hungary's case, because figures for overall net inflows conceal the fact that huge net capital inflows to the private sector were accompanied by large repayments of foreign public debt, covered by significant privatization revenues. We present indicators of the domestic monetary impact of net capital inflows in order to analyze the magnitude, costs, and effects of sterilization. We note that extensive sterilization and the use of privatization revenues for public debt repayment largely explain why capital inflows to Hungary did not have significant effects on the real economy or on domestic monetary aggregates in the period reviewed.