Attitudes Towards Paying Taxes in Austria: An Empirical Analysis

People mostly pay their taxes although there is a low probability of getting caught and being penalized. Thus, new attempts in the tax compliance literature try to go beyond standard economic theory. This paper examines citizens attitudes toward paying taxes – what is sometimes termed their tax morale, or the intrinsic motivation to pay taxes. Tax morale may be a key determinant to explain why people are honest. However, there are very few papers that explore the concept of tax morale theoretically and empirically. This study, based on the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey, therefore attempts to fill this gap in the literature, focusing on tax morale in Austria. Societal variables such as trust or pride have been identified as key determinants that shape tax morale in Austria. Furthermore, a lower perceived compliance leads to a decrease of tax morale, which indicates that social comparisons are relevant. The results also show a decrease of tax morale between 1990 and 1999, although Austrias taxpayers still have a very high tax morale compared to other European countries.     

Die Stellung von Mengers „Grundsätzen“ in der Geschichte der Volkswirtschaftslehre

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Diffusion der Biogastechnologie in der Schweiz: eine GIS-basierte Multiagenten-Simulation

In this article we introduce a GIS-based multi-agent simulation model. It is used to study the spatial diffusion dynamics of agricultural biogas plants in Switzerland, which lags markedly behind those in the neighboring countries Austria and Germany. The investigation concentrates in particular on the impacts of economic factors and of locally available resources on the diffusion process. The model considers three different types of plants (100 kW_el, 200 kW_el, 1 MW_el). The results show that feed-in tariffs, cosubstrate prices and the revenues from heat sales are critical parameters. They indicate further that the present promotion policy fosters smaller plants, whereas larger plants are preferred only in few areas with high substrate densities. Finally, we find evidence that increased heat sales can significantly raise diffusion dynamics, and that the higher feed-in tariffs planned in Switzerland could actually overcompensate deteriorating cosubstrate prices.     

Sharing Risks of Labour Market Transitions: Towards a System of Employment Insurance

The increasing polarization of the labour market is closely related to the spread of non‐standard employment relationships that largely results from poor risk management of critical transitions over the life course. The question, therefore, arises whether labour market regulation, in particular unemployment insurance, is still properly designed for the new world of work. This article argues for an extension of unemployment insurance towards a system of employment insurance by summarizing the concept of transitional labour markets, indicating the risks that challenge current and future labour markets, laying the theoretical groundwork, and discussing the main features of an employment insurance system.     

Modelling the Eurozone as an Extraordinary Exchange Rate Union

The Trans-European Automated Real-Time Gross settlement Express Transfer system (TARGET) imbalances within the Eurozone can be interpreted as a sign of a missing balance of payments adjustment mechanism for the member countries. As the Eurozone lacks a fiscal union, in theory it is more of an exchange rate union or a system of fixed exchange rates than a monetary union. This paper will show why the TARGET is a crucial indicator for the Eurozone not being a monetary union but instead an exchange rate union, and why countries holding TARGET liabilities against the European System of Central Banks can be compared to a reserve currency country, like the US under the Bretton-Woods System.     

Das Mindestlohngesetz — Hoffnungen und Befürchtungen

The German government plans to introduce a minimum wage from 2015. This must be understood as a response to the decline in collective bargaining coverage and the marked increase in employment in the low-wage sector. The authors discuss how many workers are affected by this new regulation and whether the minimum wage is too high in relation to the average wage of workers (Kaitz index). They assume that the introduction of a minimum wage in Germany can have a number of effects. It is not possible to forecast all the reactions and behaviour of market participants to handle higher wages and goods prices. Some authors warn that these measures are significant labour market interventions that could have adverse employment effects. They recommend allowing more exemptions from the minimum wage law than intended by the government, especially for young employees and student apprentices. Other authors hope that minimum wages would help to strengthen collective bargaining and stabilise wages. Some authors emphasise that there should be a careful evaluation of the economic effects by scientists.     

Cultural patterns influencing project team behavior in Sub‐Saharan Africa: A case study in Ethiopia

Despite the increasing attention paid to the human element of project success found in the project management literature, empirical studies exploring cultural patterns influencing this particular human element continue to be far from satisfactory. To help further understand the influence of cultural patterns within Sub‐Saharan Africa project environments, we draw on a case study conducted in Ethiopia's service sector. Apart from the well‐perceived cultural values commonly referred to in the existing literature, we specifically investigated the deep‐rooted underlying causes, which include Ethiopian cultural habits, as a principal factor in influencing project team behavior. The article concludes with implications and recommendations for future research.     

50 years of research on international standardization and adaptation—From a systematic literature analysis to a theoretical framework

When going and operating abroad, firms face the challenge of finding the optimal balance between standardizing and adapting their marketing strategies across national borders in order to be successful. In this contribution, we present the major results of a systematic literature analysis in the field of international marketing standardization/adaptation. Based on our findings, we introduce a theoretical framework combined with the concept of situation-strategy fit. This framework serves as a basis for providing theoretically grounded and empirically testable recommendations regarding performance-enhancing strategies of international product standardization/adaptation in given situations. We argue that a high degree of international product standardization is likely to enhance foreign product profit, as compared to all alternative strategies, if there is (1) a high cross-national homogeneity of demand, (2) a high potential for cross-national economies of scale, (3) a high cost of product modification, (4) a high foreign price elasticity of demand, (5) a small perceptual error of the managers, and (6) a high quality of strategy execution. By presenting the state-of-the-art knowledge in the field and by introducing a novel theoretical framework, our paper has important implications for both scholars and managers in the fields of international marketing and international business.