Effective Company Taxation in Poland – Some Methodological Considerations and Empirical Results

The tax burden imposed on enterprises is frequently asserted to be an important determinant of a country’s prospects in the global competition for market shares and foreign investment. The best way to measure effective company tax rates is controversial, however. The following paper examines the situation in Poland using various indicators and compares it to that in the EU-15.     

Social Security Strategies and Redistributive Effects in European Social Transfer Systems

This paper evaluates the linkage between social security strategies and redistributive effects in EU social transfer systems. It is argued that the various European systems produce different patterns of redistribution that may be explained by the adoption of different mixes of social security strategies. In support of this argument, several ideal-typical strategies are characterized and a classification of European social transfer systems is introduced. Subsequently, the redistributive effects of the systems are assessed and the relationship to their class assignment is investigated. We conclude that the redistributive effects differ markedly between systems of different classes, indicating that redistributive patterns are heavily influenced by the adopted strategy mix.     

The Dynamics of Motivation in New Organizational Forms

This paper discusses the impact of the dynamics of motivation on new organizational forms that are suited to forge value-creating knowledge transfers in teams and between organizational units and functions. Our aim is to develop the management of motivation as a source of distinctive firm competences. We argue that motivation is an endogenous variable and introduce it as a crucial link into the theory of the firm. Balancing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation helps to overcome social dilemmas in firms that are not solvable by hierarchical authority. Integrating the dynamics of motivation is a step to a more comprehensive theory of organization. It links organizational economics to the knowledge-based perspective.     

Why Are Mothers Working Longer Hours in Austria than in Germany? A Comparative Microsimulation Analysis*

Labour force participation rates of mothers in Austria and Germany are similar; however, full‐time employment rates are much higher among Austrian mothers. In order to find out to what extent these differences can be attributed to differences in the tax‐transfer system, we perform a comparative microsimulation exercise. After estimating structural labour supply models for both countries, we interchange two important institutional characteristics of the two countries ‐ namely, (i) the definition of the tax unit within the personal income tax and (ii) the parental leave benefit scheme. As our analysis shows, differences in mothers’employment patterns can partly be explained by the different tax systems: while Germany has a system of joint taxation with income splitting for married couples, Austria taxes everyone individually, which leads to lower marginal tax rates for secondary earners than in the German system.     

Liquidity risk in derivatives valuation: an improved credit proxy method

The models used to calculate post-crisis valuation adjustments, market risk and capital measures for derivatives are subject to liquidity risk due to severe lack of available information to obtain market implied model parameters. The European Banking Authority has proposed an intersection methodology to calculate a proxy CDS or Bond spread. Due to practical issues of this method, Chourdakis et al. introduce a cross-section approach. In this paper, we extend the cross-section methodology using equity returns, and show that our methodology is significantly more accurate compared to both existing methodologies, and produces more reliable, stable and robust market risk and capital measures, and credit valuation adjustment.     

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.     

Wie sollte das Steuersystem in Deutschland reformiert werden?

Some authors focus on the fact that Germany shows one of the highest tax burdens among the OECD countries. Based on their analysis, they suggest approaches to reduce the tax burden in particular for lower and medium incomes. These tax reliefs are possible, and would not compromise new public investment. But decreases in personal income tax rates mainly relieve higher income earners and are accompanied by high tax losses if the top tax rates are not increased. Alternatives are relief for social contributions or VAT. Other researchers do not look at the tax burden this way: as the income tax burden in Germany is not high from a historical perspective or by international standards, there is no case for massive tax cuts, as this would jeopardise the government’s ability to act and fail to correct past shifts of the tax burden at the expense of households with low incomes. Any tax cuts should be targeted at the bottom half of the income distribution without creating any revenue shortfalls. Instead, the government would be well advised to increase its efforts to overcome the public investment backlog and ensure a well functioning civil service. Furthermore, sustainability oriented tax reforms should focus on a shift of the tax burden from taxes on labour towards environmental and wealth based taxes.     

ANTECEDENTS AND DIMENSIONS OF CUSTOMER PARTNERING BEHAVIOR IN LOGISTICS OUTSOURCING RELATIONSHIPS

In order to be successful in today's competitive environment, third‐party logistics providers (3PLs) increasingly strive to develop close, mutually beneficial long‐term relationships with customers. The current study identifies inter‐organizational conditions and firm‐specific factors that influence a firm's partnering behavior with its 3PL. A model of the antecedents and dimensions of partnering behavior is developed and tested with a diverse set of relationships between a focal 3PL and members of its customer base.     

Price and quantity adjustments in the Austrian labour market

Austria is among the very few countries in the European Union which have managed to maintain comparatively low unemployment rates and high employment rates. This study looks at the price and quantity adjustment mechanisms in the Austrian labour market which may have contributed to this favourable outcome. After reviewing briefly the basic theoretical reasoning an empirical investigation is began into gross flow dynamics in the labour market and the cyclical volatility of employment and unemployment in Austria. In international comparison Austrian unemployment is very stable over the business cycle. This is due mainly to the high sensitivity of the labour force on cyclical conditions and, partly, also on the relatively weak responsiveness of employment to cyclical fluctuations in output, the latter being possibly attributable to the high degree of real wage flexibility in Austria. The study proceeds to show that the long-run elasticity of wages with respect to unemployment is indeed quite high in Austria. However, evidence was also found for outsider effects in the Austrian wage setting process. Relative wage structures, on the other hand, appear to be rather rigid.