Moralisierung in der Steuerpolitik: Was taugen die jüngsten Steuervorschläge?

Die Bundesregierung hat auf die steigende Staatsverschuldung mit zahlreichen Vorschl?gen zur Ausweitung der Besteuerung reagiert. Allen Vorschl?ge ist gemein, dass sie auf das Gerechtigkeitsempfi nden der Bev?lkerung abzielen und damit leichter durchsetzbar scheinen. Die Autoren erl?utern in diesem Beitrag, ob diese Steuervorschl?ge überhaupt mit den erwünschten Zielen übereinstimmen.     

Tax competition,uniform assessment,and the benefit principle

In previous discussions it has been argued that tax competition between local governments results in a tax burden on business that is less than the cost of public services for business and in suboptimal levels of public expenditures for residents. However, this conclusion has never been substantiated by a full theoretical treatment. Here a theoretical model of tax competition is developed between metropolitan areas, with labor perfectly immobile and two local public goods, one for residents and one for business. For “plausible” parameter values, numerical solutions of the optimality conditions are computed by means of a nonlinear programming algorithm.     

Internal control technologies within industrial organizations

Previous studies of industrial organizations have examined the effects of formal monitoring controls on employee-performance. The present study extends existing research by analyzing the firm's ability to rely upon alternative internal control strategies and by including opportunities for employee-collusion. In particular, we model formal and informal monitoring activities and investigate their combined effect upon employees' incentives to collude. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis is performed to determine the relative efficiencies of various types of internal controls.     

Concentration and performance: The new thinking and some Canadian evidence

There is no more pervasive economic doctrine than the belief that an increase in industrial concentration results in greater monopoly power and higher profits, but some recent American research contradicts that traditional hypothesis. This paper summarizes that research and presents new Canadian evidence, taking the first step toward ending Canadian dependence upon cross-section data. Time-series analysis shows that changes in concentration between 1948 and 1965 did not bring the traditionally expected changes in profit rates. Most cross-section tests with the new evidence also contradict the traditional hypothesis. These findings encourage further open-minded questioning and suggest some avenues for additional research.     

The institutional drivers of sustainable landscapes: a case study of the ‘Mayan Zone’ in Quintana Roo, Mexico

Research on the dynamics of tropical forest land use and cover change (LUCC) has focused on the three scenarios: (1) deforestation/degradation; (2) settled, degraded areas in recovery, and (3) sparsely settled, expansive, intact forest. Through examination of a central Quintana Roo, Mexico case study we propose a fourth scenario of a ‘sustainable landscape’: an inhabited, productively used, forested landscape that nonetheless shows little change or net gains in forest cover over the last 25 years. We use Landsat images to demonstrate a low incidence of net deforestation, 0.01% for the 1984–2000 period, the lowest recorded deforestation rate for southeastern Mexico. Institutional innovations such as an agrarian reform process that established large common property forests for non-timber forest product extraction, and later innovations such as sustainable forest management institutions have driven the outcome of low net deforestation, added to multiple organizational processes that promote sustainable land use.     

Comparing Student Achievement across Experimental and Lecture-Oriented Sections of a Principles of Microeconomics Course

An increasingly popular alternative to the lecture-oriented “chalk-and-talk” approach to teaching principles of microeconomics is the use of classroom experiments. Like other alternatives to traditional teaching methods, there exists little more than anecdotal evidence supporting the effectiveness of the experimental approach. We estimate the effect of participating in classroom experiments on student achievement in a principles of microeconomics course. Nine sections (300 students) participated in the study, two of which (59 students) relied heavily on classroom experiments throughout the semester. The remaining seven sections (241 students) used no experiments. We find that students in the experimental sections experienced significantly higher gains in Test of Understanding in College Economics (TUCE) scores but differed little on other more qualitative outcomes. Additionally, results indicate that certain student characteristics, including gentler, major, and grade point average, can be used to predict a student's likely success when choosing between courses that rely on experiments and those that employ more traditional forms of pedagogy.     

Tax Effects on the Real Exchange Rate

This study examines the impact of taxes on the real exchange rate through their marginal effects on economic activity. We hypothesize that an increase in the capital interest tax rate leads to real domestic currency depreciation while an increase in wage or consumption tax rates leads to a real domestic currency appreciation. These hypotheses are supported by an empirical study using panel data estimations of annual data from 10 OECD countries over 17 years.     

Ein optisches Analogiegerät für den tetrachorischen Korrelationskoeffizienten

Ohne Zusammenfassung