Equalization and the Decentralization of Revenue–Raising in a Federation

We study federal economies in which regional governments have responsibility for delivering public services and redistributive objectives apply. The implications of these for the assignment of revenue–raising instruments and fiscal transfers, both vertical and horizontal, are considered. Models of heterogeneous regions of varying degrees of complexity and generality are constructed. For each case, we determine what fiscal instruments must be given to the regions and what intergovernmental transfers must be made in order that the social optimum is achieved. With heterogenous households and regions, the social optimum can be decentralized by making regions responsible for redistribution and implementing equalization transfers that depend on the number of households of each type.     

Exploring participation in a sustainable farming initiative with self-determination theory

Sustainable farming initiatives (SFIs), which aim to support farmers’ adoption of sustainable practices vary in the degree of farmer participation. In this study, we explored the influence of SFI design characteristics on farmer motivation to participate. Based on self-determination theory, we framed farmer participation by linking participants’ motives and motivational processes, participation context and participants’ perception of that context. Using a mixed-method investigation, we analysed Veldleeuwerik, a Dutch SFI with about 400 members. We observed four motive types, in order of importance: knowledge exchange, business opportunities, sustainability and social contact. By combining them with five types of motivational regulation, our research revealed that motives are directed by a diversity of underlying motivational processes, and that both are influenced by the participation context, or SFI design. Based on these results, we suggest that SFIs who wish to attract farmers who are not autonomously motivated for sustainability, need to rely on characteristics that meet either other motives than sustainability or other motivational processes than autonomous ones. To maintain participation, SFI characteristics should support autonomous motivational processes, by supporting the psychological basic needs of autonomy, competence and relatedness. The study illustrates how a socio-psychological perspective adds value to investigating SFI design characteristics for successful farmer participation.     

Redistribution with Unobservable Bequests: A Case for Taxing Capital Income

This paper addresses the question of the optimal taxation of labour and interest income in an overlapping generations model with two unobservable characteristics, ability and inheritance. We assume realistically that saving can only be taxed anonymously, whereas the tax on labour earnings can be individualized and made non-linear. In such a setting, we show that a withholding tax on interest income along with a non-linear tax on labour income is desirable. The role of interest income taxation is to indirectly tax inherited wealth.
JEL Classification D 63, H 2     

Prior health expenditures and risk sharing with insurers competing on quality

Insurers can exploit the heterogeneity within risk-adjustment classes to select the good risks because they have more information than the regulator on the expected expenditures of individual insurees. To counteract this cream skimming, mixed systems combining capitation and cost-based payments have been adopted that do not, however, generally use the past expenditures of insurees as a risk adjuster. In this article, two symmetric insurers compete for clients by differentiating the quality of service offered to them according to some private information about their risk. In our setting it is always welfare improving to use prior expenditures as a risk adjuster.     

Industrial design students’ perceptions towards a career in user experience field in Turkey

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - The rapid growth of the user experience (UX) field has brought efforts to meet the increasing demand for specialists by welcoming...