Social security, retirement age and optimal income taxation

It is often argued that implicit taxation on continued activity of elderly workers is responsible for the widely observed trend towards early retirement. In a world of laissez-faire or of first-best efficiency, there would be no such implicit taxation. The point of this paper is that, when first-best redistributive instruments are not available, because some variables are not observable, the optimal policy does imply a distortion of the retirement decision. Consequently, the inducement of early retirement may be part of the optimal tax-transfer policy. We consider a model in which individuals differ in their productivity and their capacity to work long and choose both their weekly labor supply and their age of retirement. We characterize the optimal non-linear tax-transfer that maximizes a utilitarian welfare function when weekly earnings and the length of active life are observable while individuals' productivity and health status are not observable.     

Further results on projection-based inference in IV regressions with weak,collinear or missing instruments

We study a general family of Anderson–Rubin-type procedures, allowing for arbitrary collinearity among the instruments and endogenous variables. Using finite-sample distributional theory, we show that the proposed procedures, besides being robust to weak instruments, are also robust to the exclusion of relevant instruments and to the distribution of endogenous regressors. A solution to the problem of computing linear projections from general possibly singular quadric surfaces is derived and used to build finite-sample confidence sets for individual structural parameters. The importance of robustness to excluded instruments is studied by simulation. Applications to the trade-growth relationship and to education returns are presented.     

DESIGNOR: A decision support procedure for industrial product design

This paper presents a model-based methodology called DESIGNOR to support design decisions for new industrial products. Models and measurements are developed to assess the relationship between product features and market potential. The methodology incorporates a measurement survey for model calibration and leads to empirical tradeoff curves between design dimensions. The approach handles discrete as well as continuous features and can be incorporated into a procedure aimed at finding a profit maximizing design. It can be used to support decisions concerning product design as well as for product line expansion. The approach provides a consistent way of evaluating market potential for new industrial products and presents important advantages over other product design methodologies.     

Real effects of the 1992 financial deregulation

Zusammenfassung Reale Wirkungen der Deregulierung des Finanzsektors im Jahre 1992. - Der Verfasser analysiert die kurzfristigen und dauerhaften Wirkungen der Deregulierung des Finanzsektors für eine offene Volkswirtschaft, die mit Gütern und Wertpapieren handelt. Es wird haupts?chlich untersucht, welchen Einflu? diese Ma?nahmen auf die Sachkapitalbildung, das Gleichgewicht auf den Wertpapierm?rkten, die Auslandsverschuldung und den übergang von der Unterbesch?ftigung zur Vollbesch?ftigung ausüben. Auf dieser Basis werden die potentiellen Wirkungen der 1992 auf dem Finanzsektor vorgenommenen Liberalisierung für fünf europ?ische L?nder beurteilt. Es zeigt sich, da? von der Deregulierung zu Recht günstige Wirkungen erwartet werden.

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Résumé Les effets réels de la libéralisation financière de 1992. - Dans cette étude l’auteur analyse les effets réels à court terme de la libéralisation financière dans une économie ouverte qui échange des marchandises et des titres. On met l’accent sur la question quel r?le ces mesures jouent pour l’accroissement du capital physique, l’équilibre de portefeuille, l’endettement extérieur de l’économie et pour l’approche à plein emploi. Sur cette base l’auteur évalue les effets potentiels de la libéralisation des services financiers en 1992 pour cinq pays européens et conclut qu’on a de bons raisons d'attendre des effets favorables de la libéralisation financière.

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Resumen Los efectos reales de la desregulación financiera de 1992. - En este trabajo se analizan los efectos reales de la desregulación financiera de corto plazo y de “steady state” en una economia abierta que comercia con bienes y bonos. Se enfatiza el papel que juegan estas medidas en el proceso de acumulación de capital tangible, el equilibrio de cartera, la deuda externa y la transition de una positión con desempleo a una positión sin desempleo. Sobre esta base se estiman los efectos potenciales de la liberalizatión de servicios financieres en cinco países europeos y se concluye que los resultados soportan la hipótesis de que el impacto de la desregulación financiera ha sido positivo.

     

Capital controls and international trade finance in a dual exchange rate regime: The Belgian experience post-mortem

Capital Controls and International Trade Finance in a Dual Exchange Rate Regime: The Belgian Experience Post-Mortem. — The purpose of the paper is to model “leads and lags” capital flows on the official segment of a dual exchange market and to examine the effects of various types of capital controls imposed by authorities on the official spot and forward exchange markets. The focus of the analysis is the degree of insulation provided by a “dual exchange market cum capital controls” in face of a speculative crisis. The crucial variables in this respect are the deviation from covered interest parity and the forward risk premium. Results of the theoretical model are confronted with empirical evidence over the 1975–85 period.     

Scale,Technique and Composition Effects in Manufacturing SO<Subscript>2</Subscript> Emissions

Combining two data sources on emissions with value-added and employment data, this paper constructs six data bases on sulfur dioxide (SO₂) intensities that vary across countries, sectors and years. This allows us to perform a growth decomposition exercise where the change in world manufacturing emissions is decomposed into scale, composition and technique effects. The sample covers the period 1990–2000, and includes 62 countries that account for 76% of world-wide emissions. While manufacturing activity has increased by a rough 10% (scale effect), we estimate that emissions have fallen by about 10%, thanks to the adoption of cleaner production techniques (the technique effect) and a small shift towards cleaner industries (between-sector effect). As output and productivity gains have been biased towards large emerging countries like China and India, which are both clean in terms of emissions per unit labor and dirty in terms of emissions per dollar, the sign and magnitude of the between-country effect depends on the choice regarding the scaling factor ( − 2% for employment,  + 25% for value-added, with a corresponding adjustment of the technique effect). The paper also shows that these estimates are robust to changes in aggregation across entities (regions or countries) and across industries, and that composition changes are correlated with changes in prices and trade intensities.

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Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.      

Structural and competitive determinants of globally oriented small- and medium-sized enterprises: An empirical analysis

This paper examines the factors influencing the internationalization of the activities of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as an entrepreneurial response to the opportunities and threats posed by the increasing globalization of the economic system. Findings from agricultural equipment manufacturers indicate that size, international experience, innovation, and distinctiveness have a direct influence on the degree in internationalization by SMEs. Scanning, learning, and networking have some influence on the extent of internationalization of SME activities but only indirectly through other variables. Competition intensity and uncertainty also have an indirect impact on internationalization, but standardization does not. Relative importance of each determinant is ascertained and the impact of SME internationalization activities on performance is assessed.     

EX-DIVIDEND DAY PRICE CHANGES AND IMPLIED TAX RATES: AN EVALUATION

The ratio of price changes to dividends is sometimes used to assess personal tax rates and detect tax clientele for dividends. It is suggested here that the model is unable to detect possible tax effects, given the sample sizes available to most researchers.