Value added tax non-compliance in the car market

We examine value added tax (VAT) non-compliance in the European Union (EU) car market. This issue is of paramount importance because of the loss of VAT revenue, the profound distortion of market mechanisms, and the dangerous variety of fraudulent schemes employed. In addition to the usual VAT fraudulent schemes on intra-community trade, the special regimes, and the different regulations for the sale of motor vehicles in the EU member states per se, favour non-compliance in the car market. Non-compliance also takes advantage of the lack of adequate and prompt information exchange among the tax administrations of different countries and, within each country, between the tax administrations and their departments responsible for motor vehicles. We highlight the fact that the current measures are insufficient to fight VAT non-compliance and that the new rules proposed in the ‘definitive VAT system’ are inadequate to control the proliferation of scams in the car market. Accordingly, we suggest more substantial measures: well-targeted and prompt cross-checks through archives and databases, and the monitoring of their effectiveness; electronic invoices; real-time exchanges of information between the different tax and transport authorities; and increased harmonisation of the special VAT schemes that aim to eliminate one of the most exploited opportunities for illicit gain, to the detriment of the EU member states.     

OIL CURSE AND INSTITUTIONAL CHANGES: WHICH INSTITUTIONS ARE MOST VULNERABLE TO THE CURSE AND UNDER WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES?

This article extends recent analyses linking the alleged oil curse to a broader set of institutions (13 in number) than democracy, the institution that has received the most attention in the literature. It does so using panel data for over 100 countries between 1975 and 2005, wherever possible, and compares the effects obtained with several different measures of both the importance of oil and experience in the industry and of the interactions between them. Most importantly, instead of simply examining the effect of oil and experience in the industry on the contemporary levels of these various institutions, this study focuses on the effects on changes in the various institutional indicators from one decade to another. While not surprisingly our results reveal considerable sensitivity in the effects of oil resources, oil experience, and interactions across different specifications, they also suggest a number of important findings. The most robust of these are the significant negative effects of oil rents on bureaucratic quality and on socioeconomic conditions. We also find that the number of years since peak oil discovery has a positive effect on government stability, but a negative one on bureaucratic quality. When interactions are allowed for, still more negative effects on institutions are identified, at least partially re‐enforcing several of the institutional links in the oil curse hypothesis. (JEL O13, P16)     

Trends and Paths From Border Regions＂ The Frontier Centro-Castilla y Leon of Portugal and Spain

The objective of this paper is to determine whether the process of European Union （EU） integration has unleashed a new territorial dynamic with the convergence of border regions. Authors intend to analyze trends and trajectories of the Portuguese--Spanish border regions of the Center of Portugal and Castilla y Leon, particularly the municipalities of NUTS Ill and northern and southern Beira Interior （Central Region） and the provinces of the municipalities of Salamanca and Zamora （Region of Castilla y Leon）, in the last 20 years, given a set of demographic, economic, and social indicators, by using statistical analysis combined with contributions from the development processes established in these regions.     

Board of directors characteristics and credit union financial performance: a pitch

This short paper applies the ‘pitching research’ template developed by Faff (2015) to an academic research topic in corporate governance of Australian credit unions, from an accounting discipline perspective. The pitch template identifies the core elements that form the framework of any research project.     

A two-stage sampling by unequal size samples from two normal populations with unknown variances

A two-stage procedure based on the statistic introduced by Scheffé (1943) to solve the Behrens-Fisher problem is considered in estimating the difference between the mean values of two normal distributions having unequal and unknown variances. Samples of unequal size are considered at each stage. A numerical example is given where the two-stage procedure is compared with the Satterthwaite (1946) approximate method.     

Women entrepreneurship in STEM fields: literature review and future research avenues

The aim of the paper is to explore the published management research on women entrepreneurs in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (also known as STEM) fields in order to offer a first, comprehensive state-of-the-art of this research. In doing so, a systematic literature review (SLR) of 32 papers has been undertaken. The results of this SLR show that the literature on this topic is still limited and fragmented. However, seeds have been sown for stimulating the theoretical debate and the empirical knowledge on these issues. Based on our analysis of these selected papers, we offer a vibrant research agenda for future developments.

     

WHY ARE FERTILITY RATES AND FEMALE EMPLOYMENT RATIOS POSITIVELY CORRELATED ACROSS O.E.C.D. COUNTRIES?*

We develop a quantitative theory of fertility and labor market participation decisions in order to investigate the role of labor market frictions in generating the observed positive association between fertility and employment among O.E.C.D. countries. We find that unemployment induces females to postpone and space births, which, in turn, reduces the total fertility rate. Moreover, differences in female labor outcomes across the United States and Spain can account for the low fertility rate in Spain relative to the United States. We also find that labor market frictions can generate a positive association between female employment ratios and fertility rates across economies.     

What’s new in female entrepreneurship research? Answers from the literature

Female entrepreneurship to date represents a key component of the business sector worldwide as, in 2012 more than 187 million out of 400 million entrepreneurs were women (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor 2013). In academia the gender factor in entrepreneurship emerged in the late 1970s Schwartz (Journal of Contemporary Business, 5(1), 47–76, 1976) and especially since the beginning of the new millennium a substantial growth in the investigation of this topic has been registered. Thus, the time has come to systematize the academic progress on this issue and to reflect on future research directions in order to gain deeper insights into the female entrepreneurship domain. In this vein, our paper aims to enrich the conversation on female entrepreneurship by reviewing 248 papers published in the last 14 years. In doing so, we identify and analyze the new insights that have emerged in the literature from both a managerial and a sociological perspective, thus responding to the numerous calls for a more interdisciplinary approach to the study of this topic.