Bedingungen und Ziele für eine Reform der Unternehmensbesteuerung

Bei einem Vergleich der nominalen Unternehmenssteuers?tze liegt Deutschland in der internationalen Spitzengruppe. Wie kann diese steuerliche Belastung gesenkt und gleichzeitig den Anforderungen einer steuerlichen Gleichbehandlung aller Rechtsformen entsprochen werden? Die in dem Aufsatz vertretenen Auffassungen geben ausschlie?lich die private Meinung der Autoren wieder.     

VOTING TRANSPARENCY, CONFLICTING INTERESTS, AND THE APPOINTMENT OF CENTRAL BANKERS

We examine whether the publication of the individual voting records of central-bank council members is socially desirable when the preferences of the central bankers differ. We identify two positive effects of transparency. First, central bankers whose preferences differ from those of society may act in the interest of society in order to increase their re-appointment chances. Second, transparency enhances the efficiency of the appointment process since the government can align the preferences of the central-bank council with those of the public over time. In a monetary union, our findings about the desirability of transparency may be reversed.     

CORRUPTION IN PUBLIC CONTRACTING AUCTIONS: THE ROLE OF TRANSPARENCY IN BIDDING PROCESSES

ABSTRACT ** :  The paper discusses corruption in public auctions and the role of transparency as a tool to prevent it. First, we analyse where corruption occurs, emphasizing the importance of considering the whole process, from deciding whether to contract-out to implementing the contract. We then analyse the effects of corruption on public auctions and argue that corruption undermines their stated aims. Second, we discuss the ways transparency can mitigate corruption and possible trade-offs regarding competition and efficiency. As an instrument, we focus on the Integrity Pact, a tool developed by Transparency International, and analyse cases in Argentina (school supplies) and Colombia (telecommunications), where transparency helped to prevent corruption and collusion and, furthermore, was able to enhance competition. We conclude with some policy implications.     

Peer-to-Peer-Absicherung privater Risiken: Eine Exploration am Beispiel von Wildschaden

This paper examines the extent to which business model development is an effective method of surmounting market failure in the insurance industry. In particular, it endeavours to demonstrate that replacing the traditional relationship between the insured and the insurer with a bilateral agreement opens up new markets, thus enabling hitherto non-insurable risks to be covered by new peer-to-peer business models. The insurance against risks caused by wild animals was chosen as the empirical field, since it is known to be an area which exhibits market failure. Based on 16 episodic interviews with representatives of the hunting community, demand structures and relevant contextual factors are revealed and analysed in terms of risk coverage and claims management among community members. This paper thus proposes an alternative position to that of the traditional insurance business, in which cover is based on a large and diversified risk group.     

Attitudes Toward Surveys, Attitude Accessibility and the Effect on Respondents’ Susceptibility to Nonresponse

This paper analyzes whether respondents’ attitudes toward surveys explain their susceptibility to item nonresponse. In contrast to previous studies, the decision to refuse to provide income information, not to answer other questions and the probability of ‘don’t know’ responses is tested separately. Furthermore, the interviewers’ overall judgments of response willingness was included as well. Respondents with a positive and cognitively accessible attitude toward surveys were expected to adopt a cooperative orientation and were thus deemed more likely to answer difficult as well as sensitive questions. Attitudes were measured with a 16-item instrument and the response latencies were used as an indicator for attitude accessibility. We found that respondents with more favorable evaluations of surveys had lower values on all kinds of nonresponse indicators. Except for the strong effect on the prevalence of ‘don’t knows’, survey attitudes were increasingly more predictive for all other aspects of nonresponse when these attitude answers were faster and thus cognitively more accessible. This accessibility, and thus how relevant survey attitudes are for nonresponse, was found to increase with the subjects’ exposure to surveys in the past.     

Business Strategy, Human Capital, and Managerial Incentives

We posit that the value of a manager's human capital depends on the firm's business strategy. The resulting interaction between business strategy and managerial incentives affects the organization of business activities. We illustrate the impact of this interaction on firm boundaries in a dynamic agency model. There may be disadvantages in merging two firms even when such a merger allows the internalization of externalities between the two firms. Merging, by making unprofitable certain decisions, increases the cost of inducing managerial effort. This incentive cost is a natural consequence of the manager's business-strategy-specific human capital.     

Rational probation decisions for juvenile delinquents

Assuming a risk of innocent conviction and fully rational individuals, the current study addresses the effects of immediate punishment and probation rules. Strict dominance of a probation rule requires that the judicial system is highly unreliable and, at the same time, learning over criminal careers is strong. Else, an optimal punishment scheme can always be based on either regularly offering probation or appropriate immediate punishments. Received: July 2000 / Accepted: November 2001 RID="*" ID="*" The authors gratefully acknowledge valuable comments by three anonymous referees and the US co-editor of the journal.     

Non-Routine Tasks, Restructuring of Firms, and Wage Inequality Within and Between Skill-Groups

This paper argues that endogenous restructuring processes within firms towards analytical and interactive non-routine tasks (like problem-solving and organizational activities, respectively), triggered by advances in information and communication technologies (ICT) and rising supply of educated workers, are associated with an increase of wage inequality within education groups. We show that this may be accompanied by a decline or stagnation of between-group wage dispersion. The mechanisms proposed in this research are not only consistent with the evolution of the distribution of wages in advanced countries, but also with the evolution of task composition in firms and a frequently confirmed complementarity between skill-upgrading, new technologies and knowledge-based work organization.