Optimal top marginal tax rates under income splitting for couples

This paper provides formulas for optimal top marginal tax rates when couples are taxed according to income splitting between spouses, consumption is taxed, and the skill distribution is unbounded. Optimal top marginal income tax rates are computed for Germany using a dataset that includes the tax returns of all German top taxpayers. We find that the optimal top marginal tax rate converges to about 2/3 and convergence obtains at income levels that are substantially higher than those currently subject to the actual top tax rate.     

Multiplicative noise,fast convolution and pricing

In this work we detail the application of a fast convolution algorithm to compute high-dimensional integrals in the context of multiplicative noise stochastic processes. The algorithm provides a numerical solution to the problem of characterizing conditional probability density functions at arbitrary times, and we apply it successfully to quadratic and piecewise linear diffusion processes. The ability to reproduce statistical features of financial return time series, such as thickness of the tails and scaling properties, makes these processes appealing for option pricing. Since exact analytical results are lacking, we exploit the fast convolution as a numerical method alternative to Monte Carlo simulation both in the objective and risk-neutral settings. In numerical sections we document how fast convolution outperforms Monte Carlo both in speed and efficiency terms.     

Ethical consumerism and wage levels: Evidence from an experimental market

This paper contributes to the promotion of multidisciplinary research on ethical consumerism by providing experimental evidence on consumer's willingness to reward sellers by paying higher wages to their workers. We analyze repeated interactions occurring between workers, sellers, and consumers within the framework of an experimental market. By successfully performing a task, workers allow sellers to offer a good through a market. Sellers set the price of goods and decide the wages of workers. Consumers enter the market sequentially and decide whether to accept one of the offers or to leave the market. Our data show that, especially in the first periods of the experiment, some sellers opt to pay high wages to their workers. However, this behavior is not rewarded by consumers, whose purchasing choices are almost exclusively driven by self-interest. In our interpretation, the connection between workers and sellers that connotes our experimental design, with workers who allow sellers to enter the market, may induce consumers to believe that eventual sacrifices for paying high wages to workers must be entirely on sellers. Our result suggests that the more salient is made the importance of some stakeholders in allowing the firm's activity, the fewer consumers' may be willing to sacrifice their monetary payoff to improve these stakeholders' condition.     

Defining the Content of Sustainability Reports in Nonprofit Organizations: Do Stakeholders Really Matter?

The aim of the article is to investigate the role of stakeholder engagement and participation in nonprofit organizations’ sustainability reporting, according to the literature on third sector and stakeholder theory. To verify the levels of involvement, the authors conducted an empirical survey, using content analysis, on a sample of 54 sustainability reports of nonprofit organizations included in the Global Reporting Initiative database as of September 1, 2012. In order to strengthen the results obtained from the content analysis, the authors shared their findings with the organizations of the sample. The survey showed that there were some criticisms regarding stakeholder participation in the targeted research field. These are considered in the conclusions. Questions for the future included whether stakeholder engagement is moving from being simply a way to consult and influence stakeholders to being an effective instrument for involving them in nonprofit organizations’ reporting and decision-making processes, through mutual commitment.     

When counterfeits raise the appeal of luxury brands

Counterfeiting is a widespread practice throughout the world. The conventional wisdom is that it affects branded goods negatively. In this paper, however, we suggest that counterfeiting may actually benefit certain luxury brands. By means of two studies, we show how the market presence of luxury counterfeit items can increase consumers’ willingness to pay for original brands. In Study 1, we show that the presence of luxury counterfeits can increase consumers’ willingness to pay for well-known original brands, but not for lesser-known ones. Brand awareness plays a moderating role in the positive relationship between counterfeiting and willingness to pay (WTP). In Study 2, we address the psychological mechanisms that explain this increased willingness to pay. The results show that consumers’ (a) pleasure at being envied, (b) pleasure in distinguishing themselves, and (c) perception of the quality of the original goods fully mediate the relation between the presence of counterfeit in the market and consumers’ WTP for originals. We subsequently discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of the two study results.     

RISK MEASURES AND CAPITAL REQUIREMENTS FOR PROCESSES

In this paper we propose a generalization of the concepts of convex and coherent risk measures to a multiperiod setting, in which payoffs are spread over different dates. To this end, a careful examination of the axiom of translation invariance and the related concept of capital requirement in the one-period model is performed. These two issues are then suitably extended to the multiperiod case, in a way that makes their operative financial meaning clear. A characterization in terms of expected values is derived for this class of risk measures and some examples are presented.     

THE UNEQUALIZING EFFECTS OF ICT ON ECONOMIC GROWTH

We analyse the effects of information and communication technology (ICT) on levels and growth of per capita GDP in two different ways: (1) by treating ICT as a specific type of physical capital and as a variable that helps to correct for quality existing physical capital measures, and (2) by considering that telephone lines, personal computers and internet hosts are ‘bottleneck‐reducing’ factors that increase the productivity of labour by making easier the diffusion and processing of (non‐rivalrous and almost non‐excludable) knowledge. We compare the relative significance of the two hypotheses in level and growth estimates and find that, when separately taken, both of them improve upon the classical Mankiw et al. (Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 107 (1992), pp. 407–437)/Islam (Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 110 (1995), pp. 1127–1169) framework. These findings show that our approach captures dimensions of time‐varying country‐specific technological progress that previous approaches in the literature did not take into account.