Foreign Direct Investment in the Enlarged EU: Do Taxes Matter and to What Extent?

Foreign direct investment is of increasing importance in the European Union. This paper estimates the effect of taxes on foreign direct investment (FDI) flows and on three sub-components of these flows for the countries of the enlarged European Union. The model in the spirit of gravity equations robustly explains FDI flows between the 25 member states. Sample selection needs to be addressed in the estimation. We show that the different subcomponents of FDI should and indeed do react differently to taxes. After controlling for unobserved country characteristics and common time effects, the top statutory corporate tax rate of both, source and host country, turn insignificant for total FDI and investment into equity. However, high source country taxes clearly increase the probability of firms to re-invest profits abroad and lower the percentage of debt financed FDI. This might reflect profit re-allocation to avoid taxes. Market size factors have the expected signs.

Estimating the Equilibrium Effective Exchange Rate for Potential EMU Members

In this study, we attempt to examine the possibility of emergence of significant fluctuations of the exchange rates in the future for the candidate EMU countries. In doing so, we estimate the equilibrium rate of the nominal effective exchange rate for Poland, Hungary, Slovak Republic and Malta through the BEER and PEER approaches. While the PEER-based estimation implies a large misalignment rate for the Hungarian forint, the BEER-based analysis shows that the present exchange rates of the countries considered do not deviate significantly from their equilibrium rates. As a consequence, based on BEER analysis, we do not expect large fluctuations in the effective exchange rates among the currencies considered. Hence, the relevant effective exchange rates are expected to be relatively stable. As a matter of fact, the entry of those countries into EMU is not expected to weaken the stability of Euro.

Labour Market Adjustments to Exchange Rate Fluctuations: Evidence from Canadian Manufacturing Industries

This paper provides some of the first empirical evidence on labour market adjustments to exchange rate movements in Canadian manufacturing industries. Controlling for endogeneity using generalized method of moments estimation, it is found that during the 1981–1997 period, exchange movements have a substantial impact on labour input and that this impact has grown over time as the manufacturing industries have become more exposed to trade. In contrast, the exchange rate effect on real wages is estimated to be virtually zero for all manufacturing industries.

Wal-Mart’s Impact on Local Revenue and Expenditure Instruments in Ohio, 1988–2003

This research estimates fiscal impacts of Wal-Mart in Ohio from 1985 through 2003. Using a panel of counties, and accounting for spatial autocorrelation in an instrumental variable model I estimate impact of Wal-Mart and Super-Centers on selected revenues and transfer payments. Among the findings is that the presence of a Wal-Mart increases local commercial property tax assessments resulting in collection increases of between $350,000 and $1.3 million. There is also an 18–43% reduction in per capita EITC claims in a county. However, Medicaid expenditures experience growth which amount to roughly 16 additional cases attributable to a single Wal-Mart. The magnitude and statistical certainty of these findings, suggests that local fiscal intervention, either through incentives or a “Wal-Mart Tax” is unwarranted.

Volatility Relationship between Crude Oil and Petroleum Products

This paper utilizes calculated historical volatility and GARCH models to compare the historical price volatility behavior of crude oil, motor gasoline and heating oil in U.S. markets since 1990. We incorporate a shift variable in the GARCH/TARCH models to capture the response of price volatility to a change in OPEC’s pricing behavior. This study has three major conclusions. First, there was an increase in volatility as a result of a structural shift to higher crude oil prices after April 1999. Second, volatility shocks from current news are not important since GARCH effects dominate ARCH effects in the variance equation. Third, persistence of volatility in all commodity markets is quite transitory, with half-lives normally being a few weeks.

Saving–investment Correlations in Response to Monetary Policy Shocks: New Insights into the Feldstein–Horioka Puzzle?

In this paper, it is argued that the observed high positive correlation between national savings and investment which is found in the data can in part be explained by shocks to monetary policy. This hypothesis, which is established by reviewing some empirical findings, is tested in a two-country DSGE-model framework in the tradition of the New Open Economy Macroeconomics. The simulation results obtained support the idea that shocks to monetary policy might contribute to the explanation of the Feldstein-Horioka puzzle.

Connecting National Safety Nets: The Dialectics of the Basel II Contracting Process

Basel II consists of supervisory guidelines negotiated by representatives of central banks and national regulatory commissions that were members of the Basel committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS). The BCBS is itself a regulatory response to globalization, which is connecting national safety nets in market-driven ways. A country’s financial safety net is a social contract established by short-lived agents for principals in long-lived economic sectors. Restraints placed on the authority of the BCBS members to contract for their principals by domestic politics explains: why Basel II authorizes individual countries to implement the agreement in markedly different ways; why US implementation of Basel II ran into so much doubt, controversy, and delay; and how the implementation debate set small and large banks and the Federal Reserve and other federal regulators against one another.

我国应对“非市场经济地位”问题的对策

我国的"非市场经济地位"间接地加大了我国应对反倾销的成本,为国外向我国征收高额反倾销税或确定倾销成立提供了便利,是国外对华滥用反倾销起诉的一个客观因素,但"非市场经济地位"并没有影响到我国外贸大局。就"非市场经济地位"问题的利弊得失,本文探讨了我国目前应对"非市场经济地位"问题的具体策略。     

英美报刊阅读教学中的文化导入

英美报刊阅读是一门培养学生掌握阅读英美报刊基本能力的课程.在英美报刊阅读教学中,教师应根据该课程的特殊性,借助适宜教材,结合学生实际,将英美文化背景知识融入报刊阅读教学中,帮助学生扩大文化积累量,更好地学习运用语言.     

发展国债期货市场 健全国债收益率曲线

自1981年恢复发行国债以来,我国的国债市场取得了健康快速的发展,国债的存量规模、年度新增量以及付息规模均有大幅增长。随着建设反映市场价格水平的国债收益率曲线的重要性逐渐提高,为了更好地促进金融市场深入发展、提高宏观调控效率、管理市场预期,我国需要构建一条完善的国债收益率曲线。本文首先对我国国债市场的发展现状和国债收益率曲线建设情况进行了分析,探讨了国债期货市场发挥的重要功能,为更好地发展国债期货市场和健全国债收益率曲线提出了若干政策建议。