Multinational corporations and tax havens: evidence from country-by-country reporting

International Tax and Public Finance - A growing body of economics literature shows that multinational corporations (MNCs) shift their profits to tax havens. We contribute to this evidence by...     

Cost of doing business index in Latin America

Quality & Quantity - The World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index (EDBI) has been widely used in analyzes of attracting investments and formulating public policies. Despite its importance...     

Consumer input in standardization: a case study of toy safety

Abstract

Ever since the ‘new approach’ to the achievement of the Internal Market was adopted, the importance of European Standardization has increased. The standardization institutes are now responsible for the technical elaboration of requirements touching upon health and safety of consumers. Therefore, it is of major importance for consumer movements to have an input in the process. In this study, the consumer interest articulation in the ‘new approach’ policy-making process is looked into. The role consumer organizations play in both the pre-standardization and the actual standardization stage are dealt with. Toy safety is taken as a case-study, and the information for the research was mainly gathered from interviews with about 30 representatives of European and national consumer movements, government agencies and industry involved in this field

The study shows that the influence of consumers in the pre-standardization stage, when a directive is drafted and a mandate negotiated between the European Commission and the standardization institutes, is limited

As concerns the standardization stage, consumers have representation in technical committees and working groups of the European standardization institutes. The participation of European and national representatives is compared

The main findings of this research are that consumer input in the actual standardization process is crucial, since their input in the pre-standardization phase is limited. In addition to this, the European and the national consumer representatives are not equally successful in assuring consumer input in this particular policy area. The causes for this difference are considered.     

THE EURO'S TRADE EFFECT: A META‐ANALYSIS

Many studies have estimated the trade effect of the euro, but their results vary greatly. This meta‐analysis collects 3323 estimates of the euro effect along with 28 characteristics of estimation design from almost 60 studies and quantitatively examines the literature. The results show evidence of publication bias, but they also suggest that the bias decreases over time. After correcting for the bias, the meta‐analysis shows that the literature is consistent with an effect ranging between 2% and 6%. The results from Bayesian model averaging, which takes into account model uncertainty, show that the differences among estimates are systematically driven by data sources, data structure, control variables, and estimation techniques. The mean reported estimate of the euro's trade effect conditional on best‐practice approach is 3%, but is not statistically different from zero.     

The costs of tax havens: evidence from industry-level data

ABSTRACT

Multinational enterprises make use of tax havens to avoid paying corporate income taxes and this costs 100 billion USD and more in lost government revenue worldwide according to an increasing number of recent studies. None of those studies assigns these costs to industries. I aim to shed more light on this gap by using some of the best available industry-level US data to determine to what extent the location of the MNEs’ profit is aligned with the location of their economic activities. My first finding is that the most important tax havens for US multinational enterprises are the Netherlands, Ireland and Luxembourg (all EU member states). Second, I systematically identify the specific industries in specific tax havens responsible for the costs, which should be useful information for tax authorities aiming to reduce tax avoidance. Finally, I argue that the current data are not detailed enough to provide a reliable industry breakdown of the costs, but the prospect of combining input-output tables with forthcoming country-by-country data seems more promising.     

The Role of Foreign Direct Investment in the Privatisation and Restructuring of the Czech Motor Industry

Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been considered one of the crucial factors of a successful economic transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. This article investigates the role of FDI in the privatisation and restructuring of the Czech motor industry in the 1990s. In particular, it examines how governmental policies towards FDI affected FDI inflows, the immediate effects of FDI at the enterprise level, and the contested nature of this change. Advantages of foreign ownership for Czech enterprises, such as access to investment capital, access to sale and distribution networks of parent companies and technology transfer are discussed, as well as examples of failures of FDI to result in a successful enterprise restructuring. The information presented is based upon in-depth interviews with top managers of twenty component suppliers, governmental officials and vehicle makers in the Czech Republic as well as on the secondary data.     

PVYn and Potato Wart Disease Outbreaks in Prince Edward Island: Policy Response and Analysis

This study analyzed the impact of PVYn and potato wart disease outbreaks in PEI on the potato industry. The two disease outbreaks resulted in loss of the U.S. seed export market to PEI producers. The effects of the disease outbreaks were mitigated through value‐added processing. Price premiums for processed potatoes allowed PEI potato farmers to abandon seed export and helped to sustain financial viability potato production. Policy responses to the two disease outbreaks include (i) development of zones policies, which helped to reopen markets into the United States, and (ii) compensation to producers above the minimum levels required under the federal Seeds Act and Regulations. Implementation of the zones policy had beneficial impacts on the potato industry. In contrast, compensation above minimum requirements may set a costly precedent for future disease outbreaks. Dans la présente étude, nous avons analysé les répercussions des flambées de virus PVYn et de galle variqueuse à l'Î.‐P.‐É. sur l'industrie de la pomme de terre. En raison de ces flambées, les producteurs de l'Î.‐P.‐É. ont perdu le marché d'exportation de la pomme de terre de semence vers les États‐Unis. La transformation à valeur ajoutée a aidéà atténuer les répercussions. Les bonifications reçues pour la pomme de terre transformée ont permis aux producteurs de l'Î.‐P.‐É. d'abandonner le marché d'exportation de la pomme de terre de semence et ont contribuéà maintenir la viabilité financière de cette production. Les réactions politiques à ces deux flambées ont inclus: i) l'élaboration de politiques en fonction des zones qui a favorisé la réouverture des marchés étatsuniens; ii) le versement d'indemnisations supérieures à celles prévues par la Loi sur les semences et le Règlement sur les semences. La mise en vigueur de politiques en fonction des zones a eu des effets bénéfiques sur l'industrie. Toutefois, le versement d'indemnisations supérieures aux exigences minimales pourrait créer un précédent coûteux advenant de futures flambées de maladies.