Shadow pricing of labour and capital in an economy with unemployed labour

This paper derives the shadow prices of labour and capital to be used in the public sector in a situation of unemployment. The setting considered is that of a three-good, two-period general equilibrium model. Then shadow prices are compared to their corresponding market prices and shown to closely depend on own and cross-elasticities of supply and demand for labour and investment. In the first part, a rigid wage rate is the sole source of distortion; then, a tax on capital income is introduced so that our formula for the social rate of discount can be contrasted with that of Harberger, Sandmo and Drèze.     

Taxes and capital structure: evidence from firms' response to the Tax Reform Act of 1986

While the theoretical relation between taxes and capital structurehas been extensively analyzed, the empirical evidence on thisissue has thus far been inconclusive. One of the main difficultiesconfronting previous empirical studies of the cross-sectionalrelationship between taxes and leverage was the control of interveningvariables. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA), which drasticallychanged the tax regime, provides a unique opportunity to assessthe interaction between taxes and leverage decisions in a controlledenvironment. We test the relationship between leverage and certaintax-related variables for a large sample of companies in theyears surrounding the enactment of the TRA. The results supportthe tax-based theories of capital structure. The findings indicatethat there exists a substitution effect between debt and nondebttax shields, and that both corporate and personal tax ratesaffect leverage decisions.     

If Time Is Money Is It a Common Currency? Time in Anglo,Asian, and Latin Cultures

ABSTRACT

Social time affects the timing and frequency of purchases, the hours consumers patronize businesses, and how long consumers expect products to last. Understanding how culturally based social time attitudes differ will help marketers tailor their offerings and messages to consumers whose concepts of time differ. This exploratory study combined related streams of time literature to examine constructs of social time differences across cultures. Drawing upon a sample of 1377 respondents from six countries representing three cultural groups (Anglo, Latin, and Asian), the study explores the similarity and differences of cultural social time differences among these three groups.     

The deductibility of provincial business taxes in a federation with vertical fiscal externalities

Should provincial business taxes be deductible under a federal profit tax? We show that the ‘optimal deductible,’ which neutralizes the vertical fiscal externality between the federal and provincial government, is the change in the federal tax base per dollar of tax revenue collected by the provincial government. The optimal payroll tax deductibility rate depends on the extent to which it is shifted to workers and on the difference between the federal tax rates on profits and on labour income. Two apparently contradictory positions – full deductibility of a payroll tax and non‐deductibility – are special cases of our model. La déductibilité des taxes provinciales imposées aux entreprises dans une fédération où il y a des externalités fiscales verticales. Est‐ce que les taxes provinciales imposées aux entreprises devraient être déductibles de l'impôt fédéral sur les profits? Les auteurs montrent que l'optimum de déductibilité qui neutralise les externalités fiscales verticales entre le fédéral et les provinces est le changement dans la base d'imposition fédérale par dollar de revenu fiscal collecté par le gouvernement provincial. Le taux de déductibilité optimal d'un impôt sur les salaires dépend de la portion du fardeau fiscal qui est déportée vers les travailleurs et de la différence entre les taux d'imposition du fédéral sur les profits et sur le revenu du travail. Deux positions apparemment contradictoires – pleine déductibilité d'un impôt sur les salaires et déductibilité nulle – sont des cas spéciaux du modèle général.     

The default heuristic in strategic decision making: When is it optimal to choose the default without investing in information search?

Many studies have shown that decision makers have a tendency to choose the default or standard action among several possible actions. The article develops a model to explore under what conditions it is optimal for a firm facing a strategic decision problem to choose the default action without investing in obtaining more information that allows a more accurate decision. The model shows that the strategy to follow the default without additional information (“the default heuristic”) is more likely to be optimal when the cost of obtaining information is higher, and when the variation in possible outcomes is lower. The model also analyzes the optimal level of information search, showing that if the firm chooses to obtain information at all, it will invest in more accurate information when the cost of obtaining information is lower and when the variation in possible outcomes is lower.     

RETURNS TO SCALE IN RETAIL TRADE*

This paper attempts to estimate genuine scale effects in retail trade from a cross section of retail stores in Israel. This is done by estimating a simple production function for several retail branches and employing the faithful old direct Cobb-Douglas structure with value added as output and labor and capital inputs. And indeed despite the well-known peculiarities of the retail industry, a cross section estimation produces “normal” production-function estimates with reasonable input elasticities. The estimates also identify marked increasing returns-to-scale parameters, higher in food and lower in branches less affected by consumer participation and geographical dispersion. These increasing returns may explain a good part of the increase in sales per unit of inputs observed in time series.