The Russian Tax System and Its International Competitiveness

The last several years were very favourable to the development of the Russian economy. While this has partly been the consequence of favourable conditions on the international markets for raw materials, the economic policy of President Vladimir Putin, including the tax reforms initiated at the end of the 1990s, also played a major role. Our authors examine in detail the effects of the tax reforms to date and point out the room for further improvements under Putin’s successor, Medvedev.     

Weltweiter Globalisierungsprozeß erfordert gestaltende Eingriffe der Politik

In der Januarausgabe 2007 des WIRTSCHAFTSDIENST ver?ffentlichten wir einen Aufsatz von Professor Thomas Apolte mit dem Titel „Warum die Politik die Globalisierung nicht liebt“. Hierzu eine Replik von Professor Heiko K?rner und Professor Gisela Kubon-Gilke sowie eine Erwiderung von Professor Thomas Apolte.     

Anstieg der Altersarmut?

The development of old-age poverty has become an important topic in Germany. Contrary to most studies, a recent report written by the scientifi c advisory council at the German Federal Ministry of Economy asserts that old-age poverty will not become a large socio-political problem in Germany in the future. The authors of this paper warn against downplaying the problem of old-age poverty, and they plead in favour of further reliable research on the issue.     

Konjunkturschlaglicht: Revidierte Erwerbstätigenzahlen

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Customer Centric Company

Literaturhinweise

Customer centric company     

An empirical investigation of monetary effects on private consumption expenditures in Austria

This paper presents an econometric investigation of monetary effects on private consumption expenditures in Austria. It tries to add the empirical aspect to the theoretical problem of the relationship between monetary and real sector of an economy.Patinkins theory of the real balance effect provides the link between theoretical and empirical aspects. Taking into consideration further assumptions on aggregation, dynamics and problems of definition of variables, consumption functions of different aggregation levels are specified. Including effects of interest rates and credits one arrives at a first assessment of monetary effects on private consumption expenditures as found from single equation estimates. Significant credit and wealth effects are obtained. Later, systems of equations are estimated and used to investigate real—monetary sector interaction. They allow also a dynamic analysis.In presenting the sequence of microeconomic foundations, further assumptions and macroeconomic functions and systems built upon, it is thought to clarify the connection to traditional theory of real—monetary sectors relationship. It might also give an idea about the resulting problems for meaningful empirical research in this area.

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Zusammenfassung Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der ökonometrischen Untersuchung monetärer Effekte auf private Konsumausgaben in Österreich. Es wird damit versucht, dem theoretischen Problem der Beziehungen zwischen monetärem und realem Sektor der Wirtschaft einen empirischen Aspekt, der die österreichischen Verhältnisse betrifft, zur Seite zu stellen. Das Bindeglied zwischen Theorie und Empirie stelltPatinkins Theorie des Realkasseneffektes dar, die unter Zuhilfenahme weiterer Annahmen über Aggregation, Definitionen und Dynamik zur Spezifikation von aggregierten und disaggregierten Konsumfunktionen führt. Ergänzt durch Zins- und Krediteffekte läßt sich an Hand von Einzelgleichungen eine erste Einschätzung monetärer Wirkungen auf den privaten Konsum und seine Komponenten durchführen. Es können signifikante Kredit- und Vermögenseffekte festgestellt werden. In diesem Zusammenhang wird auch die Hypothese überprüft, ob die Grenzneigungen zum Konsum aus dem verfügbaren Realeinkommen und aus dem Realfinanzvermögen gleich sind, wie dies durch die Annahme eines kurzfristigen Planungshorizontes impliziert wird.Um die Interaktion von realem und monetärem Sektor zu analysieren, wird ein Gleichungs-system formuliert und geschätzt. Daraus lassen sich Unterschiede zu Einzelgleichungsergebnissen aufzeigen. Mittels alternativer Spezifikation der Konsumgleichungen und der Gleichung des monetären Sektors können Vermögens-, Kredit- und Zinseffekte auch im dynamischen Zusammenhang untersucht werden.Die Aufeinanderfolge von mikroökonomischen Grundlagen, weiterer Annahmen, makroökonomischen Funktionen und schließlich Systemen, soll den Zusammenhang zur traditionellen Theorie der Beziehungen zwischen Geld- und Realsektor verdeutlichen und auf die daraus entstehenden Probleme für eine adäquate empirische Untersuchung hinweisen.

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A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the Winter Meeting of the Econometric Society at Sindelfingen (January 9–11, 1978). It constitutes a condensed version of a project on Money and Private Consumption conducted at the Institute of Econometrics, TU—Vienna, under Prof.G. Tintner. The author is indebted to Prof. Tintner for helpful comments and to Dipl. Ing.R. Rieder for assisting in the computations and providing computer programs. The project was supported financially by the Jubiläusmfonds of the Austrian National Bank.     

Budgetdefizit und Leistungsbilanzsaldo: Ein weiterer Kommentar

Summary In this comment we point out that a consistent policy cannot rely solely on the instrument of demand management to attain internal and external stability simultaneously.     

On-line/Off-line: Joint Negotiation Teaching in Montreal and Vienna

E-business systems, the most recent generation of information systems, can be effectively used in teaching. One such system was developed and used in a collaborative project that involved teaching of negotiation theory and practice to students from Austria and Canada. The system provides customized course materials and a platform to conduct various e-negotiation activities. The design allows combining e-learning technologies designed to support students in their independent and individual learning with conventional face-to-face training. Our experience indicates that professional negotiation training accompanied by e-learning, and tools to support decision-making and negotiation can foster students' appreciation of the technology as well as demonstrate its limitations. The combination of technology-intensive and conventional resources contributed to students' awareness of social influences on negotiations, importance of communication, and focussed their attention on the problem and its solution. Deeper customization of the course content and delivery may further contribute to effective learning and acquiring of both communication and analytical skills.     

Optimal taxation and redistribution in an OLG model with unemployment

This paper concerns redistribution via nonlinear income taxation in an overlapping generations model with two ability-types. We assume that the wage rates are determined by bargaining between unions and firms, meaning that the equilibrium is characterized by involuntary unemployment. We show that the policy instruments that are used to calculate the marginal labor income tax rate for each ability-type give rise to intertemporal tax base effects. In addition, since the relationship between the employment and the capital stock implies intertemporal production inefficiency at the second best optimum, imperfect competition in the labor market may itself justify capital income taxation.      

Electoral cycles in MPs’ salaries: evidence from the German states

Members of parliament (MPs) often set their own salaries. Voters dislike self-serving politicians, and politicians are keen to please voters. In line with political business cycle theories, politicians thus may delay giving themselves a salary increase until after elections. We investigate electoral cycles in the salary increases of German state MPs. Using data for 15 states over the period 1980–2014, we find no evidence that increases in MP salaries are influenced by election cycles. Politicians can increase their salaries at any point during the legislative period without negative consequences. We posit that this may be because even those voters who are most disenchanted with politics likely understand that all politicians benefit from a salary increase and thus do not punish the governing party at the polls.