Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Naked And Covered In Monte Carlo: A Reappraisal Of Option Taxation, Eric D. Chason

Eric D. Chason

The market for equity options and related derivatives is staggering, covering trillions of dollars worth of assets. As a result, the taxation of these instruments is inherently important. Moreover, the importance is made even more acute by the use of options in creating more complex transactions and in avoiding taxes. Consider an equity call option, which entitles, but does not obligate, its holder to buy stock at a set price at a set time in the future. Option theory gives us a way to break the option down into more fundamental units. For example, an equity call option over 10,000 …

Destination-Based Cash-Flow Taxation: A Critical Appraisal, Wei Cui

Wei Cui

This Article offers the first comprehensive appraisal in both the legal and economic literatures of proposals for adopting destination-based cash flow taxation (DCFT) of multinational corporations. The DCFT was a key recommendation for reforming corporate taxation in the U.K., and has subsequently attracted wide attention as a way to fundamentally reform international taxation in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere. The core intuition of the DCFT is to tax profits earned by mobile capital by reference to immobile factors. I distinguish three versions of the DCFT for implementing this intuition: 1. formulary apportionment of business profits by reference to locations of …

Designing Survey Methods To Evaluate The Undeclared Economy: A Review Of The Options, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

This Working Paper is part of the GREY project which is developing capacities and capabilities in tackling undeclared work. In this Working Paper, the various options available to researchers when designing surveys to tackle undeclared work are evaluated. These issues include the unit of analysis used, the data collection methodology, an array of questionnaire design issues (including the reference period, whether to define the phenomenon for participants, a direct versus gradual approach to sensitive issues, whether to do a supply- and/or demand-side survey; whether to examine the relationship between purchasers and sellers, how to discourage social desirability bias), sample size, …

Discriminatory Internal Taxation In The European Union: The Power Of The European Court Of Justice To Limit The Tax Sovereignty Of Member-States Under Article 110 Of The Tfeu, Jarrod Tudor

Jarrod Tudor

Protectionism can come in a variety of methods including the use of internal taxation policies that discriminate against imports making those imports more expensive on the domestic market and thus favoring domestically-produced goods. Discriminatory taxation policies have been developed by member-states to mask protectionism by distinguishing products based on import status, product similarity, product life cycle, consumption, tax collection practices, transportation charges, and state aid. The Framers of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) wrote Article 110 with the objective in mind to prohibit internal taxation policies from discriminating against goods in made in other member-states. …

Some Basic Marxist Concepts To Understand Income Tax, John Passant

John Passant

The paper introduces readers to some basic Marxist concepts to give the building blocks for an alternative understanding of tax and perhaps even to inspire some to use these concepts and ideas in their future research. It argues that the tax system reflects the phenomena of wealth and income and that there is a deeper reality obscured and ignored by the income tax system as an outcrop of a capitalist system which does the same. This deeper reality is that capital exploits workers and that profit, rent, interest and the like are the money form of the unpaid labour of …

Discussion [Of The Effects Of State And Local Public Services On Economic Development By Ronald C. Fisher], Timothy Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.

Michigan's Fiscal Future, Timothy Bartik, George Erickcek

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Marginal Business Taxes On State Manufacturing, Richard Funderburg, Timothy Bartik, Alan Peters, Peter Fisher

Timothy J. Bartik

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of State And Local Taxes On Growth Using Improved Tax Measures, Timothy Bartik

Timothy J. Bartik

In collaboration with Alan Peters and Peter Fisher of the University of Iowa, this research project provided important new evidence on a long-standing controversy in academic and public policy circles: whether tax incentives are a cost-effective means of stimulating state economic growth. The research used a superior measure of the crucial explanatory variable—state and local taxes on business—and tested the sensitivity of the results to the kind of tax measure used. This project refocused scholarly debate on replicable findings about the impact of state and local business taxes on economic growth. The results were disseminated to the economic development policy …

Assessing The Cross-National Transferability Of Policy Measures For Tackling Undeclared Work, Colin C. Williams, Rositsa Dzhekova, Marijana Baric, Josip Franic, Lyubo Mishkov

Colin C Williams

The aim of the present Working Paper No. 5 is to provide a preliminary assessment of the appropriateness of possible policy approaches for tackling undeclared work as well as their transferability to three target countries: Bulgaria (BG), Croatia (HR) and FYR Macedonia (FYROM). This assessment will result in highlighting a set of promising policy practices that can be tested empirically in terms of their acceptability among the population and stakeholders in the three Southeast European states.

Tackling The Undeclared Economy In Fyr Macedonia: A Baseline Assessment, Rositsa Dzhekova, Josip Franic, Lyubo Mishkov, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

This report provides a detailed review of available evidence on the extent and nature of the undeclared economy in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), as well as on the institutional actors involved in tackling the phenomenon and their policy approach and measures used.

Extent and nature of the undeclared economy

Some widely cited international measurements that cover FYROM find that the share of its undeclared economy is larger than in all EU Member States, estimated at 35% of GDP in 2007 (Schneider et al, 2010). Data from the most recent national Labour Force Survey suggests that in 2012 …

Policy Approaches Towards Undeclared Work: A Conceptual Framework, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

The aim of this working paper is to provide a conceptual framework for understanding the policy approaches for tackling undeclared work. In doing so, the intention is to provide the structure for a future comprehensive review of the policy measures available for tackling undeclared work.

This paper is part of a series of papers associated with the project entitled ‘Out of the shadows: developing capacities and capabilities for tackling undeclared work in Bulgaria, Croatia and FYR Macedonia’. Funded by the European Commission’s Framework 7 Industry-Academia Partnerships Programme (IAPP), the objective of this project is to provide concrete policy recommendations about …

Undeclared Work In Croatia: A Baseline Assessment, Josip Franic, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

The aim of this report is to evaluate the extent and nature of undeclared work in Croatia and the policy approaches and measures currently employed to tackle this sphere. Extent and nature of undeclared work In recent years, there have been substantial efforts to reduce undeclared work in Croatia. Faced with significant deficits in the public budget, the government has sought effective policy responses that would result in increased compliance. Nonetheless, it is hard to know whether these strategies are resulting in a decrease in the prevalence of undeclared work. While some studies of the magnitude of undeclared work suggest …

Tackling The Undeclared Economy In Bulgaria: A Baseline Assessment, Rositsa Dzhekova, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

No abstract provided.

The Shadow Economy, Colin C. Williams, Friedrich Schneider

Colin C Williams

No abstract provided.

Tackling Undeclared Work In Montenegro, Colin C. Williams, Marijana Baric, Piet Renooy

Colin C Williams

No abstract provided.

Tackling Undeclared Work In Fyr Macedonia, Colin C. Williams, Marijana Baric, Piet Renooy

Colin C Williams

No abstract provided.

Tackling Undeclared Work In Iceland, Colin C. Williams, Marijana Baric, Piet Renooy

Colin C Williams

No abstract provided.

A Basic Guide To Taxing Economic Rent In Australia, John Passant

John Passant

Taxing economic rent is one key element in tax reform in Australia and sets possible directions for the future. This paper introduces readers to the ideas of Adam Smith and David Ricardo and others on rent to aid understanding of the debates about economic rent today. The discussion also includes the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax, the Australia’s Future Tax System Report and the Minerals Resource Rent Tax. The thinking of Smith and Ricardo was that rent was unearned gain. It is unearned because it arises as a consequence of the nature of the holding, an exclusive property right against the …

China’S Tax Policy Response To The Global Financial Crisis, Wei Cui

Wei Cui

VAT reform constituted the most important tax policy action China took during the global financial crisis in 2008-9. If China had had a more typical tax structure, this specific policy instrument (as well as certain others) would not have been available. Conversely, because of the idiosyncrasies of China’s current tax structure, some of the policy measures commonly deployed in other countries also cannot be used. In comparing China and Europe in the tax policies adopted since 2008, therefore, major differences in prior tax structures must be taken into account. There are also two other potential determinants of China’s tax policy. …

A Retrospective Evaluation Of Elements Of The Eu Vat System - Final Report, Stuart Adam, David Philips, Stephen Smith, Leon Bettendorp, Stefan Boeters, Henk Lm Kox, Bas Straathof, Kasper Stuut

Henk LM Kox

Fiscal Federalism In Chinese Taxation, Wei Cui

Wei Cui

The legal debate about the decentralization of taxing power in China has mainly centered around a directive issued by the State Council at the end of 1993, which directive, at the same time as launching the well-known and widely-discussed tax reform of 1994, announced that legislative power regarding taxation would be reserved exclusively for the central government. This directive has no constitutional basis, and its subsequent statutory incarnations are all either incomplete or ambiguous. Moreover, in the adoption of tax regulations for many types of taxes, there have been numerous deviations from this principle of centralization, and the bearing of …

Motor Vehicle Taxes As An Environmental Management Instrument: The Case Of Singapore, Ngee-Choon Chia, Sock-Yong Phang

PHANG Sock Yong

No abstract provided.

Through The Looking Glass: The Politics Of Estate Tax Reform, Edward J. Mccaffery

Edward J McCaffery

This brief article summarizes an argument that the estate tax reform or repeal debate has always been about money: not the government’s money from the tax, which is modest at best, but the politicians money from campaign contributions elicited to retain or repeal the tax. The article uses that theory to predict likely short term legislative developments.

Behavioral Public Finance, Edward J. Mccaffery

Edward J McCaffery

These are slides from a presentation to the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research, Squaw Valley Conference, May, 2008 (at which event Michael Jensen got me to agree to post these slides as a pdf on SSRN . . . ). The task is to give an overview of what I hope to be an emerging field of behavioral public finance. Behavioral finance, as per Barberis and Thaler 2003 (and others), consists of two parts: (1) individual level heuristics and biases, which can lead to sub-optimal (inconsistent) judgment and decision-making, and (2) institutional arbitrage mechanisms. In private finance and …

Comments On Liebman And Zeckhauser, Simple Humans, Complex Insurance, Subtle Subsidies, Edward J. Mccaffery

Edward J McCaffery

These are brief comments on an excellent paper by Jeffrey Liebman and Richard Zeckhauser, prepared for a conference sponsored by the Urban Institute and Brookings on tax and health care policy. Liebman and Zeckhauser summarize the complexities involved in making optimal health insurance decisions, and offer generally cautionary notes about conflating these with tax law (a theme of the conference). Most importantly, Liebman and Zeckhauser suggest a positive role for employers in health care and insurance decisions, as better setters or framers of choice sets—witness 401(k) plans. In this Commentary, I applaud Leibman and Zeckhauser’s general work and particular observation, …

Small Businesses In The Informal Economy: The Evidence Base, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

No abstract provided.

Small Businesses In The Informal Economy, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

No abstract provided.

The Political Economy Of Subsidized Day Care, Ted Bergstrom, Soren Blomquist

Ted C Bergstrom

This paper presents a theoretical model of political support for public provision of day care. In an economy where there are high taxes on wage income, selfish taxpayers with no children in the day care system may favor substantial public subsidies to day care because such subsidies induce mothers to join the labor force and hence pay income tax. Our model makes explicit quantitative predictions of the relation between the distribution of wages, theincome tax rate, and the subsidy rate for day care that maximizes net tax revenue from parents of small children. Applying parameter values from Sweden and the …

Restrictiong Taxation: The Impact Of Proposition 13 On California Tax And Expenditure Trends, Robert L. Sexton, Gary M. Galles

Robert L Sexton

No abstract provided.