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Inheritance drives wealth concentration and economic inequality, meaning there is a strong case for wealth transfer taxation as an important element of government redistributive policy. In contrast to many OECD countries, Australia has not had estate or inheritance taxes for 40 years and little is known about contemporary public attitudes towards wealth transfer taxation. This paper draws on qualitative interviews investigating the attitudes of young adult and senior Australians towards wealth transfer taxation. Both groups supported the idea of reintroducing wealth transfer taxation in Australia, largely due to an almost universal absence of expectation that people would or should leave bequests to their descendants. These findings raise the possibility that considering the reintroduction of appropriately targeted wealth transfer taxation in Australia at a time when the Commonwealth Government is experiencing acute fiscal pressures may not generate as much public resistance as might have been assumed. Refereed/Peer-reviewed

This study is a review of the Trade Wars Are Class Wars written by Michael Pettis and Matthew Klein. The main argument of the book is that increasing inequality between countries raises trade disputes. In this context, the transfer of wealth over the years and class conflicts within countries are also mentioned. The argument is analyzed by considering the examples of China, Germany and America., Bu çalışma Michael Pettis ve Matthew Klein tarafından yazılmış olan Trade Wars Are Class Wars adlı kitabın incelemesidir. Kitabın temel argümanı ülkeler arasında artan eşitsizliğin ticari anlaşmazlıkları artırdığıdır. Bu kapsamda yıllar içerisinde gerçekleşen servet transferine ve ülkeler içerisindeki sınıf çatışmalarına da değinilmektedir. Argüman Çin, Almanya ve Amerika örnekleri ele alınarak incelenmiştir.

The ultimate goal of antitrust enforcement is to maximize the surplus consumers enjoy by enhancing production efficiency and eliminating market power. Previous literature focuses on the average net wealth effects on merging firms and their stakeholder firms and reports evidence of efficiency gains while no evidence of market power in horizontal mergers. In this paper, we examine how efficiency gains distribute between the merging firms and their customer firms. We find a significant negative relation between the combined abnormal returns on the merging firms and those on their customer firms, demonstrating a wealth transfer effect. Such a negative relation is more pronounced when market power is likely to be more intensive. On average, the merging firms gain, and their customers do not lose. Our results suggest that market power allows merging firms to withhold merger gains that would have been passed to the downstream under perfect competition and prevents customers from enjoying the whole consumer surplus. Distributive inefficiency exists in horizontal mergers.

Estimating the producer surplus – the revenue above the average long-run cost – is an important part of social cost-benefit analyses of changes in petroleum use. This paper estimates the producer surplus associated with changes in gasoline fuel use in the United States, and then applies the estimates of producer surplus to two kinds of social cost-benefit analyses related to petroleum use: (1) estimating the wealth transfer from consumers to producers as a result of policies that affect oil use and oil imports to the US, and (2) comparing the actual average cost of gasoline with the average cost of environmentally superior alternatives to gasoline, such as hydrogen. Our results show that a 50% reduction in gasoline use in the US in 2004 would have saved the US $72 billion in producer surplus payments to foreign oil producers. Applying our estimates to the comparison of the social lifetime cost of hydrogen vehicles versus gasoline vehicles, we find that inconsistently counting producer surplus from a US national perspective while counting climate change damages from a global perspective can overstate the present value lifetime costs of gasoline vehicles by $2,200 to $9,800 per vehicle.

MA (Dogmatics), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2017 This dissertation is an evaluation of the theology of prolific writer and missiologist, C. Peter Wagner, and his role and influence in identifying the emergence of the ‘New Apostolic Reformation’ (NAR). Wagner, the iconic ‘father figure’ of the NAR has been declaring for some two decades that the global church has entered, what he describes as, the ‘Second Apostolic Age’ and, that “we are now witnessing the most radical change in the way of doing church since the Protestant Reformation” (1998: 16-17). In essence, he is convinced that the 16th century Reformation has not yet completed its objectives and continues to add revelationary truth to the Church today. The most distinctive and fundamental feature of the NAR is its ecclesiological emphasis on the restoration of apostolic authority within the contemporary Church with the same governmental authority that functioned through the New Testament apostolate; it is from this foundation that all other NAR theological viewpoints stem. Writing from a classical Pentecostal standpoint this study seeks to discover whether it is plausible that the Church has actually entered a ‘Second Apostolic Age’ and, what factors led Wagner to his conclusion that a ‘New Apostolic Reformation’ has been birthed. In order to evaluate the teachings and praxis of the NAR, a literary and exegetical analysis will be undertaken by means of comparison with the theological position as defined, by the Fundamental Truths of the Elim Pentecostal Church (Elim Directory, 2015: 6) the denomination, with which the writer holds ministerial credentials. Comparison and comment will also be made with relevant published materials, including Wagner’s 2008 publication Dominion! How Kingdom Action Can Change the World; archives; theological journals; theses and dissertations; the World Wide Web and, other germane material sourced from NAR data. An exegesis of key scripture references pertinent to NAR theology will be undertaken and, an evaluation of NAR’s theological orthodoxy or otherwise, will be made. These comparisons will seek to evaluate: whether Wagner’s viewpoint on the office of contemporary governmental apostles and prophets is a tenable one; whether the NAR eschatological view of Dominionism and Kingdom Now theology can be substantiated from Scripture; whether the NAR eschatological praxis arising out of Dominionism is a realistic proposition; whether certain factors, including key personnel, influenced Wagner in reaching his conclusions; whether Wagner’s reading of the available data produced a correct, or an invalid, interpretation of the facts and, whether the current spiritual climate is indicative of a ‘New Reformation’ taking place today. Masters

Propping acts by controlling shareholders are common in Chinese listed firms. In this paper, we use data on related-party transactions of all listed Chinese firms from 2002 to 2008 to investigate the motivation behind controlling shareholders’ propping acts and subsequent wealth-transfer behavior and how both affect firm performance. We find that such institutional motivators as the maintenance of shell resources and qualification for refinancing have a significant effect on the propping behavior of controlling shareholders of Chinese listed firms and that such behavior is often followed by more serious tunneling when shareholders are driven by these motivators. Compared with non-state-owned firms, state-owned firms with the motivation to qualify for refinancing exhibit more severe tunneling after engaging in propping behavior. We also find that while propping by controlling shareholders improves a firm’s current operating performance, in firms whose controlling shareholders’ are motivated by the desire to maintain shell resources or obtain a refinancing qualification their performance declines in the following year because of subsequent tunneling. The results presented in this paper provide us with a better understanding of the relationship between propping and tunneling, controlling shareholders’ engagement in both and the consequences of that behavior.

For both domestic and non-domestic consumers, dynamic electricity tariffs have been proposed as a way to reduce their energy costs and to facilitate demand-side response. It is difficult for businesses which are tenants to adopt energy efficiency measures; thus, tariff switching is the easier option. Therefore, understanding the limits of the cost saving offered by tariff switching is an important step. This raises two questions: by how much could bills be reduced, and would all consumers benefit equally? Using a dataset of half-hourly electricity readings from more than 7500 British businesses, we performed an empirical analysis to discover which types of businesses might have lower or higher costs when changing between static and real-time tariffs. We identified differences in demand profiles that demonstrate that the decision whether to switch tariff types is a subtle one which may have a significant cost impact. The dataset was aggregated into five categories: Entertainment, Industry, Retail, Social, and Other. Our analytical methods can be used to distinguish the differences between typical electricity demand profiles for small- to medium-sized businesses and sectors in different market options. Our analyses of switching to a real-time tariff suggest that most of those small- to medium-sized businesses that would reduce their annual electricity bill would gain by no more than 10 %. Most of these businesses would gain by less than 5 %. This, we suggest, sets a realistic upper limit of the likely cash savings before energy efficiency, or other measures must be taken to further reduce bills. This work was supported by an UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council grant (EP/I000194/1).

We study the comovement among stock prices and exchange rates in a three-good, three-country, Centre-Periphery, dynamic equilibrium model in which the Centre's agents face portfolio constraints. We characterize equilibrium in closed form for a broad class of portfolio constraints, solving for stock prices, terms of trade, and portfolio holdings. We show that portfolio constraints generate wealth transfers between the Periphery countries and the Centre, which increase the comovement of the stock prices across the Periphery. We associate this excess comovement caused by portfolio constraints with the phenomenon known as contagion. The model generates predictions consistent with other important empirical results such as amplification and flight-to-quality effects. Copyright 2008, Wiley-Blackwell.

© 2015 Elsevier B.V.. Previous research indicates that firms issue shares when their stock is overpriced and repurchase shares when their stock is underpriced. Such transactions transfer wealth from transacting stockholders to ongoing stockholders. We quantify the magnitude of these wealth transfers and analyze their implications. Strikingly, we find that for the average firm-year, these wealth transfers approximate 40% of net income. We also find that these wealth transfers can be predicted using a variety of firm characteristics and that future wealth transfers are an important determinant of current stock prices.

In this paper, we develop a contingent claim analysis on shareholders' right to sell unconditionally their shares at the acquisition bid price during a takeover bid procedure. Compared with a situation without any guarantee, this regulation brings about wealth transfer towards outside shareholders. Why, in an apparently irrational way, do outside shareholders, who may benefit from a price guarantee, not systematically sell their shares? That question emphasizes the outside shareholders' behavior. Using a real option valuation model to evaluate the price guarantee opportunity, we show that an equal treatment rule between controlling and outside shareholders may lead outside shareholders to sell their shares.

This paper examines value created through spinoffs over a period from 2002-2010. The net debt to average share price ratio and the debt to asset ratio of a company impacts the decision for this restructuring process statistically significant. The announcement of a spinoff yields abnormal returns (AR) for the stockholders of the parent. The relative size of the spin and the financial leverage correlated with the AR positively, whereas the net debt per share and the return on asset negatively. Therefore, no direct wealth transfer from the debt holders of a company to the equity holders can be derived from these results. Esta tese examina o valor gerado através de processos de spin-off durante o período compreendido entre 2002 e 2010. Os rácios da Dívida Líquida/Preço Médio das Acções e da Dívida/Activo de uma empresa reflectem impactos estatísticos significativos na decisão deste tipo de processos de reestruturação. Assim sendo, o anúncio e decisão de se proceder a um spin-off contribui para que seja gerado um retorno anormal) (RA) para os accionistas da empresa-mãe. O tamanho relativo do spin-off e a respectiva alavancagem financeira correlacionam-se positivamente com os RA, enquanto, por outro lado, a dívida líquida por acção e a rendibilidade líquida dos activos correlacionam-se negativamente. Deste modo, não é possível verificar uma transferência de riqueza dos detentores de títulos de dívida de uma empresa para os detentores de capital próprio.

The first quantitative goal for official development assistance was established in 1970, in a world strongly influenced by redistribution concerns between Northern and Southern countries. The adoption of the Millennium Development Goals renewed the interest in quantitative ODA targets. Other goals, adopted during the last decade, added to the 0.7%, which until then stood for the unique reference for ODA volume. These goals share one common characteristic: their non-accomplishment. It is commonly assumed that the non-accomplishment of the goals is mainly due to donor countries' lack of political will. In this thesis, we attempt to identify more tangible reasons which could explain repetitive failure in fulfilling the goals. For this purpose, we examine the definition of the goals themselves through a critical reading of its constituent elements: its reference indicator, i.e. ODA, its quantitative targets and the nature of donor countries' commitments. We conclude that quantitative ODA goals, as they are defined, are not intended to be reached. Their first purpose is to act as an incentive for donor countries to raise efforts on ODA volume. This means that, at least partly, the definition of the goals accounts for their non-accomplishment. It also explains why failure in meeting the goals persists over time: the goals carry inherently the seed for their subsequent failure. Furthermore, they confine ODA into a logic that has widely proved ineffective., Le premier objectif d'aide chiffré fut adopté en 1970, dans un contexte international marqué par d'intenses préoccupations redistributives entre le Nord et le Sud. L'adoption des OMD est venue raviver l'intérêt pour les objectifs chiffrés de l'APD. Le 0,7 %, qui constituait le seul objectif international pour le volume de l'APD, coexiste dès lors avec d'autres objectifs adoptés au cours de la dernière décennie. Ces objectifs présentent une caractéristique commune: leur défaut de réalisation. Il semble couramment admis que la principale raison pour laquelle ils ne sont pas satisfaits est l'absence de volonté politique des pays donneurs. Cette thèse s'attache à identifier d'autres éléments, plus tangibles, qui puissent expliquer les raisons pour lesquelles ces objectifs ne sont jamais atteints. Notre démarche consiste à interroger la définition même des objectifs, en effectuant une lecture critique de ses éléments constitutifs: l'indicateur de référence, i.e. l'APD, les cibles quantitatives et la nature de l'engagement des pays donneurs. Nous concluons que les objectifs d'aide chiffrés, tel qu'ils sont définis, n'ont pas pour vocation première d'être réalisés. Leur rôle principal est d'inciter les pays donneurs à ne pas relâcher leurs efforts sur le volume d'APD. Ainsi, une partie de l'explication de leur non réalisation est inhérente à leur définition. Cette conclusion contribue à expliquer pourquoi leur défaut de réalisation se perpétue au fil du temps : les objectifs portent en eux-mêmes le germe de leur non réalisation. Qui plus est, ils se situent à la base d'un système autoentretenu qui contribue à enfermer l'APD dans une logique qui a largement montré ses limites.

The paper¡¯s purpose is to quantify the performance of a State in its action as a de facto LBO specialist, taking companies private to restructure them and subsequently reselling them in the share market. A sample comprising all the listed companies nationalized in Portugal in 1975 and 1976 that were subsequently privatised through a relisting by means of a share issue is constructed. The returns earned by the Portuguese Republic are computed, comparing the market values of nationalised companies at the time of their privatization with their theoretical value in a non-nationalization scenario. A negative abnormal return for the Portuguese Republic¡¯s investment in shares is found. This negative return is much worse than the ones computed in similar work for France.

The principal‐agent problem arising from asymmetric information in presales of uncompleted properties in forward property markets has been well‐recognized. Since buyers are not able to inspect the uncompleted properties when they make the purchases, developers may hide information about the negative aspects of the properties or over‐state the quality in order to generate an extra profit in the presales on top of the equilibrium value as if the properties were sold in the spot market. In this regard, the study adapted a forward‐spot property repeat sales pricing model to explore the pricing of presale properties compared to that of spot properties in which the principal‐agent problem does not exist. The findings suggest that developers were able to impose a wealth transfer from the buyers in pricing presale properties taking the advantage of asymmetric information embedded in forward property markets. Santruka Nekilnojamojo turto (NT) agento problema, kuria sukelia neproporcinga informacija iš anksto parduodant nebaigta statyti nekilnojamaji turta išankstiniu NT sandoriu rinkose (angl.forward property markets), yra gerai žinoma. Kadangi pirkejai negali apžiūreti nebaigto statyti nekilnojamojo turto, vystytojai gali nuslepti informacija apie neigiamus nekilnojamojo turto dalykus arba perdeti kokybe, tuo siekdami pasipelnyti iš išankstinio pardavimo papildomai prie likutines vertes, lyg nekilnojamasis turtas būtu parduodamas neatideliotinu atsiskaitymu rinkoje (angl.spot market). Šiuo atžvilgiu tyrime taikytas išankstiniais sandoriais ir neatideliotinais atsiskaitymais pagristo kartotinio NT pardavimo kainodaros modelis, siekiant iš anksto parduodamo NT kainodara išnagrineti lyginant su neatideliotinu atsiskaitymu rinkoje parduodamu NT, kai agento problemos nera. Išvados rodo, kad vystytojai turejo galimybe pirkejams primesti turto perskirstyma paimdami iš ju daugiau, kai iš anksto parduodama nekilnojamaji turta ikainodavo naudodamiesi neproporcinga informacija, būdinga išankstiniu NT sandoriu rinkoms. First Published Online: 09 Jun 2011

As critical piece of China’s gradualist economic transition, domestic price reform still faces major challenges. In particular, factor price, which is still tightly-controlled and not market-based, is lower than market equilibrium price. Factor price distortion not only reduces market efficiency but also affects wealth distribution. Subsequent wealth transfer has, over the past ten to fifteen years, created a powerful vested interests and spawned social resentment, both of which may constitute major hazards in China’s future reform and development. Keeping in mind that China will have to address factor price distortion in its next step of reform, this paper takes stock of China’s journey toward price reform; examines the relationship among factor price distortion, previous economic growth, and policy; and estimates the size of resulting wealth transfer.

Spin-off announcements affect bondholders in two possible ways. Bondholders may profit from the increase in the total firm value that is caused by a spin-off. On the other hand, they may also suffer from a wealth transfer from bondholders to shareholders, because they loose part of the coinsurance effect that occurs in diversified firms. This problem is studied by analyzing daily stock and bond abnormal returns around spin-off announcements. Over a three-day event window, we find statistically significant abnormal returns of 3.07% for shareholders and 0.11% for bondholders. The latter result contrasts a finding by Maxwell and Rao (2003) who use monthly bond returns. Both stock and bond abnormal returns are higher for firms with higher pre-spin-off leverage and lower interest and dividend payouts. Focus-increasing spin-offs are associated with higher abnormal returns for shareholders, but not for bondholders. Overall, we find that the firm value increase compensates for the wealth transfer effect and that bondholders' wealth is not reduced as a result of spin-off.

In this paper, we study the history of Telecom Italia, the sixth biggest world telecommunication company for turnover, to evaluate how changes in control affected minority protection. Telecom Italia was privatized in 1997 and it has been the target of two takeovers in 1999 by Olivetti and 2001 by Pirelli. Recently, in 2008, control was ultimately passed over to a newco, Telco, owned by the Spanish Telefónica and a consortium of Italian banks. We analyze how the acquisitions of Telecom Italia were achieved and, in particular, who paid for the control, and what were the consequences for minorities. We show that, in the case of Telecom Italia, the implementation of pyramids is connected with the existence of large private benefits, measured both by the size of premium paid for the acquisition and by the voting premium. However, minorities constantly suffered a strong expropriation due to the acquisitions. Our analysis reveals that despite the introduction of the Draghi reform in 1998, aimed to strengthen investors’ rights, minority protection is still inadequate in the Italian financial market.

(VF)Dans cet article, nous avançons que les dirigeants, soucieux de maximiser la richesse des actionnaires, manipulent l'information comptable afin de transférer de la richesse de certaines parties prenantes vers les actionnaires. En particulier, la divulgation d'une image de situation financière différente de l'image fidèle permet aux dirigeants d'optimiser les bénéfices futurs, grâce à une réduction des coûts fiscaux, sociaux, et financiers et à une maximisation des revenus futurs.(VA) In this article, we argue that managers, following an objective of maximizing shareholders' wealth, manipulate accounting information to transfer wealth from other stakeholders to the benefit of shareholders. In particular, not presenting a true and fair view of the financial situation of the firm allows the managers to optimizing the future benefits through a reduction of fiscal, social and financing costs and a maximization of the future incomes.

In international circles, the concern of the day is the state of the world economy. There is a general appreciation of the severity of the problem, but no widespread agreement about either diagnosis or solutions. We shall focus here on a particular set of topics that have emerged as major issues during the last decade, and that also seem central to an understanding of the present economic situation. A characteristic of these topics is that they link international and domestic policy areas in so integral a way that neither can be analyzed in isolation from the other. They are: First, the recurrence of recession and unemployment in industrial countries, and the emergence of protectionism. Second, the changing international environment facing the developing countries and, in particular, the issues of export-led strategies and North-South trade in armaments. Third, the pricing of exhaustible resources, including oil, as a major issue in North-South trade, and in the international financial system. Fourth, the role of declining transfers of wealth from industrial to developing countries, and the perceived limitations of the existing international financial institutions.