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Shipping lines avoid tax burdens and policy requirements by registering their self-owned vessels in flag of convenience (FOC) countries and establishing subsidiaries in those countries. However, since the international tax system has been increasingly focused on substance, coherence, and transparency, the anti-tax avoidance rules may have affected the choice of registry for shipping lines. Based on the 900-ship registry data of the top 25 liners across 26 flag states over the period 2008 to 2019, this paper uses conditional logit and mixed logit models to examine the effect of anti-tax avoidance rules on the choice of registry for shipping lines. In this regard, the results indicate that introducing country-by-country reporting requirements and a common reporting standard will reduce the probability of shipping lines registering to flag in those countries. On the other hand, after imposing anti-tax avoidance rules, liners are more willing to register flags in countries with higher tax rates. The results of a regional analysis show that better tax performance exerts an adverse effect on flag choice of European shipping lines; however, it has the opposite effect on Asian shipping lines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using microsimulations this paper analyzes the poverty and tax implications of replacing current transfers and subsidies by a budget-neutral (no change in the fiscal deficit) universal basic income program (UBI) in Brazil, Chile, India, Russia, and South Africa. We consider three UBI transfers with increasing levels of generosity and identify scenarios in which the poor are no worse off than in the baseline scenario of existing social transfers. We find that for poverty levels not to increase under a UBI reform, the level of spending must increase substantially with respect to the baseline. Accordingly, the required increase in tax burdens is high throughout. We find that the increase in the average tax rate that would be consistent with not hurting the poor is almost universally above 30%, limiting the feasibility of a UBI reform due to political resistance and efficiency costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We employ the Affine Stone Index demand system and Irish data to quantify the distributional effects of additional carbon taxes, taking into account the monetary benefits of action. We estimated the avoided economic damages from climate change, and the monetary value of the avoided emissions using willingness to pay from the literature. When these benefits of action are included in the metric for tax incidence, the tax burden decreases considerably. In addition, when the benefits disproportionately benefit low income households, carbon taxes are no longer regressive. We also analyze a flat and a pro-poor revenue allocation. We found that while these instruments reduce vertical inequalities (i.e. across income levels), they can increase horizontal inequalities (within income levels). We show that these instruments can reduce the environmental savings attributed to the additional carbon tax. However, this problem can be minimized by a partial allocation of additional revenues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While services are an essential element in the global production, trade and consumption of manufactured goods, limited research has been conducted on the role of services in studies of global value chains (GVCs). Recently, however, an emerging literature on the 'servicification' of manufacturing in GVCs has evolved, most of which involves aggregate-level analyses of countries and sectors based on trade statistics. Previous studies have thus failed to explore whether and how local firms in developing countries may capture value and upgrade through their insertion into GVCs as service suppliers. In this paper, we contribute to the literature by analysing the development of an industry supplying wind-turbine services in South Africa. We draw on in-depth fieldwork, including fifty-two interviews and five case studies of firms operating as suppliers of various types of 'embedded' services to wind-power projects constructed in South Africa. We show the significant economic value in terms of the employment thereby created and the upgrading pathways of five local service-suppliers in knowledge-intensive and high value-added service activities. Our findings point to the benefit of devoting attention to the role of services in relation to upgrading in GVCs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the distributional impacts of a water pollution tax in the Olifants river basin using a regional environmental computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The distributional impacts were evaluated considering both the household income and spending-side effects. We find that the water pollution tax is progressive on the income side as the poorest and vulnerable derive lower shares of their income from capital, which bears the biggest burden of the tax. However, the tax is regressive on the expenditure side due to the higher share of pollution-intensive goods in poor households' expenditure. The net effect of the tax is, however, not pro-poor. Revenue recycling through a subsidy to pollution abatement sectors mitigates the adverse distributional impacts of the tax whereas uniform direct lump-sum transfers to households' income reverse the adverse distributional impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines firms' asset volatility across a broad cross-section of publicly traded Taiwanese listed nonfinancial firms and its relationship with effective tax rate and equity volatility under the capital structure framework. By analysing the leverage effect hypothesis of firms under the asymmetric diagonal VECH-GJR model, we find both equity volatility and asset volatility do not show the asymmetric effect. In the context of equity volatility dynamics, financial leverage turns from being negatively related to equity volatility to being positively related to equity volatility when the model adds asset volatility as a control variable. Moreover, lower equity volatility is found to be associated with higher effective tax rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has shown that neoliberal economic policies may increase violence. In this study we extend this logic to create a "neoliberalism-homicide hypothesis." We test this hypothesis using two global measures of neoliberalism (the Economic Freedom of the World Index and the Index of Economic Freedom) and 2014 homicide rates for 142 nations. Regression analysis provides little support for the neoliberalism-homicide hypothesis using the global indexes. However, when examining factors that make up these indexes we discover that as size of government and tax burden become more neoliberal across nations, homicide rates increase. A post hoc exploratory analysis suggests that the association between government size, spending, taxes, and homicide is largely indirect and manifests through economic inequality and poverty. That is, neoliberal government policies appear to increase poverty and inequality which, in turn, lead to higher rates of homicide. We situate our findings within the broader literature on neoliberalism and violence and suggest directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research and theory on state general sales tax policy provide the major factors and components of the sales tax base that affect revenue reliance and tax burden. However, previous research on general sales tax policy has concentrated on individual factors and components of the sales tax base without considering the interdependent and interrelated causes of revenue reliance and tax burden. In addition, regression-based analyses are limited in analyzing the causal conjunctures that affect revenue reliance and tax burden. Thus, this research focused on a complementary approach to the effects of causes and the causes of effects, thereby empirically examining the combined causes of revenue reliance and tax burden through a (fs) QCA analysis of U.S. state data spanning from 2007 to 2010. This study reveals that the combined causes of revenue reliance and tax burden vary as ideal types compared with the effects of real types observed in the panel data analysis. This study contributes to the current literature by examining interrelated and interdependent causal relationships with regard to revenue reliance and tax burden in a complementary manner. State governments must consider the combined effects of causal conjunctures that affect revenue reliance and tax burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use a computable overlapping generations model economy to analyze the quantitative effects of some reforms on tax and transfer programs, aimed at easing the tax burden on the labor supply of older workers. We focus on retirement behavior, work hours over the life cycle, and efficiency gains. We find that the labor supply of older workers is very responsive to changes in tax and transfer programs and show that the gains, in terms of old-age work hours, are non-trivial. However, we also find that longer careers may not substantially increase aggregate hours because workers may reallocate labor supply over the life cycle in response to retiring later. Moreover, since longer careers may also reduce saving rates, we also find that changes in tax and transfer programs aimed at boosting the employment rates of the elderly may reduce output per head. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late 1990s, China enacted a rural tax reform known as the “Tax-for-Fee Reform” (TFR), largely driven by a desire to address farmers' complaints about what they perceived as a heavy and regressive tax burden. This study examines the impact of the TFR on inequality in rural villages in China. Our results suggest that the TFR plays an effective role in reducing inequality within villages. Its impact on a consumption-based measure of inequality took effect immediately; its impact on per capita household income inequality took somewhat longer. Our results also suggest that it was “rich” and/or “coastal” villages that exhibited a significant reduction of inequality as a result of the TFR, whereas “poor” and/or “inland” villages experienced no significant changes in inequality from the reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the medium-term effects of a carbon tax on growth and CO2emissions in Ireland, a small open economy. We find that a double dividend exists if the carbon tax revenue is recycled through reduced income taxes. If the revenue is recycled by giving a lump-sum transfer to households, a double dividend is unlikely. We also determine that a greater incidence of the carbon tax falls on capital than on labour. When combined with a decrease in income tax, there is a clear shift of the tax burden from labour to capital. Finally, most of the effect on the economy is due to changes in the competitiveness of the manufacturing and market services sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study adds to the growing literature on the distributional effects of indirect or consumption taxes in developing countries by exploring whether these taxes have differential gender outcomes. Using data from Statistics South Africa's 2000 Income and Expenditure Survey, the study investigates differences in tax incidence between “female-type” and “male-type” households, classified according to their demographic and economic attributes. The results suggest that zero-rating a well-targeted selection of basic foodstuffs and fuel for household use is important in protecting female-type households, especially those in the lowest quintiles and with children, from bearing an otherwise disproportionate share of the tax burden. In contrast, high taxes on alcohol, tobacco, and fuel for private transport result in a larger incidence on male-type households. The study also suggests ways in which the indirect tax structure could be refined to further reduce the large gender (and income) inequities that exist in South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper empirically tests the effects of taxation on economic performance using prefectural level city and county data from China. Results based on cross-sectional data from over 200 prefectural cities in 2007 indicate that overall tax burden and tax structure affect economic performance. Specifically, tax burden has a negative correlation with economic activities. Empirical results from the analysis of disaggregated local data for over 2,000 counties in China also support the hypothesis that distortionary taxation lowers the economic activities. These findings provide empirical evidence from China on a negative relationship of the total tax burden with economic activities. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

ABSTRACT: This study contributes to the debate about tolls' equity impacts by examining the potential economic costs of tolling for low-income and non-low-income households. Using data from the Puget Sound metropolitan region in Washington State and geographic information systems methods to map driving routes from home to work, we examine car ownership and transportation patterns among low-income and non-low-income households. We follow standard practice of estimating tolls' potential impact only on households with workers who would drive on tolled and nontolled facilities. We then redo the analysis including broader groups of households. We find that the degree of regressivity is quite sensitive to the set of households included in the analysis. The results suggest that distributional analyses of tolls should estimate impacts on all households in the relevant region in addition to impacts on just users of roads that are currently tolled or likely to be tolled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This study finds that the effective state and local tax rate for the top 1% of income households as a percentage of the effective state and local tax rate for the bottom 20% of income households in 2002 is significantly influenced by whether a state has a multi-rate income tax, right-to-work laws, the liberalism of a state''s electorate, the average tax burden in a state and past tax policy. Democratic Party strength in state government, Republican or Democratic Party institutional control of state government, change in real per capita income, a Democratic Governor and the change in the share of income going to the top 1% of income households are not significant predictors. The empirical results are identical for the top 2–5% of income households to the bottom 20% of income households. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper discusses a recently discovered unpublished manuscript, ‘The Elements of Commerce Delineated in Aphorisms’, which can now be attributed to Joseph Massie, author of The Natural Rate of Interest (1750). It is conjectured that Massie wrote this manuscript to present pithily the outline of a book ‘The Elements of Commerce’ that he proposed to write. This book was to be used for educating students in what would have been Britain's first business school. The British Government turned down Massie's proposal for this business school. However, the manuscript ‘The Elements of Commerce Delineated in Aphorisms’ outlines the skeletal outline of part of the course that Massie would have liked to present. It shows Massie making significant contributions to economics in the areas of price theory, tax incidence and the role of money and the rate of interest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By measuring the tax burdens for both Chinese urban and the rural households in the 1990s, we find that the taxes on the urban households were mainly indirect taxes through consumption of goods and services while those on rural households were largely direct taxes such as state agricultural taxes, local fees and tuition. Although the incomes of rural households were much lower than those of their urban counterparts, rural households were taxed much more heavily than their urban counterparts. By calculating the total tax burdens for different income groups of both urban and rural households, we find that rural tax in general was much more regressive. The main reasons for rural tax becoming more acute in the 1990s were the increasing rural income disparity and the uneven tax incidence biased against poorer households. Policy implications are drawn for the ongoing rural tax reform, the rearrangement of inter-governmental relationships as well as improving local governance in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Estimates the incidence of local taxes and expenditures and the distribution of income in metropolitan Washington DC under the fragmented system of government and under a hypothetical metropolitan-wide regime. Distribution of metropolitan resources in a unified form of metropolitan governance; Similarity of tax and expenditure incidence and income distribution in the two systems.