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We discuss two-photon physics, taking for illustration the particular but topical case of resonance fluorescence. We show that the basic concepts of interferences and correlations provide at the two-photon level an independent and drastically different picture than at the one-photon level, with landscapes of correlations that reveal various processes by spanning over all the possible frequencies at which the system can emit. Such landscapes typically present lines of photon bunching and circles of antibunching. The theoretical edifice to account for these features rests on two pillars: (i) a theory of frequency-resolved photon correlations and (ii) admixing classical and quantum fields. While experimental efforts have been to date concentrated on correlations between spectral peaks, strong correlations exist between photons emitted away from the peaks, which are accessible only through multi-photon observables. These could be exploited for both fundamental understanding of quantum-optical processes as well as applications by harnessing these unsuspected resources. This article is part of the theme issue 'Celebrating the 15th anniversary of the Royal Society Newton International Fellowship'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Minijobs are subsidized small jobs below a fixed earnings threshold. Since a reform in 2003, they are viewed as stepping stones to the first labor market. However, the Minijob subsidy generates a 'Minijob trap' that causes vast bunching at the Minijob earnings threshold. Therefore, Midijobs were designed to reduce this bunching and to eliminate the 'Minijob trap'. Midijobs are employments that earn between the Minijob earnings threshold and the Midijob earnings threshold. In this range, Midijobs subsidize social insurance contributions on a sliding scale. This paper describes time trends in the propensity to leave Minijobs for regular employment and studies the role of Midijobs for transitions out of Minijobs. We find a strong increase in transitions from Minijobs to regular employment over time. However, there is no convincing evidence that Midijobs are connected to this development. Instead, behavioral changes and aggregate developments such as the business cycle and a booming labor market may have contributed to this development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The measurement and recording of vital signs may be impacted by biases, including preferences for even and round numbers. However, other biases, such as variation due to defined numerical boundaries (also known as boundary effects), may be present in vital signs data and have not yet been investigated in a medical setting. We aimed to assess vital signs data for such biases. These parameters are clinically significant as they influence care escalation. Methods: Vital signs data (heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation and systolic blood pressure) were collected from a tertiary hospital electronic medical record over a 2‐year period. These data were analysed using polynomial regression with additional terms to assess for underreporting of out‐of‐range observations and overreporting numbers with terminal digits of 0 (round numbers), 2 (even numbers) and 5. Results: It was found that heart rate, oxygen saturation and systolic blood pressure demonstrated 'boundary effects', with values inside the 'normal' range disproportionately more likely to be recorded. Even number bias was observed in systolic heart rate, respiratory rate and blood pressure. Preference for multiples of 5 was observed for heart rate and blood pressure. Independent overrepresentation of multiples of 10 was demonstrated in heart rate data. Conclusion: Although often considered objective, vital signs data are affected by bias. These biases may impact the care patients receive. Additionally, it may have implications for creating and training machine learning models that utilise vital signs data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Minijobs are subsidized small jobs below a fixed earnings threshold. Since a reform in 2003, they are viewed as stepping stones to the first labor market. However, the Minijob subsidy generates a ‘Minijob trap’ that causes vast bunching at the Minijob earnings threshold. Therefore, Midijobs were designed to reduce this bunching and to eliminate the ‘Minijob trap’. Midijobs are employments that earn between the Minijob earnings threshold and the Midijob earnings threshold. In this range, Midijobs subsidize social insurance contributions on a sliding scale. This paper describes time trends in the propensity to leave Minijobs for regular employment and studies the role of Midijobs for transitions out of Minijobs. We find a strong increase in transitions from Minijobs to regular employment over time. However, there is no convincing evidence that Midijobs are connected to this development. Instead, behavioral changes and aggregate developments such as the business cycle and a booming labor market may have contributed to this development.

We develop a novel control function approach in models where the treatment variable has bunching at one corner of its support. This situation typically arises when the treatment variable is a constrained choice and some observations choose the corner solution. The method exploits distributional shape restrictions but makes no exclusion restrictions. We provide estimators and establish their asymptotic behavior, prove the convergence of the bootstrap, and develop tests of the identification assumptions. An application reveals that watching television has no effect on cognitive skills and a negative effect on noncognitive skills in children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper derives necessary and sufficient conditions for allocations to be incentive compatible in multidimensional screening problems that satisfy a generalized single crossing property. We then devise a numerical method based on these results to solve multidimensional screening problems. Importantly, our numerical method can be applied to multidimensional screening problems for which existing approaches cannot be applied. We apply this method to several numerical examples in the context of multidimensional optimal taxation. In addition to illustrating how to apply our theoretical results and implement our numerical method, our simulations highlight the importance of bunching in optimal multidimensional taxation. Finally, we prove that bunching must occur in multidimensional optimal taxation problems when the social planner has sufficiently redistributive preferences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse the dynamics generated by the anti-Jaynes–Cummings (AJC) Hamiltonian when a two-level atom in an initial atomic ground state couples to a single mode of squeezed coherent light and provide a juxtaposition with the Jaynes–Cummings (JC) interaction for the same initial atom–field states. In the AJC resonant atom–field interaction condition, we noted robust anti-bunching of the squeezed coherent cavity field mode within regions of strong coupling of the atom and the squeezed coherent cavity field mode. In addition, bunching of the field mode occurs when frequency detuning present in the sum frequency is raised while still in the strong coupling region. However, the field mode in the corresponding JC process still displays an immutable anti-bunching. This marked difference is driven by a non-vanishing frequency detuning parameter present during the AJC process. Further, clear enhancement of squeezing effect manifested by an increase in the degree of mixedness and ringing revivals triggered by increase of the squeeze parameter, frequency detuning and sum frequency is observed. Despite similarity in pattern of the coextensive atomic population inversion curves at resonance, the AJC process provides a longer quiescent phase, of atomic population inversion. This feature changes at the respective off-resonance conditions, where at a specified squeeze parameter, the AJC, JC processes have equal revival time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT: Bunching behavior in cattle may occur for several reasons including enabling social interactions, a response to stress or danger, or due to shared interest in resources such as feeding or watering areas. There is evidence in pasture grazed cattle that bunching may occur more frequently at higher ambient temperatures, possibly due to sharing of fly-load or to seek shade from the direct sun under heat stress conditions. Here we demonstrate how bunching behavior is associated with higher ambient temperatures in a barn-housed UK dairy herd. A real-time local positioning system was used, as part of a precision livestock farming (PLF) approach, to track the spatial position and activity of a commercial dairy herd (∼100 cows) in a freestall barn continuously at high temporal resolution for 4 mo between August and November 2014. Bunching was determined using 4 different spatial measures determined on an hourly basis: herd full and core range size, mean herd intercow distance (ICD), and mean herd nearest-neighbor distance (NND). For hourly mean ambient temperatures above 20°C, the herd showed higher bunching behavior with increasing ambient temperature (i.e., reduced full and core range size, ICD, and NND). Aggregated space-use intensity was found to positively correlate with localized variations in temperature across the barn (as measured by animal-mounted sensors), but the level of correlation decreased at higher ambient barn temperatures. Bunching behavior may increase localized temperatures experienced by individuals and hence may be a maladaptive behavioral response in housed dairy cattle, which are known to suffer heat stress at higher temperatures. Our study is the first to use high-resolution positional data to provide evidence of associations between bunching behavior and higher ambient temperatures for a barn-housed dairy herd in a temperate region (UK). Further studies are needed to explore the exact mechanisms for this response to inform both welfare and production management.

Bunching behavior in cattle may occur for several reasons including enabling social interactions, a response to stress or danger, or due to shared interest in resources such as feeding or watering areas. There is evidence in pasture grazed cattle that bunching may occur more frequently at higher ambient temperatures, possibly due to sharing of fly-load or to seek shade from the direct sun under heat stress conditions. Here we demonstrate how bunching behavior is associated with higher ambient temperatures in a barn-housed UK dairy herd. A real-time local positioning system was used, as part of a precision livestock farming (PLF) approach, to track the spatial position and activity of a commercial dairy herd (∼100 cows) in a freestall barn continuously at high temporal resolution for 4 mo between August and November 2014. Bunching was determined using 4 different spatial measures determined on an hourly basis: herd full and core range size, mean herd intercow distance (ICD), and mean herd nearest-neighbor distance (NND). For hourly mean ambient temperatures above 20°C, the herd showed higher bunching behavior with increasing ambient temperature (i.e., reduced full and core range size, ICD, and NND). Aggregated space-use intensity was found to positively correlate with localized variations in temperature across the barn (as measured by animal-mounted sensors), but the level of correlation decreased at higher ambient barn temperatures. Bunching behavior may increase localized temperatures experienced by individuals and hence may be a maladaptive behavioral response in housed dairy cattle, which are known to suffer heat stress at higher temperatures. Our study is the first to use high-resolution positional data to provide evidence of associations between bunching behavior and higher ambient temperatures for a barn-housed dairy herd in a temperate region (UK). Further studies are needed to explore the exact mechanisms for this response to inform both welfare and production management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine how means-tested childcare subsidies affect parental labor supply. Using the introduction of reduced childcare prices for low-income families in Norway in 2015, we show that these subsidies may have the unintended effect of discouraging work rather than promoting employment. First, structural labor supply simulations suggest that a negative parental labor supply effect dominates, ex ante. Ex post, we find a small and insignificant effect of means-tested childcare subsidies on parental labor supply in the reform year. We find no statistically significant bunching around the income limits in subsequent years, but we do find negative labor supply effects in subsequent expansions of the reform. Our results suggest that in a context where both parental employment and participation in formal childcare are high, means-tested childcare subsidies may have unintended parental labor supply effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: This paper develops a maximum likelihood (ML) bunching estimator of the elasticity of taxable income (ETI). Our structural approach provides a natural framework to simultaneously account for unobserved preference heterogeneity and optimization errors and for measuring their relative importance. We characterize the conditions under which the parameters of the model are identified and show that the ML estimator performs well in terms of bias and precision. The paper also contains an empirical application using Swedish data, showing that both the ETI and the standard deviation of the optimization friction are precisely estimated, albeit relatively small. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oil and gas leases between mineral owners and extraction firms typically specify a date by which the firm must either drill a well or lose the lease. These deadlines are known as primary terms. Using data from the Louisiana shale boom, we first show that well drilling is substantially bunched just before the primary term deadline. This bunching is not necessarily surplus‐reducing: using an estimated model of firms' drilling and input choices, we show that primary terms can increase total surplus by countering the effects of leases' royalties, as royalties are a tax on revenue and delay drilling. These benefits are reduced, however, when production outcomes are sensitive to drilling inputs and when drilling one well indefinitely extends the period of time during which additional wells may be drilled. We enrich the model to consider mineral owners' lease offers and find small effects of primary terms on owners' revenue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The progressiveness of the fiscal system is achieved by the personal income tax in the majority of developed countries. However, this structure generated a change in the behavior of the taxpayers. Tax inefficiency is measured through taxpayer behavior change; bunching is one of the last ways to measure that inefficiency. In the last decade, articles about bunching in direct taxation have uncovered certain common trends for any taxpayer. With this review of the literature, we have been able to learn what the lessons are and show the points where the state could increase tax efficiency. The taxpayers who opt for the grouping are those who obtain less income, and those who earn income from self-employment and companies. This knowledge makes it possible to establish the limits of what policymakers could do in the taxing subject. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates firms' responses to threshold-dependent intensity of tax enforcement. We use administrative tax return data over the entire population of German firms and exploit industry variation in firm size thresholds applied by the tax administration. In our setting, each threshold marks a considerable spike in audit intensity and hence should create strong incentives to bunch below the threshold. However, we find no such effect in our large sample analysis. We attribute this empirical observation to optimization costs, particularly to the costs associated with the operational implementation of size management and to information costs. Our paper adds to the emerging field of studies on potential distortions created by threshold-dependent firm regulation. The findings are also relevant for policymakers, as they suggest that the specific design of threshold-dependent policies might allow governments to increase the efficiency of tax audits without distorting the firm size distribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This paper estimates the elasticity of taxable income (ETI) for Spain. Using the bunching approach and administrative tax data from 2008 to 2017, we find evidence of bunching at the first tax kink (ETI = 0.7) and missing mass around the second tax kink (ETI = 0.4). Even though we detect heterogeneity in responses depending on taxpayers' personal and family circumstances, bunching and missing mass are mostly related to labour income. The main mechanism of response for bunching is associated with the use of certain deductions and allowances, while missing mass is driven by the phase-out region of a targeted deduction for labour income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A recent literature has studied bunching at notches in tax systems; but work on the implications of bunching for welfare has been limited. We consider a setting where there are discrete changes in the enforcement of tax compliance at certain levels of reported income, creating notches that can lead to bunching. We find that greater levels of bunching can be associated with greater tax efficiency. A simulation exercise demonstrates that notches with greater bunching can be associated with higher welfare than notches with less bunching, and that a tax system with bunching at a notch can generate higher overall social welfare than a revenue-equivalent no-evasion linear tax. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Typical censoring models have mass points at the upper or lower tails, or at both tails, of an otherwise continuous outcome distribution. In contrast, we consider a censoring model with a mass point in the interior of the outcome distribution. We refer to this mass point as "bunching" and use it to estimate model parameters. For example, economic theory suggests that, for increasing marginal income tax rates, many taxpayers will report income exactly at the threshold where the tax rate increases. This translates into a censoring model with bunching at the threshold. The size of this mass point of taxpayers can be used to estimate an elasticity parameter that summarizes taxpayers' responses to taxes. In this article, we introduce the command bunching, which implements new nonparametric and semiparametric identification methods for estimating elasticities developed by Bertanha, McCallum, and Seegert (2021, Technical Report 2021-002, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System). These methods rely on weaker assumptions than what are currently made in the literature and result in meaningfully different estimates of the elasticity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of countries around the world provide tax incentives for business philanthropy. However, little is known about the responsiveness of businesses to this tax treatment. This paper expands on this scant literature by focusing on the Armenian tax system which provides incentives for business philanthropy. The support takes the form of a deduction capped at a fraction of business receipts. This generates a kink beyond which the marginal tax subsidy drops to zero. Using administrative data for the years 2007 through 2017, we find strong evidence of bunching by Armenian firms at the kink, with a sizeable tax elasticity of giving at the intensive margin. The evidence on bunching continues to be strong regardless of whether firms have been audited, and to whether any tax deficiencies are observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Previous studies have shown that outcomes following a place and active hold (PAH) are better than a passive flexion protocol after a two-strand core-suture repair of flexor tendons injuries in zone II. This study aims to determine the outcomes of a PAH protocol of flexor tendon rehabilitation following a four-strand core-suture plus an epitendinous suture repair of the flexor digitorum profundus (FDP) combined with a simple horizontal loop repair of the flexor digitorum superficialis (FDS). Methods: This is a prospective study of patients with complete injury to both flexor tendons in zone II. All tendons were repaired with a simple horizontal loop for FDS and four-strand core-suture plus epitendinous suture for FDP. The PAH protocol was used postoperatively for 6 weeks. The outcome was evaluated using flexion contracture and total active motion (TAM), interpreted using Strickland criteria and categorised as excellent, good, fair and poor at 6 weeks and 3 months. The linear regression model was used to determine predictors of outcomes. Results: The study included 32 patients with flexor tendon injury in 46 fingers. No repairs ruptured, and 24 (52%) digits achieved good or excellent motion 6 weeks after surgery using the Strickland criteria. According to the Strickland criteria, 41 (89%) digits ranked as excellent and good with no poor result at a 3-month follow-up. Four patients had 5–10° of flexion contracture. Age was the predictor of TAM at 6 weeks and accounted for 13% of its variation. Improvement of TAM from 6 weeks to 3 months was related to age and flexion contracture at 6 weeks. Conclusions: The PAH protocol can be considered a safe technique for flexor rehabilitation after four-strand core-suture repair of FDP in zone II. Level of Evidence: Level IV (Therapeutic) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies adverse selection problems with a one-dimensional principal instrument and a two-dimensional agent type. We provide an optimality condition that characterizes the bunching of continuum types. The approach is based on a reparameterization of the type space in terms of the endogenous optimal allocation level curves. The condition obtained is related with the optimality of two pooling types in the one-dimensional screening without the single-crossing. We illustrate the method by analyzing one example from the literature as well as a new example far from the linear-quadratic case [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how small firms respond to the VAT registration threshold in the context of high informality. Using the panel of VAT and corporate income tax return data from Thailand, we study bunching response at the threshold, examine the role of informality, and investigate growth effects. We find that Thai firms respond strongly to the notch with the bunching pattern consistent with the incentive at the threshold. We also present suggestive evidence that highlights the VAT informality (defined as the presence of non-VAT firms) as a key incentive underlying the bunching response. Finally, our findings indicate that the threshold provides a brake on small business growth. We demonstrate that firms not registered for VAT have significantly lower growth rate than a propensity score-matched group of firms that voluntarily registered. Such effects are stronger for firms closer to the threshold with part of them likely driven by misreporting. These findings have important implications for the VAT threshold policy in developing countries and are widely applicable since the size-dependent thresholds are commonly applied to small businesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the response of small-scale value-added tax (VAT) taxpayers to the changes of VAT thresholds and VAT tax rates. Using firm-level tax administrative data for the period between 2005 and 2012, we find that firms tend to bunch around the VAT thresholds. We also find that commercial firms and firms with higher value-added ratios are less likely to register as general taxpayers. We provide an estimate of the elasticity of the VAT tax base in the range of 0.027 and 0.05. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We perform an analysis of public transport data from The Hague, the Netherlands, combined from three sources: static network information, automatic vehicles location and automated fare collection data. We highlight the effect of bunching swings, and show that this phenomenon can be extracted using unsupervised machine learning techniques, namely clustering. We also show the correlation between bunching rate and passenger load, and bunching probability patterns for working days and weekends. We present the approach for extracting isolated bunching swings formations (BSF) and show different cases of BSFs, some of which can persist for a considerable time. We applied our approach to the tram line 1 of The Hague, and computed and presented four different patterns of BSFs, which we name "high passenger load", "whole route", "evening, end of route", "long duration". We analyse each bunching swings formation type in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monitoring of changes in the behaviour of dairy cows related to the occurrence of insects in the stable and in the milking parlour was carried out on a selected dairy farm during the summer season. The effect of the number of insects on the occurrence of huddling of dairy cows in the stable was proved. Huddling occurred significantly (P = 0.003) more often when the number of insects captured by fly glue traps exceeded 500 individuals. The occurrence of pest flies affected also the behaviour of dairy cows during milking. With the increasing number of insects captured by glue traps in the milking parlour, the cows more frequently kicked off the milking units (r = 0.944, P < 0.001) and defecated (r = 0.940, P < 0.001) during milking. In addition, the increasing number of captured insects correlated with a significantly lower milk yield in cows (r = -0.709, P < 0.001). The number of insects in the stable also correlated with the incidence of mastitis in dairy cows on the monitored farm (r = 0.681, P < 0.001) during the summer season. The study shows that pest flies affect the behaviour of cows which is further reflected in their health, milk production and thus the overall farm performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article applies an explicit statistical test to a data set of US firms for the period 1988 to 2010 to test for the presence of bunching behaviour around kinks in the tax code implied by strategic cost-shifting. Using the McCrary's (2008) density test, the study finds evidence of clustering behaviour at bracket thresholds associated with increases in marginal tax rates (convex kinks) and gaps or holes at bracket cut-points where the marginal tax rates drop. This evidence implies that kinked tax codes create incentives for taxpayers to engage in manipulation of taxable income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We exploit kinks and notches in the UK personal tax schedule over a 40-year period to investigate how taxpayers respond to income tax and social security contributions. At kinks, where the marginal rate rises, we find bunching by company owner-managers and the self-employed, but not those with only employment income. Responses to notches, where the average rate rises, provide compelling evidence that this is because most employees face substantial frictions: fewer than a quarter bunch even where doing so would increase both consumption and leisure. We develop a new approach for identifying selection in who responds and for decomposing responses into hours and wage components. We find that those employees who do bunch at notches are almost exclusively part-time workers, but tend to have lower wages and work more hours than those part-time workers who do not bunch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the effects of enrichment activities such as reading, homework, and extracurricular lessons on children's cognitive and non-cognitive skills. We take into consideration the opportunity cost of spending time on enrichment, as it may replace activities such as sleep and socializing. Our study controls for selection on unobservables using a control function approach that leverages the fact that many children spend zero hours per week on enrichment activities. At zero enrichment, confounders vary but enrichment does not, giving us direct information about the effect of confounders on skills. Using time diary data available in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we find that the net effect of the last hour of enrichment is close to zero for cognitive skills and negative for non-cognitive skills. The negative effects for non-cognitive skills are concentrated in high school, consistent with elevated academic pressure related to college admissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subject and purpose. Presently, there is a problem of creation of simple in exploitation generators for a sub-millimeter range, especially in his shot-wave part. Electro-vacuum generators of type BWT and klynotron are work out for long wave part of sub-millimeter range. Difficulties at designing are increase with shortening of wave length. The sizes of the slow-wave structures diminish, requirement to the density of current of electronic bunches and to quality of their focusing, increase. The use electro-vacuum multipliers of frequency, can weaken these requirements considerably. The numeral research of the catcher for the electro-vacuum frequency multiplier, is described in this paper for sub millimeter range. The aim of these researches are an estimation of attainable output power of frequency multipliers and search of optimal parameters for their realization in sub-millimeter range of waves. Methods and methodology. For a calculation catcher efficiency, the analysis of three-dimension motion of electronic bunch in set field of the slowing wave system is conducted. For the numeral integration of the electron motion equation, the universal program “KLYNOTRON” is used. This program was worked out by us before for BWT and klynotron research. In this program many parameters of the real task are take into account. For description of spatial distribution longitudinal and transversal constituents of electric-field tension, the exact analytical method of conformal mapping is used. Thus, all spatial harmonics of the field are taken into account at once in analytical expressions and the field singularity is exactly described near-by the ribs of metallic elements. Results. A numeral study of catcher parameter influence is undertaken on the output power of multiplier. On the ranges of waves 0,5 mm and 0,3 mm the regime and possible for realization catcher structural parameters are certain Conclusions. Undertaken a study showed that at existent technological possibilities really to create the multipliers of frequency in the range of waves at 0.3…0.5 mm with output power at order ten millwatt. A necessary condition for creation of such devices is optimization of parameters of buncher of electronic clots in the multiplier of frequency.

Partitioning a picture is an imperative idea in picture preparation. Partitioned pictures are fundamental for various picture preparing techniques. In this paper, we are endeavouring to obtained the components to procure the sections of a boisterous picture with density bunching built approach. At first we input a boisterous RGB picture and perform RGB to Grayscale transformation on it. We perform median percolation on it to evacuate salt and pepper commotion. To find the spatial availability of the pixels, density built bunching is utilized which is a compelling grouping strategy utilized in information digging for finding spatial databases. Test outcomes employing projected procedure by presenting empowering execution. We estimate the values of similarity matrices for segmented images to assess the similarity between original and segmented images which is essential to sustained the loading of segmented images in cloud space.

Partitioning a picture is an imperative idea in picture preparation. Partitioned pictures are fundamental for various picture preparing techniques. In this paper, we are endeavouring to obtained the components to procure the sections of a boisterous picture with density bunching built approach. At first we input a boisterous RGB picture and perform RGB to Grayscale transformation on it. We perform median percolation on it to evacuate salt and pepper commotion. To find the spatial availability of the pixels, density built bunching is utilized which is a compelling grouping strategy utilized in information digging for finding spatial databases. Test outcomes employing projected procedure by presenting empowering execution. We estimate the values of similarity matrices for segmented images to assess the similarity between original and segmented images which is essential to sustained the loading of segmented images in cloud space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I show that the magnitude of taxpayer responsiveness, a key parameter in public finance, varies through time. Using linked administrative data and identifying responses from changes in notches, I document a marked decline in responsiveness during the Great Recession that cannot be explained by increased enforcement. I characterize which employee–employer pairs are best at reporting tax-advantaged incomes. Workers in industries with above-average responsiveness, such as construction, were disproportionately affected by the recession. I show responsiveness also declined for workers who remained matched with the same employers throughout the period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We extend the bunching approach introduced by Saez (Am Econ J Econ Policy 2:180–212, 2010) by proposing an intuitive, data-driven procedure to determine the bunching window. By choosing the bunching window ad hoc, researchers throw away informative data points for estimating the counterfactual income distribution in the absence of the kink. Assuming a descending bunching mass to both sides of the threshold, the proposed algorithm produces a distribution of lower and upper bounds for the bunching window. In each iteration, the bunching window is defined as all contiguous bin midpoints around the threshold that lie outside of the confidence band resulting from running a local regression through all data points outside of the excluded region. Monte Carlo simulations provide evidence that our data-driven procedure outperforms larger bunching windows in terms of bias and efficiency. In our application for the Netherlands, we find clear evidence of bunching behaviour at all three thresholds of the Dutch tax schedule with a precisely estimated elasticity of 0.023 at the upper threshold, which is driven by self-employed, women and joint tax filers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The desirability of a particular tax system depends on how different taxpayers react to it. Exploiting the personal allowance threshold and detailed German tax administration data, this paper examines responses at low taxable incomes to extend previous findings. Taxpayers bunch at the allowance threshold, and more so with non‐wage income. Unlike in other studies, wage earners also bunch, at least if they file a tax return, while incomes gross of deductions do not. Deductions account for a sizeable share of the sharp bunching mass of taxpayers with non‐wage income. A machine learning analysis identifies which deduction items predict such sharp bunching. The pattern of results suggests that local intensive‐margin real responses induce moderate deadweight loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Payroll tax is applied to the total remuneration expenditure of a firm. Once the total remuneration exceeds a certain threshold, the firm is subject to a marginal tax called payroll tax. In a perverse way, the threshold could discourage some firms from growing so that payroll tax is avoided. This paper uses administrative business income tax data to determine whether payroll tax affects the behaviour of businesses. It is found that in general, firms do not bunch just below the payroll tax threshold and firms do not attempt to avoid payroll tax by hiring contractors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a novel source of quasi-experimental variation in interest rates, we develop a new approach to estimating the Elasticity of Intertemporal Substitution (EIS). In the U.K., the mortgage interest rate features discrete jumps—notches—at thresholds for the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio. These notches generate large bunching below the critical LTV thresholds and missing mass above them. We develop a dynamic model that links these empirical moments to the underlying structural EIS. The average EIS is small, around 0.1, and quite homogeneous in the population. This finding is robust to structural assumptions and can allow for uncertainty, a wide range of risk preferences, portfolio reallocation, liquidity constraints, present bias, and optimization frictions. Our findings have implications for the numerous calibration studies that rely on larger values of the EIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spillover effects are an expansion of conservation benefits beyond protected areas through dispersal of species that reside within. They have been well documented in marine but not terrestrial systems. To understand the effects on wildlife created by conservation fences, we explored the internal and external gradients of activity in mammal, reptile, and bird species at a conservation reserve in arid Australia that is fenced to exclude invasive rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), cats (Felis catus), and foxes (Vulpes vulpes). Two methods were used: counts of animal tracks along transects on sand dunes and captures at pitfall‐trapping sites. In both cases, sites were spaced at different distances from the reserve fenceline inside and outside the reserve. We recorded a range of spillover, source‐sink, step, and barrier effects that combined to create a zone within and around the reserve with fence‐induced species‐specific wildlife gradients. Two endemic rodents but none of the 4 mammal species reintroduced to the reserve showed positive spillover effects. Barrier effects, where activity was highest close to the fence, were recorded for the feral cat and native bettong (Bettongia lesueur), species that could not breach the fence. In comparison, some reptiles and native mammal species that could permeate the fence displayed source‐sink effects; that is, their activity levels were reduced close to the fence likely due to constant emigration to the side with lower density. Activity of some reptiles was lowest at sites inside the reserve and gradually increased at outside sites with distance from the fence, a gradient likely related to trophic cascades triggered by predator exclusion. Our result shows that fenced reserves can create overlapping layers of species‐specific gradients related to each species' ability to permeate the fence and its varying susceptibility to threats. Managers should be aware that these gradients may extend for several kilometers either side of the fence and that not all contained species will increase in abundance. Creating wider conservation benefits may require increased fence permeability and threat reduction outside the fence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the behavioural responses to kinks and notches in the Dutch system of cash transfers, using data on the universe of Dutch households for the period 2007–2014. We typically do not find statistically significant evidence of bunching around kinks or notches, neither in income nor in wealth. This finding is robust across different household types and modes of employment. We consider potential mechanisms that can explain this apparent lack of bunching. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The phase-in and phase-out of benefits as part of social safety nets has the potential to distort individuals' labor supply decisions. Classical economic theory predicts a strong incentive to adjust labor supply and bunch at the discontinuities that arise within notched tax systems. However, such behavior has been difficult to observe in both survey and administrative data. In this paper, we design a laboratory experiment to explore the impact of notches on subjects' bunching behavior within an environment where subjects receive full information about their payment schedules and can freely adjust their labor supply (number of tasks completed). While we find clear evidence of bunching under our notched payment system, many subjects still fail to bunch. We explore the role of behavioral factors such as self-control, overconfidence, and loss aversion as potential determinants of bunching behavior. Our results indicate that, within our sample, self-control and loss aversion have a positive and significant association with subjects' decision to bunch, while overconfidence has a negative association. These estimates are of the expected sign and suggest that behavioral factors may serve as important underlying determinants of an individual's decision to bunch. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the responsiveness of small- and medium-sized firms to a small-business corporate income tax schedule using population-wide administrative data from South Africa. We find sizeable bunching of firms at the corporate income thresholds where the corporate tax rate increases, implying active responses to corporate income taxes. The observed bunching is very sharp and reacts immediately to changes in the location of the kink points. These observations suggest that a sizeable part of the response is driven by reporting responses rather than real economic behavior. We find indicative evidence that reporting behavior is linked to underreporting of sales and legal tax-planning activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]