Download or read book Three Essays on Taxation Environment and Welfare written by Inkee Hong and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: My dissertation examines theoretically the effects of environmental taxation on welfare in various cases. Using a general equilibrium model, the first chapter shows that a Pigouvian tax provides a larger welfare gain than an output tax, since it induces substitution among inputs as well as reduction in output of the dirty good, while an output tax induces only the output reduction. Using data for China and the U.S., numerical simulation results show that the potential welfare loss from not being able to use a Pigouvian tax is much larger in developing countries than in developed countries. The second chapter focuses on the fact that recycled material needs reprocessing to be substitutable for virgin material. Reprocessing uses resources and, in the process, generates pollution. Incorporating these 'imperfect' characteristics into a simple general equilibrium model, I examine how these realistic factors affect the structure of taxsubsidy schemes when the Pigouvian taxes are not available. A generalized Deposit-Refund system can achieve the optimum if illegal dumping is not taxable. Without a Pigouvian tax on illegal dumping, recycling is subsidized for its role in diverting illegal disposal into proper disposal. If Pigouvian taxes on neither illegal disposal nor waste from imperfect reprocessing are available, a combination of output tax on reprocessed material and subsidies for clean inputs can be used to restore the optimum. In the process, another reason to subsidize recycling emerges: recycling is a clean input for imperfect reprocessing. The third chapter focuses on the validity of the results obtained in the first chapter in the case of two vertically-separated oligopolies where the upstream industry is polluting. Using an analytical partial equilibrium model, I show that a tax on pollution is potentially superior to a tax on intermediate good, since the former can utilize both the upstream firms' input substitutability and the downstream firms' input substitutability, while a tax on intermediate good only utilizes the downstream firms' input substitutability. I also derive the conditions that government can improve social welfare through various revenue-neutral tax reforms.

Download or read book Essays on Taxation Positive and Normative Aspects written by Harry Tsang and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation consists of three essays on taxation. The first essay examines whether government policy, through the use of tax incentives, is able to encourage household savings. This essay analyzes the impact of the 1990 Education Savings Bond Program. This policy created an additional tax incentive for owners of existing government savings bonds, by allowing interest earnings to be exempt from income taxes in years where the household incurs a qualified education expense. Using the 1989 and 1992 Survey of Consumer Finance data sets, a difference-in-difference methodology is used to measure how household savings has changed over time for households with college-bound children as opposed to those without. Households without college-bound children do not need to save for education and thus are not affected by the program. The comparison of savings for the two groups, correcting for individual characteristics, reveals the impact of the Education Savings Bond Program. In addition, this procedure allows one to infer if there has been a crowding out effect due to the Education Savings Bond Program. The results indicate that the policy has not had an effect on household savings. The second essay uses two different estimation procedures to calculate the incidence of environmental taxes and compares the results. Both estimation procedures assume non-separability of leisure and so the labor response is incorporated into estimates of household behavior. The first method is the Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS) model of Deaton and Muellbauer. The AIDS model assumes linear Engel curves and if this assumption is violated then welfare estimates are biased. The Quadratic Almost Ideal Demand System (QUAIDS) model of Banks, Blundell and Lewbel extends the AIDS model to allow for non-linear Engel curves. Households consume three goods -- a composite clean good, a composite energy good and leisure. Data on household consumption is from the Interview Survey component of the Consumer Expenditure Survey. The AIDS model finds the energy good and leisure to be substitutes while the QUAIDS model finds no relationship between the two goods. Moreover the AIDS model is found to overestimate the welfare loss of environmental taxes on low-income households but underestimate the welfare loss of environmental taxes on high-income households. The third essay again uses the Almost Ideal Demand System model of Deaton and Muellbauer to estimate demand for junk food as well as calculate the incidence of taxes on junk food. The model assumes households consume three goods -- a composite healthy food good, a composite unhealthy food good (junk food) and a composite nonfood good. Data on household consumption is from the Diary Survey component of the Consumer Expenditure Survey. The Diary Survey collects detailed data on food expenditures. Price data consists of price indices for various commodities which is available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The compensated own-price elasticities indicate that both healthy food and junk food have inelastic demand. In addition, healthy food and junk food are found to be substitutes. The elasticity values found are consistent with the literature.

Download or read book Three Essays in Public Finance and Environmental Economics written by Sanghyun Hwang and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first essay studies the Marginal Cost of Funds in the existence of tax evasion. We develop a general equilibrium model of tax evasion, including the expected utility of taxpayers and three different revenue-raising government policies. In this rich model environment, we analytically derive the marginal cost of funds (MCF) for the alternative policy instruments. We consider two main fiscal reforms: the revision in the nonlinear tax scheme and the changes in enforcement mechanism (the audit and penalty rates). First, we derive the MCF for the tax reform and find its key determinants. The derived MCF is greater than the previous ones since it includes a "risk-bearing cost" as well as tax distortion. The reform in enforcement mechanism generates MCFs in different forms. Two more MCFs with respect to audit and penalty rates are presented. Finally, we compare these three different MCFs in numerical example and provide some policy implications. The second essay explores optimal tax structure in the presence of status effect. When the consumption of certain goods affects one's social status, this externality creates two opposite effects in a society. Seeking higher status through "positional goods" gives individuals much incentive to supply labor but still allocates income for less "nonpositional goods" as well. In this case, differential taxes on positional goods work as corrective instruments to internalize the social cost stemming from status seeking. Furthermore, the differential taxes generate revenue that can be used to alleviate preexisting income tax distortion. Thus, the differential taxes on positional goods could give so called "double dividend." I develop a game-theoretic model in which each individual with a different labor productivity unknown to the others engages in a status-seeking game, and the government has a revenue requirement. Then I show that, under a condition in which utility is separable between positional goods and leisure, a revenue-neutral shift in the tax mix away from nonlinear income taxes towards positional-good taxes enhances welfare. Hence, the differential taxes on positional goods are necessary together with the nonlinear income taxes for an optimal tax structure. The third essay explores the impact of increasing capital mobility on regional growth and environment. I develop an endogenous growth model in which each local government competes against the others, to induce imperfectly mobile stock of capital into its region. Then I show that an increase in capital mobility generates "tax importing" due to which each locality experiences a higher growth rate and more degraded environment. That is, the increasing mobility dampens the capital tax and transfers the burden of pollution abatement to the locality. This finding supports the hypothesis of "race to the bottom" in environmental standards. Identifying a reduction in overall welfare of residents, I consider two alternative federal interventions in the model: uniform environmental standard and requirement of lump sum transfer or tax. Both of these federal instruments enhance the residents' welfare.

Download or read book Three Essays on Welfare Effects of Government Intervention written by Qinwen Tan and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is critical to mitigating climate change and achieving greater energy security. The desire to understand what governmental tools and how to apply to protect the local and global environment effectively and efficiently is a core driver for researches in the subfield of environmental economics. Despite the progress made in the modeling of social welfare with environmental externalities, many questions regarding secondbest biofuel policies, interaction between biofuel policies and finance system, and connection between trade and the environment remain unanswered. To date, the indirect, general effects of biofuel policies on the general economy, through "fiscal interaction effects" have largely been ignored. The thesis designs a general equilibrium model to investigate the fiscal interaction effects of tax credit policy. The marginal costs caused by tax credit are higher than the marginal benefits. In the second-best setting with pre-existing fuel tax and labor tax, tax credit is welfare reducing. The optimal second-best tax credit is estimated at the level of $0.22/GEEG ($0.15/gallon), which is 67% lower than the current tax exemption. Monte Carlo analysis shows that the probability of tax credit at $0.22/GEEG or less is 29% and at the current level or less is 72%. Next the thesis analyzes the effects of the quantitative ethanol mandate from both positive and welfare perspectives. Given the pre-existing government distortions, ethanol mandate is welfare enhancing. In the presence of fuel tax and labor tax, the net welfare gain caused by the ethanol mandate is estimated to be 8.61 billion dollars while the net welfare loss caused by tax credit is estimated to 26.87 billion dollars. Consistent with previous studies, the results show that the ethanol mandate dominates tax credit. Last, the thesis analyzes the effects of an ad valorem tariff on the local and global environment and total social welfare using a modified Bertrand duopoly model with environmentally differentiated products. The results show that tariff imposed by the developed country improves the local and global environment while reducing the social welfare. If the developed country has a high environmental standard, the country should restrict its imports of the dirty products. If the less developed country restricts the imports of clean products from the developed country, its social welfare and the local and global environment will get worse compared to a free trade case.

Download or read book Three Essays on Environmental Economics and Industrial Organization written by Jianqiao Liu and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chapter 1: Tradable Permits under Environmental and Cost-reducing R & D: This chapter models simultaneous investments in both environmental and cost-reducing R & D by asymmetric Cournot duopolist. Pollution rights (emission permits) are allocated by the regulator and can be traded between firms. Both R & D competition and cooperation are considered. In a three-stage game, firms first invest in R & D, then trade permits, and then compete in output. The strategic interaction between different types of R & D investments is analyzed. It is found that giving more permits to one firm induces it to conduct more cost-reducing but less environmental R & D. The second-best optimal allocation of pollution rights is also analyzed. This allocation matters for social welfare under R & D competition, but is irrelevant under R & D cooperation. Moreover, the optimal allocation depends on R & D spillovers. This paper also studies the grandfathering of permits based on historical output. Compared with the second-best optimal allocation, the higher the emissions reduction level, the more likely that grandfathering allocates too few permits to the large firm and too many permits to the small firm. Adding an R & D budget constraint leads firms to under-invest in cost-reducing R & D relative to environmental R & D. Chapter 2: Tradable Permits under Environmental R & D between Upstream and Downstream Industries: This chapter models the simultaneous investments in environmental R & D by both downstream and upstream industries, with two symmetric firms within each industry competing à la Cournot. Pollution rights are allocated by the regulator, and firms can trade permits. R & D competition, intra-industry (horizontal), inter-industry (vertical) and both intra- and inter-industry (generalized) R & D cooperations are considered. In a four-stage game, firms first invest in R & D, then trade permits, then upstream firms compete in intermediate good production, and finally downstream firms compete in final food production. The strategic interactions between R & D investments are analyzed. It is found that an increase in either vertical or horizontal R & D spillovers reduce the permit price but increase production, but the spillover effects on R & D investments are ambiguous and they depend on the number of permits that a firm receives from the government. However, firms undertake more R & D under generalized cooperation than vertical cooperation, irrespective of spillovers and the allocation of permits, and this results in higher social welfare under generalized cooperation than vertical cooperation. The optimal allocation of pollution rights by the regulator is also considered. This allocation matters for social welfare under R & D competition and horizontal cooperation, but is irrelevant under vertical and generalized cooperations. Chapter 3: Is There a Principle of Targeting in Environmental Taxation?: This chapter studies whether the "principle of targeting", which is referred to by Dixit (1985) as the tax formulae for dirty goods have "additivity property" (Sandmo 1975) and externality-generating sources should be directly targeted (Bhagwati and Johnson 1960), can be applicable in the presence of a uniform commodity tax with an additional emissions tax. We consider three perfectly competitive markets, one of them produces a non-polluting good and the other two produce polluting goods. The regulator chooses optimal taxes on all three markets to maximize social welfare and finances an exogenous public expenditure. First all, it is found that the additivity property does not hold under differentiated taxes, and is even further weakened with a uniform commodity tax. It is also shown that the Pigouvian tax is unlikely to apply on the top of the uniform commodity tax. Furthermore, if there is only tax instrument available -- i.e. either the uniform commodity tax or the emissions tax -- then the uniform commodity tax (emissions tax) induces higher social welfare when marginal social damage is low (high).

Download or read book Taxation written by Martin O'Neill and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-19 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book to give a collective treatment of philosophical issues relating to tax. The tax system is central to the operation of states and to the ways in which states interact with individual citizens. Taxes are used by states to fund the provision of public goods and public services, to engage in direct or indirect forms of redistribution, and to mould the behaviour of individual citizens. As the contributors to this volume show, there are a number of pressing and thorny philosophical issues relating to the tax system, and these issues often connect in fascinating ways with foundational questions regarding property rights, public justification, democracy, state neutrality, stability, political psychology, and other moral and political issues. Many of these deep and fascinating philosophical questions about tax have not received as much sustained attention as they clearly merit. The aim of advancing the debate about tax in political philosophy has both general and more specific aspects, ranging across both over-arching issues regarding the tax system as a whole and more specific issues relating to particular forms of tax policy. Thinking clearly about tax is not an easy task, as much that is of central importance is missed if one proceeds at too great a level of abstraction, and issues of conceptual and normative importance often only come sharply into focus when viewed against real-world questions of implementation and feasibility. Serious philosophical work on the tax system will often therefore need to be interdisciplinary, and so the discussion in this book includes a number of scholars whose expertise spans across neighbouring disciplines to philosophy, including political science, economics, public policy, and law.

Download or read book Three Essays on Environmental Economics and Human Behavior written by Kristen Brinley Cooper and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first essay of this dissertation uses a general equilibrium model of the U.S. economy to study the welfare implications of a biofuel blend mandate and consumption subsidy in the presence of pre-existing labor and fuel taxes. The tax interaction and revenue recycling effects are found to be significant relative to the overall costs of the policies and to previous partial equilibrium studies. I find empirically that the tax credit is welfare superior to the mandate for a given level of ethanol consumption, and this result is robust to the presence or absence of the labor tax. The second essay studies consumer behavior in durable goods markets. I extend a classic model of consumption with status-seeking preferences to incorporate a visible durable good stock with three attributes: quality, average item age, and stock size. "Newness" is an important feature of durable goods consumption, and I illustrate how the newness of a durable good stock, as captured by average item age, could be used as the status signal in a signaling equilibrium. I analyze Consumer Expenditure Survey data on the consumption of apparel goods which vary quasi-experimentally in visibility, and my empirical results suggest that newness and/or stock size may be used more than quality as a status signal, if consumers use apparel consumption to signal income. The third essay analyzes a model in which environmental regulation can potentially satisfy the "Porter hypothesis." I show theoretically how limited attention to waste production on the part of behaviorally-biased firm managers can result in internally sub-optimal production choices and the potential for "win-win" environmental regulation which increases net social benefits and also makes the firm itself better off.

Download or read book Three Essays on Environmental Economics and on Credit Market Imperfections written by Muhammad Shahid Siddiqui and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation contains three essays on environmental economics and on credit market imperfections. The literature on carbon tax incidence generally finds that carbon taxes have a regressive impact on the distribution of income. The main reason for that finding stems from the fact that poor households spend a larger share of their total expenditure on energy products than the rich households do. This literature, however, has ignored the impact of carbon taxes on income stemming from changes in relative factor prices. Yet, changes in household welfare depend not only on variations in commodity prices, but also on changes in income. Chapter 1 provides a comprehensive analysis of the distributional impact of carbon taxes on inequality by considering both demand-side and supply-side channels. We use a multi-sector, multi-household general equilibrium model to analyze the distributional impact of carbon taxes on inequality. Using equivalent income as the household welfare metric, we apply the Shapley value and concentration index approaches to decomposing household inequality. Our simulation results suggest that carbon taxes exert a larger negative impact on the income of the rich than that of the poor, and are thereby progressive. On the other hand, when assessed from the use side alone (i.e., commodity prices alone), our results confirm previous findings, whereas carbon taxes are regressive. However, due to the stronger incidence of carbon taxes on inequality from the income side, our results suggest that the carbon tax tends to reduce inequality. These findings further suggest that the traditional approach of assessing the impact of carbon taxes on inequality through changes in commodity prices alone may be misleading. Chapter 2 investigates the economic impacts of creating an emissions bubble between Canada and the US in a context of subglobal participation in efforts to reduce pollution with market based-instruments. One of the advantages of an emissions bubble is that it can be beneficial to countries that differ in their production and consumption patterns. To address the competitiveness issue that arises from the free-rider problem in the area of climate-change mitigation, we consider the imposition of a border tax adjustment (BTA) - a commonly suggested solution in the literature. We develop a detailed multisector and multi-regional general equilibrium model to analyze the welfare, aggregate, sectoral and trade impacts of the formation of an emissions bubble between Canada and the US with and without BTA. Our simulation results suggest that, in the absence of BTA, the creation of the bubble would make both countries better off through a positive terms-of-trade effect, and more importantly, through a significant reduction in Canada's marginal abatement cost. The benefits of these positive effects would spill over to the non-participating countries, leading them to increase their trade shares in non-emissions-intensive goods. Moreover, the simulation results also indicate that a unilateral implementation of a BTA by any one of the two countries is welfare deteriorating in the imposing country and welfare improving in the other. In contrast, a joint implementation of a BTA by the two countries would make Canada better off and the US worse off. Chapter 3 shows that learning by lending is a potential channel of understanding the business cycle fluctuation under an imperfect credit market. An endogenous link among the learning parameter, lending rates, and the size of investment makes it possible to generate an internal propagation even due to a temporary shock. The main finding of this chapter is the explanation of how ex post non-financial factors such as information losses by individual agents in a credit market may account for a persistence in real indicators such as capital stock and output.

Download or read book Three Essays on Global Climate Policy Environmental R D Mergers and Corporate Social Responsibility written by Chenyu Wang and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chapter 1: The Role of Technological Innovation in Global Climate Policy: In the first chapter, we build a dynamic model of the global economy and climate with three endogenous knowledge stocks. We confirm that the contribution of induced R&D in global climate change is shown to be very sensitive to the elasticity of substitution between energy and other factors of production. Since growth patterns of all types of research depend on whether inputs are gross complements or gross substitutes. Second, the duplication externality. Induced R&D generates a lower abatement cost reduction if we externalize duplication in the business as usual scenario. We exclude duplication in the business as usual scenario since a research institute is based on their contract to do their research. As long as they generate research outputs they would receive payments, they recognize the duplication but they think they will get paid for producing it whether their outputs have been duplicated or not. In reality, agents use too much R&D in the business as usual scenario because they do not take into account the duplication externality. Thus, when the social planner does the optimal scenario, the additional benefits of R&D may not be very much at all. Third, the initial level of research expenditure. Higher initial levels of energy related R&D shares would create a market size effect, leading to an increased contribution of induced R&D. Gerlagh (2008) uses much higher initial energy related shares whereas our research's estimates are much lower, we find this difference would affect the size of the effects of the induced R&D. Fourth, the inter-firm knowledge spillovers. Firms are not successful in capturing all the benefits they create, as many benefits flow out into other firms free of charge. These benefits are called inter-firm knowledge spillovers. Fifth, first-best and second-best policies. The first-best policy fully internalizes the inter-firm knowledge spillovers, which leads to increases in the levels of all types of research whereas the second-best policy does not internalize it, which leads to induced changes in research resulting from the carbon tax affecting pre-existing market distortions. Sixth, a research dividend effect and tax burden effect. The tax may induce an increase in research expenditure, which would increase the welfare and consumption levels. Finally, the results demonstrated that induced R&D has a limited role on the abatement cost reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, overall. Chapter 2: Environmental Policy, Mergers and Environmental R&D with Spillovers: Our research topic is "Environmental Policy, Mergers and Environmental R&D with Spillovers". This project lies at the frontier between environmental economics and industrial organization. We use a duopoly setting of a three-stage game; in the first stage, the government chooses an emission tax and aims for maximizing welfare; in the second stage, firms use R&D to reduce their emissions; in the last stage, firms compete a la Cournot with differentiated products. We focus on two policy regimes and three scenarios, namely regimes of competition and merger and scenarios of commitment, non-commitment, and exogenous tax. The study focuses on two major questions: (1) what is the effect of merger on R&D, and the effect of commitment on R&D? (2) what is the effect of merger and commitment on the economy? Results are obtained through numerical simulations of the model. We find that: (i) Merger has a positive effect on R&D under non-commitment and the exogenous tax scenarios. (ii) Under commitment, if goods are imperfect substitutes or homogenous, merger has a negative effect on R if goods are complements or independent, merger has a positive effect on R&D. (iii) For any types of goods under any regime, commitment has a negative effect on R&D. Chapter 3: Monopoly with Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental R&D: Our research topic is the effect of the monopolist with corporate social responsibility in the presence of environmental R&D. This project lies at the frontier between environmental economics and industrial organization. We model a monopolist with corporate social responsibility setting in a three-stage game; in the first stage, the regulator determines the emission tax to maximize welfare; in the second stage, the monopolist determines R&D to maximize its objective function; in the third stage, the monopolist determines outputs to maximize its objective function. The study focuses on one major question: under the structure of monopoly with corporate social responsibility, if we change the parameters of R&D technology parameter, the degree of social responsibility, and product differentiation, what are the effects on profit, R&D, environmental damage, consumer surplus, and welfare? We find that: (1) increasing R&D technology parameter enhances welfare in terms of higher consumer surplus and lower damage, while also leading to increases in R&D and decreases in profit; (2) increasing the degree of social responsibility increases R&D and welfare in terms of higher consumer surplus and profit, but also increases the damage; and (3) increasing product differentiation increases profit, R&D, and welfare; it also increases the damage but decreases consumer surplus.

Download or read book Dissertation Abstracts International written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 522 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Three Essays in Search of a Conversation written by Sherman Lewis and published by Hayward Area Planning Association. This book was released on 2022-08-27 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: These essays are for Americans concerned about the future of our country and for policy wonks. By and large, the political process is controlled by those who take an intertest in politics, large in number but small as a percent of population. Are you a member of the political class? Membership is voluntary. Our first 800 years of thinking: science culture and empathy from the Enlightenment ~1600 to ~ 2400 The Crisis of the Anthropocene: The most comprehensive description of all issues of the crisis in less than 100 pages. For the purpose of going through your mind to influence your brain. Musings on our Present Discontent: America, not advanced, not a democracy. Right to life for baby; right to choose for mom. Taxation. The security of a free state. Issues not discussed. The threat from within, Trumpism. The threat from without: Putinism. How to participate. Renewal.

Download or read book Three Essays on Trade and the Environment written by Carol A. McAusland and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Three Essays on Macroeconomics written by Charles S. Wassell and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Three Essays in Development Economics written by David Russell Hansen and published by Stanford University. This book was released on 2011 with total page 147 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation is composed of three chapters. All three deal with topics in development economics. The first chapter examines the effects on village institutions of introducing formal financial institution options into the village. The second addresses the effects of government policy on educational investment and crime. The third tests the explanatory power of various explanations of the gender gap in math test scores. The first chapter examines the effects of a transition from a ``traditional'' economy based on an uncertain source of income, with risk fully insured away by one's neighbors in a social network through costly network ties, to a ``modern'' economy in which some agents have access to partial insurance at a lower cost. A theoretical model is used to show that village social networks can break down as some members of the village no longer need the insurance the social network provides, producing a reduction in welfare (if the costs of reducing moral hazard are not too high) for at least some individuals and possibly the village as a whole. This loss of welfare can occur even when networks provide other benefits to those belonging to them and is likely to be heterogeneous, depending on the opportunities and networks available to individuals. This paper tests these predictions using Indonesian data to examine the effect of a change in the banking institutions available to a community on the strength of social networks (measured by community participation) and welfare (measured by household expenditure and by child health). The analysis finds that changing financial institution availability in general does not influence community participation or welfare, but that financial institutions that primarily serve certain groups do relatively reduce the welfare of households not in those groups, which is consistent with the hypotheses generated by the model. Crime is an important feature of economic life in many countries, especially in the developing world. Crime distorts many economic decisions because it acts like an unpredictable tax on earnings. In particular, the threat of crime may influence people's willingness to invest in schooling or physical capital. The second chapter explores the questions "What influence do crime rates and levels of investment have on one another?" and "How do government policies affect the relationship between investment and crime?" by creating a simple structural model of crime and educational investment and attempting to fit this model to Mexican data. A method of simulated moments procedure is used to estimate parameters of the model and the estimated parameters are then used to carry out policy simulations. The simulations show that increasing spending on police or increasing the severity of punishment reduces crime but has little effect on educational investment. Increased educational subsidies increase educational investment but reduce crime only slightly. Thus, one type of policy is insufficient to accomplish the goals of both reducing crime and increasing education. The third chapter is joint work with Prashant Bharadwaj, Giacomo De Giorgi, and Christopher Neilson. Boys tend to have better performances than girls in mathematical testing; in particular, there are significantly more boys than girls among high achievers and the score distribution appears to have a longer right tail for boys. We confirm such results on several low- and middle-income countries. In particular we find that the gender gap is already present by age 10 and substantially increases by age 14 and 15. We propose and try to test a series of explanations for such a gap: (i) parental investment, (ii) ability, (iii) school resources, (iv) individual investment and effort (not tested directly), (v) competitive environment, and (vi) cultural norms. We conclude that none of our proposed explanations can account for a substantial portion of the gap.

Download or read book Model Rules of Professional Conduct written by American Bar Association. House of Delegates and published by American Bar Association. This book was released on 2007 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.

Download or read book Three Essays on Environmental Economics written by Dale S. Rothman and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Environmental Taxation in Practice written by Thomas Sterner and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-05-15 with total page 605 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the 1980's, market-based instruments for environmental policy have become increasingly important. Focusing on environmental taxation in practice, this volume collects key contributions on a wide range of topics, including comparisons of environmental taxation schemes in different countries, political economy issues and key aspects of concrete implementation. It presents a wealth of ex-ante and ex-post analyses, intended as a source of guidance for policy implementation and research. The volume features a full-length introduction locating the literature on environmental taxation in practice in a wider context of theoretical and applied issues.