Socioeconomic variations in women's diets : what is the role of perceptions of the local food environment

Objectives : To test the contribution of perceived environmental factors (food availability, accessibility and affordability) to mediating socioeconomic variations in women’s fruit, vegetable and fast food consumption.

Methods : A community sample of 1580 women from 45 neighbourhoods provided survey data on their socioeconomic position (SEP) (education and income); diet (fruit, vegetable and fast food consumption); and the perceived availability of, access to and cost of healthy food in their local area.

Results : Once perceived environmental variables were considered, the associations between SEP and diet were weak and non-significant, suggesting that socioeconomic differences in diet were almost wholly explained by perceptions of food availability, accessibility and affordability.

Conclusions : Strategies to decrease socioeconomic inequalities in diet could involve promoting inexpensive ways to increase fruit and vegetable consumption, and ensuring that people of low SEP are aware that many healthy foods are available at relatively low cost. Future research should also confirm if perceptions match objective measures of food availability, accessibility and affordability, in order to address the real and/or perceived lack of healthy options in low SEP neighbourhoods.

Do permanent shocks explain income levels? a common cycle-common trend analysis of regional income levels for China

In this paper, we analyse per capita income levels of China's three main regions: the western region, the eastern region and the central region using common cycle and common trend tests. Our main contribution is that we impose the common cycle and common trend restrictions in decomposing shocks into permanent and transitory components. We find that: (i) there is evidence for two cointegrating relationships and one common cycle; and (ii) the variance decomposition analysis of shocks provides evidence that over short horizons, permanent shocks play a large role in explaining variations in regional per capita incomes.

Neighborhood and individual socio-economic variations in the contribution of occupational physical activity to total physical activity

Background: There is an inverse relationship between individual socio-economic status (SES) and amount of occupational physical activity. The role of the socio-economic environment is, however, less clear. This study examined the independent influences of neighborhood and individual SES on absolute and relative amount of occupational physical activity. It also examined the moderating effects of neighborhood SES on the relationship between individual SES and occupational physical activity.

Methods: Employees (n = 1236) resident in high or low SES neighborhoods were assessed on socio-demographic factors, including educational attainment and household income, and physical activity.

Results: Neighborhood SES and individual SES were independently inversely related to absolute and relative amount of occupational physical activity. Significant interactions between neighborhood SES and level of educational attainment in the contribution of total and vigorous occupational physical activity to total physical activity were found.

Conclusions: Neighborhood SES can function as a moderator in the relationship between individual SES and occupational physical activity.

Impact of the new business tax system (alienation of personal services income) Act 2000

The implications of categorising income as "personal services income" and the actual meaning of this term have been marked with uncertainty. The Commissioner of Taxation has long asserted that "personal services income" inherently may not be derived by an entity other than the person whose exertions produce the income. In Liedig v FCT (1994) 28 ATR 141, however, Hill J held that in the absence of a specific legislative provision, there was no basis for the Commissioner's doctrine. The specific legislative measures Hill J required were put in place through the New Business Tax System (Alienation of Personal Services Income) Act 2000. In certain circumstances this Act prevents interposed entities from deriving personal services income. Such payments are attributed instead to the individual who performs the services.

It will also be seen, however, that these provisions do not apply to entities that are conducting a "personal services business". It is submitted that the combined effect of, inter alia, the Act's definition of "personal services income" and "personal services business" is to give the Act a narrower scope than the Commissioner's personal services doctrine. Moreover, it will be submitted that the statutory definition of personal services income also suffers from the same flaws that Hill J identified as relevant to the Commissioner's personal services doctrine.

Response : A defensible and workable approach to the income tax treatment of financial instruments

It is a privilege to have the opportunity to respond to the comments on my monograph1 provided by Mark Gergen, Glenn May, and Gordon Longhouse. Their comments, which are inevitably coloured by their very different perspectives, reflect the considerable expertise that each one of them has in the area of the income taxation of financial instruments. Indeed, it is with some hesitation that I offer a response in defence of various portions of the analysis presented in my monograph in support of some pretty modest proposals in this extremely difficult area of income tax law. Although I spent considerable time exploring some necessary first principles and their implications for the design of a system for the income taxation of financial instruments, I made several concessions to certain practical constraints that led me to support, in some measure, the status quo reflected in certain of the existing literature, as well as the legislation in a select group of countries. On the assumption that many readers may be unfamiliar with the monograph, I propose to respond by outlining much of my analysis in the monograph and the proposals that are the logical outcome. Throughout the outline, I will highlight and respond to what I see as the important points of difference emphasized by Gergen, May, and Longhouse.

Global profit split: An evolutionary approach to international income allocation

International taxation is concerned mainly with the equitable allocation of cross-border income between countries in which income-earning activities take place. Such allocation has traditionally been governed by the arm’s-length principle, which has been interpreted as requiring a comparable transactional pricing approach. This approach assumes that each member of a multinational enterprise (MNE) group is a separate entity and that the transactions between related parties can be separated and compared with arm’s-length transactions. It has, however, proved difficult to apply comparable transactional pricing to internationally integrated businesses, especially those involving intangibles and services, and formulary apportionment has been suggested as an alternative. Essentially, formulary apportionment treats the MNE group as a single economic entity. The group’s profit is allocated to members according to a formula that reflects the particular member’s contribution to the production of that profit. A rich academic literature exists which either defends or attacks this alternative approach. The OECD and national governments have rejected formulary apportionment mainly on the ground that it violates the arm’s-length principle. This article proposes a global profit split (GPS) method for allocating international income. The GPS would allocate the global profit of an integrated business to each country in accordance with the economic contributions made by components of the business located in that country. The allocation would be based on a formula that would reflect the economic factors that contribute to profit making. While the GPS draws on elements of the traditional formulary apportionment and profit split methods, it also differs from them. The author discusses in detail the key issues involved in designing the GPS. She also presents and evaluates the main policy and pragmatic justifications for the adoption of this innovative approach. The author argues that the GPS is not only theoretically and practically superior to traditional income allocation methods, but also consistent with the arm’s-length principle. On the basis of historical developments, interpretation of article 9 of the OECD model tax convention, and international tax policy considerations, the author establishes that the GPS is not a radical departure from the arm’s-length principle, but rather a natural development in its evolution. She concludes that the law of evolution ison the side of reform because the GPS would provide for a fair and effective allocation of income derived from globally integrated business activities.

Using geometric shape variations to create an inverse model for a sheet metal process

The output of the sheet metal forming process is subject to much variation. This paper develops a method to measure shape variation in channel forming and relate this back to the corresponding process parameter levels of the manufacturing set-up to create an inverse model. The shape variation in the channels is measured using a modified form of the point distribution model (also known as the active shape model). This means that channels can be represented by a weighting vector of minimal linear dimension that contains all the shape variation information from the average formed channel.

The inverse models were created using classifiers that related the weighting vectors to the process parameter levels for the blank holder force (BHF), die radii (DR) and tool gap (TG) of the parameters. Several classifiers were tested: linear, quadratic Gaussian and artificial neural networks. The quadratic Gaussian classifiers were the most accurate and the most consistent type of classifier over all the parameters.

Taming Complexity in Australian Income Tax

Taxpayers and tax authorities recognise that complex Australian income tax law is in need of simplification - during the past decade there have been two ineffective attempts at simplification of the tax law - first by redrafting the law in plain English without addressing structural issues - second by the proposed wholesale replacement of the legislation with a new foundation, incorporating most of the causes of the complexity in the current law - with tax law growing in size and complexity, new paths to simplification must be considered.

Retirement income policy and the taxation of superannuation in Australia

Superannuation is a form of savings for retirement. The savings are invested and earn income, but the proceeds are generally not available until the beneficiary reaches retirement age} The federal government's retirement income policy has three components, two of which relate to superannuation: the age pension, which provides income support to men aged 65 and over and to women aged 62 and over.2 The pension is means tested and does not depend on previous labour force participation or individual contributions; a compulsory superannuation scheme (under the Superannuation Guarantee Charge (Administration) Act 1992 (SGA Act)), which requires contributions to be made by employers on behalf of all employees, whether full-time, part-time or casual;3 and encouragement, through the taxation system, of voluntary contributions to approved superannuation funds.4 In May 2002, the government released a report, the "Intergenerational Report", 5 which identifies issues associated with Australia's ageing population and considers the fiscal implications of those changes. The Report noted that a steadily ageing population is likely to place significant pressure on government finances. It also noted that one of the key priorities for ensuring fiscal sustainability should be "maintaining a retirement income policy that encourages private saving for retirement and reduces the future demand for the Age Pension". 6 The main way the government has sought to encourage that private saving is through the tax system, primarily by the use of tax concessions. Over the past 20 years, however, the taxation of superannuation has grown in an extremely ad hoc manner and is now inequitable, inefficient and overly complex. This article suggests that the taxation of superannuation in Australia is in urgent need of a complete review. The article further asserts that, if an appropriate framework can be devised, changes could be introduced as budgetary pressures allow.

Income differences in food consumption in the 1995 Australian national nutrition survey

Objective: To assess the relationships between an index of per capita income and the intake of a variety of individual foods as well as groups of food for men and women in different age groups. Design: Cross-sectional national survey of free-living men and women. Subjects: A sample of 5053 males and 5701 females aged 18 y and over who completed the Australian National Nutrition Survey 1995. Methods: Information about the frequency of consumption of 88 food items was obtained. On the basis of scores on the Food Frequency Questionnaire, regular and irregular consumers of single foods were identified. The relationships between regularity of consumption of individual foods and per capita income were analysed via contingency tables. Food variety scores were derived by assigning individual foods to conventional food group taxonomies, and then summing up the dichotomised intake scores for individual foods within each food group. Two-way ANOVA (income age group) were performed on the food variety scores for males and females, respectively. Results: Per capita income was extensively related to the reported consumption of individual foods and to total and food group variety indices. Generally, both men and women in low income households had less varied diets than those in higher-income households. However, several traditional foods were consumed less often by young high-income respondents, especially young women. Conclusions: Major income differentials in food variety occur in Australia but they are moderated by age and gender. Younger high-income women, in particular, appear to have rejected a number of traditional foods, possibly on the basis of health beliefs. The findings also suggest that data aggregation has marked effects on income and food consumption relationships.

The trouble with income trusts

This paper sketches broadly the efficiency and equity effects of income trusts that make their use as a substitute for the direct holding of shares of a corporation problematic for tax policy purposes. The paper also considers the potential effectiveness of an equity recharacterization rule applicable to the high-yield junk debt that is the common feature of the basic income trust structure. The author suggests that this type of narrowly focused rule would be more target-efficient than other possible responses to income trusts, such as fundamental reform of the corporate income tax or the restrictions on the holding of trust units proposed in the 2004 budget. However, a principal difficulty in designing an equity recharacterization rule is ensuring that it applies equally to structures that realize the same effect as the basic income trust structure but do not use high-yield junk debt.
The author argues that income trusts are examples of tax-driven financial innovation in the sense that they replicate an existing set of securities and therefore have no nontax rationale. These securities are essentially redundant, and the innovative process of which they are a product does not constitute “genuine” financial innovation. This essential characteristic of income trusts distinguishes them from real estate investment trusts, which arguably do not present a tax policy problem (or at least not the same one). More particularly, income trust transactions are redundant in the sense that they do not complete capital markets by providing investors with a risk and return payoff profile that is otherwise unavailable. In the absence of any efficiency gains or desirable distributional effects associated with income trusts, the available tax benefit is the subject of a defensible government response intended to eliminate it. But without any clear evidence that income trusts are substituted generally for the corporate form, any response can defensibly be limited to a narrowly targeted one that introduces a “taxlaw friction” by shifting the debt-equity boundary that is the focus of the basic income trust structure. Because the precise dividing points along this boundary lack any obvious normative content, the suggested policy focus should be the development of a legislative response that redraws the debt-equity boundary in a manner that minimizes perceived efficiency losses otherwise associated with the use of income trusts.