Not all corporate tax avoiders will be snared by new rules

Hockey’s budget announcement of two major tax integrity measures was flagged before the budget was handed down, but even that came as no surprise. Integrity, or lack thereof, in our tax system is a hot topic and an easy target for a Treasurer looking to sell a federal budget. The first of the proposed changes is to our GST regime. No-one likes hearing that they will be paying more tax. But, the charging of GST on supplies of digital products and services in Australia by an off-shore supplier will at least make sense to the general public. With the inherent unfairness in the current system and a revenue raising prediction of A$350 million over the next four years, most are likely to accept the logic of such a measure. The second of the proposed changes are new laws to be included in Australia’s general anti-avoidance provision. New laws, which will apply from 1 January 2016, are aimed at multinational companies engaged in aggressive tax practices. The proposed anti-avoidance law is designed to stop multinationals that artificially avoid a taxable presence in Australia. It is difficult to see how this strategy of addressing specific behaviour through what is considered a general provision will work. And, it is these changes that are already causing confusion.

Assessing taxpayer response to legislative changes: A case study of ‘in-house’ fringe benefits rules

On 22 October 2012, the Australian Federal Government announced the removal of the $1,000 in-house fringe benefits concession when used as part of a salary packaging arrangement. At the time of the announcement, the Federal Government predicted that the removal of the concession would contribute additional tax revenue of $445 million over the following four years as well as an increase of GST payments to the States and Territories. However, anecdotal evidence at the same time indicated that the Australian employer response was to immediately stop providing employees with such in-house fringe benefits via salary sacrificing arrangements. Data presented in this article, collected from a combination of interviews with tax managers of four Australian entities as well as a review of the published archival data, confirms that the abolition of the $1,000 in-house fringe benefits concession was perceived as a negative change, whereby employees were considered the ‘big losers’ despite assertions by the Federal Government to the contrary. Using a conceptual map of tax rule change developed by Oats and Sadler, this article seeks to understand the reasons for this fringe benefits tax change and taxpayer response. In particular, the economic and political factors, and the responses of the relevant taxpayers (employers) are explored. Drawing on behavioural economic concepts, the actions, attitudes and response of employers to the rule change are also examined. The research findings suggest that the decision by Australian employers to cease providing the in-house fringe benefits as part of a salary-packaging arrangement after the legislative amendment was impacted by more than simple rational behaviour.

The channels of monetary policy triggered by central bank actions and statements in the Australian equity market

Owing to the discrete disclosure practices of the Reserve Bank of Australia, this paper provides new evidence on the channels of monetary policy triggered by central bank actions (monetary policy announcements) and statements (explanatory minutes releases), in the Australian equity market. Both monetary policy announcements and explanatory minutes releases are shown to have a significant and comparable impact on the returns and volatility of the Australian equity market. Further, distinct from US and European studies that find strong evidence of the interest rate, bank loan and balance sheet channels and no evidence of the exchange rate channel following central bank actions, this paper finds that monetary policy impacts the Australian equity market via the exchange rate, interest rate and bank loan channels of monetary policy, with only weak evidence of the balance sheet channel of monetary policy. These channels are found to be operating irrespective of the trigger (monetary policy announcements or explanatory minutes releases), though results are somewhat weaker when examining the explanatory minutes releases. These results have important implications for central bank officials and financial market participants alike: by confirming a comparable avenue to affect monetary policy; and providing an explication of its impact on the Australian equity market.

Towards Multiculturalism in Turkish Public Service Broadcasting

The announcement of Turkey as a European Union (EU) candidate country in the Helsinki Summit (10, 11 December 1999) marked a distinct change of identity policy and attitudes towards its citizens. A result in the shift of mindset has been the launch of the first public service broadcasting TV channel for Kurdish people on the 1st of January 2009. TRT 6 (Şeş) broadcasting in unofficial Kurdish language is run by Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT). The thesis attempts to elaborate on the discussions surrounding the launch of TRT 6, Turkey’s first public service broadcasting TV channel for its Kurdish citizens. The research aims at finding the discourses of multiculturalism and public service broadcasting through the mainstream Turkish newspapers, Cumhuriyet, Hurriyet, Sabah, Taraf and Zaman. The method used for the research is Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and the representative newspapers of the Turkish print media are under the question: How has the launch of TRT 6, as the first public service broadcasting channel of Turkey in Kurdish language, been discussed by Turkish daily newspapers in terms of multiculturalism and minority media? The most significant results of the research is that the concerning newspapers have mostly discussed the launch of TRT 6 in the same line with their political affiliation. Thus it is comprehensively concluded that the selected newspapers proved holding a high level of political parallelism, and low professionalism. However, it should be noted that Taraf differs itself from others while challenging the hegemonic discourses embedded in the articles of the other newspapers. Moreover, the study detected three types of discourses: Pro-multiculturalism discourse, Unification discourse, and Assimilation discourse. It can be concluded that in Turkey, media owners and even individual journalists have incentives to form ideological alliances with political parties, and media appears to be an instrument of power struggle. Today, Turkey seems to restore Kurdish identity in its identity policy and aims to proceed with the negotiation for membership of the European Union (EU). The country still strives to transform from the traditional nation-state to a multiethnic democratic state, with multiculturalism as a policy discussed throughout the two terms that the AKP government has been in power. However, this transformation is not an easy process because of the deep-rooted traditions of the nation-state structure that has also polarized the Turkish press.

PICES Press, Vol. 11, No. 2, July 2003

Cover [pdf, 1.2 Mb] PICES Science Board and Governing Council hold their first joint meeting [pp. 1-3] [pdf, 0.2 Mb] 3rd International Zooplankton Production Symposium [pp. 4-7] [pdf, 0.6 Mb] The state of the eastern North Pacific entering spring 2003 [pp. 8-9] [pdf, 0.4 Mb] The state of the western North Pacific in 2002 [pp. 10-13] [pdf, 0.6 Mb] The Bering Sea: Current status and recent events [pp. 14-15] [pdf. 0.7 Mb] Patricia Livingston [pp. 16-19] [pdf. 0.5 Mb] Recent changes in the abundance of northern anchovy (Engraulis mordax) off the Pacific Northwest, tracking a regime shift? [pp. 20-21] [pdf. 0.6 Mb] Developing new scientific programs in PICES [pp. 22-26] [pdf. 0.2 Mb] Report of the Yokohama 2003 MODEL Task Team Workshop to develop a marine ecosystem model of the North Pacific Ocean including pelagic fishes [pp. 27-29] [pdf. 0.5 Mb] 3rd PICES Workshop on the Okhotsk Sea and adjacent Areas [pp.30-31] [pdf. 0.4 Mb] Recent oceanographic and marine environmental studies at FERHRI [pp.32-34] [pdf. 0.4 Mb] Symposium Announcement [p. 35] [pdf. 0.3 Mb] PICES announcements [p. 36] [pdf. 0.3 Mb]

Repercusión económica de la certificación medioambiental ISO 14001

Este trabajo ha sido realizado bajo el marco de objetivos del Grupo de Investigación de Excelencia CREVALOR reconocido por la Diputación General de Aragón.

Markets and microstructure

This document contains three papers examining the microstructure of financial interaction in development and market settings. I first examine the industrial organization of financial exchanges, specifically limit order markets. In this section, I perform a case study of Google stock surrounding a surprising earnings announcement in the 3rd quarter of 2009, uncovering parameters that describe information flows and liquidity provision. I then explore the disbursement process for community-driven development projects. This section is game theoretic in nature, using a novel three-player ultimatum structure. I finally develop econometric tools to simulate equilibrium and identify equilibrium models in limit order markets.

In chapter two, I estimate an equilibrium model using limit order data, finding parameters that describe information and liquidity preferences for trading. As a case study, I estimate the model for Google stock surrounding an unexpected good-news earnings announcement in the 3rd quarter of 2009. I find a substantial decrease in asymmetric information prior to the earnings announcement. I also simulate counterfactual dealer markets and find empirical evidence that limit order markets perform more efficiently than do their dealer market counterparts.

In chapter three, I examine Community-Driven Development. Community-Driven Development is considered a tool empowering communities to develop their own aid projects. While evidence has been mixed as to the effectiveness of CDD in achieving disbursement to intended beneficiaries, the literature maintains that local elites generally take control of most programs. I present a three player ultimatum game which describes a potential decentralized aid procurement process. Players successively split a dollar in aid money, and the final player--the targeted community member--decides between whistle blowing or not. Despite the elite capture present in my model, I find conditions under which money reaches targeted recipients. My results describe a perverse possibility in the decentralized aid process which could make detection of elite capture more difficult than previously considered. These processes may reconcile recent empirical work claiming effectiveness of the decentralized aid process with case studies which claim otherwise.

In chapter four, I develop in more depth the empirical and computational means to estimate model parameters in the case study in chapter two. I describe the liquidity supplier problem and equilibrium among those suppliers. I then outline the analytical forms for computing certainty-equivalent utilities for the informed trader. Following this, I describe a recursive algorithm which facilitates computing equilibrium in supply curves. Finally, I outline implementation of the Method of Simulated Moments in this context, focusing on Indirect Inference and formulating the pseudo model.

Estudos para composição do eu e do(s) outro(s): enunciação, polifonia e imagens discursivas na cartilha da Campanha Nacional O Petróleo Tem que Ser Nosso

O anúncio dos gigantescos campos do pré-sal brasileiro recolocou o petróleo no alvo dos holofotes. A propriedade desta imensa riqueza e as inevitáveis mudanças na legislação do setor são as principais questões que derivam deste fato. Com efeito, temos assistido a uma proliferação de discursos acerca do tema. Esta dissertação se insere num conjunto de reflexões que tomam o petróleo como objeto de interesse. Privilegiamos um espaço específico de produção discursiva, a saber, o instituído pela Campanha Nacional O Petróleo Tem que Ser Nosso. Um primeiro procedimento metodológico de coleta de dados possibilitou identificar que, entre os seus materiais de mobilização, ganha destaque a cartilha de massas do movimento, que desde julho de 2009 circula pelo território nacional. Inscritos numa perspectiva da Análise do Discurso de base enunciativa, cuidamos de construir uma reflexão sobre alguns dos modos de inscrição do(s) sujeito(s) no discurso. Nossas considerações acerca dos gêneros do discurso revelaram o hibridismo da cartilha; tal peculiaridade nos obrigou a construir dispositivos distintos de análise. Num primeiro memento, decidimos observar as marcas de pessoa, os marcadores temporais e espaciais, com vistas a identificar uma dada cenografia discursiva (Maingueneau, 1997) que nos remetesse às imagens dos coenunciadores; consideramos, num segundo momento, os discursos relatados (Bakhtin, 2006; Authier-Revuz, 1998 e outros) para compreender a polifonia inerente à cartilha. Nossa análise verificou de que maneira um regime de verdade e uma memória se instituem pela cenografia discursiva; a análise dos discursos relatados, com ênfase nos discursos direto, indireto e narrativizado, nos permitiu identificar, no agenciamento das vozes, um espaço de confronto entre formações discursivas divergentes

Three essays on economics and information shocks

A person living in an industrialized society has almost no choice but to receive information daily with negative implications for himself or others. His attention will often be drawn to the ups and downs of economic indicators or the alleged misdeeds of leaders and organizations. Reacting to new information is central to economics, but economics typically ignores the affective aspect of the response, for example, of stress or anger. These essays present the results of considering how the affective aspect of the response can influence economic outcomes.

The first chapter presents an experiment in which individuals were presented with information about various non-profit organizations and allowed to take actions that rewarded or punished those organizations. When social interaction was introduced into this environment an asymmetry between rewarding and punishing appeared. The net effects of punishment became greater and more variable, whereas the effects of reward were unchanged. The individuals were more strongly influenced by negative social information and used that information to target unpopular organizations. These behaviors contributed to an increase in inequality among the outcomes of the organizations.

The second and third chapters present empirical studies of reactions to negative information about local economic conditions. Economic factors are among the most prevalent stressors, and stress is known to have numerous negative effects on health. These chapters document localized, transient effects of the announcement of information about large-scale job losses. News of mass layoffs and shut downs of large military bases are found to decrease birth weights and gestational ages among babies born in the affected regions. The effect magnitudes are close to those estimated in similar studies of disasters.

Análise comparativa dos modelos de cálculo dos retornos anormais utilizando o evento recompra de ações na Bovespa

Este trabalho tem por objetivo verificar se há diferença quanto ao nível de significância estatística no cálculo do retorno anormal realizado através de quatro modelos estatísticos utilizados em estudos de eventos, tendo como objeto de estudo empresas no mercado de ações no Brasil durante o período de março de 2003 até julho de 2010 na Bovespa. Considerando a importância do cálculo do retorno anormal nos estudos de eventos, bem como possíveis variações de resultados decorrentes da escolha do modelo de cálculo, este estudo utiliza um tema bastante conhecido, qual seja, o anúncio de recompra de ações feito pela própria companhia emissora dos títulos. A metodologia utilizada nesta pesquisa foi quantitativa, utilizando o estudo de corte transversal. Os resultados apontam que há diferença entre os níveis de significância encontrados. Ao analisar o gráfico dos modelos calculados no período da janela do evento, verificou-se que as empresas que recompraram ações a fizeram quando os papéis estavam com retorno anormal acumulado negativo e, após a recompra, os papéis tiveram retornos anormais acumulados positivos. Recalculou-se os dois modelos que utilizam o Ibovespa em sua fórmula de cálculo, através de um Ibovespa sem ponderação e conclui-se que os resultados apontam na direção de se evitar o uso de índices ponderados de mercado, preferindo a utilização de carteiras compostas apenas com uma ação para cada empresa componente da carteira de controle. Após este recálculo, verificou-se que o modelo que era menos próximo dos demais graficamente era o modelo de retorno ajustado ao mercado ponderado. Por fim, as evidências empíricas indicam que o mercado de capitais brasileiro ajusta tempestivamente os papéis das empresas que realizaram recompra de ações, em linha com o que prescreve a hipótese do mercado eficiente na sua forma semiforte.

Estudo exploratório sobre os motivos que levam as empresas a recomprarem suas próprias ações

Através de estudo de evento este trabalho analisa o impacto provocado pelo anúncio de recompra de ações sobre os seus próprios preços, utilizando como referência, as empresas que anunciaram aquisição de ações de sua emissão, através de publicação de fato relevante na Comissão de Valores Mobiliário (CVM), nos exercícios de 2003 a 2009. O estudo pressupõe eficiência de mercado na sua forma semi-forte e identifica retorno anormal, estatisticamente significativo na data um do evento, ou seja, um dia após o anúncio. Os retornos acumulados de três dias são regredidos contra dados da recompra e os resultados reforçam a hipótese de sinalização, já sugerida pela análise do gráfico do retorno anormal acumulado, com os retornos indicando alta decorrente de pressão de preços. Os modelos de regressão utilizados, incluindo variáveis contábeis associadas a outras hipóteses explicativas, não encontram resultados significativos que dêem suporte a outras possíveis motivações propostas na literatura acadêmica.

Desarrollo de un gestor de conexión con facebook para aplicación de mensajeria instantanea.

[EN]Until May 2015, an application for Linux KDE desktops called KDE-Telepathy had the possibility of adding Facebook accounts in order to talk to friends through an XMPP Gateway. After Facebook’s announcement of the closure of this Gateway, this project will try to explain the development process of a new connection manager. This fact generates the need of an unofficial alternative which Facebook does not provide. Along the different sections, there will be explained how to implement the most basic functions a connection manager must have, like: a contact list, sending or receiving messages. Meanwhile, there will be involved different solutions part of the Facebook’s official infrastructure, but also, some that are not.

Edmund Burke e os Direitos Naturais

O presente trabalho pretende tratar do problema da crítica à ideia de estado de natureza e de direitos naturais realizada por Edmund Burke. Procuraremos demonstrar como a crítica aos conceitos fundamentais que orientam a reflexão sobre a ordem social e política dos iluministas e dos autores sob sua influência percorre toda a obra de Burke, desde seu primeiro escrito político, Vindication on Natural Society até os últimos escritos contra a Revolução Francesa. Burke reconhece na classe pensante emergente, no racionalismo abstrato e universalista daquilo que ele chama de política "metafísica", o prenúncio da crise que se imporia sobre os conceitos que fundamentavam a ordem social e política existente. A partir de uma defesa das instituições e das tradições britânicas, concretizadas na Constituição e, especialmente, no Bill of Rights, Burke produz uma interpretação da política que utilizará a história para combater a filosofia política do direito natural.

Akcesja Polski do Unii Europejskiej na łamach prasy regionalnej Ziem Zachodnich

Wydział Nauk Politycznych i Dziennikarstwa

Bezpieczeństwo socjalne a wykluczenie społeczne

Wśród niematerialnych potrzeb ludzkich do najważniejszych, z punktu widzenia polityki społecznej, należy potrzeba bezpieczeństwa. Stąd takim istotnym problemem jest gwarantowanie obywatelom poczucia bezpieczeństwa socjalnego. Choć z jednej strony, rozwój gospodarczy przynosi za sobą wzrost zamożności społeczeństwa, a co za tym idzie, wzrost poczucia bezpieczeństwa socjalnego, z drugiej strony w społeczeństwie nadal występują osoby i grupy, które, z różnych powodów, nie korzystają z owoców owego postępu. Dotyczy to zwłaszcza tych, którzy maja ograniczony dostęp do podstawowych dóbr i usług powszechnie przysługujących. Ta kategoria osób – to osoby wykluczone, czy też marginalizowane społecznie. Dla wykluczenia społecznego najbardziej charakterystyczne są trzy cechy: niski poziom uczestnictwa w życiu społecznym, długotrwałość i niedobrowolność takiej sytuacji, ograniczenie możliwości korzystania z podstawowych praw obywatelskich. Kwestia wykluczenia społecznego od niedawna została uznana przez Unię Europejską za jeden z podstawowych problemów społecznych. Stąd ogłoszenie roku 2010 Europejskim Rokiem Walki z Ubóstwem i Wykluczeniem Społecznym i podjęcie konkretnych działań w celu ograniczenia tych zjawisk. Daje to nadzieję, że tak w Unii Europejskiej, jak i w Polsce uda się zmniejszyć ilościowe rozmiary wykluczenia społecznego.