1,623 research outputs found

    Urban property tax reform : guidelines and recommendations

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    The property tax is a potentially attractive means of financing municipal government in developing countries. As a revenue source, it can provide local government with access to a broad and expanding tax base. At present, however, yields of urban property taxes in developing countries are extremely low. In part, these low yields reflect failures in the administration of the tax. Procedural improvements alone, however, are unlikely to have a significant, sustained impact on property tax yields. This suggests that the scope of reform must be expanded to address the systems for rate setting and revaluation, and the incentives confronting administrators of the tax. The scope of reform may have to include the entire structure of local finance. Judging from recent experience, providing local government with complete autonomy over tax policy and administration does not always guarantee that the tax will be exploited effectively. Under these conditions, property tax reform can only be achieved in the context of wider restructuring in the sources of municipal revenue. By reducing the extent of arbitrary subsidies between jurisdictions and confronting local taxpayers with the cost of the services they consume, these reforms are consistent with the pursuit of the efficiency objective that is the principal justification for property tax reform.Municipal Financial Management,Urban Governance and Management,Regional Governance,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Banks&Banking Reform

    Discovering economic history in footnotes: the story of the Tong Taisheng merchant archive (1790-1850)

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    The Tong Taisheng (统泰升) merchant account books in Ningjin county of northern China in 1800-1850 constitute the most complete and integrated surviving archive of a family business for pre-modern China. They contain unusually detailed and high-quality statistics on exchange rates, commodity prices and other information. Utilized once in the 1950s, the archive has been left largely untouched until our recent, almost accidental rediscovery. This article introduces this unique set of archives and traces the personal history of the original owner and donor. Our story of an archive encapsulates the history of modern China and how the preservation and interpretation of evidence and records of Chinese economic statistics were profoundly impacted by the development of political ideology and in modern and contemporary China. We briefly discuss the historiographical and epistemological implication of our finding in the current Great Divergence debate

    Urban transformation in semi-colonial China: Gulangyu International Settlement, 1903-1937

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    Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

    Living Bodhisattvas— Historical and Textual Sources of Practitioner Identity in the Tzu Chi School of Buddhism

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    M.A.M.A. Thesis. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa 201

    The influence of the mandate system and the political ideological persuasion on the performance of South Africa's real estate industry

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    Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the Degree of PhD (Marketing) at the University of the Witwatersrand September 2016Purpose: The impact of the mandate type used and real estate agents’ ideological outlook on conflict of interests and compromising of principals’ interests together with their effect on the ultimate outcomes has largely been ignored in the South African real estate industry. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of dual mandate system and ideology on the outcomes to buyers and sellers of properties. This was achieved by investigating their influence on the conflict of interests and compromising the interests of the principals and how these in turn lead to suboptimal outcomes for the industry. Method: Stratified random sampling was used for information gathering. Data were collected using face-to-face filling in of the survey instrument and 204 participants agreed to take part in the study. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was employed to assess the reliability and validity of the results. Findings: The results reveal that the dual mandate system and ideological persuasion of actors in the real estate industry does positively impact on conflict of interests and also compromises the interests of the principals. Conflict of interests and compromising principals interests have also been found to negatively affect the resultant outcomes for the principals. Practical implications: The dual mandate system should be reconsidered with the view of revising or changing it altogether. Also, practices of real estate agents should be closely monitored by relevant authorities to ensure that they do not disadvantage other consumers. Insights gained from this study provide the basis for future policy-making by government and for academic activity on training of new real estate agents. The findings of this study are expected to assist the Estate Agency Affairs Board (EAAB) as the custodians of licensing of real estate agents. Research limitations: The participants were all from Gauteng Province which might limit generalizability prospects to other provinces. Also, some respondents might have given biased responses by attempting to prove that they were not ignorant of how the industry operates. Key concepts: Dual mandate system, Ideological outlook, Conflict of interests, compromising of principals and Outcomes.MT201

    Foreign Policy and the Developing Nation

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    Eight well-known political scientists, economists, and sociologists here explore the interrelationships between the various levels of economic strength and political stability attended by newly emerged nations and the formulation of their foreign policies. These essays provide testimony not only to the importance of these problems, but also to contributions that can be made by various methodological approaches by scholars from the different social sciences. Contributing to the volume are Rupert Emerson, Benjamin Higgins, Gayl Ness, Ivo and Rosalind Feierabend, Henry Bienen, Lloyd Jensen, and Wilson C. McWilliams. Richard Butwell is the director of the Business Council of International Understanding program at American University. He is also coauthor with Amry Vandenbosch of The Changing Face of Southeast Asia.https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_political_science_international_relations/1010/thumbnail.jp

    India And China Space Programs: From Genesis Of Space Technologies To Major Space Programs And What That Means For The Internati

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    The Indian and Chinese space programs have evolved into technologically advanced vehicles of national prestige and international competition for developed nations. The programs continue to evolve with impetus that India and China will have the same space capabilities as the United States with in the coming years. This will present new challenges to the international community in spheres civilian, to space and military applications and their residual benefits

    Patents as property in Taiwanese jurisprudence: rebuilding a property model for patents

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    PhDThe reconciliation of patents within the Taiwanese Law of Things has received negligible attention from legal scholars. The primary reason for this is the hesitation, by courts and scholars alike, to construct a new property paradigm, referring instead to treat patents under the existing rules on physical things. This dominating stance has had an impact on the manner in which Taiwanese courts adjudicate on the nature of patents, and dealings therewith. The aim of the thesis is to show that this stance is theoretically illogical. The underlying issue is the different classification of patents within the civil and common law systems. The study employs a historical and comparative law methodology in order to inform an intra-law solution to the problem of how to overcome the classification dilemma. It does this by critically analysing the evolution of patent categorisation as personal property in common law and, by employing this foundation, seeks to distinguish the substantial differences in the concept of property between the common and civil law traditions. In light of these differences, and to establish a consolidated way of reconciling patents into the current Taiwanese legal framework, the thesis further analyses the similarity of the property notion under English common law and Taiwanese customary law, both of which are shaped by exclusion rules. The hypothesis is that ownership of land within these two systems, in similar with that of patents, was not an absolute and outright ownership of land governed by inclusion rules, but was instead a freehold which granted intangible rights that could be divided by the duration of the holding. It is suggested that a theoretically more coherent property model can be achieved by adopting this approach, and analogising patents to the tenure systems that existed within both English common law and Taiwanese customary law. To this end, the thesis proposes to contextually rebuild the property model for patents within Taiwanese law by the insertion of five new reform clauses into the Patent Act and the Civil Code.Taiwan Ministry of Education; Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange
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