The Role Of Tax And Transfers In Reducing Personal Income Inequality In Europeís Regions: Evidence From EUROMOD

In this paper we use statistical tools and graphic devices in order to give a comprehensive picture of income inequality levels in a set of 100 EU-15 regions at the end of the XX century before and after the operation of the tax-benefit. Our analysis is based on EUROMOD, the first multi-country tax-benefit model built with a common framework that includes detailed information on taxes and benefits paid and received by individuals and/or households from samples that are representative for the 15 EU countries. Our analysis focuses on intraregional inequality and it explores the relationship between regional inequality levels (both in market incomes and disposable incomes) and economic performance. Our main findings indicate that tax-benefits systems in Europe notably reduce market inequality in all EU regions and that the size of this reduction (i.e. redistributive effect) depends crucially on (i) the market inequality level of the region (positively), (ii) the relative economic performance of the region in the country (negatively) and (iii) the country to which the region belongs.European Union, Regions, inequality, redistribution, economic performance

Science and Technology Parks in Two Lagging Regions of Spain: A Comparative Evaluation Using an Innovation Network Approach

Science and Technology Parks (STPs) have been widely used as innovation support and regional development instruments in most European countries. In Objective 1 regions of South Europe STPs projects were developed during the 90s through regional, national or EU structural funds as tools for promoting innovation and technology upgrade. Most existing studies cast doubt on the effectiveness of parks in achieving their goals, focussing on the traditional measures of the parks added-value (profitability and growth) to the tenant companies, the university-industry linkages developed. However, more recent developments of territorial innovation models stress the role of networks and interactions for knowledge creation and diffusion. While these approaches imply that the Parks – in their strict spatial nature – may become redundant in a networked space, they can also be used to identify additional performance assessment criteria focusing on the role of the park for the development of interactions, linkages and cooperation inside as well as outside its area. The quantity and quality of linkages inside and outside the STP area and its operation as an innovation cooperation promoter in the regional and broader space are used in this assessment. The present work assesses the performance of STPs in Objective 1 regions of South Europe. It develops an evaluation framework that integrates – together with the traditional linear performance criteria – the concepts of networking, interaction and cooperation and uses it to compare the performance of Parks in two regions in Greece (Thessaloniki and Crete) and two in Spain (Asturias and Andalusia). Our preliminary results from in depth analysis show that while there are different levels of success in terms of the traditional metrics/criteria, we observe in general low levels of interaction and cooperation developed inside the parks as well as with the broader region. The Parks do not seem to operate – at least so far – as places that facilitate intensive knowledge exchange inside and outside their area.

Best-in-Class Global Bumper Reinforcement Beam

Modern bumper systems are governed by laws and regulations imposed separately by various countries. Today, the regulations in China, North America, and Europe are becoming more similar, but there is not a widely accepted bumper reinforcement that meets the requirements of all markets around the globe. A universal bumper reinforcement beam incorporating Plug-n-Play techniques was developed to meet and exceed all testing requirements and performance standards of each country. These Plug-n-Play techniques consist of adding energy absorbing attachments to the front of a base bumper beam. Simple beam analysis and FEA were the primary analysis tools in the development of the bumper beam system. Plug & Play techniques were utilized to increase the performance of the universal bumper across all markets

Building performance evaluation and certification in the UK: a critical review of SAP?

Improving the efficiency and performance of the UK residential sector is now necessary for meeting future energy and climate change targets. Building Performance Evaluation and Certification (BPEC) tools are vital for estimating and recommending cost effective improvements to building energy efficiency and lowering overall emissions. In the UK, building performance is estimated using the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) for new dwellings and Reduced SAP (RdSAP) for existing dwellings. Using a systems based approach we show there are many opportunities for improving the effectiveness of BPEC tools. In particular, if the building stock is going to meet future energy and climate change targets the system driving building energy efficiency will need to become more efficient. In order to achieve this goal, building performance standards across Europe are compared highlighting the most effective strategies where they are found. It is shown that the large variance between estimated and actual energy performance from dwellings in the UK may be preventing the adoption of bottom-up energy efficiency measures. We show that despite popular belief, SAP and RdSAP do not estimate building energy efficiency but instead attempt to estimate the cost-effective performance of a building and thus create perverse incentives that may lead to additional CO2 emissions. In this regard, the SAP standard confounds cost-effectiveness, energy efficiency and environmental performance giving an inadequate estimate of all three policy objectives. Important contributions for improving measurement, analysis, synthesis and certification of building performance characteristics are offered.Efficienc

Foreword

Fund investments are very popular in Sweden. However, we have the impression that despite this popularity, the average fund investor in Sweden does not pay much attention to the importance and possible link of fund’s asset composition features (e.g. Asset class, Holdings, and Geo-exposure) to fund’s performance. Instead, S/he relies on factors such as fees, risk levels, historical performance, etc. in her/his investment decisions. Similarly, academic studies mainly focus on attributes such as funds fees, size, and manager’s skill to explain fund’s performance. Thus there are limited premier academic studies on the relationship between fund’s performance and its asset composition features. The main purpose of this study is to investigate possible causal relationship between the performances of funds with their assets composition features. We study the whole population of 346 Swedish listed mutual funds older than five years for the period 2009-2013. The results of the study provides the investors and analysts with additional decision-making and investment-analysis tools to assist them in making more informed judgment on funds and their expected returns. The results are also useful for fund managers to improve their strategies by refining the combinations of their funds’ asset composition attributes in order to improve the absolute risk-adjusted performance of their funds. Our research philosophy has been based on positivism and objectivism along with functionalist paradigm and we have applied deductive approach to test the theories. We have used quantitative method and collected the funds’ data from public business databases and chosen Jensen’s alpha and Treynor ratio as funds’ risk-adjusted performance measures. We performed Correlation tests and Regression with robust techniques on our data to answer the research question from three aspects, namely asset class (equity, bond, and mixed assets); geo-exposures (Sweden, Global, Europe, and Nordic) and Top-ten holdings’ measures (asset concentration and Treynor of each fund’s passive top-ten sub-portfolio). We conclude that correlations between funds’ risk-adjusted performance and assets composition features are likely to exist. Stronger correlations are observed between the explanatory measures and fund’s relative risk-adjusted performance (fund’s Treynor) as compared to fund’s absolute risk adjusted performance (fund’s Jensen’s alpha). Asset concentration in top-ten holdings and bond asset class are more likely to be in casual relationship with fund’s risk-adjusted performance, whereas Treynor ratio of top-ten holdings’ passive sub-portfolio as well as fund’s geo-exposure do not seem to have strong explanatory power for funds’ absolute performance

Direct democracy and subjective regime legitimacy in Europe

While much research focuses on the causes and consequences of direct democracy and regime legitimacy, little attention has been paid to the potential relationship between them. In an attempt to fill this void, this paper focuses on the legal provisions for direct democracy and its use. The key argument is that possibilities for the public’s direct involvement reflect high importance given to citizens, openness of the regime towards different modes of decision-making, and ways to avoid unpopular institutions. Consequently, citizens are likely to accept and support the regime, improving or maintaining its legitimacy. The cross-national analysis includes 38 European countries ranging from transition countries to established democracies. It uses bivariate statistical analysis and country-level data collected from legislation, secondary sources, and aggregate surveys

PRIMUS/Informed Cities: Making research work for local sustainability

The final report of a three year European Commission FP7 project

Measuring the Performance of Local Government Entities and Analysis of their Managers’ and Personnel’s Information Needs in the Context of New Public Management

This article fits into the scope of world research on the implementations of the NPM concept and uses New Institutional Economy to better understand the implementation of management accounting in the public sector.Badanie zostało przeprowadzone w formie wywiadu - ankiety audytoryjnej, skierowanej do 45 respondentów reprezentujących jednostki samorządu terytorialnego. Uzyskane rezultaty potwierdzają, iż system pomiaru dokonań stosowany przez jednostki samorządu terytorialnego w Polsce jest wynikiem silnego oddziaływania instytucjonalnego na system zarządzania tymi jednostkami i nie jest przydatny dla kierowników i pracowników tego sektora, a także nie spełnia wymagań stawianych przez założenia koncepcji NPM