Budgetary Costs of Tax Facilities for Pension Savings: An Empirical Analysis

A wide variety of tax regimes for (occupational) private pension saving are in place around the world. Generally, pension saving is taxed at a relatively low rate, although the revenue loss due to tax facilities for pension savings and/or pension tax expenditures may differ across countries. A strong fiscal stimulus to build up pension capital will support funding. However, these tax facilities may become an expensive business for governments. This paper investigates the ex ante budgetary effects of a cash-flow tax regime for pension savings by full present-value calculations. The fiscal subsidy on pension savings in several (European) countries is often associated with the application of the cash-flow treatment of pensions under the personal income tax: pension contributions are tax exempt, capital income of pension funds is tax-exempt, and pension benefits are taxed, but usually the elderly aged 65 years and over are taxed at a relatively low rate. This form can be described as EET, with E denoting an exemption or relief from tax and T denoting a point at which tax is payable. Indeed, tax treatment of pension saving can have other forms as well. We consider a specified form of a comprehensive income tax system (TTE) as an appropriate benchmark. Using the TTE-benchmark, the ex ante budgetary cost of the current tax treatment of pension saving in countries can be quantified. We employ an empirical analysis for the Netherlands, because this country belongs, with its three pension pillars and its sound funding, to the leading group of countries in Europe with a solid pension system. Our calculations, using Income Panel Data from Statistics Netherlands for the years 1990-2003, show that current taxation on a cash-flow basis means on balance a major loss to the Treasury (compared to the benchmark). For the year 2003 we estimate a fiscal subsidy associated with the current Dutch tax rule of 1.2 to 1.5 percent of GDP, depending on the assumed rate of return on pension capital

Developing a blockchain-based supply chain system for advanced therapies: study protocol

Advanced therapies, including cell and gene therapies, have shown therapeutic promise in curing life-threatening diseases such as leukaemia and lymphoma. However, they can be complicated and expensive to deliver due to their sensitivity to environment, troublesome tissue, cell, or genetic material sourcing and complicated regulatory requirements

Stratospheric age of air computed with trajectories based on various 3D-Var and 4D-Var data sets

International audienceThe age of stratospheric air is computed with a trajectory model, using ECMWF ERA-40 3D-Var and operational 4D-Var winds. Analysis as well as forecast data are used. In the latter case successive forecast segments are put together to get a time series of the wind fields. This is done for different forecast segment lengths. The sensitivity of the computed age to the forecast segment length and assimilation method are studied, and the results are compared with observations and with results from a chemistry transport model that uses the same data sets. A large number of backward trajectories are started in the stratosphere, and from the fraction of these trajectories that has passed the tropopause the age of air is computed. First, for ten different data sets 50-day backward trajectories starting in the tropical lower stratosphere are computed. The results show that in this region the computed cross-tropopause transport decreases with increasing forecast segment length. Next, for three selected data sets (3D-Var 24-h and 4D-Var 72-h forecast segments, and 4D-Var analyses) 5-year backward trajectories are computed that start all over the globe at an altitude of 20km. For all data sets the computed ages of air in the extratropics are smaller than the observation-based age. For 4D-Var forecast series they are closest to the observation-based values, but still 0.5-1.5 year too small. Compared to the difference in age between the results for the different data sets, the difference in age between the trajectory and the chemistry transport model results is small

Mobile apps for health behaviour change in physical activity, diet, drug and alcohol use, and mental health: a systematic review

Background: With a growing focus on patient interaction with health management, mobile apps are increasingly used to deliver behavioural health interventions. The large variation in these mobile health apps - their target patient group, health behaviour, and behavioural change strategies - has resulted in a large but incohesive body of literature. Objective: The purpose of this systematic review was to assess the effectiveness of mobile apps at improving health behaviours and outcomes, and to examine the inclusion and effectiveness of Behaviour Change Techniques in mobile health apps. Methods: Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, and Web of Science were systematically searched for articles published between 2014 and 2019 that evaluated mobile apps for health behaviour change. Two authors independently screened and selected studies according to the eligibility criteria. Data was extracted and risk of bias assessed by one reviewer and validated by a second reviewer. Results: 52 randomized controlled trials met the inclusion criteria and were included in analysis - 37 studies focused on physical activity, diet, or a combination of both, 11 on drug and alcohol use, and 4 on mental health. Participant perceptions were generally positive - only one app was rated as less helpful and satisfactory than the control - and the studies that measured engagement and usability found relatively high study completion rates (mean = 83.3%, n = 18) and ease of use ratings (3 significantly better than control, 9/15 rated >70%) . However, there was little evidence of changed behaviour or health outcomes. Conclusions: There was not strong evidence found to support the effectiveness of mobile apps at improving health behaviours or outcomes because few studies found significant differences between the app and control groups. Further research is needed to identify the behaviour change techniques that are most effective at promoting behaviour change. Improved reporting is necessary to accurately evaluate the mobile health app effectiveness and risk of bias

Engineering requirements of a Herpes simplex virus patient registry: discovery phase of a real-world evidence platform to advance pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine

Comprehensive pharmacogenomic understanding requires both robust genomic and demographic data. Patient registries present an opportunity to collect large amounts of robust, patient-level data. Pharmacogenomic advancement in the treatment of infectious diseases is yet to be fully realised. Herpes simplex virus (HSV) is one disease for which pharmacogenomic understanding is wanting. This paper aims to understand the key factors that impact data collection quality for medical registries and suggest potential design features of an HSV medical registry to overcome current constraints and allow for this data to be used as a complement to genomic and clinical data to further the treatment of HSV. This paper outlines the discovery phase for the development of an HSV registry with the aim of learning about the users and their contexts, the technological constraints and the potential improvements that can be made. The design requirements and user stories for the HSV registry have been identified for further alpha phase development. The current landscape of HSV research and patient registry development were discussed. Through the analysis of the current state of the art and thematic user analysis, potential design features were elucidated to facilitate the collection of high-quality, robust patient-level data which could contribute to advances in pharmacogenomic understanding and personalised medicine in HSV. The user requirements specification for the development of an HSV registry has been summarised and implementation strategies for the alpha phase discussed

Methyl chloride as a tracer of tropical tropospheric air in the lowermost stratosphere inferred from IAGOS-CARIBIC passenger aircraft measurements

We present variations of methyl chloride (CH3Cl) and nitrous oxide (N2O) in the lowermost stratosphere (LMS) obtained from air samples collected by the In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System-Civil Aircraft for the Regular Investigation of the atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container (IAGOS-CARIBIC) passenger aircraft observatory for the period 2008-2012. To correct for the temporal increase of atmospheric N2O, the CARIBIC N2O data are expressed as deviations from the long-term trend at the northern hemispheric baseline station Mauna Loa, Hawaii (Delta N2O).Delta N2O undergoes a pronounced seasonal variation in the LMS with a minimum in spring. The amplitude increases going deeper in the LMS (up to potential temperature of 40 K above the thermal tropopause), as a result of the seasonally varying subsidence of air from the stratospheric overworld. Seasonal variation of CH3Cl above the tropopause is similar in phase to that of Delta N2O. Significant correlations are found between CH3Cl and Delta N2O in the LMS from winter to early summer, both being affected by mixing between stratospheric air and upper tropospheric air. This correlation, however, disappears in late summer to autumn. The slope of the CH3Cl-Delta N2O correlation observed in the LMS allows us to determine the stratospheric lifetime of CH3Cl to be 35 +/- 7 years. Finally, we examine the partitioning of stratospheric air and tropical/extratropical tropospheric air in the LMS based on a mass balance approach using Delta N2O and CH3Cl. This analysis clearly indicates efficient inflow of tropical tropospheric air into the LMS in summer and demonstrates the usefulness of CH3Cl as a tracer of tropical tropospheric air

The influence of biogenic emissions from Africa on tropical tropospheric ozone during 2006: a global modeling study

We have performed simulations using a 3-D global chemistry-transport model to investigate the influence that biogenic emissions from the African continent exert on the composition of the troposphere in the tropical region. For this purpose we have applied two recently developed biogenic emission inventories provided for use in large-scale global models (Granier et al., 2005; LathiSre et al., 2006) whose seasonality and temporal distribution for biogenic emissions of isoprene, other volatile organic compounds and NO is markedly different. The use of the 12 year average values for biogenic emissions provided by LathiSre et al. (2006) results in an increase in the amount of nitrogen sequestrated into longer lived reservoir compounds which contributes to the reduction in the tropospheric ozone burden in the tropics. The associated re-partitioning of nitrogen between PAN, HNO3 and organic nitrates also results in a similar to 5% increase in the loss of nitrogen by wet deposition. At a global scale there is a reduction in the oxidizing capacity of the model atmosphere which increases the atmospheric lifetimes of CH4 and CO by similar to 1.5% and similar to 4%, respectively. Comparisons against a range of different measurements indicate that applying the 12 year average of LathiSre et al. (2006) improves the performance of TM4_AMMA for 2006 in the tropics. By the use of sensitivity studies we show that the release of NO from soils in Africa accounts for between similar to 2-45% of tropospheric ozone in the African troposphere, similar to 10% in the upper troposphere and between similar to 5-20% of the tropical tropospheric ozone column over the tropical Atlantic Ocean. The subsequent reduction in OH over the source regions allows enhanced transport of CO out of the region. For biogenic volatile organic C1 to C3 species released from Africa, the effects on tropical tropospheric ozone are rather limited, although this source contributes to the global burden of VOC by between similar to 2-4% and has a large influence on the organic composition of the troposphere over the tropical Atlantic Ocean

Is it the Income Distribution or Redistribution that Affects Growth?

Hervorming Sociale Regelgevin