Measuring Effective Tax Rates on Human Capital: Methodology and an Application to Canada

This paper examines the impacts of a wide range of tax provisions on the incentive to invest in human capital, and shows how these effects can be quantified using effective tax rates, or ETRs. For individuals with median earnings, ETRs on the human capital formed in first-degree university study are sizeable, although not as large as those estimated by previous authors for physical capital in Canada. When the expenditure side and its direct subsidies are also taken into account, the net effective tax rate on human capital becomes negative. The taxation of human capital is far from uniform. ETRs vary by income level, gender, part-time vs. full-time study, whether students have loans, number of dependants, and use of RESPs. The most significant differences are those related to income level. Workers at higher percentile levels of the earnings distribution throughout life may face ETRs three times as high as those for low-income workers – a result of our progressive income tax system.

Legitimating a theodicy : Peter Berger and the search for meaning in post-Enlightenment society

This thesis seeks to provide an overview and examination of the thought of the significant contemporary sociologist, Peter L. Berger. Berger is concerned with the issue of how meaning is constructed in modern, secular, bureaucratic society. Furthermore, this thesis seeks to outline, and trace the development of, Berger\u27s thought. To achieve this the thesis examines Berger\u27s use of the disciplines of the sociology of knowledge and religion, along with contemporary studies in religion and theology. Berger, by linking the function of a theodicy with that of making meaning, allows for theodicies to be conceived of in the broader context of making meaning in contemporary society. As such, a contemporary theodicy needs to include (indeed, it needs to be inclusive, rather than exclusive) such factors as the relationship between self, others, the world, and the transcendent so as to provide some basis for an authentic and meaningful existence. There is a need for a more inclusive theodicy (other than the traditional individualistic type) which has hermeneutic concern for the \u27whole\u27 (wholeness of self, wholeness in relationships with others, wholeness with the world/environment, and wholeness with the transcendent). However, this \u27wholeness\u27 will not be provided by over-arching, public, structures or systems; it will need to be through chosen, private means which reflect the Post-Modernist situation where \u27closure\u27 on a grand scale is unobtainable (Marshall, 1992, pp. 192 -193). Berger\u27s work provides the possibility for this legitimation of a theodicy (or theodicies) which will provide meaning in Post-Enlightenment society. The construction of meaning in contemporary society needs an ability to cope with complexity, it needs to be reasonable, as well as contemporary (to cope with the plurality in modern society), and it is on the way (that is, not given to closure). Therefore any contemporary theodicy, or system of meaning, must be able to be historically concerned (that is, conscious of its origins and open to the future), empirical (that is, open to scrutiny and review), inductive (that is, dealing with concrete reality, not abstract theory), and concerned with people\u27s lived experience. Berger\u27s signals of transcendence allow for the legitimation of this private, deinstitutionalized religion; that is, they legitimate a meaningful theodicy for contemporary humanity. This theodicy, which is able to accommodate the wider view current in modern society provided by the ecological movement, interaction between the various religious traditions, the feminist movement, the reality of multi-culturalism, and the resulting pluralism from the above factors, can provide some basis for a meaningful and authentic existence in contemporary society. The signals of transcendence are able to correlate people\u27s lived experience (their \u27natural reality\u27) to a reality which is in, with and under that natural reality (Berger, 1992, p. 155)

Glacial to Holocene Hydroclimate in Western Africa: Insights from Organic and Major-Element Geochemistry of Hemipelagic Atlantic Ocean Sediments

The distribution of rainfall in Africa during past climates is not well constrained. In particular, many existing proxy reconstructions in Africa are not consistent with North-South migrations of the rainbelt that are seen in other regions. In this thesis, rainfall distribution across western Africa is investigated at key climate states of the past using a transect of hemipelagic marine sediment cores spanning from 21°N to 23°S in the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Stable carbon and hydrogen isotopes of plant leaf wax n-alkanes are interpreted as proxies for vegetation type and the hydrogen isotopic composition of meteoric water, respectively. In semi-arid regions, dust emissions are strongly linked to hydroclimate. As such, major element geochemistry from 4 continuous sediment core records (21°N-9°N) is also investigated in order to reconstruct dust vs river input from West Africa over the last 45kyrs

QCD Pressure and the Trace Anomaly

Exact relations between the QCD thermal pressure and the trace anomaly are derived. These are used, first, to prove the equivalence of the thermodynamic and the hydrodynamic pressure in equilibrium in the presence of the trace anomaly, closing a gap in previous arguments. Second, in the temporal axial gauge a formula is derived which expresses the thermal pressure in terms of a Dyson-resummed two-point function. This overcomes the infrared problems encountered in the conventional perturbation-theory approach.Comment: 9 pages plain te

Measuring Effective Tax Rates on Human Capital: Methodology and an Application to Canada

This paper examines the impacts of a wide range of tax provisions on the incentive to invest in human capital, and shows how these effects can be quantified using effective tax rates, or ETRs. For individuals with median earnings, ETRs on the human capital formed in first-degree university study are sizeable, although not as large as those estimated by previous authors for physical capital in Canada. When the expenditure side and its direct subsidies are also taken into account, the net effective tax rate on human capital becomes negative. The taxation of human capital is far from uniform. ETRs vary by income level, gender, part-time vs. full-time study, whether students have loans, number of dependants, and use of RESPs. The most significant differences are those related to income level. Workers at higher percentile levels of the earnings distribution throughout life may face ETRs three times as high as those for low-income workers - a result of our progressive income tax system

Rewiring Bacteria, Two Components at a Time

In this issue, Skerker et al. (2008) present a rational method for rewiring the protein-protein interactions and output responses of prokaryotic two-component signal transduction systems. This work has important implications for understanding the specificity of protein interactions and for designing protein-based synthetic signaling cascades. The rational design of biological networks and pathways promises to reveal ways to rewire cells for new biological functions or to gain insights into the behavior of natural systems. Much of the work to date has focused on the manipulation of transcriptional and posttranscriptional elements to create synthetic gene networks with desired functions (Bayer an

Radar signal categorization using a neural network

Neural networks were used to analyze a complex simulated radar environment which contains noisy radar pulses generated by many different emitters. The neural network used is an energy minimizing network (the BSB model) which forms energy minima - attractors in the network dynamical system - based on learned input data. The system first determines how many emitters are present (the deinterleaving problem). Pulses from individual simulated emitters give rise to separate stable attractors in the network. Once individual emitters are characterized, it is possible to make tentative identifications of them based on their observed parameters. As a test of this idea, a neural network was used to form a small data base that potentially could make emitter identifications

FACTORS INFLUENCING WEST TENNESSEE FARMERS' WILLINGNESS TO PAY FOR A BOLL WEEVIL ERADICATION PROGRAM

Data from a survey were used to evaluate Tennessee farmers' willingness to pay for the boll weevil eradication program. Producer experience, boll weevil control costs, and attitudes about boll weevil damage and insecticide usage after the program were significant explanatory variables and had a positive influence on willingness to pay.Contingent valuation, cotton, regional pest control, pest management groups, Demand and Price Analysis, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,