Spatial tax competition in the EU15.

Tax competition in the European Union is ¯erce. Especially since the en-try of the new member States, tax reforms in the "old" Europe are frequent.In this paper we formally test the presence of strategic tax setting in the oldEU14 as a reaction to the tax rates in the new member states using a ¯scal re-action function. We ¯rst develop a simple model of spatial tax competition thatpredicts an inverse relationship between distance and toughness of tax compe-tition. Empirically we ¯nd indeed that tax competition is stronger for countriesrelatively closer to the low tax region of the new members like Germany andAustria than for old member States further away from the new member Statessuch as Spain, UK and Portugal.

Are your firm’s taxes set in Warsaw? Spatial tax competition in Europe

Tax competition within the EU is fiercer than in the rest of the OECD with tax rates falling rapidly. This paper analyzes tax responses of EU-15 countries to corporate tax changes in the EU-10 new member states as a function of their proximity to these new member states. The average corporate tax rate in the new member states has always been considerably lower than the average in the EU-15 countries. Their entry into the EU eliminated capital barriers, allowing firms to locate in one of the new EU-10 with full access to the European Market. Our results indicate that EU-15 countries geographically closer to the new member states respond stronger to corporate tax changes in these new member states. We use a theoretical and a spatial regression framework to test the hypothesis that distance to a low tax region intensifies countries’ tax reaction functions.spatial tax competition, corporate taxes, fiscal reaction function.

Trade, instititutions and export specialization.

This paper studies whether trade integration between the EU15 and Central Europe has led to more export specialization in Central Europe. Moreover, we analyze the impact of institutional reforms in Central Europe on export specialization. The empirical analysis is set up for thirteen Central European countries over the period 1989-2000. Our results indicate that a reduction in tariffs between EU15 and Central Europe led to increased export specialization in Central Europe. In addition to trade integration, we show that institutional reforms and in particular enterprise reforms contributed to export specialization.trade integration; tariffs; Herfindahl index; exports; institutions;

Taraldsen’s generalization in diachrony : evidence from a diachronic corpus

International audienceWe present the first large scale quantitative investigation of the syncretisation of verbal subject agreement in Medieval French and test a classic analysis which relates non-syncretic agreement and null subjects as parts of the same grammar (e.g. Rizzi 1986, Adams 1987, Alexiadou & Anagnostopoulou 1998, Roberts 2010, Sheehan to appear). We show that agreement syncretisation and the emergence of overt pronominal subjects proceeded at the same rate. On the Constant Rate Hypothesis of Kroch (1989), which states that a grammatical change has the same rate in different contexts, these results are compatible with the traditional analysis. However, we show that this analysis also generates a number of predictions which are not borne out by the quantitative data. We conclude that a more complex model of interaction of subject and inflection parameters is needed

Developing selective media for quantification of multispecies biofilms following antibiotic treatment

The lungs of cystic fibrosis (CF) patients are chronically colonized by a polymicrobial biofilm community, leading to difficult-to-treat infections. To combat these infections, CF patients are commonly treated with a variety of antibiotics. Understanding the dynamics of polymicrobial community composition in response to antibiotic therapy is essential in the search for novel therapies. Culture-dependent quantification of individual bacteria from defined multi-species biofilms is frequently carried out by plating on selective media. However, the influence of the selective agents in these media on quantitative recovery before or after antibiotic treatment is often unknown. In the present study we developed selective media for six bacterial species that are frequently co-isolated from the CF lung, i.e. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus anginosus, Achromobacter xylosoxidans, Rothia mucilaginosa, and Gemella haemolysans. We show that certain supplementations to selective media strongly influence quantitative recovery of (un) treated biofilms. Hence, the developed media were optimized for selectivity and quantitative recovery before or after treatment with antibiotics of four major classes, i.e. ceftazidime, ciprofloxacin, colistin, or tobramycin. Finally, in a proof of concept experiment the novel selective media were applied to determine the community composition of multispecies biofilms before and after treatment with tobramycin

Spatial tax competition in EU15.

Tax competition in the European Union is ¯erce. Especially since the en-try of the new member States, tax reforms in the "old" Europe are frequent.In this paper we formally test the presence of strategic tax setting in the oldEU14 as a reaction to the tax rates in the new member states using a ¯scal re-action function. We ¯rst develop a simple model of spatial tax competition thatpredicts an inverse relationship between distance and toughness of tax compe-tition. Empirically we ¯nd indeed that tax competition is stronger for countriesrelatively closer to the low tax region of the new members like Germany andAustria than for old member States further away from the new member Statessuch as Spain, UK and Portugal.

Taxes and location decisions of firms.

In traditional tax literature it is argued that (further) integration among countrieswill inevitably lead to a race to the bottom of corporate tax rates. In order toattract firms, countries are assumed to lower their tax rates below the ones of their’competitors’. According to the New Economic Geography literature this howeverdoes not necessarily need to be the case. It is argued that more agglomerated regionsbenefit from what is called agglomeration rents and that these rents can be taxed.As integration moves on, one might expect the tax difference between more and lessagglomerated regions to increase instead of fading out. The purpose of this paper isto test this theory for Belgian firms.

Trade integration, institutions and export specialization.

Traditional and new trade theories predict increasing specialization as trade costs are reduced. Moreover, a growing literature points out the importance of institutions for trade and economic performance. This paper combines both literatures and investigates the empirical link between trade integration, institutions and export specialization. We study the evolution of export specialization in thirteen Central European countries over the period 1989-2000 as a result of decreasing tariffs and institutional reforms. Our estimates indicate that a reduction in tariffs between EU15 and Central Europe results in increased export specialization in Central Europe. In addition to trade integration, our results show that institutional reforms and in particular enterprise reforms such as credit and subsidy policies speed up export specialization signiffcantly.Trade integration; Tariffs; Herfindahl; Institutions;

Trade integration and industrial specialization in Central Europe.

In this paper we study the impact of trade integration on the degree ofindustrial specialization in thirteen countries of Central and Eastern Eu-rope. The results show that trade integration leads to long-run industrialspecialization in these countries. In contrast, an earlier paper by Beine& Coulombe (2004) on industrial specialization in Canada ¯nds long rundiversi¯cation as a result of trade liberalization with the U.S. Given thatthe Central and East European countries are still in an earlier stage ofdevelopment than Canada, we interpret the di®erent results that we ob-tain as evidence that the relationship between trade liberalization andindustrial specialization is not a monotonic one, but can di®er along thedevelopment path.Trade; Integration; Studies; International; International trade; Finance;