Do countries compete over corporate tax rates?

This paper tests whether OECD countries compete with each other over corporate taxes in order to attract investment. We develop two models: with firm mobility, countries compete only over the statutory tax rate or the effective average tax rate, while with capital mobility, countries compete only over the effective marginal tax rate. We estimate the parameters of reaction functions using data from 21 countries between 1983 and 1999. Wefind evidence that countries compete over all three measures, but particularly over the statutory tax rate and the effective average tax rate. This is consistent with a belief amongst governments that location choices by multinationalfirms are discrete. We alsofind evidence of concave reaction functions, consistent with the model outlined in the paper

Horizontal and vertical indirect tax competition: theory and some evidence from the USA

This paper provides a simple theoretical framework for analyzing simultaneous vertical and horizontal competition in excise taxes, and estimates equations informed by the theory on a panel of US state and federal excise taxes on cigarettes and gasoline. We also examine the role played by smuggling. The results are generally consistent with the theory, when the characteristics of the markets for the goods are taken into account. For neither good do federal excise taxes affect state taxes. Taxes in neighboring states have a significant and large effect in the case of cigarettes, and a much weaker effect in the case of gasoline. we also find that in the setting of cigarette taxes, concerns about cross-border shopping play a more important role than concerns about smuggling

Exploring Accretion and Disk-Jet Connections in the LLAGN M81*

We report on a year-long effort to monitor the central supermassive black hole in M81 in the X-ray and radio bands. Using Chandra and the VLA, we obtained quasi-simultaneous observations of M81* on seven occasions during 2006. The X-ray and radio luminosity of M81* are not strongly correlated on the approximately 20-day sampling timescale of our observations, which is commensurate with viscous timescales in the inner flow and orbital timecales in a radially-truncated disk. This suggests that short-term variations in black hole activity may not be rigidly governed by the "fundamental plane", but rather adhere to the plane in a time-averaged sense. Fits to the X-ray spectra of M81* with bremsstrahlung models give temperatures that are inconsistent with the outer regions of very simple advection-dominated inflows. However, our results are consistent with the X-ray emission originating in a transition region where a truncated disk and advective flow may overlap. We discuss our results in the context of models for black holes accreting at small fractions of their Eddington limit, and the fundamental plane of black hole accretion.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

A depth telerecording unit for marine biology

A serious obstacle to critical examination of stratification and diurnal migration of plankton has been the lack of instruments that enable the biologist to ascertain accurately the depth of his collecting net at the time of opening, fishing and closing...

Shall we dance? Recreational dance, well-being and productivity performance during COVID-19: a three-country study

Mental health issues are increasingly prevalent worldwide, emphasizing the need to research antecedents and consequences of well-being. Prior research shows that within organizations, higher levels of subjective well-being (SWB) promote productivity performance. Building on this research, the authors hypothesize that recreational dance positively influences productivity through higher SWB. Survey data from Brazil, Italy, and the United Kingdom reveal that recreational dancers are more productive than nondancers due to their higher intrinsic motivation and SWB. Dancing has an additional direct effect on productivity, beyond the mediating role of SWB. The results indicate well-being and productivity improvements in all three countries, although they show a moderating effect such that the relationship between recreational dance and SWB is stronger when social norms are perceived to be looser. This study indicates potentially far-reaching benefits that could be achieved by including recreational dance in corporate well-being programs. International dance organizations could market dance classes as a pathway to increase productivity at work and explore synergies with public health marketing to promote the benefits of recreational dance in joint international campaigns

Brewing of filter coffee

We report progress on mathematical modelling of coffee grounds in a drip filter coffee machine. The report focuses on the evolution of the shape of the bed of coffee grounds during extraction with some work also carried out on the chemistry of extraction. This work was sponsored by Philips who are interested in understanding an observed correlation between the final shape of the coffee grounds and the quality of the coffee. We used experimental data gathered by Philips and ourselves to identify regimes in the coffee brewing process and relevant regions of parameter space. Our work makes it clear that a number of separate processes define the shape of the coffee bed depending on the values of the parameters involved e.g. the size of the grains and the speed of fluid flow during extraction. We began work on constructing mathematical models of the redistribution of the coffee grounds specialised to each region and on a model of extraction. A variety of analytic and numerical tools were used. Furthermore our research has progressed far enough to allow us to begin to exploit connections between this problem and other areas of science, in particular the areas of sedimentology and geomorphology, where the processes we have observed in coffee brewing have been studied