The Tax Sensitivity of Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from Firm-Level Panel Data

Understanding the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) is important for analyzing capital flows and the industrial organization of multinational firms. Most empirical studies of FDI, however, have focused on case studies of nontax factors in overseas investment decisions or on discerning reduced-form relationships between some measure of FDI and variables relating to nontax and tax aspects of the investment decision. In this paper, we examine the effects of taxation on FDI using previously unexplored (for this purpose) panel data on FDI by subsidiaries of U.S. multinational firms collected by Compustat's geographic segment file project. These firm- level data contain information on new capital investment overseas which enable us to measure tax influences on FDI more precisely and allow us to focus on structural models of subsidiaries' investment decision. Our empirical results cast significant doubt on the simplest notion that 'taxes don't matter' for U.S. firms' FDI decisions. Tax parameters influence FDI in precisely the way indicated by neoclassical models. Our results also lend support to the application of the 'tax capitalization' model to the study of dividend repatriation and foreign direct investment decisions.

Ferromagnetism in the Periodic Anderson Model - a Modified Alloy Analogy

We introduce a new aproximation scheme for the periodic Anderson model (PAM). The modified alloy approximation represents an optimum alloy approximation for the strong coupling limit, which can be solved within the CPA-formalism. Zero-temperature and finite-temperature phase diagrams are presented for the PAM in the intermediate-valence regime. The diversity of magnetic properties accessible by variation of the system parameters can be studied by means of quasiparticle densities of states: The conduction band couples either ferro- or antiferromagneticaly to the f-levels. A finite hybridization is a necessary precondition for ferromagnetism. However, too strong hybridization generally suppresses ferromagnetism, but can for certain system parameters also lead to a semi-metallic state with unusual magnetic properties. By comparing with the spectral density approximation, the influence of quasiparticle damping can be examined.Comment: 20 pages, 13 figure

CROPSTATUS--A Computer Program to Assess the Effects of Seasonal Weather Changes on Nebraska\u27s Agriculture

CROPSTATUS is a series of programs residing in Nebraska\u27s AGNET system using daily weather data to assess seasonal changes in crops, livestock, and other agricultural conditions. Assessments are based on parameters developed from accumulations of current daily temperature and precipitation data collected from a network of synoptic, climate, and automated micrometeorological stations in Nebraska in comparison with daily normals. The daily normals were derived from monthly summaries using multiple regression models to compute daily values as a function of Julian day numbers. Crop phenology models based on growing degree days were used to monitor and forecast the progress of different crop strains and times of planting. Biological time scale statistical yield models are used for production estimates. Weather probability information is also available from CROPSTATUS. Long term climatic records have been used to determine spring and autumn freeze probabilities, preseason precipitation available for subsoil moisture recharge and the probabilities of weekly averages of daily maximum and minimum temperatures. These and other features are available in a menu of over 20 different agricultural weather information items developed from a network of 60 weather stations. CROPSTATUS is also used to prepare tabular data and computer maps showing changes in conditions throughout the state. These maps are used in meetings by an interdisciplinary committee of agricultural extension specialists to prepare weekly agweather situation/advisory reports

Theoretical Radii of Transiting Giant Planets: The Case of OGLE-TR-56b

We calculate radius versus age trajectories for the photometrically-selected transiting extrasolar giant planet, OGLE-TR-56b, and find agreement between theory and observation, without introducing an ad hoc extra source of heat in its core. The fact that the radius of HD209458b seems larger than the radii of the recently discovered OGLE family of extremely close-in transiting planets suggests that HD209458b is anomalous. Nevertheless, our good fit to OGLE-TR-56b bolsters the notion that the generic dependence of transit radii on stellar irradiation, mass, and age is, to within error bars, now quantitatively understood.Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure, submitted to the Astrophysical Journa

Researching ‘bogus’ asylum seekers, ‘illegal’ migrants and ‘crimmigrants’

Both immigration and criminal laws are, at their core, systems of inclusion and exclusion. They are designed to determine whether and how to include individuals as members of society or exclude them from it, thereby, creating insiders and outsiders (Stumpf 2006). Both are designed to create distinct categories of people — innocent versus guilty, admitted versus excluded or, as majority would say, ‘legal’ versus ‘illegal’ (Stumpf 2006). Viewed in that light, perhaps it is not surprising that these two areas of law have become inextrica- bly connected in the official discourses. When politicians and policy makers (and also law enforcement authorities and tabloid press) seek to raise the barriers for non-citizens to attain membership in society, it is unremarkable that they turn their attention to an area of the law that similarly func- tions to exclude the ‘other’ — transforming immigrants into ‘crimmigrants’.1 As a criminological researcher one then has to rise up to the challenges of disentangling these so-called officially constructed (pseudo) realities, and breaking free from a continued dominance of authoritative discourses, and developing an alternative understanding of ‘crimmigration’ by connecting the processes of criminal is ation and ‘other ing’ with poverty, xe no-racism and other forms of social exclusion (see Institute of Race Relations 1987; Richmond 1994; Fekete 2001; Bowling and Phillips 2002; Sivanandan 2002; Weber and Bowling 2004)

CROPSTATUS--A Computer Program to Assess the Effects of Seasonal Weather Changes on Nebraska\u27s Agriculture

CROPSTATUS is a series of programs residing in Nebraska\u27s AGNET system using daily weather data to assess seasonal changes in crops, livestock, and other agricultural conditions. Assessments are based on parameters developed from accumulations of current daily temperature and precipitation data collected from a network of synoptic, climate, and automated micrometeorological stations in Nebraska in comparison with daily normals. The daily normals were derived from monthly summaries using multiple regression models to compute daily values as a function of Julian day numbers. Crop phenology models based on growing degree days were used to monitor and forecast the progress of different crop strains and times of planting. Biological time scale statistical yield models are used for production estimates. Weather probability information is also available from CROPSTATUS. Long term climatic records have been used to determine spring and autumn freeze probabilities, preseason precipitation available for subsoil moisture recharge and the probabilities of weekly averages of daily maximum and minimum temperatures. These and other features are available in a menu of over 20 different agricultural weather information items developed from a network of 60 weather stations. CROPSTATUS is also used to prepare tabular data and computer maps showing changes in conditions throughout the state. These maps are used in meetings by an interdisciplinary committee of agricultural extension specialists to prepare weekly agweather situation/advisory reports

A planar diagram approach to the correlation problem

We transpose an idea of 't Hooft from its context of Yang and Mills' theory of strongly interacting quarks to that of strongly correlated electrons in transition metal oxides and show that a Hubbard model of N interacting electron species reduces, to leading orders in N, to a sum of almost planar diagrams. The resulting generating functional and integral equations are very similar to those of the FLEX approximation of Bickers and Scalapino. This adds the Hubbard model at large N to the list of solvable models of strongly correlated electrons. PACS Numbers: 71.27.+a 71.10.-w 71.10.FdComment: revtex, 5 pages, with 3 eps figure

Entry and exit patterns of "toxic" firms

We pair an establishment-level dataset from Texas with public information available in the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) to evaluate the standing of dirty industries in Texas census tracts with a focus on environmental justice concerns. The share of nonwhite residents in a tract is positively correlated with the number of TRI-reporting firms and an inverse-U-shaped relationship characterizes the number of TRI-reporting firms and a tract's median income. Even after controlling for factor prices and other covariates which might drive firm location decisions, entrants that report to the TRI are more likely to locate in areas with a higher share of nonwhite residents. Firms that report to the TRI are also more likely to enter areas with a low share college graduates. In contrast, the number of entrants from industries which do not have TRI reporters is negatively related to the percent of nonwhite residents in a tract. Firms in these non-reporting industries are also more likely to enter areas with a high share of college graduates. Polluters appear to agglomerate, raising concerns about both chemical releases being concentrated in certain tracts and also affecting nonwhite-dense areas disproportionately. The strength of these effects often depend on an urban/rural classification, with rural areas experiencing the most pronounced concerns. Moreover, TRI-reporting firms are less likely to exit the market relative to their peers which operate in the same industry but do not need to file TRI reports, suggesting releases may affect a region in the long-run