Capital structure choice and company taxation: A meta-study

This paper provides a quantitative review of the empirical literature on the tax impact on corporate debt financing. Synthesizing the evidence from 46 previous studies, we find that this impact is substantial. In particular, the tax rate proxy determines the outcome of primary analyses. Measures like the simulated marginal tax rate (Graham (1996a)) avoid a downward bias in estimates for the debt response to tax. Moreover, debt characteristics, econometric specifications, and the set of control-variables affect tax effects. Accounting for misspecification biases by means of meta-regressions, we predict a marginal tax effect on the debt ratio of 0.3. --capital structure,corporate income tax,meta-analysis

FDI and taxation : a meta-study

Despite the continuing political interest in the usefulness of tax competition and tax coordination as well as the wealth of theoretical analyses, it still remains open whether or when tax competition is harmful. Moreover, the influence of tax differentials on multinationals' decisions is still insufficiently analyzed. Thus, economists have increasingly resorted to empirical analysis in order to gain insights on the elasticity of FDI with respect to company taxation. As a result, the empirical literature on taxation and international capital flows has grown to a similar abundance during the last 25 years as the respective theoretical literature. Its heterogeneity leads to a rising need for concise reviews on the existing empirical evidence. In this paper we extend former meta-analyses on FDI and taxation in three ways. First, we add the most recent publications unconsidered in meta-analyses up-to-date. Second, we apply a different methodology by using a broad set of meta-regression estimators and explicitly discuss which one is most suitable for application to our meta-data. Third, we address some important issues in research on FDI and taxation to the clarification of which meta-analysis can make valuable contributions. These issues are mainly: The influence of variables which might moderate effects of tax differentials (e.g. public spending), the implications of using aggregate FDI data as opposed to firm-level information on measured tax effects, the implications of bilateral effective tax rates, and the possible presence of publication bias in primary research

Hamiltonian equation of motion and depinning phase transition in two-dimensional magnets

Based on the Hamiltonian equation of motion of the $\phi^4$ theory with quenched disorder, we investigate the depinning phase transition of the domain-wall motion in two-dimensional magnets. With the short-time dynamic approach, we numerically determine the transition field, and the static and dynamic critical exponents. The results show that the fundamental Hamiltonian equation of motion belongs to a universality class very different from those effective equations of motion.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures, have been accept by EP

Spectral plots and the representation and interpretation of biological data

It is basic question in biology and other fields to identify the char- acteristic properties that on one hand are shared by structures from a particular realm, like gene regulation, protein-protein interaction or neu- ral networks or foodwebs, and that on the other hand distinguish them from other structures. We introduce and apply a general method, based on the spectrum of the normalized graph Laplacian, that yields repre- sentations, the spectral plots, that allow us to find and visualize such properties systematically. We present such visualizations for a wide range of biological networks and compare them with those for networks derived from theoretical schemes. The differences that we find are quite striking and suggest that the search for universal properties of biological networks should be complemented by an understanding of more specific features of biological organization principles at different scales.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figure

P.A.M. Dirac and the Discovery of Quantum Mechanics

Dirac's contributions to the discovery of non-relativistic quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, prior to his discovery of the relativistic wave equation, are described

Index of pretreatment intensity predicts outcome of high-dose chemotherapy and autologous progenitor cell transplantation in chemosensitive relapse of Hodgkin's disease

Purpose To identify prognostic factors in patients with chemosensitive relapsed Hodgkin's disease treated by high-dose chemotherapy with autologous progenitor cell transplantation (HDC) and to compare the duration of treatment-free remission prior to HDC with the progression-free survival after HDC in individual patients. Patients and methods Forty-five consecutive patients were analyzed retrospectively. We devised an index of pretreatment intensity (IPTI) based number of different chemo- and radio-therapy regimens given between diagnosis and HDC and on the duration of disease. Results With a median follow-up of 47 months the post-transplant event-free survival (EFS) was 44% and the overall survival. (OAS) was 62% at four years. The IPTI allowed to discriminate between a low and a high-risk group with a four-year post-transplant EFS of 66% and 11% and a OAS of 87% and 28%, respectively (P = 0.0001). Of the 39 patients with sufficient follow-up after HDC, post-transplant EFS lasted on average ≥ 18.5 months longer than the pretransplant treatment-free remission. Conclusions HDC with the CBV regimen confers significant benefit to patients with chemosensitive relapsed Hodgkin's disease. The IPTI may help to select patients with a good response to HDC and to identify poor prognosis patients suitable for experimental protocols or palliative care onl

The Hamburg Ocean-Atmosphere Parameters and Fluxes from Satellite Data (HOAPS): Climatological Atlas of Satellite-Derived Air-Sea Interaction Parameters over the World Oceans

The present atlas is based on the newly available data set known as the Hamburg Ocean At- mosphere Parameters and Fluxes from Satellite Data (HOAPS), for the global oceans. It pre- sents the basic fields of air-sea interaction parameters such as sea surface temperature, specific humidity at air and sea surface temperature, difference in humidity, Dalton number, wind speed and the air sea fluxes such as latent heat, sensible heat and longwave radiation. The atlas also provides the hydrological cycle parameters over the global oceans such as evaporation, precipitation and freshwater flux. The data set covers the period July 1987 to December 1998 and provides the mean monthly, seasonal and annual fields of different variables. It is intended to provide a climatological data base for scientists and students in the field of climatology, me- teorology, oceanography, and air-sea interaction. The document describes the various satellite sensors used and details the method by which the fluxes are derived from those satellite data. This printed atlas is accompanied by a CD-ROM containing the data of all individual monthly averages of the considered parameters as well as the figures and this text. Fields with higher temporal and spatial resolution are also freely available to interested users for non-commercial scientific research. For details of how to access the Fields see: http:// www.mpimet.mpg.de/Depts/Physik/HOAPS

Classification and nondegeneracy of SU(n+1)SU(n+1) Toda system with singular sources

We consider the following Toda system \Delta u_i + \D \sum_{j = 1}^n a_{ij}e^{u_j} = 4\pi\gamma_{i}\delta_{0} \text{in}\mathbb R^2, \int_{\mathbb R^2}e^{u_i} dx -1$,$\delta_0$is Dirac measure at 0, and the coefficients$a_{ij}$form the standard tri-diagonal Cartan matrix. In this paper, (i) we completely classify the solutions and obtain the quantization result:$$\sum_{j=1}^n a_{ij}\int_{\R^2}e^{u_j} dx = 4\pi (2+\gamma_i+\gamma_{n+1-i}), \;\;\forall\; 1\leq i \leq n.$$This generalizes the classification result by Jost and Wang for$\gamma_i=0$,$\forall \;1\leq i\leq n$. (ii) We prove that if$\gamma_i+\gamma_{i+1}+...+\gamma_j \notin \mathbb Z$for all$1\leq i\leq j\leq n$, then any solution$u_i$ is \textit{radially symmetric} w.r.t. 0. (iii) We prove that the linearized equation at any solution is \textit{non-degenerate}. These are fundamental results in order to understand the bubbling behavior of the Toda system.Comment: 28 page