Allowance for Corporate Equity - A solution to the debt equity bias in Sweden?

The debt equity bias refers to the discrimination between debt and equity finance. This discrimination is problematic since it distorts companies’ decisions and increases systemic risk. The European Commission has recommended Sweden to eliminate or reduce the bias and the Swedish Ministry of Finance has gathered a committee to investigate possible solutions. Sørensen (2010) suggested that Sweden would benefit from implementing a reform called Allowance for Corporate Equity. An Allowance for Corporate Equity, often referred to as ACE, would introduce a deduction for equity similar to the existing deduction for interest payments, eliminating the debt equity bias. It also offers other attractive features such as leaving marginal investment unaffected by taxation. Belgium, Croatia, Italy and Brazil are countries that have implemented ACE like reforms. These reforms are discussed and used to draw conclusions regarding the design of a Swedish ACE. The biggest problem of an implementation of the Allowance for Corporate Equity is that it narrows the tax base and consequently requires funding. It is often suggested that the statutory corporate tax rate needs to be increased to fund the reform but other alternatives that are less distortive are also discussed in this paper. Considering the current tax competition in Europe, the positive aspects of an ACE would struggle to outweigh the negative effects from an increased corporate tax rate. Sweden is unlikely to implement an ACE since it is supposed to be financed within the area of corporate taxation. If other sources of funding were allowed, an ACE would have been a more plausible option. A source of funding that seemed particularly interesting was the reintroduction of the recurrent property tax that was replaced by a low fee in 2008. The low fee together with the deductibility of interest payments and low amortization requirements channel too much investment into the housing market and implies a distortion of investment. A reintroduction of the recurrent property tax would generate revenue and eliminate the distortion

Building Next Generation User Experiences @ NASA

This presentation goes through the stories of our work on building ground breaking user experiences at NASA

Designing Interfaces for Astronaut Autonomy in Space

As we move towards human deep space missions, astronauts will no longer be able to say, Houston, we have a problem. The restricted contact with mission control because of the incredible distance from Earth will require astronauts to make autonomous decisions. How will astronauts take on the roles of mission control? This is an area of active research that has far reaching implications for the future of distant spaceflight. Come to this talk to hear how we are using design and user research to come up with innovative solutions for astronauts to effectively explore the Moon, Mars, and beyond

Practicing UX at NASA

My experiences practicing UX at NASA in an engineering driven organization and thoughts on how to communicate the value of user research, usability, and design to skeptics. In this environment hard numbers, requirements, and acronyms rule the conversation. How do you communicate the value of softer concepts such as user research, usability, and design

Nasal turbinates and the evolution of mammalian endothermy

Although endothermy is one of the most significant evolutionary developments in the vertebrates, its origins among extinct taxa have traditionally been difficult to determine. Endothermy is primarily an attribute of the "soft anatomy," and its key features, such as complex lungs, elevated blood oxygen carrying capacity and mitochondrial density, do not fossilize. Previously, only one preservable morphological feature, the presence of complex nasal turbinates, has, anecdotally, been considered very suggestive of endothermy in the ancestry of mammals. This thesis examines the functions of the nasal turbinates of extant mammals with respect to physiological characteristics of endothermy. The fossil record of nasal turbinates is also studied. Nasal turbinates serve two distinct functions: olfaction and conditioning of respiratory air. The respiratory turbinates have previously been found to reduce respiratory water loss in desert mammals. Experimental data presented here indicate that these structures also substantially reduce respiratory water loss in non-desert mammals. These data support the conclusion that respiratory turbinates represent an adaptation to reduce desiccation associated with high pulmonary ventilation rates, and may have evolved in association with the origin of elevated ventilation rates and endothermy. Conversely, no particular correlation with endothermy exists for the olfactory turbinates. In extant mammals, the nasal turbinates attach to ridges along the lateral walls of the nasal cavity, which present a characteristic pattern. Studies of similar ridges in the nasal cavities of the ancient mammals and their ancestors, the mammal-like reptiles (Therapsida), indicate that respiratory turbinals first appear in two groups of advanced therapsids, Therocephalia and Cynodontia. This suggests that the evolution of "mammalian" oxygen consumption rates may have begun as early as the Late Permian, 260 million years ago, and developed largely independently in therocephalians and cynodonts. Full mammalian endothermy may have taken as much as 40 to 50 million years to develop

Lessons Learned from International Space Station Crew Autonomous Scheduling Test

In 2017, our team investigated and evaluated the novel concept of operations of astronaut self-scheduling (rescheduling their own timeline without creating violations) onboard International Space Station (ISS). Five test sessions were completed for this technology demonstration called Crew Autonomous Scheduling Test (CAST). For the first time in a spaceflight operational environment, an ISS crewmember planned, rescheduled, and executed their activities in real-time on a mobile device while abiding by flight and scheduling constraints. This paper discusses the lessons learned from deployment to execution

Adaptive Problem Solving and Mitigation

This presentation examines how problem solving was done on the NEEMO 22 Mission and whether human autonomy teaming would be able to assist in the type of troubleshooting that was conducted by Mission Control

Playbook Data Analysis Tool: Collecting Interaction Data from Extremely Remote Users

Typically, user tests for software tools are conducted in person. At NASA, the users may be located at the bottom of the ocean in a pressurized habitat, above the atmosphere in the International Space Station, or in an isolated capsule on a simulated asteroid mission. The Playbook Data Analysis Tool (P-DAT) is a human-computer interaction (HCI) evaluation tool that the NASA Ames HCI Group has developed to record user interactions with Playbook, the group's existing planning-and-execution software application. Once the remotely collected user interaction data makes its way back to Earth, researchers can use P-DAT for in-depth analysis. Since a critical component of the Playbook project is to understand how to develop more intuitive software tools for astronauts to plan in space, P-DAT helps guide us in the development of additional easy-to-use features for Playbook, informing the design of future crew autonomy tools.P-DAT has demonstrated the capability of discreetly capturing usability data in amanner that is transparent to Playbooks end-users. In our experience, P-DAT data hasalready shown its utility, revealing potential usability patterns, helping diagnose softwarebugs, and identifying metrics and events that are pertinent to Playbook usage aswell as spaceflight operations. As we continue to develop this analysis tool, P-DATmay yet provide a method for long-duration, unobtrusive human performance collectionand evaluation for mission controllers back on Earth and researchers investigatingthe effects and mitigations related to future human spaceflight performance

Ratlose Regierungen?! : Sozial- und Wirtschaftspolitik unter dem Druck der Weltmärkte

Die Globalisierung ist ein uraltes Phänomen – wer will, kann sie sogar aus der Schöpfungsgeschichte des Alten Testaments herauslesen: Mose 1, Kap. 1, Vers. 28: „Und Gott segnete sie [Mann und Frau] und sprach zu ihnen: Seid fruchtbar und mehret euch und füllet die Erde und machet sie euch untertan und herrschet über die Fische im Meer und über die Vögel unter dem Himmel und über das Vieh und über alles Getier, das auf der Erde kriecht. Und Gott sprach: Sehet da, ich habe euch gegeben alle Pflanzen, die Samen bringen auf der ganzen Erde …” Der Druck der Weltmärkte trifft alle Branchen,wenn auch unterschiedlich stark, das heißt aber, keine Branche, aber auch wirklich keine, kann die Hände in den Schoß legen. Die Politik war und ist an diesem Prozess ganz maßgeblich beteiligt,weil sie – aus guten Gründen – durch politisches Wollen die Grenzen zum Weltmarkt aufgestoßen und die Transaktionskosten entscheidend gesenkt hat