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The Tax Advantage of Big Business: How the Structure of Corporate Taxation Fuels Concentration and Inequality
Corporate concentration in the United States has been on the rise in recent years, sparking a heated debate about its causes, consequences, and potential remedies. In this study, we examine a facet of public policy that has been largely neglected in current debates about concentration: corporate taxation. As part of our analysis we develop the first empirical mapping of the effective tax rates (ETRs) of nonfinancial corporations disaggregated by size and broken down by jurisdiction. Our findings reveal a striking and persistent tax advantage for big business. Since the mid-1980s, large corporations have faced lower worldwide ETRs relative to their smaller counterparts. The regressive worldwide ETR is driven by persistent regressivity in the domestic ETR and a marked drop in the progressivity of the foreign ETR over the past decade. We go on to show how persistent regressivity in the worldwide tax structure is bound up with the increasing relative power of large corporations within the corporate universe, as well as a shift in firm-level power relations. As large corporations become less disposed to investments that may indirectly benefit ordinary workers, they become more disposed to shareholder value enhancement that directly benefits the asset-rich. What this means is that the corporate tax structure is connected not only to rising corporate concentration, but also to widening household inequality
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Financial Crisis, Inequality, and Capitalist Diversity: A Critique of the Capital as Power Model of the Stock Market
The relationship between inequality and financial instability has become a thriving topic of research in heterodox political economy. This article offers the first critical engagement with one framework within this wider literature: the Capital as Power (CasP) model of the stock market developed by Shimshon Bichler and Jonathan Nitzan. Specifically, we extend the CasP model to other advanced capitalist countries, including Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Our findings affirm the core prediction of the CasP model, showing that unequal power relations reliably predict future stock market performance. Yet when it comes to the CasP model’s explanation of why power relations predict stock market returns, our findings are more ambiguous. We find little empirical support for the claims that capitalist power is dialectically intertwined with systemic fear, and that systemic fear and capitalised power are mediated through strategic sabotage. The main lesson of our analysis is that any model of the stock market must be attentive to the geographical unevenness and continued national diversity in capitalist development
Beobachtungsstudien im Rahmen eines naturheilkundlichen Klinikverbunds :Teil III: Zwischenergebnisse der diagnosespezifischen Dokumentation Migräne in der Klinik für TraditionelleChinesische Medizin Kötzting
Objective: To evaluate the course of symtoms and quality of life of migraine patients after treatment with traditional Chinese medicine. Design: Prospective observational study with 12 months follow-up. Patients: 138 consecutive patients diagnosed by a neurologist to have migraine headaches. Intervention: Complex in-patient treatment with traditional Chinese medicine including acupuncture and Chinese drug therapy. Outcomes: Number of days with headaches per month, number, intensity and duration of migraine attacks, concomitant symptoms, quality of life, global assessment and days off work. Results: The number of days with headaches per month decreased from 9 (median) at baseline to 4 at discharge and was 3 at 12 months. Also, for the other outcomes a clear improvement was seen with a slight wash-out tendency in follow-up. Conclusion: The observed patients with long-lasting migraines had a marked benefit from an in-patient treatment with traditional Chinese medicine
Flow properties of driven-diffusive lattice gases: theory and computer simulation
We develop n-cluster mean-field theories (0 < n < 5) for calculating the flow
properties of the non-equilibrium steady-states of the Katz-Lebowitz-Spohn
model of the driven diffusive lattice gas, with attractive and repulsive
inter-particle interactions, in both one and two dimensions for arbitrary
particle densities, temperature as well as the driving field. We compare our
theoretical results with the corresponding numerical data we have obtained from
the computer simulations to demonstrate the level of accuracy of our
theoretical predictions. We also compare our results with those for some other
prototype models, notably particle-hopping models of vehicular traffic, to
demonstrate the novel qualitative features we have observed in the
Katz-Lebowitz-Spohn model, emphasizing, in particular, the consequences of
repulsive inter-particle interactions.Comment: 12 RevTex page
Precision mass measurements of radioactive nuclei at JYFLTRAP
The Penning trap mass spectrometer JYFLTRAP was used to measure the atomic
masses of radioactive nuclei with an uncertainty better than 10 keV. The atomic
masses of the neutron-deficient nuclei around the N = Z line were measured to
improve the understanding of the rp-process path and the SbSnTe cycle.
Furthermore, the masses of the neutron-rich gallium (Z = 31) to palladium (Z =
46) nuclei have been measured. The physics impacts on the nuclear structure and
the r-process paths are reviewed. A better understanding of the nuclear
deformation is presented by studying the pairing energy around A = 100.Comment: 4 pages and 4 figures, RNB7 conf. pro
Global change accelerates carbon assimilation by a wetland ecosystem engineer
The primary productivity of coastal wetlands is changing dramatically in response to rising atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations, nitrogen (N) enrichment, and invasions by novel species, potentially altering their ecosystem services and resilience to sea level rise. In order to determine how these interacting global change factors will affect coastal wetland productivity, we quantified growing-season carbon assimilation (≈gross primary productivity, or GPP) and carbon retained in living plant biomass (≈net primary productivity, or NPP) of North American mid-Atlantic saltmarshes invaded by Phragmites australis (common reed) under four treatment conditions: two levels of CO2 (ambient and +300 ppm) crossed with two levels of N (0 and 25 g N added m−2 yr−1). For GPP, we combined descriptions of canopy structure and leaf-level photosynthesis in a simulation model, using empirical data from an open-top chamber field study. Under ambient CO2 and low N loading (i.e., the Control), we determined GPP to be 1.66 ± 0.05 kg C m−2 yr−1 at a typical Phragmites stand density. Individually, elevated CO2 and N enrichment increased GPP by 44 and 60%, respectively. Changes under N enrichment came largely from stimulation to carbon assimilation early and late in the growing season, while changes from CO2 came from stimulation during the early and mid-growing season. In combination, elevated CO2 and N enrichment increased GPP by 95% over the Control, yielding 3.24 ± 0.08 kg C m−2 yr−1. We used biomass data to calculate NPP, and determined that it represented 44%–60% of GPP, with global change conditions decreasing carbon retention compared to the Control. Our results indicate that Phragmites invasions in eutrophied saltmarshes are driven, in part, by extended phenology yielding 3.1× greater NPP than native marsh. Further, we can expect elevated CO2 to amplify Phragmites productivity throughout the growing season, with potential implications including accelerated spread and greater carbon storage belowground
Evolutionary estimation of a Coupled Markov Chain credit risk model
There exists a range of different models for estimating and simulating credit
risk transitions to optimally manage credit risk portfolios and products. In
this chapter we present a Coupled Markov Chain approach to model rating
transitions and thereby default probabilities of companies. As the likelihood
of the model turns out to be a non-convex function of the parameters to be
estimated, we apply heuristics to find the ML estimators. To this extent, we
outline the model and its likelihood function, and present both a Particle
Swarm Optimization algorithm, as well as an Evolutionary Optimization algorithm
to maximize the likelihood function. Numerical results are shown which suggest
a further application of evolutionary optimization techniques for credit risk
management
Beobachtungsstudien im Rahmen eines naturheilkundlichen Klinikverbunds :Teil II: Detaillierte Ergebnisse der Klinik für Traditionelle ChinesischeMedizin Kötzting
Objective: To collect information on patients, interventions and outcomes in a hospital for traditional Chinese medicine in Germany. Design: Prospective observational study with 12 months followup. Patients: All 667 consecutive patients admitted for in-patient treatment in the hospital between December 1994 and July 1995 were documented. The follow-up rate after 12 months was 65.8%. Outcome Measures: Sociodemographic data, diagnoses, duration of complaints, type and frequency of diagnostic and therapeutic interventions, intensity of complaints, assessment of the therapeutic success and quality of life. Results: About two thirds of the patients suffered from chronic pain syndromes (the most frequent single diagnoses were migraine, lumbago, and neck pain/headaches). 72.3% of the patients were female; the median duration since the onset of the disease was 7 years. Almost all patients received acupuncture and treatment with traditional Chinese drugs. 50.3% assessed the therapeutic success as good or very good at discharge; after 12 months this rate was 55.6%. Both intensity of main complaints and psychic and physical aspects of quality of life improved after treatment. After 12 months the improvement was less distinct but still significant. Conclusions: The in-patient treatment provided a clear benefit to the patients. Without a valid comparison with an alternative treatment little can be concluded about comparative effectiveness and efficiency of a treatment in the hospital for traditional Chinese medicine
Neoclassical transport of tungsten ion bundles in total-f neoclassical gyrokinetic simulations of a whole-volume JET-like plasma
Neoclassical gyrokinetic simulations including tungsten impurities are
carried out using multiple gyrokinetic bundles to model the many charge states
of tungsten ions present in the whole-volume of a model H-mode plasma in JET
geometry. A gyrokinetic bundle regroups tungsten ions of similar charge
together in order to decrease the computational cost. The initial radial shape
of the bundles and their individual charges are deduced from a coronal
approximation and from quasi-neutrality of the plasma. Low-Z tungsten ions move
radially inward from SOL into the core region, whereas high-Z tungsten ions
move radially outwardly from the core and inwardly from the separatrix. These
fluxes lead to an accumulation of tungsten in the pedestal top of our test
case. This organization of the fluxes cannot be captured by a single
tungsten-ion simulation. Large up/down poloidal asymmetries of tungsten form in
the pedestal and strongly influence the direction of these neoclassical fluxes.
Future implementation of atomic interactions between bundles is discussed.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure
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