Some implications of changing the tax basis for pension funds

Governments in many developed economies provide private pension plans with significant taxation incentives. However, as many retirement income systems are now being reviewed due to demographic, social and economic pressures, these taxation arrangements are also under scrutiny. This paper discusses some of the implications of the differences between the traditional taxation treatment adopted by most OECD nations and that adopted by Australia, where there is a tax on contributions, a tax on investment earnings and a tax on benefits. The results show that there are significant differences in the net value of the benefits received by individuals and the taxation revenue received by the government. On the other hand, it is shown that there is remarkably little to distinguish between the two tax structures in terms of summary measures of lifetime income, although the form in which the benefit is taken in retirement is significant in influencing intragenerational equity.

IMPACT OF A MORE INTENSIVE INSECT PEST INFESTATION LEVEL ON COTTON PRODUCTION: TEXAS HIGH PLAINS

This study evaluated implications of increased bollworm problems in a 20-county area of the Texas High Plains relative to cotton yields and economic impact. Results did not indicate a serious effect of bollworms upon lint yield when insecticides were used for control. However, estimated annual reduction in farmer profit due to the bollworm for 1979-81 was over $30 million. Yields were estimated to decline about 300,000 bales without insecticide use and about 30,000 bales with insecticide use. This decline suggests potentially serious implications for the comparative economic position of cotton in this region if insecticide resistance were to develop among insect pests.Crop Production/Industries,

A survey of complex dimensions, measurability, and the lattice/nonlattice dichotomy

The theory of complex dimensions of fractal strings developed by Lapidus and van Frankenhuijsen has proven to be a powerful tool for the study of Minkowski measurability of fractal subsets of the real line. In a very general setting, the Minkowski measurability of such sets is characterized by the structure of corresponding complex dimensions. Also, this tool is particularly effective in the setting of self-similar fractal subsets of R which have been shown to be Minkowski measurable if and only if they are nonlattice. This paper features a survey on the pertinent results of Lapidus and van Frankenhuijsen and a preliminary extension of the theory of complex dimensions to subsets of Euclidean space, with an emphasis on self-similar sets that satisfy various separation conditions. This extension is developed in the context of box-counting measurability, an analog of Minkowski measurability, which is shown to be characterized by complex dimensions under certain mild conditions.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant DMS–1247679