Taxation and Domestic Free Trade

In this paper it is argued that the domestic division of labor and trade is organized according to the same principle as the international division of labor and trade – the Ricardian comparative advantages. After all, the ultimate source of these comparative advantages is the individual. The comparative advantages of individuals then lend themselves to groups of people, companies, regions and countries. It is these that make it worthwhile for people to cooperate on any larger scale at all; we all rely on them and they imply that there is room for everyone in society. But just as tariffs ruin the international division of labor, taxes and similar domestic government interventionism destroy the domestic division of labor among people. This is illustrated by means of the ‘division of labor condition’, where taxes enter as a possible restriction to trade, thus creating a Darwinist society of the survival of the fittest. The least productive individuals and those who face the highest barriers to trade run the risk of ending up on the outskirts of society. The more productive ones will run the risk of overreaching as they are forced to perform more and more tasks themselves. The result is not only more home labor and more black markets, but also real barter and situations where nothing gets done at all. To restore the division of labor, and to make room for everyone who wants to participate in it, it is argued that removing barriers to domestic trade is the only possible option.Division of labor; Comparative Advantage; Trade; Productivity; Growth; Taxes; Unemployment; Household Labor; Informal economy

Deflation and Japan Revisited

Deflation counts among the worst things that could happen to an economy, the conventional wisdom tells us. But are falling prices really that bad? According to the Austrian School of Economics, this is not necessarily the case. A distinction is commonly made between (1) growth, (2) cash-building, (3) bank credit and (4) confiscatory deflation. When it comes to the first three kinds, falling prices are regarded as benign free market responses to changing circumstance, whether these are positive or negative by themselves. When it comes to the latter, it is often regarded as something negative. Lately, the word deflation has become almost synonymous with Japan and its economic problems. In this paper, the development of the Japanese economy of 1990-2001 is revisited. While consumer prices fell in 1995 and 1999-2001, if other prices are taken into account, it appears that the overall price level actually fell during most of the years throughout the period, 1997 and 2000 being exceptions. When it comes to the causes of the deflation, any confiscatory deflation created by the government is ruled out, since the money supply has been rising throughout the period. Instead, it is suggested that the deflation of 1994, 1995 and 1996 was exclusively caused by rising supply, i.e. there was growth deflation. This could also have been the case in 1991 and 1992, but the evidence is somewhat inconclusive. Moreover, deflation in 1993, 1998 and 2001 appears exclusively to have been caused by falling aggregate demand, suggesting cash-building or bank credit deflation. Finally, deflation in 1999 might have been caused by a combination of growth, cash-building and bank credit deflation. In all of these cases, the falling prices are to be regarded as benign. Although based on the same set of data, these findings diverge sharply from the official Japanese view of the economy at the time. This is ascertained by studying the official records of the time the consumer price index moved into the negative domain for the first time recorded. Instead of seeing this as something possibly benign, the conventional fear of deflation on the part of the Bank of Japan came to dominate its actions. And if it is true that falling prices are a benign response to the changes that actually occurred in Japan at the time, then any measures taken to make prices not fall cannot be of the benign nature. And if there were one thing most economists would agree on it would probably be that Japan’s economic malaise is not over. This seems to be an important lesson for the future – preventing a free market adjusting, including deflation, to changing circumstances could possibly prevent or prolong a recovery.deflation; inflation; Japan; prices; GDP; GDR; liquidity trap

Tetraisopropyldisiloxane-1,3-diyl as a versatile protecting group for pentopyranosides.

The protecting group tetraisopropyldisiloxane-1,3-yl has been investigated for simultaneous protection of two hydroxyls on pentopyranosides. Methyl α-d-xylopyranoside is protected in excellent regioselectivity and high yield to form the 2,3-protected xylopyranoside whereas methyl β-d-xylopyranoside gives the 3,4-protected product also with excellent regioselectivity

Synthetic studies on naphthoxylosides - labeled compounds and mechanistic studies on acetals

Labeled analogs to an antiproliferative naphthoxyloside have been synthesized and evaluated. Our investigations have shown that the fluorescently labeled analogs are poor structural analogs, and the physical and biological properties are altered to a large extent. Instead, a radioactively labeled compound was synthesized, which made it possible to follow the pathway in the cell. The results showed a difference between a normal and a transformed cell line based on accumulation of the naphthoxyloside and it appears that the transformed cells process the naphthoxylosides faster than the normal cells do. This work also involved mechanistic studies for regioselective openings of benzylidene acetals with boranes and a new mechanism has been proposed. As it turns out, the regioselectivity can be controlled by the choice of borane, Lewis acid and solvent. When the borane is activated by a Lewis acid, the reaction rate is increased and the borane is the most electrophilic species, thus directing the regioselectivity. In contrary, when the borane is not activated, the Lewis acid is the most electrophilic species that directs the regioselectivity

Entreprenörskap och egenfinansiering — om den privata förmögenhetsbildningens teoretiska och praktiska betydelse för entreprenörskapets omfattning

Egenfinansieringen har stor betydelse för om människor ska ta steget till att bli entreprenörer. Det har fastslagits i en rad empiriska studier och ett välkänt forskningsresultat. Det är emellertid inte lika klart hur den teoretiska förklaringen till detta empiriska samband ser ut. De teorier som genom åren har framförts har snarast lett till slutsatsen att frågor runt entreprenörskapets omfattning är frikopplade från egenfinansieringen. Syftet med denna uppsats är att klargöra och renodla de teoretiska argumenten för varför egenfinansieringen spelar en så viktig roll och att klargöra hur hindren för egenfinansiering av entreprenörskapet ser ut. Det avgörande teoretiska argumentet är att det alltid kommer att finnas informations-, perceptions-, tolknings- och utföranderelaterade problem som gör sig gällande så snart entreprenören söker extern finansiering. De samlade empiriska och teoretiska argumenten visar därför på egenfinansieringens avgörande betydelse för entreprenörskapets omfattning. Hindren för egenfinansiering av entreprenörskapet kan allmänt sägas falla i två kategorier, (1) hinder för att bygga upp en förmögenhet respektive (2) hinder för en befintlig förmögenhets bevarande. Resultaten har viktiga policyimplikationer.Entrepreneurship; judgment; asymmetric information; self-finance; taxation

Synthesis and biology of oligoethylene glycol linked naphthoxylosides.

Proteoglycans (PGs) are important macromolecules in mammalian cells, consisting of a core protein substituted with carbohydrate chains, known as glycosaminoglycans (GAGs). Simple xylosides carrying hydrophobic aglycons can enter cells and act as primers for GAG chain synthesis, independent of the core protein. Previously it has been shown that aromatic aglycons can be separated from the sugar residue by short linkers without affecting the GAG priming ability. To further investigate the effects of the xylose-aglycon distance on the GAG priming ability, we have synthesized xyloside derivatives with 2-naphthyl and 2-(6-hydroxynaphthyl) moieties connected to xylose, directly, via a methylene bridge, or with oligoethylene glycol linkers of three different lengths. The GAG priming ability and the antiproliferative activity of the xylosides, as well as the composition of the xyloside-primed GAG chains were investigated in a matched pair of human breast fibroblasts and human breast carcinoma cells. An increase of the xylose-aglycon distance from 0.24 to 0.37nm resulted in an increased GAG priming ability in both cell lines. Further increase of the xylose-aglycon distance did not result in any pronounced effects. We speculate that by increasing the xylose-aglycon distance, and thereby the surface area of the xyloside, to a certain level would make it more accessible for enzymes involved in the GAG synthesis. The compositions of the primed GAG chains varied with different xylosides, independent of the xylose-aglycon distance, probably due to various affinities for enzymes and/or different cellular uptake. Furthermore, no correlations between the antiproliferative activities, the xylose-aglycon distances, and the amounts or compositions of the GAG chains were detected suggesting involvement of other factors such as fine structure of the GAG chains, effects on endogenous PG synthesis, or other unknown factors for the antiproliferative activity

Surrogate safety measures and traffic conflict observations.

The chapter primarily focuses on observing traffic conflicts (also known as near-accidents) as a site-based road safety analysis technique. Traffic conflicts are a type of surrogate safety measure. The term surrogate indicates that non-accident-based indicators are used to assess VRU safety instead ofthe more traditional approach focusing on accidents (see chapter 2). The theory underpinning surrogate safety measures is briefly described, followed by a discussion on the characteristics of the traffic conflict technique. Next, guidelines for conducting traffic conflict observations using trained human observers or video cameras are presented. Chapter 4 concludes with examples of the use of the traffic conflict technique in road safety studies focusing on VRUs

Effect of Short-term and High-resolution Load Forecasting Errors on Microgrid Operation Costs

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effect of the load forecasting errors to the operation costs of a grid-connected microgrid. To this end, a microgrid energy scheduling optimization model was tested with deterministic and stochastic formulations under two solution approaches i.e., day-ahead and rolling horizon optimization. In total, twelve simulation test cases were designed receiving as input the forecasts provided by one of the three implemented machine learning models: linear regression, artificial neural network with backpropagation, and long short-term memory. Simulation results of the weekly operation of a real residential building (HSB Living Lab)showed no significant differences among the costs of the test cases for a daily mean absolute percentage forecast error of about 12%. These results suggest that operators of similar microgrid systems could use simplifying approaches, such as day-ahead deterministic optimization, and forecasts of similar, non-negligible accuracy without substantially affecting the microgrid\u27s total cost as compared to the ideal case of perfect forecast. Improving the accuracy would mainly reduce the microgrid\u27s peak power cost as shown by its 20.2% increase in comparison to the ideal case

Effect of Short-term and High-resolution Load Forecasting Errors on Microgrid Operation Costs

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effect of the load forecasting errors to the operation costs of a grid-connected microgrid. To this end, a microgrid energy scheduling optimization model was tested with deterministic and stochastic formulations under two solution approaches i.e., day-ahead and rolling horizon optimization. In total, twelve simulation test cases were designed receiving as input the forecasts provided by one of the three implemented machine learning models: linear regression, artificial neural network with backpropagation, and long short-term memory. Simulation results of the weekly operation of a real residential building (HSB Living Lab)showed no significant differences among the costs of the test cases for a daily mean absolute percentage forecast error of about 12%. These results suggest that operators of similar microgrid systems could use simplifying approaches, such as day-ahead deterministic optimization, and forecasts of similar, non-negligible accuracy without substantially affecting the microgrid\u27s total cost as compared to the ideal case of perfect forecast. Improving the accuracy would mainly reduce the microgrid\u27s peak power cost as shown by its 20.2% increase in comparison to the ideal case