Endogenizing leadership in tax competition: a timing game perspective

In this paper we extend the standard approach of horizontal tax competition by endogenizing the timing of decisions made by the competing jurisdictions. Following the literature on the endogenous timing in duopoly games, we consider a pre-play stage, where jurisdictions commit themselves to more early or late, i.e. to fix their tax rate at a first or second stage. We highlight that at least one jurisdiction experiments a second-mover advantage. We show that the Subgame Perfect Equilibria (SPEs) correspond to the two Stackelberg situations yielding to a coordination problem. In order to solve this issue, we consider a quadratic specification of the production function, and we use two criteria of selection: Pareto-dominance and risk-dominance. We emphasize that at the safer equilibrium the less productive or smaller jurisdiction leads and hence loses the second-mover advantage. If asymmetry among jurisdictions is sufficient, Pareto-dominance reinforces risk-domination in selecting the same SPE. Three results may be deduced from our analysis: (i) the downward pressure on tax rates is less severe than predicted; (ii) the smaller jurisdiction leads; (iii) the 'big-country-higher-tax-rate' rule does not always hold. Classification-JEL: H30, H87, C72.Endogenous timing; tax competition; first/second-mover advantage; strategic complements; stackelberg ; risk dominance.

Comment on "Quantum mechanics of smeared particles"

In a recent article, Sastry has proposed a quantum mechanics of smeared particles. We show that the effects induced by the modification of the Heisenberg algebra, proposed to take into account the delocalization of a particle defined via its Compton wavelength, are important enough to be excluded experimentally.Comment: 2 page

Nonpointlike Particles in Harmonic Oscillators

Quantum mechanics ordinarily describes particles as being pointlike, in the sense that the uncertainty $\Delta x$ can, in principle, be made arbitrarily small. It has been shown that suitable correction terms to the canonical commutation relations induce a finite lower bound to spatial localisation. Here, we perturbatively calculate the corrections to the energy levels of an in this sense nonpointlike particle in isotropic harmonic oscillators. Apart from a special case the degeneracy of the energy levels is removed.Comment: LaTeX, 9 pages, 1 figure included via epsf optio

Tank Tests of Twin Seaplane Floats

The following report contains the most essential data for the hydrodynamic portion of the twin-float problem. The following points were successfully investigated: 1) difference between stationary and nonstationary flow; 2) effect of the shape of the step; 3) effect of distance between floats; 4) effect of nose-heavy and tail-heavy moments; 5) effect of the shape of floats; 6) maneuverability

Harmonic oscillator with nonzero minimal uncertainties in both position and momentum in a SUSYQM framework

In the context of a two-parameter $(\alpha, \beta)$ deformation of the canonical commutation relation leading to nonzero minimal uncertainties in both position and momentum, the harmonic oscillator spectrum and eigenvectors are determined by using techniques of supersymmetric quantum mechanics combined with shape invariance under parameter scaling. The resulting supersymmetric partner Hamiltonians correspond to different masses and frequencies. The exponential spectrum is proved to reduce to a previously found quadratic spectrum whenever one of the parameters $\alpha$, $\beta$ vanishes, in which case shape invariance under parameter translation occurs. In the special case where $\alpha = \beta \ne 0$, the oscillator Hamiltonian is shown to coincide with that of the q-deformed oscillator with $q > 1$ and its eigenvectors are therefore $n$-$q$-boson states. In the general case where $0 \ne \alpha \ne \beta \ne 0$, the eigenvectors are constructed as linear combinations of $n$-$q$-boson states by resorting to a Bargmann representation of the latter and to $q$-differential calculus. They are finally expressed in terms of a $q$-exponential and little $q$-Jacobi polynomials.Comment: LaTeX, 24 pages, no figure, minor changes, additional references, final version to be published in JP

Perturbation spectrum in inflation with cutoff

It has been pointed out that the perturbation spectrum predicted by inflation may be sensitive to a natural ultraviolet cutoff, thus potentially providing an experimentally accessible window to aspects of Planck scale physics. A priori, a natural ultraviolet cutoff could take any form, but a fairly general classification of possible Planck scale cutoffs has been given. One of those categorized cutoffs, also appearing in various studies of quantum gravity and string theory, has recently been implemented into the standard inflationary scenario. Here, we continue this approach by investigating its effects on the predicted perturbation spectrum. We find that the size of the effect depends sensitively on the scale separation between cutoff and horizon during inflation.Comment: 6 pages; matches version accepted by PR

Mode Generating Mechanism in Inflation with Cutoff

In most inflationary models, space-time inflated to the extent that modes of cosmological size originated as modes of wavelengths at least several orders of magnitude smaller than the Planck length. Recent studies confirmed that, therefore, inflationary predictions for the cosmic microwave background perturbations are generally sensitive to what is assumed about the Planck scale. Here, we propose a framework for field theories on curved backgrounds with a plausible type of ultraviolet cutoff. We find an explicit mechanism by which during cosmic expansion new (comoving) modes are generated continuously. Our results allow the numerical calculation of a prediction for the CMB perturbation spectrum.Comment: 9 pages, LaTe

Harmonic oscillator with minimal length uncertainty relations and ladder operators

We construct creation and annihilation operators for harmonic oscillators with minimal length uncertainty relations. We discuss a possible generalization to a large class of deformations of cannonical commutation relations. We also discuss dynamical symmetry of noncommutative harmonic oscillator.Comment: 8 pages, revtex4, final version, to appear in PR

Resolution of null fiber and conormal bundles on the Lagrangian Grassmannian

We study the null fiber of a moment map related to dual pairs. We construct an equivariant resolution of singularities of the null fiber, and get conormal bundles of closed $K_C$-orbits in the Lagrangian Grassmannian as the categorical quotient. The conormal bundles thus obtained turn out to be a resolution of singularities of the closure of nilpotent $K_C$-orbits, which is a "quotient" of the resolution of the null fiber.Comment: 17 pages; completely revised and add reference

Torus invariant divisors

Using the language of polyhedral divisors and divisorial fans we describe invariant divisors on normal varieties X which admit an effective codimension one torus action. In this picture X is given by a divisorial fan on a smooth projective curve Y. Cartier divisors on X can be described by piecewise affine functions h on the divisorial fan S whereas Weil divisors correspond to certain zero and one dimensional faces of it. Furthermore we provide descriptions of the divisor class group and the canonical divisor. Global sections of line bundles O(D_h) will be determined by a subset of a weight polytope associated to h, and global sections of specific line bundles on the underlying curve Y.Comment: 16 pages; 5 pictures; small changes in the layout, further typos remove