Is Targeted Tax Competition Less Harmful than its Remedies?

Some governments have recently called for international accords restricting the use of preferential taxes targeted to attract mobile tax bases from abroad. Are such agreements likely to discourage tax competition or conversely cause it to spread? We study a general model of competition for multiple tax bases and establish conditions for a restriction on preferential regimes to increase or decrease tax revenues. Our results show that restrictions are most likely to be desirable when tax bases are on average highly responsive to a coordinated increase in tax rates by all governments, and when tax bases with large domestic elasticities are also more mobile internationally. Our analysis allows us to reconcile the apparently contradictory results, derived from analyzing special cases, of the previous literature.preferential taxation, tax competition, multiple tax bases

Taxation and Evasion in the Presence of Extortion by Organized Crime

In pursuit of its transition from a command to a market economy, post-Soviet Russia has witnessed enormous regional differences in economic growth rates. Moreover, the economic reforms implemented under this transition, while initiated at the federal level, have also differed markedly across regions, as regional governments have had considerable discretion over the implementation of reform policies in their jurisdictions. We exploit these differences in analyzing whether regional differences in reform policies can account for regional differences in growth rates, and conclude that to a considerable degree, they can. Most notably, we find that local-government privatization initiatives and regional-government initiatives to gain control over their capital stock (e.g. plants, equipment, machinery and social infrastructure) exhibit close correspondence with the formation of new legal enterprises, which in turn exhibits close correspondence with economic growth.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39641/3/wp256.pd

No genetic evidence for involvement of Deltaretroviruses in adult patients with precursor and mature T-cell neoplasms

Background The Deltaretrovirus genus comprises viruses that infect humans (HTLV), various simian species (STLV) and cattle (BLV). HTLV-I is the main causative agent in adult T-cell leukemia in endemic areas and some of the simian T-cell lymphotropic viruses have been implicated in the induction of malignant lymphomas in their hosts. BLV causes enzootic bovine leukosis in infected cattle or sheep. During the past few years several new Deltaretrovirus isolates have been described in various primate species. Two new HTLV-like viruses in humans have recently been identified and provisionally termed HTLV-III and HTLV-IV. In order to identify a broad spectrum of Deltaretroviruses by a single PCR approach we have established a novel consensus PCR based on nucleotide sequence data obtained from 42 complete virus isolates (HTLV-I/-II, STLV-I/-II/-III, BLV). The primer sequences were based on highly interspecies-conserved virus genome regions. We used this PCR to detect Deltaretroviruses in samples from adult patients with a variety of rare T-cell neoplasms in Germany. Results: The sensitivity of the consensus PCR was at least between 10-2 and 10-3 with 100% specificity as demonstrated by serial dilutions of cell lines infected with either HTLV-I, HTLV-II or BLV. Fifty acute T-cell lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) samples and 33 samples from patients with various rare mature T-cell neoplasms (T-PLL, Sezary syndrome and other T-NHL) were subsequently investigated. There were no cases with HTLV-I, HTLV-II or any other Deltaretroviruses. Conclusions: The results rule out a significant involvement of HTLV-I or HTLV-II in these disease entities and show that other related Deltaretroviruses are not likely to be involved. The newly established Deltaretrovirus PCR may be a useful tool for identifying new Deltaretroviruses

Lithiumsalze des Tris(trimethylsilylamino)silans

Amides, which result from the reaction of tris(trimethylsilylamino)silane (Me3SiNH)3SiH (1) with n-butyllithium in the molar ratio 1:1 and 1:2 in nonpolar solvents, form a system in which the aminosilane 1, the monoamide (Me3SiNLi)(Me3-SiNH)2SiH (2a), the diamide (Me3SiNLi)2(Me3SiNH)SiH (3), and the triamide (Me3SiNLi)3SiH (4) are in equilibrium. When the monoamide 2a is dissolved in THF only the dimeric monolithiated THF adduct 2b is obtained. An X-ray structure analysis of the lithium silylamide 2b reveals that in the dimeric unit one of the lithium atoms is coordinated by THF, the two lithium atoms thus differing in coordination number (3 versus 4). An X-ray study of the triamide 4 reveals a centrosymmetric polycycle. Multipole interactions are formed between the lithium and the nitrogen atoms. The reaction of the diamide 3 with chlorotrimethylsilane in boiling THF yields the cis isomer of the cyclic diamide [(Me3SiNLi)(Me3-SiNH)SiN(SiMe3)]2.2 THF (5) as a byproduct. According to an X-ray structure analysis of 5 the lithium centers are coordinated by one oxygen and three nitrogen atoms, which form a strongly distorted tetrahedron. The interactions between lithium and nitrogen atoms N(1) and N(2), which are part of the four-membered Si2N2 cycle, have to be considered as weak on the basis of the remarkably long Li-N distances (233 and 243 pm)

Implementation of formative assessment - effects of quality of programme delivery on students\u27 mathematics achievement and interest

The aim of this study was to contribute to the understanding of the effectiveness of formative assessment interventions by analysing how the quality of programme delivery affects students\u27 mathematics achievement and interest. Teachers (n = 17) implemented formative assessment in their ninth-grade mathematics classes and provided their students (n = 426) with written process-oriented feedback. Four feedback characteristics (number of feedback comments, specificity, feedback at self level, social reference norm) and two types of embedment of feedback in the instructional context (focus on feedback utilisation, focus on performance evaluation) were evaluated. Multilevel regression analyses revealed no significant effects of feedback characteristics on interest but negative effects of number of feedback comments and specificity on achievement in mathematics. Positive effects on mathematics achievement and interest were found when feedback was embedded in instruction and had emphasis on feedback utilisation. Students\u27 interest also was affected positively when performance evaluation was stressed. (DIPF/Orig.