Corporate Tax Competition between Firms

Firms' tax planning decisions, similar to their other operational decisions, are made in a competitive environment. Various stakeholders observe the tax payments and evaluate these against the relevant peer group, which creates interdependencies in the tax planning activities of firms. Introducing the concept of reputational loss we show the positive interdependence in a theoretical model and test it in a spatial econometric model. Empirical evidence suggests that benchmarking takes place both within countries and within industries, however for the latter it is important to include firms in large non-EU OECD countries. Further, the analysis shows that spatial interdependence is stronger for the largest firms and if they have an average effective tax rate above the statutory tax rate.Corporate Taxation; Benchmarking; Tax Competition; Spatial Econometrics

Optimal thermoelectric figure of merit of a molecular junction

We show that a molecular junction can give large values of the thermoelectric figure of merit $ZT$, and so could be used as a solid state energy conversion device that operates close to the Carnot efficiency. The mechanism is similar to the Mahan-Sofo model for bulk thermoelectrics -- the Lorenz number goes to zero violating the Wiedemann-Franz law while the thermopower remains non-zero. The molecular state through which charge is transported must be weakly coupled to the leads, and the energy level of the state must be of order $k_B T$ away from the Fermi energy of the leads. In practice, the figure of merit is limited by the phonon thermal conductance; we show that the largest possible $ZT\sim(\tilde{G}_{th}^{ph})^{-1/2}$, where $\tilde{G}_{th}^{ph}$ is the phonon thermal conductance divided by the thermal conductance quantum.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Tax planning by firms and tax competition by goverments

THESIS 8333This thesis investigates tax planning by firms and tax com petition by governments. We begin in Chapter 1 by outlining the background, motivation and plan of the thesis. Chapter 2 reviews the relevant existing literature. This begins with a review of the canonical tax competition model. Estimates of the tax burden suggest an important role for nniltinational firms in explaining international tax reforms. Mindful of the variety of tax planning strategies available to multinational firms, we review estimates of the relative importance of tax planning by firms in explaining trends in tax burdens. We finish our review of the literature with a discussion of some recent papers which investigate the tax plaim ing decisions made by firms

Corporate tax competition between firms

Firms’ tax planning decisions, similar to their other operational decisions, are made in a competitive environment. Various stakeholders observe the tax payments and evaluate these against the relevant peer group. This implies firms might not simply minimise their tax burden, but also consider their competitors behaviour when deciding about tax planning. Empirically this creates interdependencies in the tax planning activities of firms. Introducing the concept of a reputational loss we show the positive interdependence in a theoretical model and test it in a spatial econometric model. Empirical evidence suggests that benchmarking takes place both within countries and within industries, however for the latter it is important to include firms in large non-EU OECD countries

Corporate tax competition between firms

Firms' tax planning decisions, similar to their other operational decisions, are made in a competitive environment. Various stakeholders observe the tax payments and evaluate these against the relevant peer group, which creates interdependencies in the tax planning activities of firms. Introducing the concept of reputational loss we show the positive interdependence in a theoretical model and test it in a spatial econometric model. Empirical evidence suggests that benchmarking takes place both within countries and within industries, however for the latter it is important to include firms in large non-EU OECD countries. Further, the analysis shows that spatial interdependence is stronger for the largest firms and if they have an average effective tax rate above the statutory tax rate.Corporate taxation, benchmarking, tax competition, spatial econometrics

Corporate tax competition between firms

Firms' tax planning decisions, similar to their other operational decisions, are made in a competitive environment. Various stakeholders observe the tax payments and evaluate these against the relevant peer group, which creates interdependencies in the tax planning activities of firms. Introducing the concept of reputational loss we show the positive interdependence in a theoretical model and test it in a spatial econometric model. Empirical evidence suggests that benchmarking takes place both within countries and within industries, however for the latter it is important to include firms in large non-EU OECD countries. Further, the analysis shows that spatial interdependence is stronger for the largest firms and if they have an average effective tax rate above the statutory tax rate.Corporate Taxation; Benchmarking; Tax Competition; Spatial Econometrics

The quest for H-3(+) at Neptune: deep burn observations with NASA IRTF iSHELL

Emission from the molecular ion H+3 is a powerful diagnostic of the upper atmosphere of Jupiter, Saturn, and Uranus, but it remains undetected at Neptune. In search of this emission, we present near-infrared spectral observations of Neptune between 3.93 and 4.00 µm taken with the newly commissioned iSHELL instrument on the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility in Hawaii, obtained 2017 August 17–20. We spent 15.4 h integrating across the disc of the planet, yet were unable to unambiguously identify any H+3 line emissions. Assuming a temperature of 550 K, we derive an upper limit on the column integrated density of 1.0+1.2 −0.8 × 1013 m−2, which is an improvement of 30 per cent on the best previous observational constraint. This result means that models are overestimating the density by at least a factor of 5, highlighting the need for renewed modelling efforts. A potential solution is strong vertical mixing of polyatomic neutral species from Neptune’s upper stratosphere to the thermosphere, reacting with H+3 , thus greatly reducing the column integrated H+3 densities. This upper limit also provide constraints on future attempts at detecting H+3 using the James Webb Space Telescope