The Taxman Tools Up: An Event History Study of the Introduction of the Personal Income Tax in Western Europe, 1815 - 1941

The introduction of income taxation was a landmark in the development of the fiscal state in Western Europe and elsewhere. This paper presents an event history study of the adoption of the income tax in 11 Western European countries between 1815 and 1941. We find evidence that social learning, reductions in tax collection costs and to a lesser extend spending pressures played a significant role for the adoption decision. Surprisingly, we also find evidence that the extension of the franchise reduced the likelihood of adoption of the income tax

Combinatorial classification of quantum lens spaces

We answer the question of how large the dimension of a quantum lens space must be, compared to the primary parameter $r$, for the isomorphism class to depend on the secondary parameters. Since classification results in C*-algebra theory reduces this question to one concerning a certain kind of $SL$-equivalence of integer matrices of a special form, our approach is entirely combinatorial and based on the counting of certain paths in the graphs shown by Hong and Szyma\'nski to describe the quantum lens spaces.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figure

The Ill-Posed Problem in Growth Empirics

A problem encountered in growth empirics is that the number of explanatory variables is large compared to the number of observations. This makes it impossible to condition on all regressors when determining if a variable is important. We investigate methods used to resolve this problem: Extreme bounds, Sala-i-Martin’s test, BACE, general-to-specific, minimum t-statistics, BIC and AIC. We prove that the problem in general is ill-posed and that the existing methods are inconsistent. We propose a test and apply it to determine if "good policy" increases the effectiveness of foreign aid on growth. The test rejects inference regarding good policy.AIC; BACE; BIC; extreme bounds; general-to-specific; ill-posed inverse problem; robustness

Workers of the world, unite! Franchise extensions and the threat of revolution in Europe, 1820-1938

This paper tests the hypothesis that the extension of the voting franchise was caused by the threat of revolution, as suggested by Acemoglu and Robinson (2000). We approximate the threat of revolution in a given country by revolutionary events happening in neighboring countries. We investigate the relationship between this new measure of the threat of revolution and measures of suffrage reform in two samples of European countries covering the period from 1820 to 1938. We find strong support for the ‘threat of revolution theory’. We also find some evidence that war triggered suffrage reform, whereas ‘modernization theory’ receives little support.The extension of the voting franchise; democracy; threat of revolution; suffrage

Unemployment Duration, Incentives and Institutions - A Micro-Econometric Analysis Based on Scandinavian Data

Based on a combined register database for Norwegian and Swedish unemployment spells, we use the ‘between-countries-variation’ in the unemployment insurance systems to identify causal effects. The elasticity of the job hazard rate with respect to the benefit replacement ratio is around -1.0 in Norway and -0.5 in Sweden. The limited benefit duration period in Sweden has a large positive impact on the hazard rate, despite generous renewal options through participation in labour market programs. Compulsory program participation seems to operate as a ‘stick’, rather than a ‘carrot’, and is therefore an efficient tool for counteracting moral hazard problems in the benefit system.Unemployment spells; unemployment compensation; non-parametric duration analysis.

Studies of highway skew slab-bridges with curbs. A report of an investigation conducted by the Engineering Experiment Station, University of Illinois,

On t.p. of v. 2: A report of an investigation conducted by the Engineering Experiment Station, University of Illinois, in cooperation with the Bureau of Public Roads, U. S. Dept. of Commerce and the Division of Highways, State of Illinois.Bibliographical footnotes.pt. 1. Results of analyses, by V. P. Jensen and J. W. Allen.--pt. 2. Laboratory research, by M. L. Gossard [and others

Measuring the Efficiency Effect of Banning Anti-Microbial Growth Promoters: The Case of Danish Pig Production

This study examines the effect of banning antimicrobial growth promoters on efficiency in the production of weaned and slaughter (finishing) pigs. We focus on the reaction of producers and production efficiency. We evaluate the estimated output and input shadow prices relative to market prices to analyse producer reactions and capture the impact on production efficiency by evaluating the effects of the ban changes on total factor productivity. To this end we model a multi product shadow profit function and incorporate output and input related shadow prices by using a second order flexible functional form. The development in total factor productivity is subsequently measured by calculating the Malmquist index on the farm level. To make infer-ences on the effect of banning growth promoters over time we regress in a second estimation step the changes in total factor productivity on potential explanatory factors by applying a bootstrapped censored regression procedure. Our results suggest that there was no effect of the ban on total factor productivity due to outputs and inputs substitution. Breeding pigs are pro-duced at the expense of weaned and finisher pigs. Feed input is over utilised relative to other inputs. The high shadow prices for substituting outputs are associated with better export mar-ket prices. These findings may have critical implications for the slaughtering plants with over capacity.animal health economics, food economics, shadow prices, efficiency, antimicrobial growth promoters, pig production, Livestock Production/Industries, Q1, Q11, Q12, Q24,

Local and global instabilities of flow in a flexible-walled channel

We consider laminar high-Reynolds-number flow through a long finite-length planar channel, where a segment of one wall is replaced by a massless membrane held under longitudinal tension. The flow is driven by a fixed pressure difference across the channel and is described using an integral form of the unsteady boundary-layer equations. The basic flow state, for which the channel has uniform width, exhibits static and oscillatory global instabilities, having distinct modal forms. In contrast, the corresponding local problem (neglecting boundary conditions associated with the rigid parts of the system) is found to be convectively, but not absolutely, unstable to small-amplitude disturbances in the absence of wall damping. We show how amplification of the primary global oscillatory instability can arise entirely from wave reflections with the rigid parts of the system, involving interacting travelling wave flutter and static-divergence modes that are convectively stable; alteration of the mean flow by oscillations makes the onset of this primary instability subcritical. We also show how distinct mechanisms of energy transfer differentiate the primary global mode from other modes of oscillatory instability