Atkinson and Stiglitz Theorem with Endogenous Human Capital Accumulation

Recently, several papers have re-examined the so called production efficiency theorem and the Atkinson and Stiglitz theorem on commodity taxes in the optimal taxation literature. Naito (1998) showed that indirect redistribution through production distortion or consumption distortion can Pareto-improve welfare and that the two theorems do not necessarily hold when different factors are imperfect substitutes and factor prices are endogenous. On the other hand, Saez (2001) argued that in the long run where human capital accumulation is endogenous, the two theorems are still valid. This paper points out that the result of Saez (2003) depends on the assumption on the dimension of the type of human capital. This paper shows that if different people have different comparative advantage in accumulating different types of human capital, the Atkinson and Stiglitz theorem does not hold.

Analyzing Activity of the Human Brain During Decision Making

Orbitofrontaalne ajukoor (OFC) on aju ees istuv piirkond, mille toimimist ei ole suudetud täielikult mõista. Siiski on see selgelt seotud otsuste tegemisega, nagu on näidatud paljudes viimastel aastakümnetel läbi viidud neuroloogiauuringutes. Saez jt [1] on oma viimases uuringus leidnud tõendeid selle kohta, et OFC kõrge sagedusega aktiivsus (HFA) 70-200 Hz vahel on otseselt seotud käitumisreaktsioonidega otsuste tegemisel. Näiteks näitasid Saez jt, et mõned HFA modulatsioonid korreleeruvad inimese valikuga ja tagajärgedega lihtsa kihlveo mängus. Saez jt viisid läbi analüüsi ühe muutujaga lineaarse regressiooniga, ennustades HFA väärtusi korraga ühest ülesandega seotud parameetrist, et leida elektroode, mis kodeerivad otsuste tegemisega seotud informatsiooni. Antud magistritöö keskendus Saez jt tulemuste ja analüüsi laiendamisele, rakendades mitmemõõtmelisi meetodeid, et avastada keerulisi signaale ja olulisi mustreid neuroloogilistes andmetes. Selleks kasutati 600 erineval andmekogumil kanoonilist korrelatsioonianalüüsi ja klasterdamist, et leida mustreid elektroodide aktiivsusmõõdetes ja käitumuslike reaktsioonide keerukaid kombinatsioone kodeerituna inimaju signaalides. Lisaks kasutati masinõppemeetodeid, et analüüsida patsientide käitumissuundumusi riskivõtmise suhtes hasartmänguülesandes ja ennustada närviandmetest ülesandega seotud sündmusi nagu võitmine, kaotamine ja riskivõtmine. Enamiku meetoditega saavutati mõõdukad kuni head tulemused, kuid põhjalikum analüüs on siiski vajalik, et saada täielik arusaam sellest, kuidas orbitofrontaalse ajukoore aktiivsus põhjustab inimkäitumist otsuste tegemisel.The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is a region sitting at the front of the brain which function is not fully understood. However, it has been clearly implicated in decision making as shown by many neuroimaging studies over the last decades. Recent work by Saez et al. [1] has found evidence that OFC activity of high frequency (HFA) between 70-200 Hz is directly related to behavioral responses during decision making tasks. In particular, Saez et al. showed that some modulations of HFA correlated with the human choice and outcome in a simple betting game. Saez et al. conducted their analysis with univariate linear regression, predicting HFA values from one task-related parameter at a time to find electrodes which encode decision making information. This Thesis focused on extending these results and analyses of Saez et al. by applying multivariate methods to discover complex signals and important patterns in the neural data. For this, canonical correlation analysis and biclustering were used on 600 different datasets to find evidence of patterns in electrode responses and complicated combinations of behavioral responses encoded in the human brain signals. In addition, machine learning methods were used to analyze the patients' behavioral tendencies towards risk-taking in a gambling task and to predict task-related events such as winning, losing and gambling from the neural data. Moderate to good performance was achieved with most methods, but in-depth analysis is still necessary to gain a full understanding of how activity in orbitofrontal cortex gives rise to human behavior in decision making tasks

Weak solutions to mean curvature flow respecting obstacles I: the graphical case

We consider the problem of evolving hypersurfaces by mean curvature flow in the presence of obstacles, that is domains which the flow is not allowed to enter. In this paper, we treat the case of complete graphs and explain how the approach of M. Saez and the second author yields a global weak solution to the original problem for general initial data and onesided obstacles.Comment: updated version with minor corrections and 2 new figure

Ressenyes

Obra ressenyada: Darío GONZÁLEZ ; Laura LLEVADOT y Begonya SAEZ (eds.), Kierkegaard y las artes: pensar la creación. Barcelona: Editorial UOC, 2015

Ressenyes bibliogràfiques

Index de les obres ressenyades: Manuel ALCANTARA SAEZ, sistemas políticos de América Latin

The crucial role of social welfare criteria for optimal inheritance taxation

En este artículo se calibra el impuesto óptimo a las herencias derivado por Piketty y Saez (2013) mostrando que diferentes supuestos sobre la función de bienestar social dan lugar a tipos óptimos muy dispares, que varían desde tipos negativos (cuando el criterio de bienestar social es utilitarista) hasta tipos positivos y elevados (incluso suponiendo que la motivación del donante es de tipo joy of giving). También se calibra el tipo óptimo por percentiles de herencia recibida, como hacen Piketty y Saez, pero teniendo en cuenta la heterogeneidad en riqueza y rentas del trabajo. El resultado es que el tipo impositivo óptimo desde la perspectiva de quienes no reciben ninguna herencia varía significativamente, en contraste con el tipo impositivo constante que obtienen Piketty y SaezThis paper calibrates the full social optimal inheritance tax rate derived by Piketty and Saez (2013) and shows that different assumptions on the form of the social welfare function lead to very different optimal inheritance tax rates, ranging from negative (under a utilitarian criterion) to positive and large (even assuming joy of giving motives). The paper also calibrates the optimal tax rate by percentile of the distribution of bequest received, as Piketty and Saez do, but accounting for heterogeneity in wealth and labor income. The result is that the optimal tax rate from the perspective of the non-receivers varies signifi cantly, contrary to the constant tax rate obtained by these author

Bianchi Type I Cosmology in Generalized Saez-Ballester Theory via Noether Gauge Symmetry

In this paper, we investigate the generalized Saez-Ballester scalar-tensor theory of gravity via Noether gauge symmetry (NGS) in the background of Bianchi type I cosmological spacetime. We start with the Lagrangian of our model and calculate its gauge symmetries and corresponding invariant quantities. We obtain the potential function for the scalar field in the exponential form. For all the symmetries obtained, we determine the gauge functions corresponding to each gauge symmmetry which include constant and dynamic gauge. We discuss cosmological implications of our model and show that it is compatible with the observational data.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in 'European Physical Journal C