Romania's development to a low-tax country: Effective corporate tax burden in Romania from 1992 to 2010 and Romania's current ranking among the eastern European member states

We trace back Romania's development to a low-tax country among the Member States of the European Union by analysing the major tax law changes in corporate taxation since 1992. We find that the significant reduction of the corporate income tax rate from 45% in 1992 to 16% since 2005 has not been accompanied by a comprehensive broadening of the corporate income tax base as prevalent in many longstanding Member States of the EU and the OECD. Our analysis is not limited to a comprehensive description of the development of corporate taxation in Romania, but goes on with a numerical analysis of the tax burdens at different periods of time which constitute milestones in the development of corporate taxation in Romania. For this purpose, we apply the European Tax Analyzer, which is a computer-based model firm approach. We find that the average company tax burden of the underlying model company has dropped significantly by almost 65% since 1992. Furthermore, our numerical analysis does not confirm the tax base broadening policy. As a result, Romania holds position two among the group of Central and Eastern European EU Member States. --corporate taxation,effective tax burden,transition economy,EU accession countries,tax reform,tax-rate-cum-base-broadening reform

Romania's development to a low-tax country - Effective Corporate Tax Burden in Romania from 1992 to 2010 and Romania's current ranking among the Eastern European Member States

We trace back Romania’s development to a low-tax country among the Member States of the European Union by analysing the major tax law changes in corporate taxation since 1992. We find that the significant reduction of the corporate income tax rate from 45% in 1992 to 16% since 2005 has not been accompanied by a comprehensive broadening of the corporate income tax base as prevalent in many longstanding Member States of the EU and the OECD. Our analysis is not limited to a comprehensive description of the development of corporate taxation in Romania, but goes on with a numerical analysis of the tax burdens at different periods of time which constitute milestones in the development of corporate taxation in Romania. For this purpose, we apply the European Tax Analyzer, which is a computer-based model firm approach. We find that the average company tax burden of the underlying model company has dropped significantly by almost 65% since 1992. Furthermore, our numerical analysis does not confirm the tax base broadening policy. As a result, Romania holds position two among the group of Central and Eastern European EU Member States

Large-D Expansion from Variational Perturbation Theory

We derive recursively the perturbation series for the ground-state energy of the D-dimensional anharmonic oscillator and resum it using variational perturbation theory (VPT). From the exponentially fast converging approximants, we extract the coefficients of the large-D expansion to higher orders. The calculation effort is much smaller than in the standard field-theoretic approach based on the Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation.Comment: Author Information under http://hbar.wustl.edu/~sbrandt and http://www.theo-phys.uni-essen.de/tp/ags/pelster_di

Evidence on book-tax differences and disclosure quality based on the notes to the financial statements

The German Accounting Law Modernization Act (BilMoG) represents a change in paradigm with regard to the traditionally close relationship between financial and tax accounting in Germany. At the same time, requirements on the disclosure of deferred taxes were revised considerably. We make use of these new disclosure provisions to disaggregate firms’ deferred tax position and to analyze the components of temporary book-tax differences that add to the reporting gap in Germany. To this end, we apply a unique dataset of hand-collected information from individual financial statements for the fiscal year 2010. We find considerable differences between financial and tax accounting and observe that temporary book-tax differences are mainly associated with mandatory differences in accounting for provisions. The scope and quality of tax-related disclosures vary substantially and the overall disclosure quality is low. In order to identify the determinants of the heterogeneity of disclosure quality, we construct an index for voluntary and mandatory disclosure of deferred tax information and conduct multivariate analyses to explain firms’ disclosure decisions. We show that the recognition of deferred tax assets and liabilities on the face of the balance-sheet is significantly and positively related with disclosure quality in the notes to the financial statements. Further, our results suggest that larger firms are more likely to have high-quality tax disclosures and that high implementation costs could also explain the observed shortfalls in disclosure quality. Moreover, we find that different reporting incentives might apply if reporting on losses is assessed in isolation. We use these insights to derive implications for the discussion about whether and how to reform disclosure re-quirements under German GAAP

EEG responses to standardised noxious stimulation during clinical anaesthesia: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND During clinical anaesthesia, the administration of analgesics mostly relies on empirical knowledge and observation of the patient's reactions to noxious stimuli. Previous studies in healthy volunteers under controlled conditions revealed EEG activity in response to standardised nociceptive stimuli even at high doses of remifentanil and propofol. This pilot study aims to investigate the feasibility of using these standardised nociceptive stimuli in routine clinical practice. METHODS We studied 17 patients undergoing orthopaedic trauma surgery under general anaesthesia. We evaluated if the EEG could track standardised noxious phase-locked electrical stimulation and tetanic stimulation, a time-locked surrogate for incisional pain, before, during, and after the induction of general anaesthesia. Subsequently, we analysed the effect of tetanic stimulation on the surgical pleth index as a peripheral, vegetative, nociceptive marker. RESULTS We found that the phase-locked evoked potentials after noxious electrical stimulation vanished after the administration of propofol, but not at low concentrations of remifentanil. After noxious tetanic stimulation under general anaesthesia, there were no consistent spectral changes in the EEG, but the vegetative response in the surgical pleth index was statistically significant (Hedges' g effect size 0.32 [95% confidence interval 0.12-0.77], P=0.035). CONCLUSION Our standardised nociceptive stimuli are not optimised for obtaining consistent EEG responses in patients during clinical anaesthesia. To validate and sufficiently reproduce EEG-based standardised stimulation as a marker for nociception in clinical anaesthesia, other pain models or stimulation settings might be required to transfer preclinical studies into clinical practice. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION DRKS00017829

Materials science at Swiss universities of applied sciences

Copyright ©Swiss Chemical Society: CHIMIA, Volume 73, Numbers 7-8, August 2019, pp. 645-655(11)In the Swiss Universities of Applied Sciences, several research institutes are involved in Materials Science, with different approaches and applications fields. A few examples of recent projects from different groups of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO), the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW) are given

Diffusion of Macromolecules across the Nuclear Pore Complex

Nuclear pore complexes (NPCs) are very selective filters that monitor the transport between the cytoplasm and the nucleoplasm. Two models have been suggested for the plug of the NPC. They are (i) it is a reversible hydrogel or (ii) it is a polymer brush. We propose a mesoscopic model for the transport of a protein through the plug, that is general enough to cover both. The protein stretches the plug and creates a local deformation. The bubble so created (prtoein+deformation) executes random walk in the plug. We find that for faster relaxation of the gel, the diffusion of the bubble is greater. Further, on using parameters appropriate for the brush, we find that the diffusion coefficient is much lower. Hence the gel model seems to be more likely explanation for the workings of the plug

Socioeconomic position and SARS-CoV-2 infections: seroepidemiological findings from a German nationwide dynamic cohort

Background: Evidence on the relationship between socioeconomic position (SEP) and infections with SARS-CoV-2 is still limited as most of the available studies are ecological in nature. This is the first German nationwide study to examine differences in the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infections according to SEP at the individual level. Methods: The ‘CORONA-MONITORING bundesweit’ (RKI-SOEP) study is a seroepidemiological survey among a dynamic cohort of the German adult population (n=15 122; October 2020–February 2021). Dried blood samples were tested for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and oral-nasal swabs for viral RNA. SEP was measured by education and income. Robust logistic regression was used to examine adjusted associations of SARS-CoV-2 infections with SEP. Results: 288 participants were seropositive, PCR positive or self-reported a previous laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. The adjusted odds of SARS-CoV-2 infection were 1.87-fold (95% CI 1.06 to 3.29) higher among low-educated than highly educated adults. Evidence was weaker for income differences in infections (OR=1.65; 95% CI 0.89 to 3.05). Highly educated adults had lower odds of undetected infection. Conclusion: The results indicate an increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in low-educated groups. To promote health equity in the pandemic and beyond, social determinants should be addressed more in infection protection and pandemic planning.German Research FoundationGerman Federal Ministry of HealthPeer Reviewe

Socioeconomic position and SARS-CoV-2 infections: seroepidemiological findings from a German nationwide dynamic cohort

Background Evidence on the relationship between socioeconomic position (SEP) and infections with SARS-CoV-2 is still limited as most of the available studies are ecological in nature. This is the first German nationwide study to examine differences in the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infections according to SEP at the individual level. Methods The ‘CORONA-MONITORING bundesweit’ (RKI-SOEP) study is a seroepidemiological survey among a dynamic cohort of the German adult population (n=15 122; October 2020–February 2021). Dried blood samples were tested for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies and oral-nasal swabs for viral RNA. SEP was measured by education and income. Robust logistic regression was used to examine adjusted associations of SARS-CoV-2 infections with SEP. Results 288 participants were seropositive, PCR positive or self-reported a previous laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection. The adjusted odds of SARS-CoV-2 infection were 1.87-fold (95% CI 1.06 to 3.29) higher among low-educated than highly educated adults. Evidence was weaker for income differences in infections (OR=1.65; 95% CI 0.89 to 3.05). Highly educated adults had lower odds of undetected infection. Conclusion The results indicate an increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in low-educated groups. To promote health equity in the pandemic and beyond, social determinants should be addressed more in infection protection and pandemic planning

Universal nonequilibrium properties of dissipative Rydberg gases

We investigate the out-of-equilibrium behavior of a dissipative gas of Rydberg atoms that features a dynamical transition between two stationary states characterized by different excitation densities. We determine the structure and properties of the phase diagram and identify the universality class of the transition, both for the statics and the dynamics. We show that the proper dynamical order parameter is in fact not the excitation density and find evidence that the dynamical transition is in the “model A” universality class; i.e., it features a nontrivial Z2 symmetry and a dynamics with nonconserved order parameter. This sheds light on some relevant and observable aspects of dynamical transitions in Rydberg gases. In particular it permits a quantitative understanding of a recent experiment [C. Carr, Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 113901 (2013)] which observed bistable behavior as well as power-law scaling of the relaxation time. The latter emerges not due to critical slowing down in the vicinity of a second order transition, but from the nonequilibrium dynamics near a so-called spinodal line