Regional Concentration of Highly Educated Couples

There is empirical evidence (see e.g. Costa & Kahn 2000) that the educational background of both spouses has an effect on regional concentration. Finnish people have been migrating to urban regions. Especially higher education graduates prefer to live in cities. Because of this process human capital is concentrated in urban regions. Regional concentration of human capital can also be looked from a family perspective. A higher education graduate often has a spouse who has also graduated from university. In this situation the family moves to a region where they can find satisfying jobs. This study examines the residential choice of couples in which both spouses have higher education degree. The aim of this study is to find out where these couples live. In addition, families with different educational backgrounds are compared. The comparison might tell about the reasons of a family’s residential choice. Micro level data is used in empirical analysis.

Increasing Returns in a Standard Tax Competition Model

The standard tax competition literature predicts a race to the bottom in capital tax rates as capital mobility increases. Recently, the very different modeling framework of the new economic geography literature has produced the contrasting result that economic integration leads to agglomeration rents to capital which can be taxed away, in turn leading to higher corporate taxation. This paper incorporates increasing returns directly into the standard tax competition modeling framework to identify the origin of this disparity of results. The model illustrates that increasing returns reduce traditional tax competition pressures as capital mobility increases, and that changes in preferences for the public good, combined with increasing cross-border ownership of capital, and thus taxexporting incentives, are the main factors driving tax rates higher. Tax exporting has not previously been linked endogenously to capital mobility in standard tax competition models or new economic geography models.Tax competition; Capital mobility; Economic Geography; Increasing Returns; Tax Exporting.

Regional Differences in Overeducation

This paper focuses on overeducation from the regional perspective. The supply of highly educated workers has increased since late 20th century but the demand has not necessarily increased equivalently. This mismatch might create problems at the labour market, for example unemployment and overeducation. Individuals are not totally mobile and prefer to search for a job near their residential location. If accessible jobs do not correspond to the educational level of the job seeker, one may have to accept a job below his or her educational level. Spatial mobility of workers, migration and commuting, can reduce the spatial mismatch. Spatial mismatch between jobs and workers has been noticed in several studies (see e.g. Büchel & van Ham 2003). The aim of this paper is to find out whether there are regional differences in the proportion of overeducated labour force. Finnish micro level data are used in the analysis. The sample consists of 149 908 individuals who were employed in 2000. Overeducated workers are identified with a statistical measure.

Should We Pay Attention to Indicators of Fiscal Impact on Demand?

This paper looks at five different ways in which the effect of fiscal policy on aggregate demand in the short term can be empirically estimated, and asks two questions: First, given the assumption that fiscal policy has the same effect across countries, which of the five indicators is the empirically best measure of fiscal impact on demand? Second, is it reasonable to interpret fiscal policy indicators similarly across countries, or does the effect of fiscal policy on demand differ to a degree that makes this unreasonable? Running a panel regression of changes in aggregate demand on the five measures of fiscal policy in turn frpr OECD countries, the conclusion is that OECD's structural budget balance measure seems to be the more plausible measure of fiscal impact on demand. Moreover, testing the restriction that the five measures have identical parameters across OECD countries is rejected in five all cases.Fiscal policy; Fiscal indicators; Demand; Fiscal impulse; Structural budget balance; Fiscal Impact

Hill's nano-thermodynamics is equivalent with Gibbs' thermodynamics for curved surfaces

We review first how properties of curved surfaces can be studied using Hill's thermodynamics, also called nano-thermodynamics. We proceed to show for the first time that Hill's analysis is equivalent to Gibbs for curved surfaces. This simplifies the study of surfaces that are curved on the nano-scale, and opens up a possibility to study non-equilibrium systems in a systematic manner.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

Public Debt Asymmetries and Tax Competition.

The paper investigates the effect of asymmetric debt and debt servicing obligations on taxes and primary spending in a standard tax competition model, assuming public debts are pre-determined and in their steady state. The impact of increasing financial market integration and capital mobility on tax and spending asymmetries is then investigated, and the results are tested empirically for EU countries. The model predicts that cross country asymmetries in debt servicing obligations lead to cross-country asymmetries in taxes and spending, and these predictions are supported by the data, with high-debt EU countries having lower expenditures and higher taxes than low-debt countries. Moreover, as the impact of increasing capital mobility on tax asymmetries is theoretically ambiguous and empirically insignificant, increasing capital mobility is found to amplify debt-induced tax distortion asymmetries. Finally, higher capital mobility is found to amplify public spending asymmetries theoretically as well as empirically across EU member countries.public debt; tax competition; European integration

What do Theories of Tax Competition Predict for Capital Taxes in EU Countries? A Review of the Tax Competition Literature

The paper reviews the theoretical literature on capital tax competition relevant for capital taxation in the European Union. The basic tax competition model a la Zodrow and Mierzkowski (1986) is presented, and the arguments of the literature are subsequently integrated into the framework of the basic tax competition model. The review includes models of tax competition where countries are assumed large, asymmetric, when there are more than one tax instrument, where there are more than one tax base, when government is assumed self-serving, and where democratic elections and political equilibrium are allowed for. Moreover, the consequences of agglomeration economies for tax competition pressures are reviewed and incorporated into the standard tax competition model.Tax Competition; Capital Taxation; Capital Mobility; European Integration; Agglomeration

Self-Employment and Economic Mobility

Describes how self-employment may affect mobility differently from wage or salary employment. Reviews research showing how diverse self-employed workers' intragenerational mobility may differ by education, family background, race/ethnicity, and gender

Enfranchisement and budget deficits: a theoretical note

If women make different economic decisions than men on average, then an increase in women's influence in the political and economic spheres of society might change economic outcomes. In this note, we focus on the impact of female enfranchisement on fiscal policy outcomes. We present a simple median voter model and show that if women have different economic preferences than men, then female enfranchisement leads to a change in government budget deficits..Fiscal policy, budget deficit, enfranchisement, median voter, gender