Corporate Income Tax Avoidance in the European Arena – Evidence and Remedies

According to the OECD, 4% to 10% of the global corporate income tax revenue, i.e. USD 100 to 240 billion annually, is lost due to corporate income tax avoidance (OECD, 2015). Although the existence of the issue is well-accepted by the tax policy makers of the developed world, it is extremely difficult to agree on an international tax policy standard which could reduce the vulnerability of the sovereign tax regimes. In this article, we summarize the historical background of corporate income tax avoidance, and provide evidence of its existence in the EU member states. In addition, we also examine a new international income tax model proposed by the European Commission and analyse the expected effects of the proposal onthe risk associated with tax avoidance in Europe

EIB Working Paper 2021/06 - Efficiency and effectiveness of the COVID-19 government support

We utilize several unique firm-level datasets in order to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of the government support aiming to curb the economic consequences of the coronavirus (COVID- 19) pandemic. The results, drawing on the experience of a small open European country (Slovakia), suggest the distributed COVID-19 subsidies save non-negligible number of jobs and sustain economic activity during the first wave of the pandemic. General distribution rules designed on the fly may bring close to optimal results, as relatively more productive, privately owned, foreign-demand oriented firms are prioritized and firms with a higher environmental footprint or zombie firms record a relatively lower chance of obtaining government funding. By assuming constant cost elasticities to sales, we show that the pandemic deteriorates strongly firm profits and increases significantly the share of illiquid and insolvent firms. Government wage subsidies somewhat mitigate firm losses and have statistically significant effect, but relatively mild compared to the size of the economic shock. Our estimates also confirm that larger firms, receiving smaller relative size of the support, have more space to cover their additional liquidity needs by increasing trade liabilities or liabilities to affiliated entities, while SMEs face higher risk of insolvencies

Speculation: Polyamines are important in abiotic stress signaling

The main role of polyamines was originally assumed to be as direct protective compounds important under stress conditions. Although in some cases a correlation was found between the endogenous polyamine content and stress tolerance, this relationship cannot be generalized. Polyamines should no longer be considered simply as protective molecules, but rather as compounds that are involved in a complex signaling system and have a key role in the regulation of stress tolerance. The major links in polyamine signaling may be H2O2 and NO, which are not only produced in the course of the polyamine metabolism, but also transmit signals that influence gene expression via an increase in the cytoplasmic Ca2+ level. Polyamines can also influence Ca2+ influx independently of the H2O2- and/or NOmediated pathways. Furthermore, these pathways may converge. In addition, several protein kinases have been shown to be influenced at the transcriptional or post-translational level by polyamines. Individual polyamines can be converted into each other in the polyamine cycle. In addition, their metabolism is linked with other hormones or signaling molecules. However, as individual polyamines trigger different transcriptional responses, other mechanisms and the existence of polyamine-responsive elements and the corresponding transacting protein factors are also involved in polyamine-related signaling pathways

Drought stress and polyamines in maize

Drought is one of the most common environmental stresses that affect growth, development and in turn yield of crop plants. Thus, understanding of plant responses to drought and investigations on compounds capable of reducing the stress sensitivity of plants are of great importance and crucial to progress in genetic engineering and/or conventional breeding. Polyamines (PAs), which are small, positively charged, aliphatic amines found in all plant cells, are able to bind to negatively charged molecules, e.g. nucleic acids, acidic phospholipids and various types of proteins, thus having a protective role under stress conditions. Results of several studies suggested that PAs can be promising compounds for the reduction of abiotic stress sensitivity in plants, since both seed priming and adding PAs to the hydroponic solution have been shown to protect various plant species against abiotic stress factors. Many reports have indicated that the stress tolerance of plants is correlated with their capacity to enhance the synthesis of PAs upon exposure to stress. In addition, mutant and transgenic Arabidopsis plants with altered PAs synthesis pointed to involvement of PAs in different abiotic and biotic stresses responses and have elucidated their key functions in stress signaling networks in plants; however the exact mechanism remains enigmatic. The main questions of the present study are: 1. how influence PA treatment PEG-induced drought stress in maize? 2. is the statement: “the more PAs, the better” true in this case? 3. if not, what are the reasons

A nyelvi kategória modell kategóriáinak automatikus elemzése angol nyelvű szövegben

A nyelvi kategória modell a hétköznapi nyelvhasználat szociálpszi­chológiai kutatásának egyik leggyakrabban használt elemzési eszköze és elmé­lete. A modell az interperszonális cselekvés leírásában megjelenő absztrakció 5 kategóriáját különbözteti meg. A tanulmányban a modell által meghatározott kategóriák automatikus azonosítására képes eszközt mutatunk be. Az elemzéselső lépéseként a szöveg szófaji és szintaktikai elemzését a coreNLP végzi el. A második lépésben az absztrakciós kategóriák felismerését a NooJ szoftverbenírt gráfok végzik el. Végül az elemzés harmadik lépése lehetőséget ad arra, hogy a felhasználó különböző csoportokba sorolja a találatokat

Abscisic acid may alter the salicylic acid-related abiotic stress response in maize

The effect of abscisic acid (ABA) treatment on chilling tolerance and salicylic acid (SA)-related responseswas investigated in young maize seedlings. Although the pre-treatment of plants with ABA slightly decreased the chlorophyll content, it also reduced the level of chilling injury caused by 6 days of cold treatment at 5 ̊C. Under normal growth conditions increased levels of bound SA and of bound ortho-hydroxycinnamic acid (oHCA) were observed in the leaves during ABA treatment. In the roots ABA did not affect the free and bound SA levels, but increased the amount of free and bound oHCA. The activity of glutathione-S-transferase (GST) increased on the 3rd day of ABA treatment, while it did not change when followed by cold stress, compared to the control leaves. In the roots the activities of glutathione reductase, GST and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) increased during the ABA treatment, and those of GST and APX were also stimulated when ABA pre-treatment was followed by cold stress, compared to the control roots. Our results suggest that an overlap may exist between the ABA-induced cold acclimation and the SA-related stress response