Budgetary Costs of Tax Facilities for Pension Savings: An Empirical Analysis

A wide variety of tax regimes for (occupational) private pension saving are in place around the world. Generally, pension saving is taxed at a relatively low rate, although the revenue loss due to tax facilities for pension savings and/or pension tax expenditures may differ across countries. A strong fiscal stimulus to build up pension capital will support funding. However, these tax facilities may become an expensive business for governments. This paper investigates the ex ante budgetary effects of a cash-flow tax regime for pension savings by full present-value calculations. The fiscal subsidy on pension savings in several (European) countries is often associated with the application of the cash-flow treatment of pensions under the personal income tax: pension contributions are tax exempt, capital income of pension funds is tax-exempt, and pension benefits are taxed, but usually the elderly aged 65 years and over are taxed at a relatively low rate. This form can be described as EET, with E denoting an exemption or relief from tax and T denoting a point at which tax is payable. Indeed, tax treatment of pension saving can have other forms as well. We consider a specified form of a comprehensive income tax system (TTE) as an appropriate benchmark. Using the TTE-benchmark, the ex ante budgetary cost of the current tax treatment of pension saving in countries can be quantified. We employ an empirical analysis for the Netherlands, because this country belongs, with its three pension pillars and its sound funding, to the leading group of countries in Europe with a solid pension system. Our calculations, using Income Panel Data from Statistics Netherlands for the years 1990-2003, show that current taxation on a cash-flow basis means on balance a major loss to the Treasury (compared to the benchmark). For the year 2003 we estimate a fiscal subsidy associated with the current Dutch tax rule of 1.2 to 1.5 percent of GDP, depending on the assumed rate of return on pension capital

Very short-lived bromomethanes measured by the CARIBIC observatory over the North Atlantic, Africa and Southeast Asia during 2009-2013

Short-lived organic brominated compounds make up a significant part of the organic bromine budget in the atmosphere. Emissions of these compounds are highly variable and there are limited measurements, particularly in the extra-tropical upper troposphere/lower stratosphere and tropical troposphere. Measurements of five very short-lived bromomethanes (VSLB) were made in air samples collected on the CARIBIC project aircraft over three flight routes; Germany to Venezuela/Columbia during 2009-2011, Germany to South Africa during 2010 and 2011 and Germany to Thailand/Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia during 2012 and 2013. In the tropical troposphere, as the most important entrance region to the stratosphere, we observe a total mean organic bromine derived from these compounds across all flights at 10-12 km altitude of 3.4 ± 1.5 ppt. Individual mean tropical tropospheric mixing ratios across all flights were 0.43, 0.74, 0.14, 0.23 and 0.11 ppt for CHBr3, CH2Br2, CHBr2Cl, CHBrCl2 and CH2BrCl respectively. The highest levels of VSLB-derived bromine (4.20 ± 0.56 ppt) were observed in flights between Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur indicating that the South China Sea is an important source region for these compounds. Across all routes, CHBr and CHBr2 accounted for 34% (4.7-71) and 48% (14-73) respectively of total bromine derived from the analysed VSLB in the tropical mid-upper troposphere totalling 82% (54-89). In samples collected between Germany and Venezuela/Columbia, we find decreasing mean mixing ratios with increasing potential temperature in the extra-tropics. Tropical mean mixing ratios are higher than extra-tropical values between 340-350 K indicating that rapid uplift is important in determining mixing ratios in the lower tropical tropopause layer in the West Atlantic tropics. O3 was used as a tracer for stratospherically influenced air and we detect rapidly decreasing mixing ratios for all VSLB above ∼100 ppb O3 corresponding to the extra-tropical tropopause layer

On the use of mass-conserving wind fields in chemistry-transport models

A new method has been developed that provides mass-conserving wind fields for global chemistry-transport models. In previous global Eulerian modeling studies a mass-imbalance was found between the model mass transport and the surface pressure tendencies. Several methods have been suggested to correct for this imbalance, but so far no satisfactory solution has been found. Our new method solves these problems by using the wind fields in a spherical harmonical form (divergence and vorticity) by mimicing the physics of the weather forecast model as closely as possible. A 3-D chemistry-transport model was used to show that the calculated ozone fields with the new processing method agree remarkably better with ozone observations in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. In addition, the calculated age of air in the lower stratosphere show better agreement with observations, although the air remains still too young in the extra-tropical stratosphere

Global ozone forecasting based on ERS-2 GOME observations

International audienceThe availability of near-real time ozone observations from satellite instruments has recently initiated the development of ozone data assimilation systems. In this paper we present the results of an ozone assimilation and forecasting system, in use since Autumn 2000. The forecasts are produced by an ozone transport and chemistry model, driven by the operational medium range forecasts of ECMWF. The forecasts are initialised with realistic ozone distributions, obtained by the assimilation of near-real time total column observations of the GOME spectrometer on ERS-2. The forecast error diagnostics demonstrate that the system produces meaningful total ozone forecasts for up to 6 days in the extratropics. In the tropics meaningful forecasts of the small anomalies are restricted to shorter periods of about two days with the present model setup. It is demonstrated that important events, such as the breakup of the South Pole ozone hole and mini-hole events above Europe can be successfully predicted 4--5 days in advance

Of tortoise necks and dialects: a new edition of the Grammaticus Leidensis

In this article we provide a new edition of the Byzantine treatise on Greek dialects known under the name Grammaticus Leidensis, in its earliest recoverable form, together with a discussion of the most unusual and intriguing features of this concise treatise.Descriptive and Comparative Linguistic

Is it the Income Distribution or Redistribution that Affects Growth?

Hervorming Sociale Regelgevin

Tropospheric O3 distribution over the Indian Ocean during spring 1995 evaluated with a chemistry-climate model

An analysis of tropospheric O 3 over the Indian Ocean during spring 1995 is presented based on O 3 soundings and results from the chemistry-general circulation model ECHAM (European Centre Hamburg Model). The ECHAM model is nudged towards actual meteorology using ECMWF analyses, to enable a direct comparison between model results and in situ observations. The model reproduces observed CO levels in different air mass categories. The model also reproduces the general tendencies and the diurnal variation in the observed surface pressure, although the amplitude of the diurnal variation in the amplitude is underestimated. The model simulates the general O 3 tendencies as seen in the sonde observations. Tropospheric O 3 profiles were characterized by low surface concentrations (< 10 ppbv), mid-tropospheric maxima (60-100 ppbv, between 700-250 hPa) and upper-tropospheric minima (< 20 ppbv, between 250-100 hPa). Large-scale upper tropospheric O 3 minima were caused by convective transport of O 3 -depleted boundary layer air in the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). Similarly, an upper tropospheric O 3 minimum was caused by cyclone Marlene south of the ITCZ. The mid-tropospheric O 3 maxima were caused by transport of polluted African air. The ECHAM model appears to overestimate surface O 3 levels, and does not reproduce the diurnal variations very well This could be related to unaccounted multiphase O 3 destruction mechanisms involving low level clouds and aerosols, and missing halogen chemistr

Methyl chloride as a tracer of tropical tropospheric air in the lowermost stratosphere inferred from IAGOS-CARIBIC passenger aircraft measurements

We present variations of methyl chloride (CH3Cl) and nitrous oxide (N2O) in the lowermost stratosphere (LMS) obtained from air samples collected by the In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System-Civil Aircraft for the Regular Investigation of the atmosphere Based on an Instrument Container (IAGOS-CARIBIC) passenger aircraft observatory for the period 2008-2012. To correct for the temporal increase of atmospheric N2O, the CARIBIC N2O data are expressed as deviations from the long-term trend at the northern hemispheric baseline station Mauna Loa, Hawaii (Delta N2O).Delta N2O undergoes a pronounced seasonal variation in the LMS with a minimum in spring. The amplitude increases going deeper in the LMS (up to potential temperature of 40 K above the thermal tropopause), as a result of the seasonally varying subsidence of air from the stratospheric overworld. Seasonal variation of CH3Cl above the tropopause is similar in phase to that of Delta N2O. Significant correlations are found between CH3Cl and Delta N2O in the LMS from winter to early summer, both being affected by mixing between stratospheric air and upper tropospheric air. This correlation, however, disappears in late summer to autumn. The slope of the CH3Cl-Delta N2O correlation observed in the LMS allows us to determine the stratospheric lifetime of CH3Cl to be 35 +/- 7 years. Finally, we examine the partitioning of stratospheric air and tropical/extratropical tropospheric air in the LMS based on a mass balance approach using Delta N2O and CH3Cl. This analysis clearly indicates efficient inflow of tropical tropospheric air into the LMS in summer and demonstrates the usefulness of CH3Cl as a tracer of tropical tropospheric air