Localization economies and the sensitivity of firm foundations to changes in taxation and public expenditure

This paper investigates the influence of tax rates and public expenditures on the number of firm foundations in West German municipalities in the presence of localization economies. Brülhart et al. (2012) use Swiss data to show that localization economies can mitigate the negative effects of taxation on firm foundation rates. Firms are more willing to accept higher tax rates if ocalization economies within their industry exist that generate beneficial spillover effects. These agglomeration rents can be taxed by municipalities (see Koh et al. 2013) and localities can use additional revenues for public spending. This work exploits information on the localization of German industries on a 2 digit level based on work by Koh and Riedel (2014). It is combined with detailed data on the number of firm foundations, the local business tax rate and public expenditures in West German municipalities to analyze the sensitivity of firm foundations to changes in the local tax rate and public spending with respect to localization economies. Similar to Brülhart et al. (2012) the results for Germany imply that increasing localization of an industry diminishes the negative effect of business taxation at a given location. On top, the results show that the positive effect of public expenditures (namely economic promotion and municipalities total capital stock) is mitigated by localization economies

Public Good Provision, Commuting and Local Employment

This paper assesses the differential impact of the local availability of grammar schools on local employment depending on the openness of a jurisdiction, measured by commuting costs. Commuting costs matter as they influence workers' reservation wage. While the reservation wage depends on public good provision in jurisdictions with high commuting costs, it does not so in jurisdictions with low commuting costs as workers' outside option is to commute and not to move away. We test these predictions using local grammar school closures in East Germany after 2000. In line with the predictions we find that school closures reduced employment only in jurisdictions with high commuting costs. Reassuringly, house prices responded, however, similar in both types of jurisdictions which rules out that differences in preferences are driving our results

Local fiscal policies and their impact on the number and spatial distribution of new firms

We examine the effect of local business taxation and local public good and service (PIGS) provision on the number and spatial distribution of new firms. The analysis draws on panel data for the universe of firm foundations in German municipalities, matched to municipalities' local business tax rates and the level and structure of their local PIGS provision. Methodologically, we estimate fixed effects poisson models coupled with a control function approach. The results suggest that local business taxation (PIGS provision) has a strong negative (positive) impact on the number of new firms in the policy-changing jurisdiction. Local business taxes are, moreover, found to exert beggar-thy-neighbor externalities on neigboring jurisdictions: tax reductions strongly lower the number of neighbors' firm foundations, implying that the aggregate number of new firms remains unchanged; while PIGS provision, on average, exerts no significant impact on the number of firms in adjacent jurisdictions, negative effects emerge for subsets of PIGS and firms

HANA: A HAndwritten NAme Database for Offline Handwritten Text Recognition

Methods for linking individuals across historical data sets, typically in combination with AI based transcription models, are developing rapidly. Probably the single most important identifier for linking is personal names. However, personal names are prone to enumeration and transcription errors and although modern linking methods are designed to handle such challenges these sources of errors are critical and should be minimized. For this purpose, improved transcription methods and large-scale databases are crucial components. This paper describes and provides documentation for HANA, a newly constructed large-scale database which consists of more than 1.1 million images of handwritten word-groups. The database is a collection of personal names, containing more than 105 thousand unique names with a total of more than 3.3 million examples. In addition, we present benchmark results for deep learning models that automatically can transcribe the personal names from the scanned documents. Focusing mainly on personal names, due to its vital role in linking, we hope to foster more sophisticated, accurate, and robust models for handwritten text recognition through making more challenging large-scale databases publicly available. This paper describes the data source, the collection process, and the image-processing procedures and methods that are involved in extracting the handwritten personal names and handwritten text in general from the forms

Forudsigelser om skyld og straffastsættelse

AbstractA certain degree of predictability in criminal law is important for the overall functionality of the criminal justice system. For victims, the accused, and their relatives, predictability – and the lack thereof – has a more concrete and immediate impact. The lack of predictability of how and when cases are handled, and with what outcome, installs an uncertainty of significant events for those involved in the case. This effectively limits those persons’ abilities to make decisions about their cases and their lives. Existing literature correspondingly shows that the process of a criminal case, its duration, and the uncertainty about the outcome represent a significant burden to those involved. There is a real need for legal and procedural empowerment. In this paper, we examine how statistical models increase predictability regarding sentencing outcomes and find that our models reduce the uncertainty of case outcomes for the accused, the victims, and their relatives

Validation of Sentinel-5P TROPOMI tropospheric NO2 products by comparison with NO2 measurements from airborne imaging, ground-based stationary, and mobile car DOAS measurements during the S5P-VAL-DE-Ruhr campaign

Airborne imaging differential optical absorption spectroscopy (DOAS), ground-based stationary and car DOAS measurements were conducted during the S5P-VAL-DE-Ruhr campaign in September 2020. The campaign area is located in the Rhine-Ruhr region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Western Germany, which is a pollution hotspot in Europe comprising urban and large industrial emitters. The measurements are used to validate space-borne NO2 tropospheric vertical column density data products from the Sentinel-5 Precursor (S5P) TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). Seven flights were performed with the airborne imaging DOAS instrument for measurements of atmospheric pollution (AirMAP), providing measurements which were used to create continuous maps of NO2 in the layer below the aircraft. These flights cover many S5P ground pixels within an area of 30 km x 35 km and were accompanied by ground-based stationary measurements and three mobile car DOAS instruments. Stationary measurements were conducted by two Pandora, two zenith-sky and two MAX-DOAS instruments distributed over three target areas. Ground-based stationary and car DOAS measurements are used to evaluate the AirMAP tropospheric NO2 vertical column densities and show high Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.87 and 0.89 and slopes of 0.93 &plusmn; 0.09 and 0.98 &plusmn; 0.02 for the stationary and car DOAS, respectively. Having a spatial resolution of about 100 m x 30 m, the AirMAP tropospheric NO2 vertical column density (VCD) data creates a link between the ground-based and the TROPOMI measurements with a resolution of 3.5 km x 5.5 km and is therefore well suited to validate the TROPOMI tropospheric NO2 VCD. The measurements on the seven flight days show strong NO2 variability, which is dependent on the different target areas, the weekday, and the meteorological conditions. The AirMAP campaign dataset is compared to the TROPOMI NO2 operational off-line (OFFL) V01.03.02 data product, the reprocessed NO2 data, using the V02.03.01 of the official L2 processor, provided by the Product Algorithm Laboratory (PAL), and several scientific TROPOMI NO2 data products. The TROPOMI data products and the AirMAP data are highly correlated with correlation coefficients between 0.72 and 0.87, and slopes of 0.38 &plusmn; 0.02 to 1.02 &plusmn; 0.07. On average, TROPOMI tropospheric NO2 VCDs are lower than the AirMAP NO2 results. The slope increased from 0.38 &plusmn; 0.02 for the operational OFFL V01.03.02 product to 0.83 &plusmn; 0.06 after the improvements in the retrieval of the PAL V02.03.01 product were implemented. Different auxiliary data, such as spatially higher resolved a priori NO2 vertical profiles, surface reflectivity and the cloud treatment, are investigated using scientific TROPOMI tropospheric NO2 VCD data products to evaluate their impact on the operational TROPOMI NO2 VCD data product. The comparison of the AirMAP campaign dataset to the scientific data products shows that the choice of surface reflectivity data base has a minor impact on the tropospheric NO2 VCD retrieval in the campaign region and season. In comparison, the replacement of the a priori NO2 profile in combination with the improvements in the retrieval of the PAL V02.03.01 product regarding cloud heights has a major impact on the tropospheric NO2 VCD retrieval and increases the slope from 0.88 &plusmn; 0.06 to 1.00 &plusmn; 0.07. This study demonstrates that the underestimation of the TROPOMI tropospheric NO2 VCD product with respect to the validation dataset has been and can be further significantly improved.</p

Intercomparison of NO2, O4, O3 and HCHO slant column measurements by MAX-DOAS and zenith-sky UV¿visible spectrometers during CINDI-2

40 pags., 22 figs., 13 tabs.In September 2016, 36 spectrometers from 24 institutes measured a number of key atmospheric pollutants for a period of 17¿d during the Second Cabauw Intercomparison campaign for Nitrogen Dioxide measuring Instruments (CINDI-2) that took place at Cabauw, the Netherlands (51.97¿¿N, 4.93¿¿E). We report on the outcome of the formal semi-blind intercomparison exercise, which was held under the umbrella of the Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) and the European Space Agency (ESA). The three major goals of CINDI-2 were (1) to characterise and better understand the differences between a large number of multi-axis differential optical absorption spectroscopy (MAX-DOAS) and zenith-sky DOAS instruments and analysis methods, (2) to define a robust methodology for performance assessment of all participating instruments, and (3) to contribute to a harmonisation of the measurement settings and retrieval methods. This, in turn, creates the capability to produce consistent high-quality ground-based data sets, which are an essential requirement to generate reliable long-term measurement time series suitable for trend analysis and satellite data validation. The data products investigated during the semi-blind intercomparison are slant columns of nitrogen dioxide (NO2), the oxygen collision complex (O4) and ozone (O3) measured in the UV and visible wavelength region, formaldehyde (HCHO) in the UV spectral region, and NO2 in an additional (smaller) wavelength range in the visible region. The campaign design and implementation processes are discussed in detail including the measurement protocol, calibration procedures and slant column retrieval settings. Strong emphasis was put on the careful alignment and synchronisation of the measurement systems, resulting in a unique set of measurements made under highly comparable air mass conditions. The CINDI-2 data sets were investigated using a regression analysis of the slant columns measured by each instrument and for each of the target data products. The slope and intercept of the regression analysis respectively quantify the mean systematic bias and offset of the individual data sets against the selected reference (which is obtained from the median of either all data sets or a subset), and the rms error provides an estimate of the measurement noise or dispersion. These three criteria are examined and for each of the parameters and each of the data products, performance thresholds are set and applied to all the measurements. The approach presented here has been developed based on heritage from previous intercomparison exercises. It introduces a quantitative assessment of the consistency between all the participating instruments for the MAX-DOAS and zenith-sky DOAS techniques.CINDI-2 received funding from the Netherlands Space Office (NSO). Funding for this study was provided by ESA through the CINDI-2 (ESA contract no. 4000118533/16/ISbo) and FRM4DOAS (ESA contract no. 4000118181/16/I-EF) projects and partly within the EU 7th Framework Programme QA4ECV project (grant agreement no. 607405). The BOKU MAX-DOAS instrument was funded and the participation of Stefan F. Schreier was supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF): I 2296-N29. The participation of the University of Toronto team was supported by the Canadian Space Agency (through the AVATARS project) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (through the PAHA project). The instrument was primarily funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation and is usually operated at the Polar Environment Atmospheric Research Laboratory (PEARL) by the Canadian Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Change (CANDAC). Funding for CISC was provided by the UVAS (“Ultraviolet and Visible Atmospheric Sounder”) projects SEOSAT/INGENIO, ESP2015-71299- R, MINECO-FEDER and UE. The activities of the IUP-Heidelberg were supported by the DFG project RAPSODI (grant no. PL 193/17-1). SAOZ and Mini-SAOZ instruments are supported by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES). INTA recognises support from the National funding projects HELADO (CTM2013-41311-P) and AVATAR (CGL2014-55230-R). AMOIAP recognises support from the Russian Science Foundation (grant no. 16-17-10275) and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (grant nos. 16-05- 01062 and 18-35-00682). Ka L. Chan received transnational access funding from ACTRIS-2 (H2020 grant agreement no. 654109). Rainer Volkamer recognises funding from NASA’s Atmospheric Composition Program (NASA-16-NUP2016-0001) and the US National Science Foundation (award AGS-1620530). Henning Finkenzeller is the recipient of a NASA graduate fellowship. Mihalis Vrekoussis recognises support from the University of Bremen and the DFG Research Center/Cluster of Excellence “The Ocean in the Earth System-MARUM”. Financial support through the University of Bremen Institutional Strategy in the framework of the DFG Excellence Initiative is gratefully appreciated for Anja Schönhardt. Pandora instrument deployment was supported by Luftblick through the ESA Pandonia Project and NASA Pandora Project at the Goddard Space Flight Center under NASA Headquarters’ Tropospheric Composition Program. The article processing charges for this open-access publication were covered by BK Scientific

TESS Delivers Five New Hot Giant Planets Orbiting Bright Stars From The Full-Frame Images

We present the discovery and characterization of five hot and warm Jupiters—TOI-628 b (TIC 281408474; HD 288842), TOI-640 b (TIC 147977348), TOI-1333 b (TIC 395171208, BD+47 3521A), TOI-1478 b (TIC 409794137), and TOI-1601 b (TIC 139375960)—based on data from NASA\u27s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The five planets were identified from the full-frame images and were confirmed through a series of photometric and spectroscopic follow-up observations by the TESS Follow-up Observing Program Working Group. The planets are all Jovian size (RP = 1.01–1.77 RJ) and have masses that range from 0.85 to 6.33 MJ. The host stars of these systems have F and G spectral types (5595 ≤ Teff ≤ 6460 K) and are all relatively bright (9.5 \u3c V \u3c 10.8, 8.2 \u3c K \u3c 9.3), making them well suited for future detailed characterization efforts. Three of the systems in our sample (TOI-640 b, TOI-1333 b, and TOI-1601 b) orbit subgiant host stars ($\mathrm{log}$ g \u3c 4.1). TOI-640 b is one of only three known hot Jupiters to have a highly inflated radius (RP \u3e 1.7 RJ, possibly a result of its host star\u27s evolution) and resides on an orbit with a period longer than 5 days. TOI-628 b is the most massive, hot Jupiter discovered to date by TESS with a measured mass of ${6.31}_{-0.30}^{+0.28}$MJ and a statistically significant, nonzero orbital eccentricity of e = ${0.074}_{-0.022}^{+0.021}$. This planet would not have had enough time to circularize through tidal forces from our analysis, suggesting that it might be remnant eccentricity from its migration. The longest-period planet in this sample, TOI-1478 b (P = 10.18 days), is a warm Jupiter in a circular orbit around a near-solar analog. NASA\u27s TESS mission is continuing to increase the sample of well-characterized hot and warm Jupiters, complementing its primary mission goals