Coordinating Tariff Reduction and Domestic Tax Reform under Imperfect Competition

A major constraint on trade liberalization in many countries is the prospective loss of government revenue.Recent results, however, have established a simple and appealing strategy for overcoming this difficulty, whilst still realizing the efficiency gains from liberalization, in small, competitive economies: combining tariff cuts with point-for-point increases in destination-based consumption taxes unambiguously increases both national welfare and total government revenue.This note explores the implications of imperfect competition for this strategy.Examples are easily found in which this strategy unambiguously reduces domestic welfare.tariffs;tax reform;imperfect competition

Information Sharing and International Taxation

The sharing between national tax authorities of taxpayer-specific information has emerged over the last few years as a-probably "the"-central issue in the formation of international tax policy.Yet this refocusing of the debate on international taxation-away from parametric tax coordination and towards strengthening information exchange-has gone largely unnoticed in the public finance literature.This paper gives an overview of this increasingly important area of international taxation, reviewing the key economic, legal and practical concepts and issues bearing on the analysis and implementation of information exchange, and providing an account of recent policy initiatives and emerging theoretical insights.International tax evasion;tax competition;tax information exchange;tax treaties;money laundering;savings tax directive

Incentives and Information Exchange in International Taxation

The exchange of taxpayer-specific information between national tax authorities has recently emerged as a key and controversial topic in international tax policy discussions, most notably with the OECD s harmful tax practices project and the EU s savings tax initiative.This paper analyses the effects of information exchange and withholding taxes, recognizing that countries which agree to exchange information do not forfeit the ability to levy withholding taxes, and also focusing in particular on the effects of innovative revenuesharing arrangements.Amongst the findings are that: (i) the transfer of withholding tax receipts to the residence country, as planned in the EU, has no effect on equilibrium tax rates, but acts purely as a lump sum transfer; (ii) in contrast, allocating some of the revenue from information exchange to the source country counter to usual practice (though no less so than the EU agreement) would have adverse strategic effects on total revenue; (iii) nevertheless, any withholding tax regime is Pareto dominated by information exchange combined with appropriate revenue sharing; and, in particular, (iv) sharing of the additional revenues raised from information provided, while efficiency-reducing, could be in the interests of large (high-tax) countries as a means of persuading small (low-tax) countries to provide that information voluntarily.incentives;information;taxation;competition;international economics

Revenue Sharing and Information Exchange under Non-Discriminatory Taxation

The international exchange of tax information, and its merits compared to withholding taxes, is the central topic in current debates in international tax policy.The purpose of this paper is to characterize and compare the tax regimes that emerge with and without information exchange, under the assumption that countries are unable to differentiate between the taxes they apply to residents and non-residents.It focuses in particular on the role of asymmetries in country size (capturing a key feature of tax havens) and on the impact and potential desirability of schemes to share the revenue raised by withholding (as under the new EU savings tax arrangements) or (more innovatively) as a consequence of information exchange.It is shown that (irrespective of country size difference) Pareto efficiency requires that all revenue collected from nonresidents be transferred to the residence country which would require taking the EU practice even further from the norm, but is currently the norm in relation to information exchange.A withholding scheme with revenue fully reallocated in this way Pareto dominates information sharing, whatever the allocation under the latter. Comparing schemes in which there is no revenue sharing, however, shows that information exchange Pareto dominates simple withholding.revenue sharing;tax information exchange;tax competition;international tax evasion;withholding taxes

Incentives and Information Exchange in International Taxation

The exchange of taxpayer-specific information between national tax authorities has recently emerged as a key and controversial topic in international tax policy discussions, most notably with the OECD s harmful tax practices project and the EU s savings tax initiative.This paper analyses the effects of information exchange and withholding taxes, recognizing that countries which agree to exchange information do not forfeit the ability to levy withholding taxes, and also focusing in particular on the effects of innovative revenuesharing arrangements.Amongst the findings are that: (i) the transfer of withholding tax receipts to the residence country, as planned in the EU, has no effect on equilibrium tax rates, but acts purely as a lump sum transfer; (ii) in contrast, allocating some of the revenue from information exchange to the source country counter to usual practice (though no less so than the EU agreement) would have adverse strategic effects on total revenue; (iii) nevertheless, any withholding tax regime is Pareto dominated by information exchange combined with appropriate revenue sharing; and, in particular, (iv) sharing of the additional revenues raised from information provided, while efficiency-reducing, could be in the interests of large (high-tax) countries as a means of persuading small (low-tax) countries to provide that information voluntarily

Revenue Sharing and Information Exchange under Non-Discriminatory Taxation

The international exchange of tax information, and its merits compared to withholding taxes, is the central topic in current debates in international tax policy.The purpose of this paper is to characterize and compare the tax regimes that emerge with and without information exchange, under the assumption that countries are unable to differentiate between the taxes they apply to residents and non-residents.It focuses in particular on the role of asymmetries in country size (capturing a key feature of tax havens) and on the impact and potential desirability of schemes to share the revenue raised by withholding (as under the new EU savings tax arrangements) or (more innovatively) as a consequence of information exchange.It is shown that (irrespective of country size difference) Pareto efficiency requires that all revenue collected from nonresidents be transferred to the residence country which would require taking the EU practice even further from the norm, but is currently the norm in relation to information exchange.A withholding scheme with revenue fully reallocated in this way Pareto dominates information sharing, whatever the allocation under the latter. Comparing schemes in which there is no revenue sharing, however, shows that information exchange Pareto dominates simple withholding

Getting to know Pepper : Effects of people’s awareness of a robot’s capabilities on their trust in the robot

© 2018 Association for Computing MachineryThis work investigates how human awareness about a social robot’s capabilities is related to trusting this robot to handle different tasks. We present a user study that relates knowledge on different quality levels to participant’s ratings of trust. Secondary school pupils were asked to rate their trust in the robot after three types of exposures: a video demonstration, a live interaction, and a programming task. The study revealed that the pupils’ trust is positively affected across different domains after each session, indicating that human users trust a robot more the more awareness about the robot they have

Polymer Crosslinking: a new Strategy to Enhance Mechanical Properties and Structural Stability of Bioactive Glasses

The organic-inorganic hybrids fabricated by the sol-gel method are intrinsically bioactive materials with extensive applications in bone tissue engineering. The brittleness and limited water uptake capacity of these monoliths, however, restrict their applications for engineering the soft tissues and their interfaces with bone. To address these challenges, we developed a unique method in which polymer crosslinking was used to cease the over-condensation of a bioactive glass component and eradicate the formation of brittle structure. In this study, an organosilane-functionalized gelatin methacrylate was covalently bonded to a bioactive glass during the sol-gel process, and the condensation of silica networks was controlled by polymer-crosslinking. The physicochemical properties and mechanical strength of these hybrid hydrogels were then tuned by the incorporation of secondary crosslinking agents such as poly(ethylene glycol diacrylate). The resulting elastic hydrogels displayed tuneable compressive modulus in the range of 42 kPa to 530 kPa. The swelling behaviours of these hybrids and their structural integrities were also favourable for tissue engineering applications. Moreover, these hybrid hydrogels kept their structures for more than 28 days in simulated body fluid. The bioactivity of the constructs due to the presence of silica networks were confirmed by detecting nearly 2-fold increase in the alkaline phosphatase activity of the cultured bone progenitor cells on these hybrid hydrogels within 28 days of in vitro culture. Within the same period, in vivo studies on mice subcutaneous model showed that the hybrid hydrogels were highly biocompatible and well-tolerated. In summary, the bioactivity of the constructs, their tuneable physicochemical properties, the outstanding biocompatibility, and biodegradability of the hybrid hydrogels showed the high potential of the developed technique for fabrication of constructs for a variety of soft and hard tissue regeneration

Business/Culture

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Bridging Bacteria and the Gut: Functional Aspects of Type IV Pili

Cell-surface-located proteinaceous appendages, such as flagella and fimbriae or pili, are ubiquitous in bacterial communities. Here, we focus on conserved type IV pili (T4P) produced by bacteria in the intestinal tract, one of the most densely populated human ecosystems. Computational analysis revealed that approximately 30% of known intestinal bacteria are predicted to produce T4P. To rationalize how T4P allow intestinal bacteria to interact with their environment, other microbiota members, and host cells, we review their established role in gut commensals and pathogens with respect to adherence, motility, and biofilm formation, as well as protein secretion and DNA uptake. This work indicates that T4P are widely spread among the known members of the intestinal microbiota and that their contribution to human health might be underestimated.Peer reviewe