Voting over Taxes and Expenditure: The Role of Home Production

This paper investigates, first, how allowance for subsistence activities, or home production, affects the standard results in models involving the majority choice of the tax rate in a flat tax—basic income scheme. The paper extends the analysis of home production to choices regarding the composition of government expenditure, in situations where there is a tax-financed pure public good in addition to a transfer payment, conditional on a given tax rate. The effect of home production is to reduce the transfer payment in each model, but the effect is small.

The Optimal Composition of Government Expenditure

This paper examines the optimal ratio of transfer payments to expenditure on public goods, for a given income tax rate. The transfer payment is then determined by the government’s budget constraint. The optimal ratio of transfers to public good expenditure per person is expressed as a function of the ratio of the median to the mean wage, and of the tax rate. Reductions in the skewness of the wage rate distribution are associated with reductions in transfer payments relative to public goods expenditure, at a decreasing rate. Furthermore, increases in the tax rate, from relatively low levels, are associated with increases in the relative importance of transfer payments. But beyond a certain level, further tax rate increases are associated with a lower ratio of transfers to public goods.

The optimal composition of government expenditure among transfers, education and public goods.

This paper examines the optimal allocation of tax revenue among a universal transfer payment, a pure public good and expenditure on education. Using a single-period framework, education expenditure raises the productivity of individuals via a human capital production function. The social welfare function is based on individuals’ (indirect) utilities. Education creates a substantial fiscal spillover whereby the increase in human capital gives rise to higher labour earnings and thus higher income tax revenue, thereby allowing greater government expenditure on all items than would otherwise be possible. A higher inequality of exogenous ability levels is found to increase all types of expenditure, but only the transfer increases in relative terms. Higher inequality aversion leads to an increase in transfer payments in absolute and relative terms, at the expense of the other two components. However, there is little sensitivity to inequality aversion. An increase in the elasticity of the wage with respect to basic ability leads to lower education spending.government expenditure, public goods, education, transfer payments, social welfare function.

Modelling the Composition of Government Expenditure in Democracies

This paper considers whether the ratio of transfer payments to expenditure on public goods in democracies can be explained as the outcome of majority voting. A simple model is constructed in which individuals vote for government expenditure on a public good, for a given income tax rate. The transfer payment is then determined by the government’s budget constraint. The equilibrium ratio of transfers to public good expenditure per person is expressed as a quadratic function both of the ratio of the median to the mean wage, and of the tax rate. Data for 29 democratic countries are used to estimate a cross-sectional regression. The empirical results confirm that reductions in the skewness of the wage rate distribution are associated with reductions in transfer payments relative to public goods expenditure, at a decreasing rate. Furthermore, increases in the tax rate, from relatively low levels, are associated with increases in the relative importance of transfer payments. But beyond a certain level, further tax rate increases are associated with a lower ratio of transfers to public goods.

The Composition of Government Expenditure in an Overlapping Generations Model

This paper examines the choice of government expenditure on public goods and transfer payments (in the form of pension) in an overlapping generations model, in which individuals live for two ‘periods’ and expenditure is financed on a pay-as-you-go (PAYG) basis. The condition required for majority support of the social contract involved in the PAYG scheme is established and shown to be independent of tax rates and expenditure levels. The choice of expenditure composition can thus be made conditional on acceptance of the social contract. Two decision mechanisms regarding the choice of government expenditure are considered. The first is positive and involves majority voting and the second is normative and involves maximizing a social welfare function. In each case the ratio of the transfer payment to public goods expenditure depends, among other things, on the ratio of median to mean income. A reduction in the skewness of the income distribution is associated with a reduction in this ratio, at a decreasing rate.Overlapping Generations Equilibrium Growth Median Voter Optimal Expenditure Public Goods Pensions

Adverse Effects of Trichothiodystrophy DNA Repair and Transcription Gene Abnormalities on Human Fetal Development

The effects of DNA repair and transcription genes in human prenatal life have never been studied. Trichothiodystrophy (TTD) is a rare (affected frequency of 10^-6^) recessive disorder caused by mutations in genes involved in the nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway and in transcription. Based on our clinical observations, we conducted a genetic epidemiologic study to investigate gestational outcomes associated with TTD. We compared pregnancies resulting in TTD-affected offspring (N=24) with respect to abnormalities in their antenatal and neonatal periods to pregnancies resulting in their unaffected siblings (N=18), accounting for correlation, and to population reference values. Significantly higher incidence of several severe gestational complications was noted in TTD-affected pregnancies. Gestational complications were noted in nearly all pregnancies resulting in TTD-affected offspring with _XPD_ and _TTDN1_, but not _TTD-A_, gene mutations. Abnormal placental development may explain the constellation of observed complications; therefore, we hypothesize that some TTD genes play an important role in normal placental and fetal development. We investigated this hypothesis by analyzing the expression patterns of TTD genes. Expression of _TTDA_ was strongly negatively correlated (r=-0.7,P<0.0001) with gestational age, while _XPD, XPB_ and _TTDN1_ were consistently expressed from 14 to 40 weeks gestation. *Conclusion:* Our results indicate an important role for _XPD, XPB_ and _TTDN1_ gene products during normal human placental and fetal development

The Composition of Government Expenditure with Alternative Choice Mechanisms

This paper investigates the choice of the composition of government expenditure using both positive and normative approaches. The former involves aggregation over selfish voters (simple majority voting and stochastic voting are examined), while the latter involves the choice by a single disinterested individual (considered to maximise a social welfare function). The approach allows direct comparisons of the choice mechanisms. The structures examined include a transfer payment combined with a pure public good, and a transfer payment with tax-financed education. Explicit solutions are obtained for the choice of expenditure components, and these are shown to depend on the proportional difference between the arithmetic mean and another measure of location of incomes, where the latter depends on the choice mechanism. In each case the expenditure composition depends on an inequality measure defined in terms of the proportional difference between a measure of location of the income distribution and the arithmetic mean, where the location measure depends on the decision mechanism

Aplicació de normes ISO 9001:2000

Este documento se trata de la implantacion y aplicacion de la norma UNE-EN-ISO 9001:2000 a partir de la politica de la empresa LBS respecto a la calidad, proporcionando elementos para lograr la calidad de los productos y servicios de acuerdo con los requisitos y necesidades del cliente, con el compromiso de asegurar y garantizar permanentemente la calidad de dichos productos y servicios consiguiendo la satisfaccion del cliente. Esta norma define un sistema de gestion de la calidad frente a su antecesora, la ISO 9000:1994 definia un sistema de aseguramiento de la calidad. Hay que tener en cuenta que el aseguramiento es una parte de la gestión, así, la ISO 9001:2000 introduce los tres elementos siguientes: satisfacción del cliente, mejora continua y la organizacion de la empresa por procesos con el objetivo de mantener la fidelidad de los clientes y la competividad en alza. La satisfacción del cliente se entiende como la percepcion que éste tiene de cumplimiento de los requisitos o de las necesidades especulativas. Se ha de buscar una estrecha relacion con los clientes a la hora de definir los requisitos que éstos esperan recibir, lo cual implica el estudio de los procesos que más se ajusten a cada uno de ellos teniendo en cuenta todos los recursos que hay que aplicar. El grado de satisfaccion del cliente es como un medidor del nivel de calidad de la organizacion y la calidad no es más que la suma resultante de todos los procesos de la organizacion.Cuando se aumentan las exigencias y las necesidads del cliente, debido a que estamos en un mercado en continuo cambio y evolucion, es fundamental introducir cambios en los procesos con tal de poder mejorarlos continuamente. En definitiva, los procesos son los que generan los resultados de una empresa, por lo tanto, si la organizacion se planifica por procesos, mejorara sustancialmente su eficacia. Por eso, las empresas se tienen que organizar en procesos y éstos tienen que estar enfocados hacia el cliente

A Study of Gender Performativity in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Mocking Biography

ABSTRACT The present paper aims at concentrating on Judith Butler’s theory of gender as performance and how Virginia Woolf  challenges  the  assumptions  of  heterosexuality in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando(1992). Woolf rebels against the traditional view of gender as two separate categories by presenting Orlando as an androgynous and bisexual character. Orlando’s transformation from male to female and exhibition of the characteristics of both feminity and masculinity expose how gender norms are socially instituted. Woolf portrays Orlando’s attraction to both men and women. He/she loves Sasha regardless of what changes her body undergoes, but he/she marries  Shelmerdine  because he/she is bisexual. Woolf also shows clothing as signifiers of the social construction of gender and how characters flout this convention by using cross dressing.   Keywords: Virginia Woolf, Orlando, androgyny, bisexuality, gender performativit