Effective versus Statutory Taxation: Measuring Effective Tax Administration in Transition Economies

Wide differences between effective or realised average tax rates and tax yields that would result if statutory tax rates were strictly applied indicate tax compliance and collection problems. Due to the greater politicisation of tax systems in transition economies (TEs), we would expect the shortfalls in effective tax yields for TEs to be larger than a benchmark for the mature market economies where tax systems are well established, the administrative capacity is stronger and tax arrears are tolerated less frequently. The methodology involves calculating an effective/statutory (E/S) tax ratio. Initial results indicate that the leading TEs have E/S ratios similar to the EU average. We find a positive correlation between progress in transition and effective tax administration, as measured by our E/S ratio. For slow reformers, the effectiveness of tax collection appears to vary with the extent of state control. Those TEs that have maintained the apparatus of the state have done well in tax collection compared to those countries where there is evidence of state decay. This raises a number of broad policy issues relating to the speed of transition, the interaction of politics and economic reforms, the capacity of the state to govern and the need for market institutions to develop.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39731/3/wp347.pd

Wage Determination in Russia: An Econometric Investigation

Using a firm level dataset from four regions of Russia covering 1996/97, an investigation was carried out into how the surplus created within the firm is divided between profits and wages. An efficient bargaining framework based on the work of Svejnar (1986) is employed which takes into account the alternative wage or outside option available to employees in the firm as well as the value added per employee. Statistical differences in the share of the surplus taken by employees employed in state, private and mixed forms of firms are found. In addition, the results prove sensitive to the presence of outliers and influential observations. A variety of diagnostic methods are employed to identify these influential observations and robust methods are employed to lessen the influence of them. Whereas in practice some of the diagnostic and robust methods utilised proved incapable of identifying or accommodating the gross outlier(s) in the data, the more successful methods included robust regression, Winsorising, the Hadi and Siminoff algorithm, Cook's Distance and Covratio.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/39679/3/wp295.pd

Effective versus Statutory Taxation: Measuring Effective Tax Administration in Transition Economies

Wide differences between effective or realised average tax rates and tax yields that would result if statutory tax rates were strictly applied indicate tax compliance and collection problems. Due to the greater politicisation of tax systems in transition economies (TEs), we would expect the shortfalls in effective tax yields for TEs to be larger than a benchmark for the mature market economies where tax systems are well established, the administrative capacity is stronger and tax arrears are tolerated less frequently. The methodology involves calculating an effective/statutory (E/S) tax ratio. Initial results indicate that the leading TEs have E/S ratios similar to the EU average. We find a positive correlation between progress in transition and effective tax administration, as measured by our E/S ratio. For slow reformers, the effectiveness of tax collection appears to vary with the extent of state control. Those TEs that have maintained the apparatus of the state have done well in tax collection compared to those countries where there is evidence of state decay. This raises a number of broad policy issues relating to the speed of transition, the interaction of politics and economic reforms, the capacity of the state to govern and the need for market institutions to develop.statutory taxation, average tax rate, tax collection, effective administration, transition economies

Wage Determination in Russia: An Econometric Investigation

Using a firm level dataset from four regions of Russia covering 1996/97, an investigation was carried out into how the surplus created within the firm is divided between profits and wages. An efficient bargaining framework based on the work of Svejnar (1986) is employed which takes into account the alternative wage or outside option available to employees in the firm as well as the value added per employee. Statistical differences in the share of the surplus taken by employees employed in state, private and mixed forms of firms are found. In addition, the results prove sensitive to the presence of outliers and influential observations. A variety of diagnostic methods are employed to identify these influential observations and robust methods are employed to lessen the influence of them. Whereas in practice some of the diagnostic and robust methods utilised proved incapable of identifying or accommodating the gross outlier(s) in the data, the more successful methods included robust regression, Winsorising, the Hadi and Siminoff algorithm, Cook's Distance and Covratio.Russian labour markets, efficient bargaining, outliers, regression diagnostics, robust regression

Wage Policies of a Russian Firm and the Financial Crisis of 1998: Evidence from Personnel Data - 1997 to 2002

We use a rich personnel data set from a Russian firm for the years 1997 to 2002 to analyze how the financial crisis in 1998 and the resulting change in external labor market conditions affect the wages and the welfare of workers inside a firm. We provide evidence that large shocks to external conditions affect the firm's personnel policies, and show that the burden of the shock is not evenly spread across the workforce. The firm takes advantage of a high-inflationary environment and of a fall in workers' outside options after the financial crisis and cuts real wages. Earnings are curbed most for those who earned the highest rents, resulting in a strong compression of real wages. The fact that real wages and real compensation levels never recovered to pre-crisis levels even though the firm's financial situation was better in 2002 than before the crisis and the differential treatment of employee groups within the firm can be taken as evidence that market forces strongly influence the wage policies of our firm.Internal labor markets, wage policies of a firm, personnel data, Russia

Wage determination and wage inequality inside a Russian firm in late transition: Evidence from personnel data – 1997 to 2002.

personnel economics, Russia, transition;wage determination;

Wage Policies of a Russian Firm and the Financial Crisis of 1998: Evidence from Personnel Data - 1997 to 2002

We use a rich personnel data set from a Russian firm for the years 1997 to 2002 to analyze how the financial crisis in 1998 and the resulting change in external labor market conditions affect the wages and the welfare of workers inside a firm. We provide evidence that large shocks to external conditions affect the firm's personnel policies, and show that the burden of the shock is not evenly spread across the workforce. The firm takes advantage of a high-inflationary environment and of a fall in workers' outside options after the financial crisis and cuts real wages. Earnings are curbed most for those who earned the highest rents, resulting in a strong compression of real wages. The fact that real wages and real compensation levels never recovered to pre-crisis levels even though the firm's financial situation was better in 2002 than before the crisis and the differential treatment of employee groups within the firm can be taken as evidence that market forces strongly influence the wage policies of our firm.Internal labor markets, wage policies of a firm, personnel data, Russia

Wage Determination and Wage Inequality Inside a Russian Firm in Late Transition: Evidence from Personnel Data - 1997 to 2002

We use personnel data from a Russian firm for the years 1997 to 2002 to study thedeterminants of wages during transition. Our findings indicate that remuneration isnot predetermined by formal rules and a stable institutionalized structure of wages,but rather that local labor market conditions have a strong impact on wage setting atthe firm level. In particular, we document that real wages fall substantially during aperiod of high inflation and worsening local labor market conditions. Relative wagedecreases are most pronounced for employees who initially earned the highest rents.The process of rent extraction leads to a strong compression of real wages and realcompensation at the firm.

Clustered standard errors in Stata

A brief survey of clustered errors, focusing on estimating cluster–robust standard errors: when and why to use the cluster option (nearly always in panel regressions), and implications. Additional topics may include using svyset to specify clustering, multidimensional clustering, clustering in meta-analysis, how many clusters are required for asymptotic approximations, testing coefficients when the Var–Cov matrix has less than full rank, and testing for clustering of errors.