Corporate Tax Policy and Foreign Direct Investment:Based on Empirical Analysis Considering Neighboring Countries’ Policies

As economic globalization progresses, many developed countries have undertaken corporation tax reform to reduce outward foreign direct investment (FDI). Therefore, many researches which analyze the relationship between the reduction in corporation tax rates and FDI have carried out briskly. Although the conclusion is ambiguous, as far as I know, there are only a few researches that have analyzed the influence of corporation tax on FDI while considering the FDI of neighboring countries. In practice, if the movement of capital and labor becomes active through accelerated globalization, it would seem the home-country’s FDI and host-country’s FDI interact with each other. The object of this paper is to analyze to what extent change in the corporation tax rate influences FDI while considering the FDI of neighboring countries. We empirically analyze FDI based on a pooled data of FDI stock among 16 countries over the period 19962006. Consequently, even if the FDI of neighboring countries is included in the model, the after-tax rates of return on capital in each country has a statistically significant positive effects on FDIdepartmental bulletin pape

〈研究ノート〉 消費税の逆進性とその緩和策

一般的に、消費税の逆進性の緩和策には消費税の枠内で行う緩和策と、枠外で行う緩和策とがある。消費税の枠内で行う緩和策の具体例として、生活必需品に対してゼロ税率を設けて、消費税の税率を複数にする方法がある。それに対して、消費税の枠外で行う緩和策には、低所得者層が負担した消費税額を給付で補うか、あるいは所得税額の控除という形で補う方法とがある。本論文では、今後予想される消費税率７％（国民福祉税案）、10％（井堀［1996］、水野［1996］の見解）、28％（厚生省の見解）のもとで、消費税の逆進性が所得再分配機能にどのような影響を及ぼすかを推定した後、それぞれの逆進性緩和策が負担の格差をどの程度まで減らすのかを明らかにする

Genome-wide Analysis of Chlamydophila pneumoniae Gene Expression at the Late Stage of Infection

Chlamydophila pneumoniae, an obligate intracellular eubacterium, changes its form from a vegetative reticulate body into an infectious elementary body during the late stage of its infection cycle. Comprehension of the molecular events in the morphological change is important to understand the switching mechanism between acute and chronic infection, which is deemed to relate to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Herein, we have attempted to screen genes expressed in the late stage with a genome-wide DNA microarray, resulting in nomination of 17 genes as the late-stage genes. Fourteen of the 17 genes and six other genes predicted as late-stage genes were confirmed to be up-regulated in the late stage with a quantitative reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction. These 20 late-stage genes were classified into two groups by clustering analysis: ‘drastically induced’ and ‘moderately induced’ genes. Out of eight drastically induced genes, four contain σ28 promoter-like sequences and the other four contain an upstream common sequence. It suggests that besides σ28, there are certain up-regulatory mechanisms at the late stage, which may be involved in the chlamydial morphological change and thus pathogenesis

Soft Gamma-ray Detector for the ASTRO-H Mission

ASTRO-H is the next generation JAXA X-ray satellite, intended to carry instruments with broad energy coverage and exquisite energy resolution. The Soft Gamma-ray Detector (SGD) is one of ASTRO-H instruments and will feature wide energy band (40-600 keV) at a background level 10 times better than the current instruments on orbit. SGD is complimentary to ASTRO-H's Hard X-ray Imager covering the energy range of 5-80 keV. The SGD achieves low background by combining a Compton camera scheme with a narrow field-of-view active shield where Compton kinematics is utilized to reject backgrounds. The Compton camera in the SGD is realized as a hybrid semiconductor detector system which consists of silicon and CdTe (cadmium telluride) sensors. Good energy resolution is afforded by semiconductor sensors, and it results in good background rejection capability due to better constraints on Compton kinematics. Utilization of Compton kinematics also makes the SGD sensitive to the gamma-ray polarization, opening up a new window to study properties of gamma-ray emission processes. The ASTRO-H mission is approved by ISAS/JAXA to proceed to a detailed design phase with an expected launch in 2014. In this paper, we present science drivers and concept of the SGD instrument followed by detailed description of the instrument and expected performance.Comment: 17 pages, 15 figures, Proceedings of the SPIE Astronomical Instrumentation "Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2010: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray