Holidays and Traditions

Postcard from Marquesa Dixon, during the Linfield College Semester Abroad Program at the University of Nottingham in Englan

Holidays Online -- 2002

Presents findings from a survey conducted in November and December 2002. Looks at the use of the Internet for social, spiritual, and commercial activity

Federal Holidays: Evolution and Current Practices

[Excerpt] Since 1870, numerous proposals have been introduced in Congress to establish permanent federal holidays. Only 11, however, have thus far become law. Although these patriotic celebrations are frequently referred to as “national holidays,” legally they are only applicable to federal employees and the District of Columbia. Neither Congress nor the President has asserted the authority to declare a “national holiday” that would be binding on the 50 states, as each state individually determines its legal holidays. Creating a holiday for federal employees does, however, affect each state in a variety of ways, including the delivery of mail and conduct of business with federal agencies. Federal holidays have been created for a number of reasons. In several instances, Congress created federal holidays after a sizeable number of states created state holidays. In other instances, Congress took the lead. Additionally, each holiday was designed to emphasize a particular aspect of American heritage or to celebrate an event in American history. particular aspect of American heritage or to celebrate an event in American history

Keeping in touch – A benefit of public holidays using time use diary data

This paper argues that public holidays facilitate the co-ordination of leisure time but do not constrain the annual amount of leisure. Public holidays therefore have benefits both in the utility of leisure on holidays and (by enabling people to maintain social contacts more easily) in increasing the utility of leisure on normal weekdays and weekends. The paper uses the variation in public holidays across German Länder based on more than 37.000 individual diary data of the actual German Time Use Survey of 2001-02 to illustrate the positive association between more public holidays and social life on normal weekdays and weekends. These benefits are additional to the other, direct benefits of public holidays.Public holidays, social contacts, social leisure time, time allocation, time use diaries, German Time Budget Survey 2001/02

Keeping in Touch – A Benefit of Public Holidays

This paper argues that public holidays facilitate the co-ordination of leisure time but do not constrain the annual amount of leisure. Public holidays therefore have benefits both in the utility of leisure on holidays and (by enabling people to maintain social contacts more easily) in increasing the utility of leisure on normal weekdays and weekends. The paper uses the variation (13 to 17) in public holidays across German Länder and the German Time Use Survey of 2001-02 to show that public holidays have beneficial impacts on social life on normal weekdays and weekends. Since these benefits are additional to the other benefits of holidays, it suggests that there is a case to be made for more public holidays.public holidays, social contacts, social leisure time, time allocation, time use diaries

No-Vacation Nation

This report reviewed international vacation and holiday laws and found that the United States is the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers any paid vacation or holidays. As a result, 1 in 4 U.S. workers do not receive any paid vacation or paid holidays. The lack of paid vacation and paid holidays in the U.S. is particularly acute for lower-wage and part-time workers, and for employees of small businesses. This report also includes a comparative appendix with information on paid leave and holiday laws in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom

April Fools’ Day, A Celebration of All Things Creative

April Fools\u27 Day is unique among our holidays because it is the only one for which ingenuity is required. Other festivals are celebrated with expectations of prepackaged icons. Try serving something other than turkey for Thanksgiving and you are likely to face a revolt. Holidays are bastions of repetition, but April Fools\u27 Day is a commemoration of creativity. [excerpt

Tax holidays and investments

The tax holiday - an incentive frequently used in developing countries to encourage capital investments - offers benefits for short-term investments but could in fact penalize long-term capital investments. For some countries with high inflation rates and relatively fast writeoffs for depreciable capital, the effective tax rate on long-term investments is higher during the tax holiday than after. For one thing the tax law may require assets to be depreciated during the holiday. If so, the value of tax depreciation writeoffs may be lower than the true economic cost of depreciation. For another the tax benefit of nominal interest deductions associated with debt financing of capital are of no value to the firm during the holiday - whereas after the holiday they may be quite beneficial. After estimating the effective tax rates on capital for holiday and post holiday investments, the author concludes that for some countries the effecctive tax rate on long-term capital is higher during the holiday than after.International Terrorism&Counterterrorism,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies