Effects of local fiscal policy on firm profitability

For decades, scholars and policy-makers have been interested in how fiscal policy influences entrepreneurship. Until now, research has focused on fiscal policy at the federal or regional level and used macro-economic outcome measures. Considerably less attention was given to how municipal governments can influence economic outcomes at the micro level. The present study examines the effect of municipal taxes, spending and tax compliance costs on firm profitability within the Flemish hospitality industry. This is an interesting research setting, since Flemish municipalities have far-ranging fiscal autonomy which has resulted in a proliferation of local taxes, many of which are specific to the hospitality industry. The findings reveal that local taxes have a negative impact on firm profitability, while aggregate public spending has a positive influence. The tax effect is economically relevant and exceeds the public spending impact. Finally, we find no impact of compliance costs from local taxes

Energy Efficiency and Economic Aspects of Mining Wastes Utilization within the Closed Cycle of Underground Gas Generator

Energy efficiency of coal gasification with possible utilization of mining wastes within ecologically closed gas generator cycle has been considered. Technical and technological performance of such gas generator and mechanism of material and heat balance on the basis of the available analytical methods and practices as well as the developed author software have been proposed. Heat carrier formed in the process of coal gasification has been used for the utilization. Temperature of the utilization process within the industrially expedient limits being supported with the help of either activation or attenuation of the gasification process. After specific treatment, organogenic waste and domestic wastes are utilized by means of thermal decomposition within a gas generator. Economic evaluation of the proposed means confirms the expediency of their implementation in mines with industrial and balanced coal reserves as well as within the areas where this energetic source has already been already mined out. Results of this investigation were partially presented on international scientific and practical conference “Forum of Miners - 2017”. They contain the researches, which were conducted within the project GP – 489, financed by Ministry of Education and Science of Ukrain

Case study of viability of bioenergy production from landfill gas (LFG)

The landfill gas (LFG) produced from the existing landfill site in Heraklion city, Crete island, Greece, is not currently exploited to its full potential. It could however be exploited for power generation and/or combined heat and power (CHP) production in near future by fully unlocking its energy production potential of the gas generated from the landfill site. This gas (LFG) could feed a 1.6 MWel power plant corresponding to the 0.42% of the annually consumed electricity in Crete. The LFG utilization for power generation and CHP production has been studied, and the economics of three energy production scenarios have been calculated. An initial capital investment of 2.4 to 3.2 M €, with payback times (PBT) of approximately 3.5 to 6 years and Net Present Values (NPV) ranging between 2 to 6 M € have been calculated. These values prove the profitability of the attempt of bioenergy production from the biogas produced from the existing landfill site in Heraklion city, Crete. Based on the current economic situation of the country, any similar initiative could positively contribute to strengthening the economy of local community and as a result the country, offering several other socioeconomic benefits like e.g. waste minimization, creation of new job positions etc. by increasing, at the same time, the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) share in energy production sector etc. Apart from the favorable economics of the proposed waste to energy production scheme, all the additional environmental and social benefits make the attempt of a near future exploitation of the landfill gas produced in Heraklion, an attractive short term alternative for waste to bio-energy production

The corporatisation of local body entities: A study of financial performance

The New Zealand electricity industry provides us with a unique opportunity to examine how entities responded to major restructuring of the industry. This research studies the financial performance of three entities, each with a different ownership structure, over a 15 year period from 1988 to 2002. The aim is to examine the possible influence of ownership type and corporatisation on the development and financial performance of the entities by examining the changes that took place from the pre-corporatisation period to the post-corporatisation period and comparing and contrasting the performance and funding of the three entities over that time. In this way an assessment is made of the possible influence of ownership type on financial performance. This research can be framed to some extent by agency theory aspects of positive accounting theory. In addition legitimacy theory has been used to explain the behaviour of managers and the process of organizations adapting to a changing environment. Both theories acknowledge the interaction of organizations and their environment. The comparison shows that at the end of the study period the council owned company was the smallest, in terms of total assets, of the three companies examined (although it was similar in size to the biggest one at the outset). The council owned company also returned most capital to its shareholders and is the most conservatively financed one of the three with only 10% debt at the end of 2002 compared to 28% for the trust-held company and 87% for the listed company. The listed company ended up being the biggest and the one with the highest gearing, the highest ROA and the highest profit margin. The study concludes that ownership structure did have an influence on financial performance and level of debt funding

The appraisal of buildable land for property taxation in the adopted general municipal plan

In Italy, tax base for "Imposta Municipale Unica" related to the building area -made such by General Plan or its General Variation adopted but not approved - is the value (of the same building area) depending on the building potential of prediction even if not immediately exercisable. However, the building rights can be exercised only after: (i) the final approval of the General Plan/General Variation; (ii) the approval of the Implementation Plan required by Law; (iii) the issuance of certificates of permission building. This has produced in recent years several disputes between owners and local governments; the law did not give univocal solutions: today (2015) there is a conflict of case law relating to consider this areas absolutely as building areas, as well as it isn't defined what estimating procedures should be used. In this paper, through the application of a model of financial mathematics, an approach that overcomes the conflict law related to the appraisal of the building areas included inGeneral Plans/General Variation adopted but not yet approved, is proposed: the appraisal will be performed in relation to the time and variables between the time of the appraisal and the time (alleged) for the completion of the administrative procedure for obtaining authorizations to build

The impact of the founding body on financial performance of Polish hospitals

This article is devoted to assessing the impact of the hospital founding body on financial efficiency of the subordinated hospitals. The main aim of the study is to assess if there exist differences in financial performance of hospitals of different founding bodies in Poland. It will allow to evaluate the quality of financial management in hospitals of different founding bodies. In the analysis there are used typical financial ratios used for assessing financial performance. The study is subjected to selected types of hospital units from the region of Lodz. The conclusions from the article are that the founding body significantly affects financial performance of subordinated hospitals

Does it pay firms to register for taxes ? the impact of formality on firm profitability

This paper estimates the impact of registering for taxes on firm profits in Bolivia, the country with the highest levels of informality in Latin America. A new survey of micro and small firms enables the authors to control for a rich set of measures of owner ability and business motivations that can affect both profits and the decision to formalize. The paper identifies the impact of tax registration on business profitability using the distance of a firm from the tax office where registration occurs, conditional on the distance to the city center, as an instrument for registration. Proximity to the tax office provides firms with more information about registration, but is argued to not directly affect profits. The findings show that tax registration leads to significantly higher profits for the firms that the instrument affects. However, there is also evidence of heterogeneous effects of tax formality on profits. Tax registration is found to increase profits for the mid-size firms in the sample, but to lower profits for both the smaller and larger firms, in contrast to the standard view that formality increases profits. The analysis shows that owners of large firms who have managed to stay informal have higher entrepreneurial ability than formal firm owners, in contrast to the standard view (correct among smaller firms) that informal firm owners have low ability.Microfinance,Debt Markets,Transport Economics Policy&Planning,Taxation&Subsidies,E-Business

Thermo-economic assessment of a olive pomace gasifier for cogeneration applications

A thermo-economic analysis of a combined heat and power (CHP) plant fed by syngas produced through the gasification of dry olive pomace is presented. The plant is composed by a 800 kWtdowndraft gasifier, a gas clean-up system, a 200 kWemicroturbine (MGT) and a heat recovery system to cogenerate hot water. Surplus heat is used to dry olive pomace from 50% to 17% wb moisture content. The plant is modeled in ASPEN Plus. Real data from experimental tests are used to calibrate the gasifier model, while the technical specification and performance of the CHP plant are collected from commercial plants in operation and data from manufacturers. Mass and energy balances are reported throughout the paper. The thermodynamic simulation of the biomass gasifier coupled to the MGT, the thermal and electrical conversion efficiency and temperature of cogenerated heat available are also presented. A thermo-economic assessment is then proposed, to investigate the economic profitability of this small scale CHP plant in the Italian energy policy scenario and considering the subsidies available for renewable electricity in the form of feed-in tariffs. For this purpose, the case study of base load CHP plant operation and heat supplied to different typologies of energy end user is assumed. The results allow quantifying the most influencing economic and technical factors that affect the performance and profitability of such investment and the bottlenecks that should be faced to facilitate a broader implementation of such CHP schemes for on site generation

WoodCircus, Underpinning the vital role of the forest-based sector in the Circular Bioeconomy. D2.2 Resource Efficiency, Side Streams and Value Chain Analysis – WP2 Final Report

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