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on Accounting and Auditing |
|
Issue of 2018‒01‒15
seven papers chosen by |
| By: | Thomas A. Gresik; Kai A. Konrad |
| Abstract: | Tax havens differ in the specific tax planning arrangements multinational firms can use to reduce their tax liabilities. Given the complexity and cost associated with identifying the most effective tax haven to use, an accounting firm can act as an intermediary between tax havens and multinational corporations. We analyze a model with horizontally differentiated multinationals and tax havens to study the role accounting firm intermediation has on tax haven prices, multinational tax planning choices, accounting firm profits, and tax revenues. In equilibrium, uniform accounting firm fees generate higher accounting firm profit, less tax avoidance, and higher tax revenues than either full price discrimination or haven-specific fees. |
| Keywords: | tax haven, accounting firm, horizontal differentiation, double marginalization, fee-setting rules |
| JEL: | M41 H26 H73 |
| Date: | 2017 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_6774&r=acc |
| By: | Claessens, Stijn; Kose, Ayhan |
| Abstract: | This paper surveys the literature on the linkages between asset prices and macroeconomic outcomes. It focuses on three major questions. First, what are the basic theoretical linkages between asset prices and macroeconomic outcomes? Second, what is the empirical evidence supporting these linkages? And third, what are the main challenges to the theoretical and empirical findings? The survey addresses these questions in the context of four major asset price categories: equity prices, house prices, exchange rates and interest rates, with a particular focus on their international dimensions. It also puts into perspective the evolution of the literature on the determinants of asset prices and their linkages with macroeconomic outcomes, and discusses possible future research directions. |
| Keywords: | asset prices; equity prices; frictions; imperfections; macro-financial linkages; real-financial linkages |
| JEL: | D53 E21 E32 E44 E51 F36 F44 G01 G10 G12 G14 G15 G21 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12460&r=acc |
| By: | Acemoglu, Daron; Akcigit, Ufuk; Alp, Harun; Bloom, Nicholas; Kerr, William R. |
| Abstract: | We build a model of firm-level innovation, productivity growth and reallocation featuring endogenous entry and exit. A new and central economic force is the selection between high- and low-type firms, which differ in terms of their innovative capacity. We estimate the parameters of the model using US Census micro data on firm-level output, R&D and patenting. The model provides a good fit to the dynamics of firm entry and exit, output and R&D. Taxing the continued operation of incumbents can lead to sizable gains (of the order of 1.4% improvement in welfare) by encouraging exit of less productive firms and freeing up skilled labor to be used for R&D by high-type incumbents. Subsidies to the R&D of incumbents do not achieve this objective because they encourage the survival and expansion of low-type firms. |
| Keywords: | Entry; growth; industrial policy; Innovation; R&D; reallocation; selection |
| JEL: | E2 L1 O31 O32 O33 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12449&r=acc |
| By: | Aghion, Philippe; Akcigit, Ufuk; Lequien, Matthieu; Stantcheva, Stefanie |
| Abstract: | We study how strongly individuals respond to tax simplicity and how they learn about the complexities of the tax system. We focus on the self-employed, who can more easily adjust to tax incentives and whose responses directly stem from their own understanding of the tax system. We use new French tax returns data from 1994 to 2012. France serves as a good quasi-laboratory: it has three fiscal regimes -- or modes of taxation-- for the self-employed, which differ in their monetary tax incentives and in their tax simplicity. Two key features are that, first, these regimes are subject to eligibility thresholds; we find large excess masses (bunching) right below the latter. Second, the regimes impact different agents heterogeneously and have changed extensively over time. Taken together, these two key elements give us measures of tax responses (the bunching) as well as the variation needed to jointly estimate a value of tax simplicity and taxable income elasticities. They also give us an opportunity to study how individuals learn about and respond over time to changing policy parameters. We estimate a large value for tax simplicity of up to 650 euros per year per individual depending on the regime and activity. We also find sizable costs of tax complexity; agents are not immediately able to understand what the right regime choice is, leave significant money on the table, and learn over time. The cost of complexity is ``regressive'' in that it affects mostly the uneducated, low income, and low skill agents. Agents who can be viewed as more informed and knowledgable (e.g., the more educated or high-skilled) are more likely to make the correct regime choice and to learn faster. |
| Keywords: | Complexity; entrepreneurship; learning; Self-employment; taxation |
| JEL: | H21 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:12471&r=acc |
| By: | Tandon, Suranjali (National Institute of Public Finance and Policy); Rao, R. Kavita (National Institute of Public Finance and Policy) |
| Abstract: | The study presents an analysis of results of a laboratory experiment, conducted in 2015 to assess compliance behaviour in India. The experiment evaluates responses of 133 participants, to changes in key policy instruments like tax rate, penalty rate and audit probability. We find that changes in policy parameters generate varied responses across taxpayers. Audit probability is the only policy instrument that generates relatively consistent response. Further, the results show that individuals can be divided into those who respond to change in audit probability and those who respond to other policy variables, suggesting that no single policy would be adequate to induce suitable behavioural changes in all taxpayers. |
| Keywords: | tax compliance ; laboratory experiment ; audit probability ; tax rate ; penalty ; exemption threshold ; stigma |
| JEL: | H26 H3 C91 |
| Date: | 2017–11 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:npf:wpaper:17/207&r=acc |
| By: | Ayoki, Milton |
| Abstract: | This paper reviews studies that attempt to measure empirically, revenue gains from tax harmonisation. Three groups of studies emerge, those that use cross-country regression, partial equilibrium analysis, and applied general-equilibrium (CGE) models—they all suggest (explicitly or implicitly) that the relationship between tax rates and tax revenues is ambiguous. In some special circumstances, there are gains that can be realized from tax harmonization, but those gains are usually modest in scope. Tax harmonization tends to disadvantage certain countries especially when the participating countries are different in size, and disparities in their initial tax structures are wide. |
| Keywords: | Policy Coordination, Tax Harmonisation, Tax Revenue, Computable General Equilibrium Models, Social Accounting Matrix. |
| JEL: | C18 C68 D78 F13 F15 H20 H23 H87 |
| Date: | 2017–12–31 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:83548&r=acc |
| By: | José-Miguel Lana-Berasain |
| Abstract: | This paper offers some evidences about the circulation of capital between Venezuela and Spain at the end of the eighteenth century through the case study of the Spanish merchant Esteban González de Linares (1751-1802). Our sources are private nature: an accounting book and some letters of Esteban González de Linares with Francisco de Gibaja, shipowner and merchant in Santander, and other people (335 letters). These documents show a wide variety of channels to the transfer of capitals from the colony to the metropolis, both at large operations and small deliveries. González de Linares became, during his stay in Caracas (1785-1791), an important agent in the transfer of savings from the colony. The scarcity of silver and gold in Venezuela during this period justifies that the transfer of capital did promote the export of groceries (cocoa, indigo) and the development of financial markets (orders and bills of exchange). |
| Keywords: | commercial business, bill of exchange, cocoa, indigo, capital transfer |
| JEL: | N26 N36 N56 N86 |
| Date: | 2018–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:seh:wpaper:1801&r=acc |