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on Accounting and Auditing |
| By: | Alan Krause |
| Abstract: | WThis paper addresses questions of the following nature: under what conditions does a welfare-improving reform of a nonlinear income tax system necessitate a change in a particular agent's marginal tax rate or total tax burden? Our analysis is therefore a study in tax reform, rather than in optimal taxation. We consider a simple model with three types of agents (high-skill, middle-skill, and low-skill) who have preferences that are quasi-linear in labour. Under these assumptions and using our methodology, specific characteristics of the initial suboptimal tax system can be determined when all welfare-improving tax reforms require specified changes in a particular agent's tax treatment. Some other necessary features of the tax reform can also be determined. Thus, unlike many tax reform analyses in the literature, we are able to reach a number of clear-cut conclusions. |
| Keywords: | tax reform; nonlinear income taxation. |
| JEL: | H21 H24 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:yor:yorken:12/03&r=acc |
| By: | Carlos A. Vegh; Guillermo Vuletin |
| Abstract: | It is well known by now that government spending has typically been procyclical in emerging economies but acyclical or countercyclical in industrial countries. Little, if any, is known, however, about the cyclical behavior of tax rates (as opposed to tax revenues, which are endogenous to the business cycle and hence cannot shed light on the cyclicality of tax policy). We build a novel dataset on tax rates for 62 countries for the period 1960-2009 that comprises corporate income, personal income, and value-added tax rates. We find that, by and large, tax policy is acyclical in industrial countries but procyclical in developing countries. We show that the evidence is consistent with a model of optimal fiscal policy under uncertainty. |
| JEL: | E32 E62 H20 |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:17753&r=acc |
| By: | Rafael Aigner (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn and University of Cologne) |
| Abstract: | This paper shows how the optimal level of Pigouvian taxation is influenced by distributive concerns. With second-best instruments, a higher level of income redistribution calls for a lower level of Pigouvian taxation. More redistributionimplies that tax collection via the income tax creates higher distortions, which in turn makes revenues from Pigouvian taxation more valuable. Contrary to naive intuition, this reduces the optimal level of Pigouvian taxation. The social planner trades off environmental tax revenues against the marginal social damage and accepts a lower tax if the welfare created per dollar is higher. The paper also shows that the relation between levels of redistribution and Pigouvian taxation is reversed in first-best. It thus highlights that second-best Pigouvian taxes are very different from their first-best counterpart – despite apparently identical first order conditions. |
| Keywords: | Optimal Income Taxation, Pigouvian taxation, comparative statics, externalities, second-best |
| JEL: | H21 D62 H23 |
| Date: | 2011–07 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpg:wpaper:2011_17&r=acc |
| By: | Jens Abildtrup (INRA, Laboratoire d´Economic Forestiere, Nancy, France); Frank Jensen (Institute of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen) |
| Abstract: | Within hunting, wildlife populations are estimated to be too high in many countries which is assumed to be due to the market failure, that each hunter harvests too little compared to what the regulator wants. This may be due to the existing regulation which, among other things, requires knowledge of the individual harvest. However, information about the individual harvest may be costly to obtain. Thus, we may have to look for alternatives to the existing system. This paper proposes a population tax/subsidy as an alternative which is the difference between the actual and optimal population multiplied by an individual, variable tax rate. The variable tax rate is, among other things, based on the difference in marginal value of the population between the hunter and the regulator. The paper shows that the population tax/subsidy secures a first-best optimum. Thus, the population tax is a good alternative to the existing regulation. |
| Date: | 2012–01 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:foi:wpaper:2012_2&r=acc |
| By: | Elena Barbu (CERAG - Centre d'études et de recherches appliquées à la gestion - CNRS : UMR5820 - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II); Pascal Dumontier (CERAG - Centre d'études et de recherches appliquées à la gestion - CNRS : UMR5820 - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II); Niculae Feleagă (The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies - The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies); Liliana Feleagă (The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies - The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates whether the adoption of a single set of accounting standards, such as IFRS, guarantees harmonization of accounting practices within a country and across countries, or whether differences in reporting practices persist because of dissimilarities in reporting habits and institutional settings. To this end, we investigate whether the level of environmental disclosure under IFRS is related to the size of the reporting firm, which has been shown to be a major determinant of voluntary environmental information, and the strength of legal and regulatory constraints on environmental disclosures in the country where the firm is domiciled. Results indicate that environmental disclosures imposed by IFRS increase with firm size, just like voluntary environmental disclosures. This suggests that application of IFRS is affected by the reporting practices that prevailed prior to IFRS adoption. Results also indicate that firms domiciled in countries with constraining environmental disclosure regulations (i.e. France and the UK) report more on environmental issues than do firms domiciled in countries with weakly constraining regulations (i.e. Germany). This suggests that national regulations strongly impact IFRS reporting. Taken as a whole, our results support the view that IFRS are not applied consistently across firms or across countries, notably because of persistence of reporting traditions and discrepancies in national legal requirements. |
| Keywords: | environmental disclosure; environmental accounting regulations; International Accounting Standards/International Financial Reporting Standards (IAS/IFRS); France; Germany; UK. |
| Date: | 2011 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-00658734&r=acc |
| By: | Monika Kubik-Kwiatkowska (Warsaw School of Economics) |
| Abstract: | The paper is associated with value relevance research, investigating whether information from financial reports is reflected in the value of listed companies. The study includes annual reports of 440 companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange in the years from 2000 to 2010. Models describing the relationship between information from financial reports and a measure of stock prices are based, in part, on a factor analysis. Validation of models on the test sample confirmed their effectiveness. The results show that the value relevance models may be one of the tools in building investment strategies.File-Format: Application/pdf |
| Keywords: | value relevance, company valuation, principal component analysis, capital markets |
| Date: | 2012–01–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:wse:wpaper:60&r=acc |
| By: | Elena Barbu (CERAG - Centre d'études et de recherches appliquées à la gestion - CNRS : UMR5820 - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II); Pascal Dumontier (CERAG - Centre d'études et de recherches appliquées à la gestion - CNRS : UMR5820 - Université Pierre Mendès-France - Grenoble II); Niculae Feleagă (The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies - The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies); Liliana Feleagă (The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies - The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies) |
| Abstract: | This study investigates whether the adoption of a single set of accounting standards, such as IFRS, guarantees harmonization of accounting practices within a country and across countries, or whether differences in reporting practices persist because of dissimilarities in reporting habits and institutional settings. To this end, we investigate whether the level of environmental disclosure under IFRS is related to the size of the reporting firm, which has been shown to be a major determinant of voluntary environmental information, and the strength of legal and regulatory constraints on environmental disclosures in the country where the firm is domiciled. Results indicate that environmental disclosures imposed by IFRS increase with firm size, just like voluntary environmental disclosures. This suggests that application of IFRS is affected by the reporting practices that prevailed prior to IFRS adoption. Results also indicate that firms domiciled in countries with constraining environmental disclosure regulations (i.e. France and the UK) report more on environmental issues than do firms domiciled in countries with weakly constraining regulations (i.e. Germany). This suggests that national regulations strongly impact IFRS reporting. Taken as a whole, our results support the view that IFRS are not applied consistently across firms or across countries, notably because of persistence of reporting traditions and discrepancies in national legal requirements. |
| Keywords: | environmental disclosure; environmental accounting;environmental regulation; IAS/IFRS |
| Date: | 2012–01–09 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00658409&r=acc |
| By: | Kai A. Konrad; Tim Lohse; Salmai Qari |
| Abstract: | This paper studies the role of beliefs about own performance or appearance for compliance at the customs. In an experiment in which underreporting has a higher expected payoff than truthful reporting we find: a large share, about 15-20 percent of the subjects, is more compliant if they have reason to imagine that their performance influences their subjective audit probability. In contrast, we do not find evidence for individuals who believe that by their personal performance they can reduce the subjective probability for an audit. Our results suggest that the power of imagination, i.e. the role of second-order beliefs in the process of customs declarations is important and may potentially be used to improve customs and tax compliance. |
| Keywords: | Customs, tax compliance, audit probability, second-order beliefs |
| JEL: | H26 H31 C91 |
| Date: | 2011–12 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mpi:wpaper:customs_compliance_and_the_power_of_imagination&r=acc |
| By: | Atanda, Akinwande AbdulMaliq; Idowu, Olufunmilola Fareedat |
| Abstract: | The ravaging global financial crises that have engulfed most developed nations and spread to emerging economies in the South and West poles of the globe have been found to emanate from United State unpaid housing mortgages. The crises have resulted to decline in consumer wealth, economic activities, foreclosures, decrease in aggregate demand and high lending defaults trigging different bail-out initiatives in most vulnerable nations. This paper evaluates the evolution of the crises, causes, effects, transmission channels and the contributions of the Accountants in the financial turbulence. On the basis of the critical assessment, proper policy outlooks were proffered like greater transparency, corporate governance, and strategic financial risk analysis, standard reporting and financial stability checks to be fostered and instituted by the international accounting standard board in order to facilitate effectiveness of the bail-out plans. |
| Keywords: | Global Financial Crises; Bail-Out; Accounting Standards; Mortgage Crisis; Financial burbles; Financial Stability |
| JEL: | F01 G01 |
| Date: | 2012 |
| URL: | http://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:35871&r=acc |