Vienna University of Economics and Business
Elektronische Publikationen der Wirtschaftsuniversität WienNot a member yet
4204 research outputs found
Sort by
Intimate Partner Violence under Forced Cohabitation and Economic Stress: Evidence from the COVID-19 Pandemic
Get PDFWith the COVID-19 outbreak imposing stay at home and social distancing policies, warnings about the impact of lockdown and its economic consequences on domestic violence have surged. This paper disentangles the effect of forced cohabitation and economic stress on intimate partner violence. Using an online survey data set, we find a 23% increase of intimate partner violence during the lockdown. Our results indicate that the impact of economic consequences is twice as large as the impact of lockdown. We also find large but statistically imprecise estimates of a large increase of domestic violence when the relative position of the man worsens, especially in contexts where that position was already being threatened. We view our results as consistent with the male backlash and emotional cue effects
The Basic Structure Doctrine and its German and French Origins - A Tale about Migration, Integration and the Waters of Forgetfulness
Get PDFOne fascinating aspect of the Indian basic-structure doctrine for a German lawyer is that its origin and development were influenced by the German scholar, Dietrich Conrad. This paper therefore focuses on Conrad’s work and his French and German sources for the argument that there are implied limits on the amending power. It describes the journey of this idea to India and specifies which parts of these prior theoretical works were lost in time and space, which survived, and which were developed further.Finally, there is acomparison between the justification for the basic-structure in the Kesavanada judgment and the earlier German and French theoretical works. The main thesis is that the Indian basic-structure doctrine is a powerful example of how to justify implied limits on constitutional amendment based on a rule-of-law approach that is firmly rooted in the idea of a democratic and constitutional state
No Country for Asylum Seekers? How Short-Term Exposure to Refugees Influences Attitudes and Voting Behavior in Hungary
Get PDFHow does exposure to refugees influence political behavior? We present evidence from Hungary, a country with widespread anti-immigration attitudes, that short term exposure during the 2015 refugee crisis predicts anti-refugee voting and sentiment. We code exposure to refugees at the settlement level using reports from state media, an independent online news site, and an online social media aggregator. Settlements through which refugees traveled showed significantly higher anti-refugee voting in a national referendum in 2016. The effect decreases sharply with distance. Using a difference-in-differences model, we find that the far-right opposition gained, while the governing right-wing party lost votes in these settlements in subsequent parliamentary elections. This suggests incumbents are punished by voters skeptical of immigration regardless of their policy position. Survey data supports this finding of a competition among right-wing parties, as individuals in exposed settlements are more fearful of immigrants and support restrictive policies only if they identify as right-wing
Perceptions of trust, power and tax compliance motivations among large businesses and their tax auditors
Get PDFThis study investigates psychological determinants of tax compliance, particularly the predictions of the Slippery Slope Framework (SSF; Kirchler et al., 2008), among large businesses and their tax auditors. The SSF predicts that trust in tax authorities determines voluntary tax compliance and that the perceived power of tax authorities to detect and penalize tax evasion determines enforced tax compliance. While the predictions of the SSF have consistently been found in studies focusing on individual taxpayers, few studies have tested the SSF in the context of large businesses or focused on tax auditors and their perceptions of businesses’ tax compliance. Nevertheless, trust-based approaches to tax collection have gained popularity, with cooperative tax auditing programs directly targeting large businesses. Using questionnaire data from 366 representatives of large businesses operating in Austria and 208 Austrian tax auditors, I conduct structural equation models testing the applicability of the SSF among these groups. In the group of businesses, the predictions of the SSF appear to hold. However, significant associations between trust and voluntary compliance and power and enforced compliance are mainly driven by the female subsample. Among tax auditors, there is no significant association between trust and voluntary compliance when power is introduced as a control variable. Overall, results suggest limited applicability of the SSF in a large business context and a stark mismatch between businesses’ and tax auditors’ perceptions on tax compliance. More research is needed to investigate the difference in results between female and male business representatives and non-economic determinants of tax compliance in a large business context.Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Serie
The Inital Effect of U.S. Tax Reform on Foreign Acquisitions
Get PDFThe Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) of 2017 marked a significant change in U.S. domestic and international
tax policy, altering incentives for U.S. firms to own foreign assets. We examine the initial response of U.S.
firms’ foreign acquisition patterns to the TCJA’s key reform provisions. We find a significant overall
decrease in the probability that a foreign target is acquired by a U.S. firm after the reform, suggesting that
the net effect of the TCJA was to reduce investment abroad. Cross-sectional variation across target and
acquirer characteristics points to the TCJA’s Global Intangible Low-Taxed Income (GILTI) regime and the
elimination of the repatriation tax as playing a critical role in influencing cross-border acquisitions by U.S.
firms. Specifically, U.S. acquirers with little foreign presence prior to the TCJA are more likely to acquire
a foreign target, while U.S. acquirers are less likely to acquire targets in low-tax countries. Results from
our empirical analyses are consistent with the TCJA prompting fewer but more value-enhancing, less tax-
motivated, foreign M&A deals by U.S. firms.Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Serie
Disease and demographic development: the legacy of the plague
Get PDFThis paper provides an empirical investigation of the hypothesis that population shocks such as the repeated outbreaks of the plague affected the timing of the demographic transition. The empirical analysis uses disaggregate data from Germany and exploits geographic variation in the exposure to medieval plague shocks. The findings document that areas with greater exposure to plague outbreaks exhibited an earlier onset of the demographic transition. The results are consistent with the predictions of the unified growth literature and provide novel insights into the largely unexplored empirical determinants of the timing of the transition from stagnation to growth
Direct social action beyond party politics. How new subjectivities change the idea of social transformation
Get PDFCurrently proliferating alternative action organizations, such as
food cooperatives, solidary agriculture, repair cafés, or DIY
initiatives, pursue social transformation at a deliberate distance
from party politics. Instead, they concentrate on changing society
directly by altering everyday routines and thereby prefiguring an
alternative society. Local and experimental movements promise
to pioneer social alternatives, which traditional organizations
appear to be unable to accomplish. This indicates a remarkable
shift, since in the past, social mobilizations often pursued direct
social action and party politics simultaneously. The current
literature conceptualizes movements and parties primarily as
cross-fertilizing allies or even potential hybrids (movement
parties) yet struggles to explain why alternative action
organizations in countries that have not experienced post-crisis
austerity measures have largely abandoned the parliamentary
arena. Addressing this gap, we compare contemporary
understandings of direct social action in Germany with past
understandings: that of the 1920s labour movement and the
1970s new social movements. Applying sociological theories of
modernization, we demonstrate that processes of
individualization and flexibilization have increased the demand
for immediate experiences of social change and decreased the
attractiveness of formal organization. Since this makes strategic
alliances between movements and political parties increasingly
unlikely, societies’ capacity to organize long-term social struggles
might be impaired
Reconceptualising Freedom in the 21st Century: Degrowth vs. Neoliberalism
Get PDFThe hegemonic role of neoliberal ideas in today’s political-economic thought and practice has
shaped the common way of thinking about freedom in Western society and more generally in the
international community. This involves a negative, individualistic and market-centred interpretation
of the concept. In contrast, visions of a degrowth society offer a radical alternative based on
Cornelius Castoriadis’ notion of autonomy. This paper outlines how this formulation of freedom can
be conceptualised relative to the predominant neoliberal theory. We present an overview and
contrast of both positions and then follow this up with an empirical study. More specifically, we
probe the extent to which the degrowth movement actually follows the Castoriadian theory of
freedom as opposed to the hegemonic neoliberal conception. Results are reported from a survey
conducted at the 2018 Degrowth Conference in Malmö, Sweden. While survey participants were
found to hold positions consistent with the Castoriadian theory, we also identify problematic and
under-conceptualised aspects in their understanding of freedom. This points to the need for the
degrowth movement to directly address its theoretical foundations, and elaborate on and
strengthen its vision of freedom compatible with a future degrowth society.Series: SRE - Discussion Paper
Sozialunternehmen im Integrationsbereich - Eine Analyse der Potentiale und Herausforderungen in der Arbeitsmarktintegration von Geflüchteten in Wien
Get PDFEvaluation of field visit planning heuristics during rapid needs assessment in an uncertain post-disaster environment
Get PDFA Rapid Needs Assessment process is carried out immediately after the onset of a disaster to investigate the disaster’s impact on affected communities, usually through field visits. Reviewing practical humanitarian guidelines reveals that there is a great need for decision support for field visit planning in order to utilize resources more efficiently at the time of great need. Furthermore,inpractice, there is a tendency to use simple methods, rather than advanced solution methodologies and software; this is due to the lack of available computational tools and resources on the ground, lack of experienced technical staff, and also the chaotic nature of the post-disaster environment. We present simple heuristic algorithms inspired by the general procedure explained in practical humanitarian guidelines for site selection and routing decisions of the assessment teams while planning and executing the field visits. By simple, we mean methods that can be implemented by practitioners in the field using primary resources such as a paper map of the area and accessible software (e.g., Microsoft Excel). We test the performance of proposed heuristic algorithms, within a simulation environment, which enables us to incorporate various uncertain aspects of the post-disaster environment in the field, ranging from travel time and community assessment time to accessibility of sites andavailability of community groups. We assess the performance of proposed heuristics based on real-world data from the 2011 Van earthquake in Turkey. Our results show that selecting sites based on an approximate knowledge of community groups’ existence leads to significantly better results than selecting sites randomly. In addition, updating initial routes while receiving more information also positively affects the performance of the field visit plan and leads to higher coverage of community groups than an alternative strategy where inaccessible sites and unavailable community groups are simply skipped and the initial plan is followed. Uncertainties in travel time and community assessment time adversely affect the community group coverage. In general, the performance of more sophisticated methods requiring more information deteriorates more than the performance of simple methods when the level of uncertainty increases