Vienna University of Economics and Business
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Withholding Tax Rates on Dividends: Symmetries vs. Asymmetries in Double Tax Treaties
Get PDFOut of all double tax treaties (DTTs) in force in 2012, around 41% are symmetric and 59% are asymmetric, i.e., they prescribe different dividend withholding tax rates (WTRs) depending on the foreign investor’s ownership fraction. The paper investigates the reasons for this phenomenon, namely why some countries in their DTTs prefer homogenous withholding tax rates over separate rates for participation and portfolio dividends. In a theoretical model, I demonstrate why home countries may have an interest in a high withholding tax rate in the host country, even though they do not receive the revenue from this tax. Further, I find confirming evidence that a reason for having asymmetric withholding tax rates on dividends is an existing spatial dependence on the rates of the countries’ peers that may be a driving factor for setting asymmetric rates. Finally, I confirm that the spread itself (i.e., the difference between the portfolio and participation dividends negotiated in the tax treaty) is also affected by the peer countries.Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Serie
Cross-cultural adaptation and construct validity of the German version of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit for service users (German ASCOT)
Get PDFBackground: There has been considerable interest in using the Adult Social Care Outcomes Toolkit (ASCOT), developed in England, to measure quality-of-life outcomes of long-term care (LTC-QoL) service provision in national and cross-national studies.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to translate and culturally adapt the original ASCOT service user measure into German and to evaluate its content and construct validity in Austrian home care service users.
Methods: The translation and cultural adaptation process followed the ISPOR TCA guidelines. We used qualitative data from six cognitive debriefing interviews with Austrian recipients of home care services to assess linguistic and content validity. In addition, cross-sectional survey data (n = 633) were used to evaluate
construct validity by testing hypothesized associations established in a previous study for the original English ASCOT service user instrument.
Results: Cognitive debriefing interviews confirmed that the German adaptation of the ASCOT service user instrument was understood as intended, although two domains ("Control over daily life" and "Dignity") and selected phrases of the response options were challenging to translate into German. All ASCOT domains were statistically significantly associated with related constructs and sensitive to service user sub-group differences.
Conclusions: We found good evidence for a valid cross-cultural adaptation of the German version of ASCOT for service users. The analysis also supports the construct validity of the translated instrument and its use in evaluations of QoL-effects of LTC service provision in German-speaking countries. Further research on the reliability and feasibility in different care settings is encouraged
Tax Misperception and Its Effects on Decision Making – a Literature Review
Get PDFPrevious accounting research shows that taxes affect decision making by individuals and firms. Most studies assume that agents have accurate perception regarding their tax burden. However, there is a growing body of literature analyzing whether taxes are indeed perceived correctly. We review 124 studies on the measurement of tax misperception and its behavioral implications. The review reveals that many taxpayers have substantial tax misperceptions that lead to biased decision making. We develop a Behavioral Taxpayer Response Model on the impact of provided tax information on tax perception. Besides individual traits, characteristics of the tax information and the decision environment determine the extent of tax misperception. We discuss opportunities for future research and methodological limitations. While there is much evidence on tax misperception at the individual level, we hardly find any research at the firm level. Little is known about the real effects of managers’ tax misperception and on how tax information is strategically managed to impact stakeholders. This research gap is surprising as a large part of the accounting literature analyzes decision making and disclosure of firms. We recommend a mixed-method approach combining experiments, surveys, and archival data analyses to improve the knowledge on tax misperception and its consequences.Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Serie
The folly of forecasting: The effects of a disaggregated demand forecasting system on forecast error, forecast positive bias, and inventory levels
Get PDFPeriodic demand forecasts are the primary planning and coordination mechanism within
organizations. Because most demand forecasts incorporate human judgment, they are subject
to both unintentional error and intentional opportunistic bias. We examine whether a
disaggregation of the forecast into various sources of demand reduces forecast error and bias.
Using proprietary data from a manufacturing organization, we find that absolute demand
forecast error declines following the implementation of a disaggregated forecast system. We
also find a favorable effect of forecast disaggregation on finished goods inventory without a
corresponding increase in costly production plan changes. We further document a decline in
positive forecast bias, except for products whose production is limited owing to scarce
production resources. This implies that disaggregation alone is not sufficient to overcome
heightened incentives of self-interested sales managers to positively bias the forecast for the
very products that an organization would like to avoid tying up in inventory.Series: Department of Strategy and Innovation Working Paper Serie
Gender Quotas on Corporate Boards: Similarities and Differences in Quota Scenarios
Get PDFIn this article, the use of gender quotas to strengthen gender equality on corporate boards is explored. Examining
national practices in ten European countries we provide an overview, categorizing the design of various corporate
board quotas (CBQs) and the contexts in which they are embedded. In particular, similarities and differences along
two dimensions are investigated: the design of the CBQs in terms of their hardness and progressiveness, and the
institutional context in which they are embedded. From patterns of design and context configurations, different quota scenarios are discerned. We advance the discussion of female representation and the strategies of corporate boards
beyond the rather misleading dichotomy of voluntary targets versus mandatory quotas, proposing a framework for
understanding various CBQ designs. Moreover, we suggest that the configuration of design and institutional context,
resulting in different quota scenarios affects female representation on corporate boards
Methods for Classifying Nonprofit Organizations According to their Field of Activity: A Report on Semi-automated Methods Based on Text
Get PDFThere are various methods for classifying nonprofit organizations (NPOs) according to their field of activity. We report our experiences using two semi-automated methods based on textual data: rule-based classification and machine learning with curated keywords. We use those methods to classify Austrian nonprofit organizations based on the International Classification of Nonprofit Organizations. Those methods can provide a solution to the widespread research problem that quantitative data on the activities of NPOs are needed but not readily available from administrative data, long high-quality texts describing NPOs' activities are mostly unavailable, and human labor resources are limited. We find that in such a setting, rule-based classification performs about as well as manual human coding in terms of precision and sensitivity, while being much more labor-saving. Hence, we share our insights on how to efficiently implement such a rule-based approach. To address scholars with a background in data analytics as well as those without, we provide non-technical explanations and open-source sample code that is free to use and adapt
Talkin' Bout Cooperation
Get PDFWe experimentally study the interaction of the effects of the strategic environment and com-
munication on the observed levels of cooperation in two-person finitely repeated games with a
Pareto-inefficient Nash equilibrium. We replicate previous findings that point to higher levels of
tacit cooperation under strategic complementarity compared to strategic substitution. In our data,
however, this is not due to differences in levels of reciprocity as suggested previously. Instead,
we find that slow learning and noisy choices might drive this effect. When subjects are allowed to
communicate in free-form online chat before making choices, cooperation levels increase
significantly to the extent that the difference in the two strategic environments dis- appears. A
machine-assisted natural language processing approach shows how the content of
communication differs in the two strategic environments.Series: Department of Strategy and Innovation Working Paper Serie
The impact of powerful authorities and trustful tax payers: Evidence for the extended slippery slope framework from Austria, Finland and Hungary
Get PDFTax authorities utilize a wide range of instruments to motivate
honest taxpaying ranging from strict audits to fair procedures or
personalized support, differing from country to country. However,
little is known about how these different instruments and
taxpayers' trust influence the generation of interaction climates
between tax authorities and taxpayers, motivations to comply,
and particularly, tax compliance. The present research examines
the extended slippery slope framework (eSSF), which distinguishes
tax authorities' instruments into different qualities of power of
authority (coercive and legitimate) and trust in authorities (reasonbased
and implicit), to shed light on the effect of differences
between power and trust. We test eSSF assumptions with survey
data from taxpayers from three culturally different countries (N =
700) who also vary concerning their perceptions of power, trust,
interaction climates, and tax motivations. Results support
assumptions of the eSSF. Across all countries, the relation of
coercive power and tax compliance was mediated by implicit
trust, which leads to an antagonistic climate and enforced
motivation. The connection from legitimate power to tax
compliance is partially mediated by reason-based trust. The
relationship between implicit trust and tax compliance is
mediated by a confidence climate and committed cooperation.
Theoretical and practical implications are discussed
Inefficiencies in a healthcare system with a regulatory split of power: a spatial panel data analysis of avoidable hospitalisations in Austria
Get PDFDespite generous universal social health insurance with little formal restrictions of outpatient utilisation, Austria exhibits high
rates of avoidable hospitalisations, which indicate the inefficient provision of primary healthcare and might be a consequence
of the strict regulatory split between the Austrian inpatient and outpatient sector. This paper exploits the considerable regional
variations in acute and chronic avoidable hospitalisations in Austria to investigate whether those inefficiencies in primary
care are rather related to regional healthcare supply or to population characteristics. To explicitly account for inter-regional
dependencies, spatial panel data methods are applied to a comprehensive administrative dataset of all hospitalisations from
2008 to 2013 in the 117 Austrian districts. The initial selection of relevant covariates is based on Bayesian model averaging.
The results of the analysis show that supply-side variables, such as the number of general practitioners, are significantly
associated with decreased chronic and acute avoidable hospitalisations, whereas characteristics of the regional population,
such as the share of population with university education or long-term unemployed, are less relevant. Furthermore, the spatial
error term indicates that there are significant spatial dependencies between unobserved characteristics, such as practice style
or patients' utilization behaviour. Not accounting for those would result in omitted variable bias