1,721,001 research outputs found
Confidence intervals for Kernel density estimation
Full text linkThis article describes asciker and bsciker, two programs that enrich
the possibility for density analysis using Stata. asciker and bsciker compute
asymptotic and bootstrap confidence intervals for kernel density estimation, respectively,
based on the theory of kernel density confidence intervals estimation
developed in Hall (1992b) and Horowitz (2001). asciker and bsciker allow several
options and are compatible with Stata 7 and Stata 8, using the appropriate
graphics engine under both version
Capital taxation, investment and growth : testing non-neutrality in the King-Fullerton framework
No full textDo you pay a fair price for electricity? : consumers' satisfaction and utility reform in the EU
No full textThe reform of network industries, privatisation and consumers’ welfare : evidence from the EU15
No full textIn the past two decades privatisation and liberalisation of network industries providing services of general economic interest (SGEI), have been particularly significant in the European Union. Wide variations around a common policy trend can, however, be observed across countries and sectors. We focus on electricity, gas and telecoms sectors and study the welfare effects of reforms on users using both subjective data on consumers' perception of utility prices and data on average prices paid.Our empirical findings for EU15 in the three industries we consider, are mixed. Privatisation per se consistently leads to higher consumer prices. There are, however, beneficial effects of market opening reforms, but often smaller and more uncertain than we would have expected. In terms of perceptions, consumers are happier with the price they pay under public ownership while the evidence is mixed for the other reforms. Thus, objective and subjective evidence are broadly mutually consistent, as far as privatisation is concerned. These findings are entirely new and tend to reject the earlier, more optimistic views by the European Commission on the outcomes of the reform
Shadow wages for the EU regions
No full textAccording to cost-benefit analysis theory, the shadow wage rate (SWR) is the social opportunity cost of labour. After reviewing earlier theoretical and empirical literature, we define the SWR under four labour market conditions: fairly socially efficient (FSE), quasi-Keynesian unemployment (QKU), urban labour dualism (ULD) and rural labour dualism (RLD). We offer, for the first time, a short-cut empirical estimation of the shadow wages for the European Union (EU) at the regional (NUTS2) level. Our estimated values are in the form of conversion factors, i.e. coefficients that translate actual observed real wages into shadow wages, as required by the evaluation of public investment projects under the Structural Funds of the EU. Our results are obtained with an empirical strategy that is easy to implement with aggregate regional data, differently from traditional micro-data-based approaches to the estimation of the SWR, which are costly, project specific and often difficult to apply because of lack of information
Tax evasion in Italy : an analysis using a tax-benefit microsimulation Model
No full textIn this paper, the authors use a direct method to estimate tax evasion in Italy assuming that tax evaders might consider declaring a closer-to-true income in an anonymous interview. The methodology is applied to work income only, as pension income cannot be hidden to tax authorities and capital income is measured with large error in available survey data sets. The data sets considered are the 1998 and 2000 Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) by the Bank of Italy and the 1998 and 2000 tax forms table produced by Servizio Consultivo ed Ispettivo Tributario (SeCIT). Posing particular attention to the post-stratification of the data, the authors find that tax evasion is consistently higher for self-employment income than for employment income and it is larger at bottom deciles, although some under-sampling problems need to be considered. The pattern of work income concealment found, shows that personal income tax evasion reduces the average tax rate but it also increases the progressivity of the tax system. This result is, however, driven by the large values of income avoidance found in bottom deciles, which might be due to the under-sampling of income receivers with the poorest income. The results are consistent across the two years considere
The electricity industry reform paradigm in the European Union : testing the impact on consumers
No full textEuropean consumers’ attitudes on services of general interest : accessibility, price and quality
No full textThe research question addressed by this paper is a simple one: are European consumers happy with the services provided by the utilities after two decades of reforms? We focus on electricity, gas, water, telephone in the EU 15 Member States. The variables we analyse are consumers’ satisfaction with accessibility, price, and quality, as reported in three waves of Eurobarometer survey, 2000-2002-2004 , comprising around 47,000 observations. We use ordered logit models to analyze the impact of privatization and regulatory reforms, controlling for individual and country characteristics. Our results do not support a systematic association between consumers’ satisfaction and the standard reform package of privatization, vertical disintegration, liberalizatio
Identification of labour tax reforms in Europe
No full textIn this paper we present the catalogue of reforms of labour taxation carried out in the EU produced in the project “The role and impact of labour taxation policies”. This catalogue was built following European Commission LABREF database, which was considerably extended, increasing the period and the number of countries covered and the number of indicators provided. Using this catalogue, we are able to identify the reforms in the field of labour taxation and the financing of social security for the period 1990-2008 and to regroup and categorize the identified reforms
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