72 research outputs found
Equity in unequal deductions : implications of income tax rules in Ghana and Nigeria
No full textIn many African countries, the amount of personal deduction for income tax purposes increases with the taxpayer's income. At first glance, this appears to give larger tax breaks to the rich than to the poor. On closer examination, this notion turns out to be false. As this paper shows, each tax system with"income dependent tax deductions"(IDTDs) is fully equivalent to a particular conventional progressive tax system with standard deductions. One implication for comparative tax research is that the tax schedule of a country that uses IDTDs should not be compared directly with a conventional tax schedule in another country. Existing cross-country work on tax deductions and marginal tax rates generally fails to recognize that IDTDs invalidate a straightforward comparison. To make the two systems comparable, a transformation like the one suggested in this paper is needed.Public Sector Economics&Finance,Environmental Economics&Policies,Tax Policy and Administration,Taxation&Subsidies,Governance Indicators
Credit rationing, tenancy, productivity, and the dynamics of inequality
No full textWhy, when given the same resources, might productivity be lower on farms operated through sharecropping than on owner-run farms? The reason is that sharecropping, much less wage contracts, cannot overcome the divergence of interests between those who till the land and those who own it. Only land redistribution can do that. This paper presents notes toward a general equilibrium theory of land tenancy that suggest how changes in technology and publicly provided infrastructure can affect the equilibrium distribution of land in countries where credit is rationed. When credit to famers is rationed, changes in technology can increase the inequality in landholdings - with a long term increase in share tenancy. This is turn might reduce productivity, at least partially offsetting the initial improvements. The paper suggests that the development of effective rural financial institutions would reduce the likelihood of these negative effects on equality and productivity. It further cautions though that past attempts in creating such institutions have failed because of a lack of accountability and of enforcement procedures.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Growth,Municipal Financial Management
Changing patterns in vocational education
No full textOne of the long standing issues in education development has been productive job training in rapidly changing economies. The argument has been made that vocational secondary schools are not well equipped for this task. Although vocational and academic schooling often result in similar levels of education and employment, the higher costs of the vocational schooling makes it a less attractive alternative. In the past 23 years of Bank lending for vocational education and training, there has been a clear shift away from vocational secondary schools toward various forms of training, outside the formal education system. Although investment has been shifting into nonformal training, secondary education is in need of new directions. Diversified secondary schools have not provided that direction, leaving questions about how secondary schools might meet social objectives cost effectively.Tertiary Education,Teaching and Learning,Gender and Education,Primary Education,Curriculum&Instruction
Decollectivization and the agricultural transition in Eastern and Central Europe
No full textThe agricultural transition is an essential part of stabilization and adjustment in Eastern and Central Europe because agricultural sectors are large and food is important. The supply response that many within and outside the region expected to emerge early and expeditiously is complicated by the removal of consumer subsidies and constrained export demand. In an atmosphere of acute economic uncertainty and declining farm incomes, the distribution of agricultural land is proceeding. The author traces the liberalization of food prices and the distribution of agricultural land to date. The essence of the agricultural transition is the state's withdrawal from its traditional role as residual claimant of rents forthe use of agricultural resources. This role will pass in stages to owners of land. The author concludes that an agricultural transition when demand is constrained is more difficult to manage than one in which the fruits of institutional change and productivity growth find ready outlets. Moreover, although price movements are not yet clear, it appears that removing subsidies on feed, credit, fertilizer, machinery, and energy will move the terms of trade against agriculture - particularly against the large livestock sector. The need to increase productivity will thus be even greater than in the past. Any progress on the demand side will thus give a major impetus to the institutional changes needed on the supply side.Access to Markets,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Economic Theory&Research,Markets and Market Access
Agriculture and the transition to the market
No full textAgricultural sectors in Eastern and Central Europe are large so that changes in producer prices, farm employment, and land ownership affect substantial numbers of people. In the past, food in the region was politicized. For decades, governments of Eastern European countries and the USSR offered their citizens stable, subsidized food prices and a steadily improving diet in an effort to demonstrate the superiority of communism over capitalism. During the transition, the context has changed, but food remains politicized. Many consumers in the region are ill-prepared to pay the real costs of food, which are quite high. The task of reducing those costs will be difficult, involving restructuring of farms and fostering competition in processing and distribution. Management of the agricultural transition will affect the political sustainability of the process and influence agriculture's contribution to the growth of emerging market economies. Although the agricultural sector of Eastern and Central Europe is large, Soviet agriculture dwarfs it in its impact on the region and the world. A positive program to stop the decline in Soviet agriculture could contribute to economic growth and political stability. Failure to remedy the fundamental flaws in Soviet agriculture will speed the country's slide into poverty and ethnic turmoil - and undermine the efforts of Central and Eastern Europeans to succeed.Access to Markets,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems,Markets and Market Access
Differentiating cyclical and long-term income elasticities of import demand
No full textDetermining how imports react to cyclical and secular (long term) factors has been a recurrent theme in the empirical trade literature. The evidence suggests that cyclical income elasticities of import demand are generally higher than long term elasticities - particularly for basic materials and semi-manufactured goods. Traditional models generally underestimate the cyclical response in imports, and overestimate the long term response. For example, estimates of income elasticity using a traditional import model average 1.4 and 1.2 respectively. The authors'model suggests a cyclical elasticity averaging 2.6. This result suggests that the two elasticities may differ by an even larger factor for developing countries. Relative prices generally are more important in determining import demand in Latin America and Asian-Pacific countries, in this model, but seem to have little effect in the African and (surprisingly) Mediterranean countries. In countries for which both cyclical and long-term income elasticities are significantly different from zero, relative price coefficients are also significantly different than in countries for which income parameters are not significantly different from zero.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Inequality,Economic Conditions and Volatility,Achieving Shared Growth
Rural credit in developing countries
No full textSubsidized formal credit to the agricultural sector has been advocated as more efficient, equitable, and easier to implement than, say, land reform. But the record on subsidized credit to farmers is dismal. It shows a significant failure either to achieve an increase of agricultural output cost-effectively or to improve rural income distribution and alleviate poverty. Many of the financial institutions have proven to be inept and to lack accountability. Common features of the success stories are tougher stands on default; strict auditing and accounting procedures and financial control; and some form of joint responsibility or liability by small groups of farmers, whereby default by one member cancels future loans to the whole group.Banks&Banking Reform,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Financial Intermediation,Insurance&Risk Mitigation
Structural changes in metals consumption
No full textFor 15 years the metals market has been characterized by slow growth - in some cases, even decline - in consumption. To test the proposition that structural changes in demand were the main cause of the slowdown, the author - drawing on U.S. data - uses an extended metals demand model that recognizes energy, labor, capital, and other materials as major inputs. The traditional model explains metals consumption in terms only of output and the prices of metal and its substitutes. It is inadequate to address the issue of structural change because it ignores other factors of production, such as energy, which have experienced dramatic changes. With the extended model, the null hypothesis of no structural change cannot be rejected for most metals. With the conventional model, the null hypothesis of no structural change is strongly rejected. Results with the extended model show that the downturn can be explained mostly by changes in the input variables, particularly such nonmetal inputs as capital and energy, which are much more important cost items than metals and have undergone drastic cost changes over the period.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Montreal Protocol,Mining&Extractive Industry (Non-Energy),Primary Metals
Regional integration and conflict resolution in southern Africa
No full textBoston University. University Professors Program Senior theses.PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at [email protected]. Thank you.2999-01-0
Efficient debt reduction
No full textIt is now widely acknowledged that under certain circumstances debt reduction can improve the welfare of both creditors and debtors. Meaningful debt reduction requires an appropriate institutional setting to overcome collective action problems. In the domestic economy, bankruptcy laws provide the framework for organizing the collective interests of the creditors when a debtor is distressed. No such institutional framework exists in the international setting. This paper recommends"concerted debt restructuring,"based on below market interest rates, rather than"voluntary"debt reduction. With concerted relief, all banks would participate jointly on a fairly equal basis. The existing debt would be rescheduled, with the rates based on various indicators of ability to pay. The interest payments could be made more secure by various forms of credit enhancement. This kind of interest rate reduction could be easily managed in the context of an international debt facility. Whatever the approch, meaningful debt reduction will require the active participation of the international community.Strategic Debt Management,Banks&Banking Reform,Financial Intermediation,Housing Finance,Economic Theory&Research
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