The aim of this thesis is to analyse the system of tax sharing and grants in terms of interregional redistribution. Review of literature is divided into two parts. The first one relates to fiscal decentralization, fiscal imbalance (which arises as a result of decentralization), and fiscal need. The second part deals with the technical characteristics of shared taxes and subsidies in the Czech Republic. Based on established methodological procedures were carried out analysis of both systems. It was found out that into the budgets of local governments are redistributed funds which do not come from their territory. The result of analysis is the finding that both systems are based on the interregional redistribution. Last part of this thesis focuses on a brief analysis of the planned amendment.

Alterações na legislação tributária sempre motivaram profundas discussões políticas e acadêmicas. Isso ocorre pois mudanças dessa natureza promovem a realocação dos fatores de produção, alterando a produção de setores e regiões, e, consequentemente, da receita arrecadada pelos governos. Essa última, por sua vez, é alterada por duas motivações: as variações das alíquotas e as da própria base tributária. O sistema tributário brasileiro, ao longo do tempo, passou por constantes reformulações buscando torná-lo mais moderno e adequado às condições econômicas e políticas vigentes. Entretanto, atualmente, diferentemente do que ocorreu no passado, não é mais possível prover reformas tributárias lastreadas no aumento da carga, uma vez que essa já assume patamares incompatíveis com o grau de desenvolvimento do País. Nesse cenário, apresenta-se a PEC nº 233/08, a mais recente proposta de reforma tributária que, buscando manter inalterada a carga tributária no patamar atual, propõe, entre outras mudanças, modificações relevantes na legislação do ICMS. Esse projeto de emenda constitucional propõe a harmonização da legislação do ICMS e a preservação do sistema misto de apropriação do imposto entre origem e destino, aumentando significativamente, porém, a apropriação pelo destino. Dada a necessidade de uma abordagem empírica para as discussões, essa tese, com o objetivo de estimar os impactos decorrentes dessa proposta de reforma, utilizou um modelo de equilíbrio geral computável inter-regional denominado BMARIA- RS-TAX (ano-base 2004), que investigou as relações econômicas entre o Rio Grande do Sul e o Restante do Brasil. Para tanto, dois experimentos são implementados. O primeiro trata especificamente de uma reestruturação tributária para o Rio Grande do Sul em que um desconto de ICMS relativo a 1% da arrecadação total em um produto é financiado via aumento da alíquota efetiva dos demais. O experimento mostrou que mudanças na matriz tributária gaúcha não se mostram nem economicamente nem fiscalmente neutras, tanto no curto quanto no longo prazo. Esse tipo de simulação é fundamental para determinar o posicionamento do Estado no caso das rodadas de discussão no Confaz quanto à alocação dos produtos nas faixas de alíquotas pré-definidas pelo Senado, pois evidencia os efeitos de aumentar a alíquota em um determinado setor e reduzir em outro. O segundo experimento aplica a proposta da PEC nº 233/08, assumindo que a harmonização se dará através da assimilação da alíquota efetiva média vigente no País em ambas as regiões analisadas. Os resultados mostraram que a harmonização leva a um aumento relevante da alíquota efetiva média no Rio Grande do Sul, com impactos negativos sobre o PIB e o emprego, porém com aumento significativo da arrecadação (com resultados opostos no Restante do Brasil). No entanto, esse resultado em termos de receita do Estado tem seu efeito diminuído em virtude da mudança do regramento do regime de apropriação do ICMS. Ainda assim, mesmo que potencialmente menor, o resultado revela, no caso do Rio Grande do Sul, um incremento na arrecadação em comparação com a arrecadação corrente. No entanto, é provável que isso não se materialize integralmente em ganhos de caixa para o Estado, dado que a reforma prevê mecanismos de compensação entre “ganhadores” e “perdedores” com a reforma. A temporalidade e os próprios mecanismos da reforma não atentam para questões econômicas, mas apenas fiscais. Os resultados da análise de equilíbrio geral computável mostram que, para o Rio Grande de Sul, a reforma pode gerar efeitos perversos sobre a atividade econômica e sobre as finanças públicas se os mecanismos de compensação de receita exaurirem o potencial ganho fiscal identificado para o Rio Grande do Sul. Neste caso, o Rio Grande do Sul perderia duplamente no processo de reforma. / Changes in the tributary legislation have always brought deep discussions into politics and the academic field. This happens because changes in this matter promote the reallocation of production factors, altering the production of sectors and regions and, thus, the production of revenues collected by the governments. The latter, therefore, altered by two reasons: the variations of the tax rate and the ones of the tributary bases themselves. The Brazilian tributary system, along the years, has gone through constant reformulations trying to become more modern and adequate to the current economic and political conditions. However, nowadays, different from what had occurred in the past, it is not possible to provide reforms based on tax load, since it has already reached incompatible standards compared with the country’s development level. In this scenario, it is presented the PEC 233/08, the most recent proposal of tributary reform that tries to keep unchanged the current tax load level; it proposes, among other changes, relevant modifications in the ICMS (Value Added Tax – VAT) legislation. This project of constitutional amendment proposes a harmonic legislation of ICMS and the preservation of mixed system of appropriation of taxes between the origin and the destination, increasing significantly, however, the appropriation of the destination. As it is needed an empiric approach for discussions, this thesis, which had the objective to estimate the impact derived from this proposal of reform, used a interregional computable general equilibrium (ICGE) model named BMARIA-RS-TAX, (database 2004), that investigated the economic relations between Rio Grande do Sul and the rest of Brazil. In order to carry out this research two experiments are implemented. The first deals specifically with tributary restructuring for Rio Grande do Sul, in which 1% discount in the ICMS total revenue of one product is financed by the effective increase on other products tax rates. The experiment showed that the changes in the tributary model of Rio Grande do Sul were neither economically nor fiscally neutral in short and long term period. This kind of simulation is essential to determine the positioning of the state in the rounds of discussions at Confaz as for allocating the products in the range of pre-determined tax rates by the Senate, because it shows evidences of increasing taxes in one specific sector and deceasing in another. The second experiment applied the proposal of PEC 233/08, assuming that the harmonization will be done through the assimilation of the current effective tax rate average in the country in both analyzed regions. The results showed the harmonization leads to a significant increase in the effective tax rate average in Rio Grande do Sul, which had negative impact in the GDP and employment rate; although, there were significant increases in the tax revenue collected in Rio Grande do Sul (the opposite results were also found for the rest of the country). However, in terms of revenue for the state, this result has its effects diminished due to the changing of rules of ICMS approval regime. Nevertheless, even being potentially smaller, the results show the increase in the revenues collection in comparison to the current revenue income. However, it is likely that this will not be materialized thoroughly in gains for the cash flow of the state, since the legislation provides mechanisms of compensation for ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ with the reform. The temporality and the reform’s own mechanisms do not draw attention to economic matters, but to fiscal ones. The result of the a interregional computable general equilibrium (ICGE) model analysis shows that, for Rio Grande do Sul, the reform can generate harsh results on the economic activities and on the public finances if mechanisms of income compensation blow over the potential of fiscal gains identified in Rio Grande do Sul. In this case, the state would lose twice in the process of reform.

Alterações na legislação tributária sempre motivaram profundas discussões políticas e acadêmicas. Isso ocorre pois mudanças dessa natureza promovem a realocação dos fatores de produção, alterando a produção de setores e regiões, e, consequentemente, da receita arrecadada pelos governos. Essa última, por sua vez, é alterada por duas motivações: as variações das alíquotas e as da própria base tributária. O sistema tributário brasileiro, ao longo do tempo, passou por constantes reformulações buscando torná-lo mais moderno e adequado às condições econômicas e políticas vigentes. Entretanto, atualmente, diferentemente do que ocorreu no passado, não é mais possível prover reformas tributárias lastreadas no aumento da carga, uma vez que essa já assume patamares incompatíveis com o grau de desenvolvimento do País. Nesse cenário, apresenta-se a PEC nº 233/08, a mais recente proposta de reforma tributária que, buscando manter inalterada a carga tributária no patamar atual, propõe, entre outras mudanças, modificações relevantes na legislação do ICMS. Esse projeto de emenda constitucional propõe a harmonização da legislação do ICMS e a preservação do sistema misto de apropriação do imposto entre origem e destino, aumentando significativamente, porém, a apropriação pelo destino. Dada a necessidade de uma abordagem empírica para as discussões, essa tese, com o objetivo de estimar os impactos decorrentes dessa proposta de reforma, utilizou um modelo de equilíbrio geral computável inter-regional denominado BMARIA- RS-TAX (ano-base 2004), que investigou as relações econômicas entre o Rio Grande do Sul e o Restante do Brasil. Para tanto, dois experimentos são implementados. O primeiro trata especificamente de uma reestruturação tributária para o Rio Grande do Sul em que um desconto de ICMS relativo a 1% da arrecadação total em um produto é financiado via aumento da alíquota efetiva dos demais. O experimento mostrou que mudanças na matriz tributária gaúcha não se mostram nem economicamente nem fiscalmente neutras, tanto no curto quanto no longo prazo. Esse tipo de simulação é fundamental para determinar o posicionamento do Estado no caso das rodadas de discussão no Confaz quanto à alocação dos produtos nas faixas de alíquotas pré-definidas pelo Senado, pois evidencia os efeitos de aumentar a alíquota em um determinado setor e reduzir em outro. O segundo experimento aplica a proposta da PEC nº 233/08, assumindo que a harmonização se dará através da assimilação da alíquota efetiva média vigente no País em ambas as regiões analisadas. Os resultados mostraram que a harmonização leva a um aumento relevante da alíquota efetiva média no Rio Grande do Sul, com impactos negativos sobre o PIB e o emprego, porém com aumento significativo da arrecadação (com resultados opostos no Restante do Brasil). No entanto, esse resultado em termos de receita do Estado tem seu efeito diminuído em virtude da mudança do regramento do regime de apropriação do ICMS. Ainda assim, mesmo que potencialmente menor, o resultado revela, no caso do Rio Grande do Sul, um incremento na arrecadação em comparação com a arrecadação corrente. No entanto, é provável que isso não se materialize integralmente em ganhos de caixa para o Estado, dado que a reforma prevê mecanismos de compensação entre “ganhadores” e “perdedores” com a reforma. A temporalidade e os próprios mecanismos da reforma não atentam para questões econômicas, mas apenas fiscais. Os resultados da análise de equilíbrio geral computável mostram que, para o Rio Grande de Sul, a reforma pode gerar efeitos perversos sobre a atividade econômica e sobre as finanças públicas se os mecanismos de compensação de receita exaurirem o potencial ganho fiscal identificado para o Rio Grande do Sul. Neste caso, o Rio Grande do Sul perderia duplamente no processo de reforma. / Changes in the tributary legislation have always brought deep discussions into politics and the academic field. This happens because changes in this matter promote the reallocation of production factors, altering the production of sectors and regions and, thus, the production of revenues collected by the governments. The latter, therefore, altered by two reasons: the variations of the tax rate and the ones of the tributary bases themselves. The Brazilian tributary system, along the years, has gone through constant reformulations trying to become more modern and adequate to the current economic and political conditions. However, nowadays, different from what had occurred in the past, it is not possible to provide reforms based on tax load, since it has already reached incompatible standards compared with the country’s development level. In this scenario, it is presented the PEC 233/08, the most recent proposal of tributary reform that tries to keep unchanged the current tax load level; it proposes, among other changes, relevant modifications in the ICMS (Value Added Tax – VAT) legislation. This project of constitutional amendment proposes a harmonic legislation of ICMS and the preservation of mixed system of appropriation of taxes between the origin and the destination, increasing significantly, however, the appropriation of the destination. As it is needed an empiric approach for discussions, this thesis, which had the objective to estimate the impact derived from this proposal of reform, used a interregional computable general equilibrium (ICGE) model named BMARIA-RS-TAX, (database 2004), that investigated the economic relations between Rio Grande do Sul and the rest of Brazil. In order to carry out this research two experiments are implemented. The first deals specifically with tributary restructuring for Rio Grande do Sul, in which 1% discount in the ICMS total revenue of one product is financed by the effective increase on other products tax rates. The experiment showed that the changes in the tributary model of Rio Grande do Sul were neither economically nor fiscally neutral in short and long term period. This kind of simulation is essential to determine the positioning of the state in the rounds of discussions at Confaz as for allocating the products in the range of pre-determined tax rates by the Senate, because it shows evidences of increasing taxes in one specific sector and deceasing in another. The second experiment applied the proposal of PEC 233/08, assuming that the harmonization will be done through the assimilation of the current effective tax rate average in the country in both analyzed regions. The results showed the harmonization leads to a significant increase in the effective tax rate average in Rio Grande do Sul, which had negative impact in the GDP and employment rate; although, there were significant increases in the tax revenue collected in Rio Grande do Sul (the opposite results were also found for the rest of the country). However, in terms of revenue for the state, this result has its effects diminished due to the changing of rules of ICMS approval regime. Nevertheless, even being potentially smaller, the results show the increase in the revenues collection in comparison to the current revenue income. However, it is likely that this will not be materialized thoroughly in gains for the cash flow of the state, since the legislation provides mechanisms of compensation for ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ with the reform. The temporality and the reform’s own mechanisms do not draw attention to economic matters, but to fiscal ones. The result of the a interregional computable general equilibrium (ICGE) model analysis shows that, for Rio Grande do Sul, the reform can generate harsh results on the economic activities and on the public finances if mechanisms of income compensation blow over the potential of fiscal gains identified in Rio Grande do Sul. In this case, the state would lose twice in the process of reform.

The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between two phenomena which are much-disputed and whose mechanisms and processes are interlaced with each other: trade and human development. The focus is a specific type of South-South trade; interregional trade in Sub-Saharan Africa, as well as international trade to and from Sub-Saharan Africa.A quantitate method, using a deductive approach, was utilized in this study. The quantitative research data was accessed from the World Bank database and the human development reports of the UNDP. The data was processed in regressions and the level of co-variation (a term used in this paper as the statistical relation between data) between the variables is established and shown through the unit of measurement r².The results tend to indicate that the level of statistical co-variation between interregional trade and international trade in various commodities and human development in Sub-Saharan Africa exist but are varied. Interregional trade does not seem to have a stronger co-variation with human development than general international trade despite the structural viewpoint of the academic field. Interestingly, the commodity traded with does have a varied impact on the level of co-variation with human development.

In a globalizing world, trade has become essential to supporting the needs and wants of billions of people. Virtually everyone now consumes resource commodities and manufactured products traded all over the world; the ecological footprints of nations are now scattered across the globe. The spatial separation of material production (resource exploitation) from consumption eliminates negative feedbacks from supporting eco-systems. Most consumers remain unaware of the impacts that their trade dependence imposes on distant ecosystems (out of sight out of mind). I take the first steps in developing a conceptual and practical framework for an ‘interregional ecology’ approach to exploring and analyzing sustainability in an increasingly interconnected world. Such an approach accounts for some of the ‘externalities’ of globalization and international trade. It underscores the increasing dependence and impact of almost any country on resources originating from others and recognizes that the sustainability of any specified region may be increasingly linked to the ecological sustainability of distant supporting regions. I empirically describe and quantify some of the interregional material linkages between selected countries. I document the flows of renewable resources into the U.S. and quantify the U.S. external material footprint (EF) on specific countries. I then document the physical inputs involved in production of most agricultural export products from Costa Rica and Canada. Finally, I focus on major export products such as bananas, coffee and beef in Costa Rica and agricultural activities in the Canadian Prairies and document some of the ecological consequences (loss of habitat, soil degradation, water contamination and biodiversity loss) of that production. My research findings show increasing U.S. imports, increasing reliance on external sources and growing external ecological footprints. They also show how production activities mostly for overseas consumption led to changes in ecological structure and function in the studied export countries. This dissertation adds a missing trans-national dimension to the sustainability debate effectively integrating the policy and planning domain for sustainability in one region with that in others. While my research focuses mainly on documenting the nature and magnitude of interregional connections I also consider some of the implications of the interregional approach for sustainability planning. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Community and Regional Planning (SCARP), School of / Graduate

Input Output frameworks have been widely used to study the emissions of industrial sectors either in specific economies or globally but usually focus on aggregated measures under production or consumption accounting principles (PAP and CAP). This leads to a lack of transparency in terms of the structure of the emissions and provides limited information on what are the main drivers of the emissions allocated to each sector under PAP and CAP. This information gap limits the options of policy makers to interventions on whole sectors, rather than the components of their supply chains that hold the major shares of the total embodied emissions. In this thesis we argue in favour of a more disaggregated, a ‘hot-spot’, approach that provides a better understanding of the structure of emissions under both of these headline measures. We develop a methodology to identify CO2 ‘hot-spots’ in downstream and upstream supply chains, both domestic and global. The methodology is applied first to a Single Region Input Output framework for China in 2005 identifying ‘Electricity, Gas and Water Supply’ as the Chinese sector with the highest direct emissions. Examination of the sector’s domestic downstream supply chain reveals that the majority of emissions are generated to support the final demand of other domestic sectors. Of these ‘Construction’ is the main driver and it also is the Chinese sector that is found to have the largest domestic CO2 footprint, with several emissions ‘hot-spots’ in its domestic upstream supply chain. The ‘hot-spot’ methodology is then extended to a global Inter-Regional Input Output framework to consider ‘hot-spots’ in a global supply chain context. By focusing on 2009 (the year for which appropriate data are most recently available) and UK total final demand we find that Chinese ‘Electricity, Gas and Water Supply’ is the non-UK sector with the largest direct emissions driven by UK total final demand. Studying this sector’s downstream supply chain outside China reveals that a large share of the sector’s emissions is ultimately generated to support several UK-based sectors’ domestic final demand. Furthermore, the UK ‘Health and Social Work’ sector is identified as the UK sector with the second largest global footprint to support domestic final demand. We identified a number of ‘hot-spots’ in the international part of its upstream supply chain, with a key finding being its dependence on the activity and the embodied emissions in global chemicals production. Finally, the thesis goes on to demonstrate how conducting ‘hot-spot’ analysis on disaggregated regional/sub-national Input Output tables can provide more detailed local level analysis of ‘hot-spot’ findings from the Inter-Regional Input Output framework. The key finding in this respect is the importance of introducing region specific emissions data where possible, as non-region specific data can lead in incorrect estimation of the embodied emissions in any component of the supply chains of any sectors. In general, through this research project we developed a methodology that can enhance the policy makers understanding of the structure and the drivers of the emissions generated throughout the economy. This additional information on the emissions structure, when combined with familiar IO analysis on employment and value-added for example, has the potential to lead to more targeted/focused policies, which result in significant emissions reduction with the minimum employment, resources and value-added cost.

The diploma thesis deals with migration of human population in the Czech Republic, with a focus on position of the capital city of Prague in the process. The thesis concerns on migration trends among regions of the Czech Republic, and deals with the process of suburbanization within the specific relationship between Prague and districts of the Central Bohemian Region. The subject of my diploma is also internal and external migration of foreigners as a more significant phenomenon in czech society, with the emphasis on Prague as well. The thesis includes evaluation of the basic structural characteristics of inmigrants and outmigrants (migration by age, sex, educational attainment) and also examination of reasons of migration in the area and its consequences with expectations about future trends. There are common used, relative indicators of migration in the thesis. The analysis was carried out in 1994--2007, in some cases in shorter period.

The thesis analyzes two forms of International Development Cooperation, particularly Microfinance and Interregional Cooperation. The goal is to stress these forms and find suitable models for their application in the Czech environment.

International Relations theory has paid bare attention to the dynamics of results of crisis between powers operating in different regions. Existing literature shows that when a power is predominant in a region, major war is less likely to take place in that specific region. However, it is not clear whether the rule of predominant stability applies to situations where a major crisis arises between a local power and a geographically distant power. This project argues that two variables, Local Distribution of Power and Dyadic interregional Distribution of Power, determine the Result of Major interregional Crisis (war onset or peaceful resolution). Local Distribution of Power refers to distribution of power among local players and takes on two values: preponderance and non-preponderance. Dyadic interregional Distribution of Power refers to the power balance between the local power and the geographically outside power that confront each other in a major interregional crisis. It takes on three values: outside superiority, local-outside balance and local superiority. A large N analysis is used to test the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. And three longitudinal case studies are used to reveal the causal mechanism between the Dyadic interregional Distribution of Power and the Result of Major interregional Crisis. It is observed that when a major interregional crisis breaks out, a predominant local power distribution and power superiority of the outside power is more likely to end up in war, while a predominant local power distribution and a balanced dyadic interregional power distribution is more likely to lead to peaceful resolution of the crisis. In the former case, the complacent outside power tend to refuse to make concessions, while the local power, dominated by determination, opportunism and perceptions of local advantage, tends to opt for war. Other local players are also motivated to rely on the outside power to challenge the local power, which might entangle the outside power into war. In the latter case, the outside power, given its disadvantage of locality, tend to be cautious and refuse to be entangled by third parties into conflict, while the local power, being confident and aware of the high cost of a war, tend to be assertive but cautious, which contributes to peaceful resolution of the crisis.

This research addresses how interregional interaction changed between the Viejo period (AD 700-1200) and Medio period (AD 1200-1450) in northwest Chihuahua, Mexico. Non-locally procured or created artifacts, features, and iconographic elements are used as proxy evidence for past long-distance relationships. Data available in technical reports and other publications concerning these materials in Viejo period contexts and a sample of excavated Medio period sites are synthesized and presented. The data are used to create a geospatial dataset and distribution maps with quantities and contextual information for each of the nonlocal materials. I argue that interaction and social networks with long-distance neighbors were complex and widespread during both the Viejo and Medio periods. These intricate relationships morphed and altered in profound ways with the rise of the regional center Paquimé and the fluorescence of the Casas Grandes cultural tradition, but some of the fundamental relationships also remained the same.