Thesis (MScAgric (Agricultural Economics)--University of Stellenbosch, 2009. / The Doha Round of negotiations on the liberalisation of agricultural trade inherited complications from its predecessor - the Uruguay Round (UR). It needs to be noted, as one of the fundamental differences, that agriculture sectors in the developed countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) get support from their governments. In contrast to the situation, in the developing countries, agriculture is taxed to generate government revenue. The subsidies that farmers receive in the developed countries affect farmers globally through world prices (world prices depression). Therefore protection and greater subsidies should be not encouraged. As such, after a long time of preferential treatment, agriculture trade was tabled as a separate issue of negotiations at the UR and resulted to the round to be prolonged. However, one of the achievements of the UR was imposing of bound tariffs on agricultural products and determining tariff equivalence for non-tariff measures. Then, the Doha Round (DR) also known as the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) which is the first round to place development and focus strongly on agricultural liberalisation as a tool for development. International trade theory supports agricultural liberalisation, as negotiated in the DDA. Therefore, the DDA, in seeking more liberalised agricultural markets, continues a theoretically sound approach, as in the UR. The effects of liberalising agricultural trade in the DDA will differ across countries, whereas some will gain, others may loose, and the same situation is true for different sectors within an economy. The focus of the DDA on agriculture, as a tool of development, links well to the fact that agriculture in the developing countries accounts for a substantial share of their gross domestic products (GDPs) and exports. This situation, therefore, calls for a closer consideration of the possible impact of agricultural liberalisation in South Africa even though agricultural share of GDP is less than 4 percent.

Στην παρούσα εργασία με τη χρήση της Περιβάλλουσας Ανάλυσης Δεδομένων (Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA) υπολογίζεται η αποτελεσματικότητα των πολιτικών υγείας διαχρονικά, για κάθε έτος της τριετία 2008-2010 με τη χρήση της Window Analysis, στις χώρες που είναι ενταγμένες στον Οργανισμό Οικονομικής Συνεργασίας και Ανάπτυξης (ΟΟΣΑ). Επίσης, δημιουργούνται πρότυπα για το πώς μπορούν να βελτιωθούν οι μη αποτελεσματικές χώρες. / Στην παρούσα εργασία με τη χρήση της Περιβάλλουσας Ανάλυσης Δεδομένων (Data Envelopment Analysis, DEA) υπολογίζεται η αποτελεσματικότητα των πολιτικών υγείας διαχρονικά, για κάθε έτος της τριετία 2008-2010 με τη χρήση της Window Analysis, στις χώρες που είναι ενταγμένες στον Οργανισμό Οικονομικής Συνεργασίας και Ανάπτυξης (ΟΟΣΑ). Επίσης, δημιουργούνται πρότυπα για το πώς μπορούν να βελτιωθούν οι μη αποτελεσματικές χώρες.

Basis dieser Arbeit ist die Entwicklung der Informationstechnologie. Deren Betrachtung erfolgt in fünf Schritten. Den ersten Schritt bildet dabei die deskriptive Darstellung der technischen und wirtschaftlichen Grundlagen. Die technischen Grundlagen beschreiben die Entwicklung des Internets und die Funktionsweise von Netzwerken im Allgemeinen, während sich die wirtschaftlichen Grundlagen mit E-Business, E-Government, E-Payment und Second Life als Anwendungsbeispiel auseinandersetzen. Die normative Betrachtung des Steuersystems bildet den zweiten Schritt. Die ertragsteuerlichen Aspekte werden auf nationaler Ebene anhand der Einkunftsarten des Einkommensteuergesetzes 1988 und auf zwischenstaatlicher Ebene anhand der Einkünftequalifikation des OECD-Musterkommentars behandelt. Weiters erfolgt eine Auseinandersetzung mit verfahrensrechlichen Aspekten sowie den Gebühren und der Werbeabgabe. Die Institutionen Finanzverwaltung und Berufsstand der Wirtschaftstreuhänder werden in den Schritten drei und vier synonym behandelt. Einerseits wird dabei das Veranlagungs-, Rechtsmittel- und Betriebsprüfungsverfahren aus der Sicht beider Institutionen analysiert. Andererseits erfolgt anhand der Auswertung qualitativer Interviews eine Auseinandersetzung mit der Interaktion zwischen Mensch und Maschine, den legistischen Aspekten der IT sowie qualitativer Entwicklungen. Im Bereich der Finanzverwaltung wird auch der Einfluss der großen Finanzreform 2004 näher betrachtet. Abschließend wird im fünften Schritt versucht, die mögliche zukünftige Entwicklung (Visionen) aus technischer und wirtschaftlicher (E-Segment) Sicht sowie hinsichtlich der Finanzverwaltung zu prognostizieren.

Tax systems of EU countries and agreements to avoid double taxation Abstract This thesis discusses double taxation avoidance agreements in the context of the European Union. It compares contents of selected bilateral double taxation avoidance agreements signed between the Czech Republic and five other European Union countries with the OECD model agreement. Aim of the thesis is to find out how the reservations of individual countries to the OECD model agreement are incorporated into their content. At the same time aim is to verify the influence of the European Union on the wording of those agreements. The first part discusses the tax theory and application of methods for elimination of double taxation in practice. The second part examines the harmonization of tax legislation in the EU and its influence of the European Court of Justice on the double taxation avoidance agreements. The third section describes the types of model agreements used by European countries, their development and reservations of individual countries to the OECD model treaty. The last section analyzes chosen agreements in the context of the OECD model treaty.

This thesis deals with the regulatory rules issued by the so-called. Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. It is an informal organization without legal personality, which operates at the Bank for International Settlements, and her published documents lack legally binding. This work has focused on two areas of activity of the Basel Committee - capital adequacy and corporate governance in the banking sector. Basel Committee on Banking Supervision is a leading authority in the field of banking regulation, which dates back to the mid-70s of the 20th century. The Basel Committee is composed of the governors of the central banks of the member states and organizations and currently represents a major authority in the banking, because the content of the documents of the Basel Committee incorporated into their legal systems for more than 100 countries worldwide. Basel Committee began issuing complex documents capital adequacy in July 1988, when the first document was posted under the abbreviated name of Basel I. Although it was a very imperfect adjustment and largely based on compromises rather than deeper analysis, Basel I meant the first major step towards supranational control of the capital adequacy of banks in order to eliminate the risks arising from their activities. Although, as with other...

Le premier chapitre soutient que dans ces économies om la qualité institutionnelle des lois sur les garanties et les faillites est faible, la collatéralisation excessive rend la prise de risque sous-optimalement plus couteuse pour les emprunteurs. Cela décourage le potentiel entrepreneurial et entrave ainsi la croissance potentielle de jeunes entreprises ayant un impact important sur la création d’emplois dans l’économie.Le deuxième chapitre met l’accent sur le canal de «déconnexion». La région du MENA est caractérisée par une proportion inhabituellement élevée d’entreprises qui n’ont pas besoin de financement. Ces entreprises sont moins susceptible de considérer l’accès au crédit comme une préoccupation majeure, sont moins susceptibles d’avoir acquis des immobilisations, et sont moins susceptibles de prévoir une opération de développement.Ces résultats tiennent également en tenant compte de l’ensemble des caractéristiques standard des entreprises. Nous étudions ensuite comment la politique de collatéralisation impact les performances des entreprises à travers le canal de «déconnexion». Dans le troisième chapitre, je passe à un échantillon de pays de l’OCDE. Une littérature croissante souligne le rôle du commerce avec les économies émergentes, en particulier la Chine, dans la destruction des emplois dans le secteur manufacturier comme le processus de désindustrialisation des les économies avancées. Cependant, pour quantifier la pertinence de l’exposition aux importations en provenances des marchés émergents, nous devons démêler le canal commercial du canal de productivité traditionnel. Dans ce chapitre, nous développons un modèle simple du changement structurel dans une économie ouverte pour en déduire des implications empiriques que nous analysons pour un échantillon de pays de l’OCDE. Dans les économies ouvertes, lorsque la croissance de la productivité de l’industrie nationale est plus rapide que celle des services,mais plus lente que celle de l’industrie étrangère, alors la part industrielle peut diminuer dans les économies avancées, tant en valeur ajoutée qu’en emploi. Nous appelons ce phénomène «double désindustrialisation». Nous trouvons des effets significatifs et quantitativement pertinents du commerce sur le changement structurel dans les économies avancées. En outre, alors que de nombreuses études étudient l’accélération de l’ampleur des importations en provenance de Chine depuis 2000 pour expliquer le modèle de désindustrialisation dans les économies avancées, nous soulignons que le changement de la composition des exportations chinoises vers les secteurs des technologies d’information et de communication et la naturante changeante du progrès technologique dans les économies émergentes pourrait contribuer à la compréhension du phénomène de désindustrialisation de l’après 2000. / This thesis investigates the role of collateral environment and trade exposure on the allocation of employment across firms and sectors. The first chapter argues that, in these economies with poor institutional quality of collateral and bankruptcy laws, aggressive collateralization makes the risk-taking behavior of borrowers suboptimally more costly. This discourages entrepreneurship and thus impedes the growth potential among young firms with a potentially high impact on job creation in the economy.Second chapter stresses the "disconnection" channel on the performance of firms when stringent collateral environment impedes the access of firms to financial system. Studying the 6 economies in MENA we observe region is characterized by an unusually highshare of firms that do not need external finance. These firms are less likely to view access to finance as a major concern, are less likely to have purchased fixed assets, andare less likely to plan further expansion. These findings also hold after accounting fora standard set of firm characteristics. In the third chapter, I move to a sample of OECD countries. A growing body of literature emphasizes the role of trade with emerging economies, especially with China, in job destruction in the manufacturing sectors andin the deindustrialization process currently seen in advanced economies. However, to quantify the relevance of exposure to imports from emerging markets, the trade channel needs to be disentangled from the traditional productivity channel. Developing asimple model of structural change in an open economy, I derive empirical implicationsto analyze for a sample of OECD countries. The model illustrates when productivity growth of domestic manufacturing is faster than that of services but slower than that of foreign manufacturing, the share of manufacturing in advanced economies may fall,both in terms of value added and of employment. I call this phenomenon "twin deindustrialization".My empirical results indicate significant and quantitatively relevant effects of trade on structural change in advanced economies. Furthermore, while many studies investigate the accelerating volume of imports from China post 2000 to explain the pattern of deindustrialization in advance economies, I stress that the shift in the composition of Chinese exports towards the ICT sectors and the changing nature of technological progress occurring in emerging economies are important considerations in understanding the pattern of deindustrialization in the post 2000 period.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide meaningful understanding of the current state of business activities, which generates the need for implementing new taxing measures, analyse the challenges arising from this need, as well as their cause. Furthermore, the aforementioned challenges will be explained in the context of existing traditional taxing systems and proposed measures will be analysed. After reading this thesis, the goal is for the reader to be able to understand current trends and to gain an idea of how states might try to harmonize their taxing systems in order to meet the requirements set out by the rapid digitalization of companies.

A arquitetura do Sistema Humanitário Internacional no século XXI está em expansão. Não somente os recursos aportados têm crescido, como também o número de atores envolvidos como doadores, tais como organizações internacionais governamentais e não governamentais. Os países são os maiores provedores de assistência humanitária, e este grupo também apresenta ampliação. Tradicionalmente, os países membros do Comitê de Assistência ao Desenvolvimento, da Organização para Cooperação e Desenvolvimento Econômico (DAC/OCDE) são os atores mais antigos do sistema humanitário contemporâneo e os que mais aportam recursos. A literatura recente, contudo, aponta para a emergência de outros países doadores de fora do grupo, que estariam trazendo mudanças na governança internacional do sistema. Os estudos sobre os doadores \"Não DAC\" carecem de dados precisos, sendo, em sua maioria, baseados em estimativas. Esta pesquisa visa a aprofundar os conhecimentos sobre a atuação desses doadores, valendo-se de estatística descritiva de dados primários de organizações multilaterais do sistema humanitário da Organização das Nações Unidas para se poder mais bem compreender o grau de participação financeiro que os doadores \"Não DAC\" agregam ao sistema. Além disso, o estudo apresenta uma análise de como o Brasil age como doador de assistência humanitária internacional. / The architecture of the International Humanitarian System in the 21st century is expanding. Not only the resources contributed have increased, but also the number of actors involved as donors, such as international governmental and non-governmental organizations. Countries are the largest providers of humanitarian assistance, and this group is also expanding. Traditionally, the member countries of the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD / DAC) are the primary actors in the contemporary humanitarian system and those who provide the majority of the resources. Recent literature, however, points to the emergence of other donor countries outside the group that might be bringing changes in the international governance of the system. Studies on \"non-DAC\" donors lack accurate data and are mostly based on estimates. This research aims to deepen knowledge about the performance of these donors, using descriptive statistics on primary data from multilateral organizations of the United Nations humanitarian system to better understand the degree of financial participation that \"Non-DAC\" donors add to the system. Furthermore, the study presents an analysis of Brazil\'s actions as a donor of international humanitarian assistance.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-08-10T10:47:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DANYELLE DE LIMA WOOD.pdf: 1375017 bytes, checksum: b6232c67dc10fef09780b3078a670e6e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-06-24 / The theme of corruption entered the international agenda and started to integrate the academic field of international relations recently, more precisely since the 1970s when the United States passed the Foreign Corrupt Practice Act (FCPA), a law with extraterritorial dimensions that criminalized the payment of bribery to foreign public officials. Ever since, states were pressured by the American superpower to create international instruments to curb corruption along the lines of the FCPA. However, the anticorruption began being constructed in the mid- 1990s, almost twenty years after the FCPA. Currently, there are conventions and recommendations in several international organizations, but, because of American and other powerful nations interests, the regime faces standardizing difficulties, as well as problems in its evolution due to a conflicting principal dichotomy within the regime. On one side is the antibribery principal, represented mainly by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions, and on the other side is the anticorruption principal, represented mainly by the United Nations Convention against Corruption. The interests of the developed states have been reached with the consolidation of the antibribery principal within the OECD. This is one of the reasons why negotiations on treaties and conventions with a broader scope on corruption have been hampered by these states, hindering the establishment of the anticorruption principle. The objective of this study is to analyze the existence of this conflicting dichotomy of principals through a comparative between the OECD and the UN conventions and their monitoring systems. Therefore, a cost-benefit analysis of corruption on domestic and international relations and an examination of the history of curbing corruption in the international system will be conducted in order to better comprehend the interests and consequences of corruption in the international relations. In the end, it is pointed out the necessity of building a broader anticorruption regime, not just a regime based on the antibribery principle. / O tema corrupção entrou na agenda internacional e passou a integrar o campo acadêmico das relações internacionais recentemente, precisamente desde a década de 1970, quando os Estados Unidos criaram a lei de dimensões extraterritoriais que previa a criminalização do pagamento de propina a funcionários públicos estrangeiros, a Lei Contra Práticas Corruptas Estrangeiras (FCPA). A partir de então, os Estados se viram pressionados pela potência a criar mecanismos internacionais nos moldes da FCPA. O regime anticorrupção começou a ser construído de fato em meados da década de 1990, com convenções e recomendações em diversas organizações internacionais. Entretanto, devido aos interesses dos EUA e das potências, o regime enfrenta dificuldades em se uniformizar e em continuar evoluindo por conta de uma dicotomia de princípios conflitantes dentre do próprio regime. De um lado, como maior representante a Convenção das Organizações para a Cooperação e o Desenvolvimento Econômico (OCDE) Contra o Pagamento de Propina a Funcionários Estrangeiros, encontra-se o princípio antipropina que atendem aos interesses das potências, e do outro lado, representado pela Convenção das Nações Unidas Contra a Corrupção, está o princípio anticorrupção. Os interesses dos Estados desenvolvidos já foram alcançados com o estabelecimento do princípio antipropina, e, por isso, esses dificultam a negociação e o estabelecimento do princípio anticorrupção e, consequentemente, na própria Convenção da ONU. O objetivo deste trabalho é analisar a existência dessa dicotomia de princípios, fazendo um comparativo entre a convenção da OCDE e da ONU e os seus sistemas de monitoramento. Para tanto, será feita uma análise dos custos e benefícios da corrupção nas relações domésticas e internacionais, assim como um histórico do combate à corrupção, para compreender melhor os interesses e as consequências da prática ao sistema internacional e a necessidade de se continuar construindo um regime internacional anticorrupção mais abrangente.

This diploma thesis deals with some questions of the international double taxation, particularly with the basic terminology and principles of the international taxation, bilateral double taxation treaties and new tools of legal regulation of the international double taxation such as BEPS, MLI, a package of European directions called Anti-BEPS and its implementation into the Czech law. The aim of this thesis is to identify, describe and analyse sectional questions in respect to long-term and current evolution. In the introduction I briefly introduce the topic. Afterwards the thesis is divided into four chapters that are linked to each other. The first chapter presents to the reader basic terminology and explains basic principles of this field independently and in relation to current legal regulation. Further I describe the types of double taxation and other institutes related to the international double taxation such as international double non-taxation. The second chapter deals with means of elimination of the international double taxation. Two basic methods are described and some of them are represented by basic examples. There are also described means of elimination of the international double taxation that can only be used in tax treaties (not in the national law). The last subchapter describes...