This dissertation consists of three papers that examine how aspects of public policy may impact private sector corporate governance. The first two examine the relationship between personal-tax policy and corporate agency costs. The first paper is a theoretical analysis based on an agency model of managerial behavior. A unique element of this paper is that it assumes a discontinuous compensation function, which reflects the occurrence of performance thresholds associated with the dismissal incentive and many common bonus plans. The analysis results in three main findings. First, the relative magnitude of proportional taxation has an indeterminate effect on managerial performance. Second, an increase in tax progressivity is associated with reduced managerial performance and increased agency costs. Third, the inclusion of performance thresholds and compensation discontinuities can cause tax system changes to have surprisingly large impacts on managerial performance. The second paper is an empirical investigation of the relationship between personal-tax progressivity and corporate operating efficiency. The analysis is based on variations in across-state tax policy and utilizes a sample of US-based firms. Using matched-pair testing and regression analysis, evidence is found that is consistent with the hypothesis that increased personal-tax progressivity negatively impacts managerial performance. Together, the analysis contained in the first two papers suggests a need to further examine the relationship between personal taxation and corporate agency costs, an issue that is largely absent from the research literature. The third paper investigates whether variations in state corporate law affect firm value. Previous research in this area generally treats all states other than Delaware as having homogeneous corporate law. I relax this assumption and analyze a large panel sample of US firms. Evidence is found that Delaware firms are worth more, on average, than non-Delaware firms. However, this effect is not consistent across all non-Delaware jurisdictions. The valuation differences are correlated to differences in statutory law. Specifically, corporate law that provides greater entrenchment of management is associated with reduced firm value. The results indicate that corporate law does affect corporate governance. Furthermore, the findings are inconsistent with the “race to the bottom” theory of corporate law. / May 2006

This dissertation consists of three papers that examine how aspects of public policy may impact private sector corporate governance. The first two examine the relationship between personal-tax policy and corporate agency costs. The first paper is a theoretical analysis based on an agency model of managerial behavior. A unique element of this paper is that it assumes a discontinuous compensation function, which reflects the occurrence of performance thresholds associated with the dismissal incentive and many common bonus plans. The analysis results in three main findings. First, the relative magnitude of proportional taxation has an indeterminate effect on managerial performance. Second, an increase in tax progressivity is associated with reduced managerial performance and increased agency costs. Third, the inclusion of performance thresholds and compensation discontinuities can cause tax system changes to have surprisingly large impacts on managerial performance. The second paper is an empirical investigation of the relationship between personal-tax progressivity and corporate operating efficiency. The analysis is based on variations in across-state tax policy and utilizes a sample of US-based firms. Using matched-pair testing and regression analysis, evidence is found that is consistent with the hypothesis that increased personal-tax progressivity negatively impacts managerial performance. Together, the analysis contained in the first two papers suggests a need to further examine the relationship between personal taxation and corporate agency costs, an issue that is largely absent from the research literature. The third paper investigates whether variations in state corporate law affect firm value. Previous research in this area generally treats all states other than Delaware as having homogeneous corporate law. I relax this assumption and analyze a large panel sample of US firms. Evidence is found that Delaware firms are worth more, on average, than non-Delaware firms. However, this effect is not consistent across all non-Delaware jurisdictions. The valuation differences are correlated to differences in statutory law. Specifically, corporate law that provides greater entrenchment of management is associated with reduced firm value. The results indicate that corporate law does affect corporate governance. Furthermore, the findings are inconsistent with the “race to the bottom” theory of corporate law.

This dissertation consists of three papers that examine how aspects of public policy may impact private sector corporate governance. The first two examine the relationship between personal-tax policy and corporate agency costs. The first paper is a theoretical analysis based on an agency model of managerial behavior. A unique element of this paper is that it assumes a discontinuous compensation function, which reflects the occurrence of performance thresholds associated with the dismissal incentive and many common bonus plans. The analysis results in three main findings. First, the relative magnitude of proportional taxation has an indeterminate effect on managerial performance. Second, an increase in tax progressivity is associated with reduced managerial performance and increased agency costs. Third, the inclusion of performance thresholds and compensation discontinuities can cause tax system changes to have surprisingly large impacts on managerial performance. The second paper is an empirical investigation of the relationship between personal-tax progressivity and corporate operating efficiency. The analysis is based on variations in across-state tax policy and utilizes a sample of US-based firms. Using matched-pair testing and regression analysis, evidence is found that is consistent with the hypothesis that increased personal-tax progressivity negatively impacts managerial performance. Together, the analysis contained in the first two papers suggests a need to further examine the relationship between personal taxation and corporate agency costs, an issue that is largely absent from the research literature. The third paper investigates whether variations in state corporate law affect firm value. Previous research in this area generally treats all states other than Delaware as having homogeneous corporate law. I relax this assumption and analyze a large panel sample of US firms. Evidence is found that Delaware firms are worth more, on average, than non-Delaware firms. However, this effect is not consistent across all non-Delaware jurisdictions. The valuation differences are correlated to differences in statutory law. Specifically, corporate law that provides greater entrenchment of management is associated with reduced firm value. The results indicate that corporate law does affect corporate governance. Furthermore, the findings are inconsistent with the “race to the bottom” theory of corporate law.

O presente trabalho visa analisar por que até hoje o Imposto sobre Grandes Fortunas não foi implementado no Brasil. Para a consecução desse objetivo, o estudo apresenta a situação da desigualdade no mundo e no país, através de apontamentos realizados pelo economista Thomas Piketty em sua obra “O Capital no Século XXI”, bem como de dados contidos em relatórios da distribuição da riqueza mundial; demarca os conceitos teóricos relativos à tributação, especialmente à justiça fiscal e à progressividade, apresentando a seguir a teoria da tributação equitativa; relata experiências internacionais relacionadas à tributação sobre a riqueza com destaque para os casos da Espanha e da França, mostrando em seguida dados referentes à tributação brasileira, em especial a distribuição da carga tributária do país e a alta participação dos tributos indiretos no total arrecadado, além da baixa participação dos tributos patrimoniais; e apresenta um breve histórico do Imposto sobre Grandes Fortunas no Brasil e os principais projetos de lei para sua regulamentação, analisando as questões que permeiam as discussões sobre o tributo, com o intuito de identificar as causas de sua não instituição até os dias atuais. A conclusão do trabalho aponta que a causa principal é de natureza política, pois os parlamentares e indivíduos com influência nas decisões do Congresso Nacional, ao aprovarem a implementação do imposto, criariam sobre si mesmos uma nova imposição tributária. Ademais, o temor de que ocorra fuga de capitais e redução da poupança interna, além da possível arrecadação baixa constituem causas secundárias para a não regulamentação do tributo. / The present work aims to analyze why until nowadays the Wealth Tax was not implemented in Brazil. In order to achieve this objective, the study presents the situation of inequality in the world and in the country through notes made by the economist Thomas Piketty in his work "Capital in the Twenty-First Century", as well as data contained in reports on the distribution of world wealth; demarcates the theoretical concepts related to taxation, especially fiscal justice and progressivity, and presents the theory of equitable taxation; reports on international experiences related to wealth taxation with emphasis in the cases of Spain and France, showing next data on Brazilian taxation, in particular the distribution of the country's tax burden and the high participation of indirect taxes in the total collected, besides of the low participation of the patrimonial taxes; and presents a brief history of the Wealth Tax in Brazil and the main bills for its regulation, analyzing the issues that permeate the discussions about the tax, in order to identify the causes of its non-institution to the present day. The conclusion of the study indicates that the main cause is political in nature, since the parliamentarians and individuals with influence in the decisions of the National Congress, when approving the implementation of the tax, would create upon themselves a new tax imposition. In addition, the concern of capital flight and reduction of domestic savings, besides the possible low collection, are secondary causes for the non-regulation of the tribute.

The thesis is focused on the analysis of the impact of income tax on individuals selected group of taxpayers. The aim is to evaluate the tax burden of taxpayers and tax progressivity of the income tax of individuals. The impact of the tax is measured at sixteen model situations, which have two main variables. The first variable is the amount of income the taxpayer. For the thesis are chosen four different level of monthly gross wages of the taxpayer. The second variable is the social situation of the household in which the taxpayer breadwinner. For this variable also identifies four different scenarios. Both variables are in different model situa-tions present in combination. Progressivity of the income tax is measured by the index of tax progressivity. This index reflects the progression of the tax in a particular point. The key finding from the work suggests that the impact of taxes on taxpayers is different ac-cording to the amount of the taxpayer's income. Level of income is a main element influencing the impact of taxes on the taxpayer. Burden of taxpayers with higher incomes are dispro-portionately higher than the burden of taxpayers with lower incomes. This is primarily due tax progressivity. When assessing the tax progressivity this phenomenon was confirmed. The results of the cal-culations of tax progressivity implies that the tax progressivity is much higher for taxpayers with lower incomes. At the level of the average income is low and gradually increase the amount of income also increases. Progressivity of the income tax was at work compared with progressivity in the groundbreaking years 2007 and 2012.

This thesis studies the relationship of income tax progressivity and output volatility. Using our dataset of 31 OECD countries and Bayesian model averaging (BMA) approach to address the model uncertainty issue, we find positive evidence that higher income tax progressivity leads to lower output volatility. This effect is robust to different prior specifications in BMA and to different tax progressivity measures, including our newly constructed measure which is based on the slope of the average tax curve. We also find a strong effect of tax progressivity on the consumption volatility and the volatility of hours worked which we see as the main channels for the reducing effect of tax progressivity on output volatility.

The goal of this thesis is to analyse the influence of income taxeson the inequality rate in the Czech Republic. The incometaxes in this paper include the person income tax, the health insuranceand the social security insurance. In the relevant period a significant change in the system of income tax was implemented. While the year 2007 was the last year when tax brackets, i.e. the concept of the progressive tax system, were used, since 2008 we encounter the so-called flat tax where the rate is set at 15%, i.e. the linear tax system. The first chapter of this paper looks into the possibilities of analysing the tax progressiveness in general. The presentation of the methods proceeds from the simplest to the more complicated ones. The second part sums up the results of several foregoing researches in this field. The third chapter deals with an analysis of gross monetary income of households and their tax burden. This analysis and the one carried out in the fourth chapter are based on data provided by the Czech Statistical Office. The fourth chapter of this thesis studies the development of tax progressivity in the relevant period. For this analysis four methods were chosen: the Lorenz 5 curve and the Gini coefficient,the Musgrave-Thin index, the Kakwani index and the Robin Hood index. From the results reached by these indexes can be concluded that the level of income tax progressivity in the Czech Republic is low.

This paper portrays the effect of the Irish income tax system on entrepreneurial activity in the country. The purpose of the report was to determine whether tax progressivity has a negative effect on entrepreneurial activity. In addition, the paper aims to determine whether the elevated progressivity of the Irish tax system is hampering the performance of start-up companies. In order to do this, an extensive literature review led to arguing for the over-progressivity of the Irish income tax system, which allowed to develop a hypothesis. This hypothesis was then tested through a quantitative study which aimed to analyse the influence of income tax progressivity on entrepreneurial activity. The study was based on data from fifteen European countries, and the findings displayed a negative relationship between tax progressivity and entrepreneurial activity. Finally, the study addresses the common concern of excessive taxation among Irish entrepreneurs.

The aim of this diploma thesis is the analysis and comparison of labour taxation in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. After the introduction, in which the goal and methods of solving are defined, there are two chapters that describe theoretically tax systems in both compared countries with focus on personal income tax and social security systems. The following chapter is devoted to indicators of effective taxation of labour, which are used for international comparisons. Another chapter will describe the comparison of the effective taxation of labour based on the achieved results. There is also an interval and global progressiveness that are used to measure the progressivity of the personal income tax in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. In conclusion, there is a summary of the findings and aims of this thesis.

The thesis analyses a redistributive impacts of a personal income tax. Its aim is to find the main tax changes that influence the most an effective tax rate and a tax progressivity from 1993 to 2011. Since 1993 until present day has gone the personal income tax trough many changes, what has affected an income redistribution. The most important changes happened in 2005 and 2006 and also changes in 2008 when came into charge a super-gross wage and linear tax rate. The first part of the thesis describes particular structural element of the tax and tax changes in years 1993-2011. The second part treats the income redistribution, tax equity and describes the tools that measures the tax progressivity. The last part contains an analysis of four model situations with effective tax rate and tax progressivity index.