Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models are among the most influential tools in applied economics. In the past few years, however, some serious questions have been raised about the validity of these models. The core of the critique is that the parameter selection criteria and the functional forms used are at odds with contemporary standards of practice in econometrics. After surveying the relevant literature, which I refer to as the 'econometric critique', a formal summary of the case against standard CGE modeling is presented, as is an alternative econometric-based modeling strategy which answers the critique. I then work through a comparative CGE modeling experiment designed to assess the contrasting methods. It is found that the parameter selection rule influences model predictions in individual sectors, but industry- and economy-wide aggregates do not appear to be much affected by reparameterizing a CGE model according to econometric criteria. By contrast, the choice of functional forms affects not only industry-specific results, but aggregate results as well, even for small policy shocks. However flexible functional forms are difficult to implement in CGE models because global monotonicity must be maintained. In the second and third chapters, I adapt one of the models to analyze the effects of carbon taxes in Canada. I review an approach called 'double dividend' taxation, in which the revenues from carbon taxes are used to reduce the rates of other distortionary taxes, so an overall efficiency gain can potentially be realized whether or not the reduction in pollution improves welfare. This eliminates the need to measure benefits, and in an international context, would obviate the free-rider problem. I demonstrate the existence of a double dividend strategy for carbon taxation in Canada in the short run. In chapter three, however, a long run extension of the model shows that the double dividend does not persist over time. Nevertheless, choosing an efficient revenue-recycling option can significantly reduce the implementation cost of the carbon tax. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

The subject of this diploma thesis is a history and development of indirect taxes in Canada. Indirect taxes constitute a substantial part of national budget's revenues and their importance in recent years rises. The main attention in this thesis is dedicated to process of harmonization in mentioned region and its influence on rates of indirect taxes, because the rate policy interests not only the economic specialists and politicians but also the public. To what extension countries can affect their tax policy depends on a level of their authority in this area.

This study examines the assumption that property is assessed uniformly from district to district in Arkansas.

Sweden’s housing crisis Tim Sonesson ABSTRACT: This study aims to describe and analyze Sweden’s housing crisis. The purpose is to better understand why Sweden has a lack of housing in most of her municipalities. So that in the long run the current situation can be improved. The study is a literature study of materials such as state investigations, numbers from SCB (Swedish statistics bureau) and a variety of other different material.The main point is that the building speed does not correspond to the increase in population. Therefore, this study lifts the population development and different regulations, taxes, and subsidies regarding housing construction. The study compares Sweden to a handful of comparable countries with focus on regulations. Mismatches in demand and supply regarding the housing market is also brought up. More topics that in some way relates to this issue are brought up such as the competition in the construction market could be unhealthy and that could be why the construction prices are high. Maybe there is a fear of really take care of the problem from the government due to the last big housing projects failures (Miljonprogrammet). Sweden tops the list of most single households in the world, that could be a small part of the problem. The study also goes through the role of the Swedish municipalities which has a big role to play in the housing situation. Finally, the study tries to look forward to get some sort of grip in which direction Sweden is going, if the housing crisis is going to be solved any time soon or not.

We study the impacts of bankruptcy risk on the performance of market-based pollution control policies. In chapter one, we concentrate on emissions trading markets. We find that firms that risk bankruptcy demand more permits than if they were financially secure. Thus, bankruptcy risk in a competitive market for tradable permits causes an inefficient distribution of these permits among firms. Moreover, the equilibrium distribution of permits is dependent on the initial allocation of permits. Thus, the main reasons for implementing emissions trading markets do not hold when some firms are financially insecure. In fact, the inefficiency that is associated with bankruptcy risk is worsened if financially insecure firms are given a smaller share of the initial allocation of permits. In chapter two, we investigate the influences of bankruptcy risk on imperfectly enforced emissions taxes. Under favorable, but not unrealistic conditions, an imperfectly enforced emissions tax produces an efficient allocation of individual emissions control; the aggregate level of control is the same whether enforcement of a tax is sufficient to induce the full compliance of firms or not, and differences in individual violations are independent of firm-level differences. All of these desirable characteristics disappear when some firms under an emissions tax risk bankruptcy—the allocation of emissions control is inefficient, imperfect enforcement causes higher aggregate emissions, and financially insecure firms choose higher violations.

Financial legal aspects of mergers and acquisitions in private equity Abstract This diploma thesis is focused on selected financial legal aspects of mergers and acquisitions in private equity. First, it analyzes the concept of private equity as a specific area of medium-term or long-term investments made by holding companies or investment funds in the sense of Act No. 240/2013 Coll., on Management Companies and Investment Funds. The next part deals with the term of mergers and acquisitions, a contemporary phenomenon, in the context of the Czech legal system. This part of the thesis further describes the individual steps of the standard acquisition process. This is followed by another section dedicated to derivatives. The diploma thesis first introduces the general characteristics of derivatives, followed by topics such as accounting of derivatives, introduction of embedded derivatives, characteristics of equity derivatives and then by the practical part, which deals with mechanisms in transaction documentation fulfilling the features of the embedded derivatives. Furthermore, the thesis focuses on the European regulation of derivatives, specifically the Regulation of the European Parliament and the Council (EU) No. 648/2012, on OTC derivatives, central counterparties and trade repositories and unclear issues...

Chapter 1 examines the effect of property-type diversification in equity real estate investment trusts (REITs) from 1995 to 2006. A strong positive relationship is documented between property-type diversification and return on assets, return on equity, and Tobin’s Q. The diversification benefit comes from both the ability to select better performing property types in “hot” markets and the limited exposure to poorly performing property types in “cold” markets. Diversified REITs produce higher cash flows relative to equity as a result of a broader opportunity set; moreover, return on assets increases with the degree of diversification, which suggests significant shielding to property-type specific risk. Additionally, results indicate that diversified REITs operate and trade above their contemporaneous predicted values, which are calculated using imputed multipliers from specialized REITs. The evidence shows that the market is operating efficiently and has incorporated this information; diversified REITs Q ratios are significantly greater than specialized REITs. Chapter 2 uses a large sample of municipal bond closed-end funds to examine how tax liability affects seasonal trading. Optimal tax trading dictates that net tax liability be calculated after all trades. Investors’ net tax liability is held in a holding account of his or her choosing. This study investigates what happens when there is tax liability in excess of Safe Harbor, and tax holding accounts are liquidated to cover the payments. We find that there exists a pattern of negative returns and increased volume in the month of March that is unexplained by changes in yield. iii Chapter 3 examines the ex-dividend day effect for municipal bond closed-end. The proposed explanations for this phenomenon are tax effects, short-term trading and/or market microstructure effects. In this study I use a unique set of dividend distributions to provide additional evidence that ex-dividend behavior is related to taxation as well as short-term trading. The sample I use is comprised of dividends in nontaxable closed-end funds, which ordinarily are not subject to Federal Income Tax. However, there is an occasional distribution that is subject to capital gains or ordinary income tax. This provides a unique environment in which to study the ex-dividend price behavior of a fund while eliminating the need for comparisons across funds.

In the past decade, there has been a significant decrease in US corporate tax revenues. Multinational companies have been employing several different techniques of tax avoidance to get around paying corporate taxes. Tax avoidance is used by any large multinational corporation for a variety of reasons. The US has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world and is seeing many companies relocate their operations abroad to lower their tax expenses. The different methods of tax avoidance are discussed in this thesis, as well as the different reasons behind their use. To understand how companies implement tax avoidance techniques, it is necessary to understand US corporate taxes. I have researched the few key items of US corporate taxes, which are vital to understanding the implementation of tax avoidance techniques. Through different examples you will see how tax avoidance occurs and how it benefits multinational companies.

1 Taxes, charges and other similar instruments for the environmental protection The reason why I chose this theme is that the environmental protection from the perspective of financial law is a very topical issue in all EU countries, including the Czech Republic. The purpose of my thesis is to analyse instruments that are utilized for environmental protection. The thesis deals with direct and indirect regulatory instruments and the increased attention is paid to the energy taxes. The thesis is composed of five basic chapters, each of them dealing with different aspects of the environmental protection from the perspective of financial law. Chapter One and Two is introductory and defines basic terminology used in the thesis such as the environment and environmental protection or environmental policy. Chapter Three deals with the basic structure of instruments for environmental protection, which are instruments of direct regulation (normative) and indirect regulatory instruments (economic). This chapter also describes the characteristics of these instruments and their advantages and disadvantages. Chapter Four concentrates on economic instruments - environmentally related charges and especially environmentally related taxes. This chapter deals with the term of environmental taxes, their characteristics and...

This diploma thesis deals with legislative changes in tax revenues of municipalities since 2001. The changes in the shared taxes and property taxes are considered. The aim is to evaluate the legislative changes related to tax revenues of municipalities and to evaluate their impact on tax revenues of the three selected small municipalities. The theoretical part of the thesis covers the legislative changes that have occurred in the law on the tax assignment and law on the tax of real estate over the last ten years, and amendment to law on the tax assignment with the expected effect from 1 January 2013. The practical part consists of an analysis of tax revenue of three selected small municipalities and their development in response to legislative changes. The last part of the thesis summarizes the most important findings. In this thesis, I came to the conclusion that in every of the three analyzed municipalities the revenues from shared taxes and from property taxes increased over the period of interest.