Shadow Economies and Corruption All Over the World: What Do We Really Know? Estimations of the size and development of the shadow economy for 145 countries, including developing, transition and highly developed OECD economies over the period 1999 to 2003 are presented. The average size of the shadow economy (as a percent of “official” GDP) in 2002/03 in 96 developing countries is 38.7%, in 25 t...

Anti-Lemons: School Reputation, Relative Diversity, and Educational Quality Friedman (1962) observed that the ability of firms to acquire and maintain reputations for quality is a key ingredient for the efficient provision of goods and services in a market economy. This paper explores the implications of school reputation for skill acquisition and labor market outcomes in an otherwise competiti...

We present the first observations of a Herbig Ae star with a circumstellar disk by the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE ), as well as a simultaneous observation of the star obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). The spectra of AB Aurigae show emission and absorption features arising from gasses that have a wide range in temperature, fro...

A dinuclear synthetic model of the [NiFeSe] hydrogenase active site and a structural, spectroscopic and electrochemical analysis of this complex is reported. [NiFe('S2Se2')(CO)3] (H2'S2Se2' = 1,2-bis(2-thiabutyl-3,3-dimethyl-4-selenol)benzene) has been synthesized by reacting the nickel selenolate complex [Ni('S2Se2')] with [Fe(CO)3bda] (bda = benzylideneacetone). X-ray crystal structure analys...

Several researchers have shown that Pt-Rh bimetallic catalysts can perform synergistically for the NO/H2, NO/CO, CO/O2, and NO/CO/HC reactions [1-5]. Lakis and coworkers clarified some of the mystery surrounding the synergistic performance of Pt-Rh catalysts for the NO + H2 reaction by using analytical electron microscopy (AEM) to show that the synergistic performance of a Pt(95%)Rh(5%)/γ-Al2O3...

This paper provides a simple model of corruption dynamics with the ratchet effect. Corrupt officials have ex post the incentive to price discriminate entrepreneurs based on the entry decisions made in an earlier period. The inability of government officials to commit to future money demands induces entrepreneurs to delay entry in order to receive a discount in the permit price later. Even thoug...

Unemployment insurance (UI) provides temporary income support to workers who have lost their jobs and are seeking reemployment. This paper reviews the origins of the federal-state UI system in the United States and outlines its principles and goals. It also describes the conditions for benefit eligibility, the benefits themselves, and their financing through the UI payroll tax. The UI system is...

We contrast effects of taxing non-renewable resources with the effects of traditional capital taxes and investment subsidies in an endogenous growth model. In a simple framework we demonstrate that when non-renewable resources are a necessary input in the sector where growth is ultimately generated, interest income taxes and investment subsidies can no longer affect the long-run growth rate, wh...

This paper shows that a small open economy, which suffers from involuntary unemployment, should levy a positive source-based tax on capital income. A revenue-neutral tax reform, which increases the capital tax rate and reduces the labour tax rate will induce firms to substitute labour for capital. Such a tax reform will lower marginal cost of production, increase output, reduce unemployment, an...

Article history: Received 29 June 2013 Received in revised form 18 November 2013 Accepted 19 November 2013 Available online 12 December 2013 Constructing a duopoly model with non-constant marginal costs and a strict Pareto criterion, this paper examines welfare effects of world-price-fixing tariff reductions accompanied by adjustments of a domestic tax. If a destination-based consumption tax is...