Economic burden of tuberculosis and its coping mechanism at the household level in Pakistan

Despite the availability of free medicines under the Directly Observed Treatment Short-course (DOTS) strategy, the treatment of tuberculosis (TB) still involves high costs that push people into poverty. This study aims to assess the resulting economic burden of TB and examine the coping mechanisms practiced at the household level in Pakistan. A cross-sectional study was conducted at TB centers by interviewing 269 patients. Statistical tests and binary logistic regression were used to explore the relationship between catastrophic health expenditures (CHE) and socio-economic factors. Results show that the incidence and intensity of CHE were higher for households in the lower income-quintile. Several coping strategies were practiced and varied among the different income-quintiles. The independent determinants of CHE were as follows: age >40 years, male-patient, location, earner-ratio, patient as the earner, caretaker visits, treatment delay, and co-morbidity. It is recommended that health policymakers develop post-MDGs TB-control strategies to ensure free TB-services with financial protection around the globe.     

财税政策促进中小微企业发展的有效性分析--以绍兴市为例

中小微企业的发展不管是对就业、创新，还是对经济发展都非常重要，但中小微企业的健康发展也需要政府财税政策的支持。以员工增长率、总资产增长率、销售收入增长率、息税前利润率等四项指标作为财税政策支持中小微企业发展效果的检验变量，以绍兴市的中小微企业为观测样本，通过非参数检验方法论证并证实了不同组别四个检验变量的分布存在显著差异，说明财税政策有效地促进中小微企业发展。     

基于碳减排技术的竞争供应链投资均衡策略研究

本文以两条竞争供应链（每条供应链均包含一个制造商和一个零售商）为研究对象，基于其是否采用碳减排技术，构建了两条供应链均不采用碳减排技术（NN情景）、供应链1采用碳减排技术（AN情景），供应链2采用碳减排技术（NA情景），及两条供应链均采用碳减排技术（AA情景）的收益模型，求解出相应的最优解并探讨了竞争供应链投资碳减排技术的均衡策略。研究发现：当碳税较低时，AA情景是竞争供应链的均衡策略；当碳税适中时，生产成本较高的供应链不采用减排技术，而其竞争供应链将采用减排技术以提升竞争力；当碳税较高时，NN情景是竞争供应链的均衡策略。此外，当供应链间竞争强度较弱时，政府可适当提高碳税标准；当供应链间竞争较为激烈时，政府应降低碳税以引导企业采用碳减排技术。     

税收政策支持养老服务业发展的国际比较及启示

在《关于推进养老服务发展的意见》中,国务院强调了政府对养老服务发展的支持。在此背景下,政府如何以税收政策支持本国养老服务的发展？是降低企业所得税、个人所得税及相关税种税率,还是根据我国现代税收制度和现实国情搭建有效的养老税收政策体系呢？文章分析了三个具有代表性的国家、地区的养老服务业的发展状况,各国养老税收政策演进与变迁的路径及其内容与特点,进而提出了我国近期养老税收政策的方向。     

环保税制下政府规制对企业减排的影响——基于演化博弈的分析

以新环保税制为背景,将环境保护税与政府其他环境规制行为结合起来,运用演化博弈理论,研究地方政府与排污企业的策略互动行为,并将公众举报纳入政府收益函数当中。基于地方政府及排污企业不同策略间净收益的大小,得到12种演化路径,以此为基础将企业减排创新的过程分为发展、成长和成熟期进行数值仿真。结果表明:政府监管强度对企业减排的影响程度视后者减排净收益大小而定,而前者强弱与否主要取决于监管成本的高低;企业减排发展初期过低的环保税率并不会引致企业进行减排技术创新;减排成长期的企业进行减排创新的决策则视政府策略而定;处于成熟期的减排企业则会主动进行减排技术创新。因此,在多种规制工具并行的前提下,政府应视企业所处发展周期的不同制定环保税率,同时辅以一定的税收减免和补贴力度,以降低企业治污成本,促使排污企业在生产过程中向减排技术创新演化。     

试论金代的桑税

金代桑税渊源于辽和北宋的桑税制度.金代在继承辽宋桑税制度的同时,也进一步发展了自己的桑税制度.这表现为:一方面金代两税中的全部税绢都依据桑税征收,从而提高了它在两税中的地位;另一方面金代确立了旨在规定民户最低桑税额的桑地制度.金代桑税并非"户调",而是金代土地税的基本内容,也是金代两税的重要组成部分.     

城镇职工基本养老保险税预测研究——以浙江省为例

在当前经济形势下，逐步开征基本养老保险税是实现缓解各省养老保险基金缺口、减轻企业负担以及推进养老保险全国统筹三者协调发展的重要决策。本文以浙江省为例，基于2005-2016年的历史数据，对有关参数进行线性拟合分析并加以合理设定，对税率和养老金替代率分别按高中低和高低进行假设，形成六种方案进行测算。研究发现当养老金替代率为35%，税率为14%（方案五）时，基础养老金收支平衡比较稳定；进一步研究发现浙江省未来30年内养老保险社会统筹基金的平均税率为1256%，同时基本养老保险税率降低可为正在试点中的长期护理保险制度留出发展空间。进而本文对我国养老保险税制提出相应的配套政策建议。     

Effective tax rates and firm size in Ethiopia

The literature on Effective Tax Rates (ETRs) focuses on high‐ and middle‐income countries, but there is very little evidence on low‐income countries. This article addresses this gap with new evidence from Ethiopia. We investigate corporate ETRs in Ethiopia and whether the distributional effects they have in practice are in line with the corporate tax policy design. We calculate ETRs in line with the literature in this field, using profit tax at the numerator and gross profit at the denominator. We then analyse ETRs not only using panel data, focusing particularly on their relation to firm size, but also including other explanatory variables. Our main result is that, despite a proportional tax rate, small firms face a higher effective tax burden than larger firms, while middle‐sized firms face the lowest burden of all. We highlight that tax systems can have practical implications that differ largely from their policy design, due to compliance costs and imperfect enforcement. Measures to reduce compliance costs for small firms are particularly recommended.     

Work performance and tax compliance in flat and progressive tax systems

Different tax systems, and their impact on work motivation and tax compliance are significant issues in contemporary political and economic debates. The proportional feature of a flat tax system is assumed to lead to higher performance, while the fairness of the redistributive progressive tax system is assumed to result in higher tax compliance. However, empirical findings on the topic are inconclusive. Both work performance and tax compliance under different tax systems were examined in an experiment, with special attention devoted to the effect of a change in tax systems. A flat tax system was supposed to induce greater work performance, whereas a progressive tax system was expected to increase tax compliance based on fairness perceptions, allowing for the opposite effect due to higher complexity. Furthermore, it was assumed that performance and tax payments would be influenced by motives of self-interest. The design included 20 rounds with a real-effort task in each round, determining participants’ experimental income. Participants (N = 191) made decisions about their tax payments from round-to-round in four different experimental conditions: (1) a flat tax system, (2) a progressive tax system, (3) starting with a flat and changing to a progressive, and (4) starting with a progressive and changing to a flat tax system. Results indicate higher work performance in a progressive system. However, a change from a progressive tax system to a flat system led to increased tax compliance.