Vulnerability,Risk Perception,and Health Profile of Marginalized People Exposed to Multiple Built‐Environment Stressors in Worcester,Massachusetts: A Pilot Project

Millions of low‐income people of diverse ethnicities inhabit stressful old urban industrial neighborhoods. Yet we know little about the health impacts of built‐environment stressors and risk perceptions in such settings; we lack even basic health profiles. Difficult access is one reason (it took us 30 months to survey 80 households); the lack of multifaceted survey tools is another. We designed and implemented a pilot vulnerability assessment tool in Worcester, Massachusetts. We answer: (1) How can we assess vulnerability to multiple stressors? (2) What is the nature of complex vulnerability—including risk perceptions and health profiles? (3) How can findings be used by our wider community, and what lessons did we learn? (4) What implications arise for science and policy? We sought a holistic picture of neighborhood life. A reasonably representative sample of 80 respondents captured data for 254 people about: demographics, community concerns and resources, time‐activity patterns, health information, risk/stress perceptions, and resources/capacities for coping. Our key findings derive partly from the survey data and partly from our experience in obtaining those data. Data strongly suggest complex vulnerability dominated by psychosocial stress. Unexpected significant gender and ethnic disease disparities emerged: notably, females have twice the disease burden of males, and white females twice the burden of females of color (p < 0.01). Self‐reported depression differentiated by gender and age is illustrative. Community based participatory research (CBPR) approaches require active engagement with marginalized populations, including representatives as funded partners. Complex vulnerability necessitates holistic, participatory approaches to improve scientific understanding and societal responses.     

Income tax evasion dynamics: Evidence from an agent-based econophysics model

We analyze income tax evasion dynamics in a standard model of statistical mechanics, the Ising model of ferromagnetism. However, in contrast to previous research, we use an inhomogeneous multi-dimensional Ising model where the local degrees of freedom (agents) are subject to a specific social temperature and coupled to external fields which govern their social behavior. This new modeling frame allows for analyzing large societies of four different and interacting agent types. As a second novelty, our model may reproduce results from agent-based models that incorporate standard Allingham and Sandmo tax evasion features as well as results from existing two-dimensional Ising based tax evasion models. In this way, such kind of models may become more relevant and useful in economics as well as social psychology. We finally use our model for analyzing income tax evasion dynamics under different enforcement scenarios and point to some policy implications that may also be of interest for psychological research on tax compliance.     

Empathy,sympathy, and tax compliance

This paper examines the effect of “empathy” and “sympathy” on tax compliance. We run a series of laboratory experiments in which we observe the subjects’ decisions in a series of one-shot Tax Compliance Games presented at once and with no immediate feedback. Importantly, we employ methods to identify subjects’ sympathy, such as the Davis Empathic Concern Scale and questions about frequency of prosocial behaviors; we also use priming in order to promote subjects’ empathy. Our results suggest that the presence of sympathy in most cases encourages more tax compliance. Our results also suggest that priming to elicit empathy also has a positive impact on tax compliance. These results support the inclusion of noneconomic factors in the analysis of tax compliance behavior.     

推定:事实真伪不明困境克服之优位选择

事实真伪不明困境的出现,是民事裁判者事实认定过程中不可回避的一种必然。学界普遍认为,克服该困境之正当手段是适用证明责任规则,但非依托于客观真实的该规则的适用,无法最大程度上满足民众对于实质公正价值的诉求,故其应为困境克服之"最后一根救命稻草"。作为事实认定特殊方法的推定,本质上是一种价值因素支配下对于基础事实和推定事实之间或然性常态联系的择优选择,具有哲学、逻辑学和法理上的合理性与正当性,较之证明责任规则应为困境克服之优位选择。然而,推定是一把双刃剑,其优位适用须满足特定条件,否则可能导致逻辑推理旗帜下的反逻辑灾难。     

医疗侵权的举证责任分配与利益衡量

对于民事案件的举证责任分配问题,各国都在一般规则之外赋予法官一定的裁量分配权力。我国2010年7月1日生效的《侵权责任法》,一改过去要求医院对其不存在医疗过错负举证责任的做法,有加重原告患者举证负担的嫌疑。这种新规定既不符合国际惯例,也不符合我国理论界和司法实务界的认知,有可能带来严重的社会问题。今后,司法实务界应根据举证责任分配的利益衡量理论,对《侵权责任法》的相关规定作出符合公平正义要求的解释。     

中国资本有效税收负担分析

研究资本的有效税收负担问题,对保持经济持续发展的税收政策调整、税收体制改革具有重要的现实意义。资本的有效税收负担有两种衡量办法:一是平均有效税负,体现的是资本税收对资本收益的影响;二是边际有效税负,体现的是边际税收楔子思想。实证分析结果表明,我国资本平均有效税负在5%~6%之间,资本的边际有效税负在24%~27%之间。由于我国的经济发展仍需要依靠增加投资来维持较高的增长速度,因此,影响投资意愿和投资规模的资本边际税负略显偏高。     

关于农民增收问题的几点思考

缩小城乡差距,增加农民收入,需要在减轻农民负担的同时,努力扩大我国具有竞争优势的农产品出口,增加农业基础建设的投入,实施科教兴农战略,积极发展农村非农产业,加快农村富余劳动力的转移,拓展农民增收渠道.     

关于农民增收减负途径的深层次思考--兼论农民增收减负的制度基础

农民增收减负问题是关系我国国民经济能否持续、快速、协调、健康发展的重大问题.近年来,国家实施了不少增收和减负的政策措施,但大多是治表之策,效果并不理想.实质上农民增收减负的治本之策在于农业制度创新,包括户籍制度创新、农地流转制度创新、农村财税体制创新、农业经营组织制度创新等.其中,农业经营组织制度创新是关键,其他制度创新是条件.只要制度创新能彻底到位,我国农民的增收和减负问题将能从根本上得以解决.     

个税自行纳税申报制度的实施条件及对策分析

实施个人所得税自行纳税申报应该具备一系列制度和环境条件,其中包括发达的税务代理业、浓厚的纳税意识、高效便捷的征管手段、个税制度设计的公平性和公共品的公平享受、健全的法律制度等。但是,这些条件在我国还不够完备。因此,应当尽快采取有效措施予以完善,才能保证个人所得税自行纳税申报制度的顺利实施。     

Misperception of chance and loss repair: On the dynamics of tax compliance

Previous experimental studies on tax behavior have been particularly concerned with determining the absolute effect of detection rate and punishment on tax filing, leading to mixed results. In this paper, we shed some additional light on the effectiveness of audit probability and sanctions by drawing upon a dynamic setting with particular focus on the time lag between audits. Our results showed that tax compliance decreased immediately after a random audit, suggesting that subjects were prone to misperception of chance. Sanctions decreased compliance to a lesser extent; they were, however, associated with the tendency of subjects to repair their losses by increasing their capital stock.