Mental accounting of income tax and value added tax among self-employed business owners

Mental accounting describes a series of cognitive operations that help organize financial activities and facilitate money management. Self-employed taxpayers who make use of a separate mental account for future income tax payments or collected value added tax (VAT) might find it easier to declare their taxes correctly than taxpayers who do not. This study used a questionnaire to investigate whether self-employed taxpayers (N = 350) use mental accounting to manage their income tax and VAT obligations, whether mental accounting relates to tax knowledge, business and personality characteristics, and to what extent mental accounting is related to intended tax behavior. Our results reveal that some taxpayers mentally segregate taxes from turnover (segregators) while others do not (integrators). We found small differences in mental accounting between income taxes and VAT. Moreover, confirmatory factor analyses suggested that tax knowledge and mental accounting are distinct constructs. Segregation of taxes was related to lower impulsivity and more positive attitudes toward taxation. Individuals who stated they segregate taxes due from turnover more often claimed to run financially prosperous businesses. Mental accounting was not related to intentions of evading taxes, but individuals with higher mental accounting scores reported more pronounced levels of tax planning. While our research design does not allow drawing causal inferences, these findings could suggest that increasing self-employed taxpayers’ ability to organize their financial activities might be a promising strategy to strengthen the competitiveness of their businesses.     

The effect of compliance-improving interventions on the cognitive-behavioural treatment of pathological gambling

This exploratory study investigated the effect of interventions designed to improve compliance and reduce dropout rates during the outpatient treatment of pathological gambling at a University-based gambling treatment clinic. Forty subjects (29 males, 11 females, mean age = 37.6) meeting DSM-IV criteria (APA, 1994) for pathological gambling were randomly assigned to either a cognitive-behavioural treatment or a cognitive-behavioural treatment combined with interventions designed to improve treatment compliance. Compliance was indicated by the completion of all treatment sessions. Outcome measures were DSM-IV criteria assessed by structured clinical interview, South Oaks Gambling Screen scores, and percentage of income gambled. Logistic regression analyses identified pretreatment characteristics predicting compliance and outcome. Compliance-improving interventions significantly reduced dropout rates, resulting in superior outcomes at posttreatment compared to the cognitive behavioural treatment alone. At 9-month follow-up, there was no difference in outcome between treatments, although both produced clinically significant change. Comorbid problem drinking, drug use, and problem gambling duration predicted poor compliance. Poor outcome was predicted by comorbid problem drinking. The clinical implications of these results are discussed in light of the exploratory nature of the study and the need for future research to address compliance, outcome, and comorbidity issues.     

Does fairness matter in tax reporting behavior?

Experimental results show that taxpayers who receive no public transfer generally perceive their exchange equity with the government to be less equitable than taxpayers who receive a public transfer. Furthermore, the effect of the public transfer on reported income depends on the extent to which the taxpayers use the perception of equity in their tax reporting decisions. Subjects who perceive equity to be important in their tax reporting decisions report more income when they receive a public transfer, but report less income when they receive no public transfer, as predicted by equity theory. In contrast, subjects who perceive equity to be less important in their tax reporting decisions act directionally consistent with the economic effect. That is, taxpayers who receive no public transfer tend to report more income than those who receive a public transfer.     

Causal Proportional Hazards Models and Time-constant Exposure in Randomized Clinical Trials

The last decade saw enormous progress in the development of causal inference tools to account for noncompliance in randomized clinical trials. With survival outcomes, structural accelerated failure time (SAFT) models enable causal estimation of effects of observed treatments without making direct assumptions on the compliance selection mechanism. The traditional proportional hazards model has however rarely been used for causal inference. The estimator proposed by Loeys and Goetghebeur (2003, Biometrics vol. 59 pp. 100–105) is limited to the setting of all or nothing exposure. In this paper, we propose an estimation procedure for more general causal proportional hazards models linking the distribution of potential treatment-free survival times to the distribution of observed survival times via observed (time-constant) exposures. Specifically, we first build models for observed exposure-specific survival times. Next, using the proposed causal proportional hazards model, the exposure-specific survival distributions are backtransformed to their treatment-free counterparts, to obtain – after proper mixing – the unconditional treatment-free survival distribution. Estimation of the parameter(s) in the causal model is then based on minimizing a test statistic for equality in backtransformed survival distributions between randomized arms.     

Framing of information on the use of public finances, regulatory fit of recipients and tax compliance

Information campaigns to increase tax compliance could be framed in different ways. They can either highlight the potential gains when tax compliance is high, or the potential losses when compliance is low. According to regulatory focus theory, such framing should be most effective when it is congruent with the promotion or prevention focus of its recipients. Two studies confirmed the hypothesized interaction effects between recipients’ regulatory focus and framing of information campaigns, with tax compliance being highest under conditions of regulatory fit. To address taxpayers effectively, information campaigns by tax authorities should consider the positive and negative framing of information, and the moderating effect of recipients’ regulatory focus.     

Compliance Strategies under Permits for Emissions

We characterize the trade‐offs among firms' compliance strategies in a market‐based program where a regulator interested in controlling emissions from a given set of sources auctions off a fixed number of emissions permits. We model a three‐stage game in which firms invest in emissions abatement, participate in a share auction for permits, and produce output. We develop a methodology for a profit‐maximizing firm to derive its marginal value function for permits and translate this value function into an optimal bidding strategy in the auction. We analyze two end‐product market scenarios independent demands and Cournot competition. In both scenarios we find that changing the number of available permits influences abatement to a lesser extent in a dirty industry than in a cleaner one. In addition, abatement levels taper off with increasing industry dirtiness levels. In the presence of competition, firms in a relatively clean industry can, in fact, benefit from a reduction in the number of available permits. Our findings are robust to changes in certain modeling assumptions.     

廊下派政治哲学的三个维度

哲学史研究通常轻视甚至忽视廊下派的政治哲学。其实,廊下派哲学不仅有政治性,而且包含三个鲜明的政治维度：普适性、保留性以及顺从性。廊下派认为世上所有智者乃至常人都是或应当生活在同一个城邦之中,彼此互爱并受共同律法的支配。作为社会动物的人不只是理想城邦的公民,他还有义务“有所保留地”参与实际的政治生活。不过,廊下派尤其是罗马廊下派宣称现实的国家政制在很大程度上是命运的结果,因而人应该对它首先表示顺从。其中,普适性最决定性地构成了廊下派对传统城邦政治以及古典政治哲学的超越。廊下派通过暗中接续智术师的政治信念,为近现代的启蒙思潮铺平了道路。     

Social Control of Healthy Behavior Between Intimate College Students

Abstract

Objective: The author examined whether the type of intimacy (ie, emotional, intellectual, sexual, social, recreational) featured in college students’ romantic relationships affects the extent to which a partner's health-related behavior may be influenced by a variety of behavior change appeals. Participants: One hundred and thirteen female and 94 male college students were surveyed. Methods: A questionnaire sought demographic information and included 2 scales to determine intimacy type levels and estimated responses to behavior change appeals. Results: It was determined that emotional and intellectual intimacy had the greatest effects on compliance estimates. The liking strategy was rated as generally most effective, whereas caring fared better in highly intimate relationships, and both threat and responsibility appeals functioned better in relationships featuring lower levels of intimacy. Conclusions: When appropriately qualified as initial findings, the outcomes may suggest routes to successfully inspiring particular health behavior changes, especially among partners in emotionally and intellectually intimate relationships.     

Power,justice, and trust: A moderated mediation analysis of tax compliance among Ethiopian business owners

We explored the moderating roles of legitimate and coercive power held by the tax authority in the relationship between procedural justice, trust in the tax authority, and voluntary tax compliance. Drawing from fairness heuristic theory and the slippery slope framework of tax compliance, we predicted that procedural justice fosters voluntary tax compliance, particularly when legitimate power of the tax authority is low and when coercive power of the authority is high. Moreover, we predicted that these interactive effects are mediated by (cognition-based) trust. Finally, we predicted that coercive power of the tax authority is positively related with enforced tax compliance. The results of a field study among Ethiopian business owners supported most predictions. This research is among the first to integrate social–psychological and deterrence-related factors to understand tax compliance behavior in a developing country.     

Elements of a quality assurance program for pharmaceutical research & development 1

The four major considerations for a pharmaceutical R&D quality program are discussed—protection of resources, compliance, documentation, fitness for use. Viewing R&D as an enterprise necessitates that R&D be seen as making products—data, analysis and interpretation. The applicability of the quality program to these products is discussed.