The challenges faced by four African economies : Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania, and the Sudan / 958

Includes bibliographical references

Excise taxes

The author contrasts excise taxes with sales taxes, consumption taxes, licenses, stamp, duties, and other indirect taxes. He describes different types of excises, their relative tax burdens, and how progressive and economically efficient they may be. The main argument for traditional excise taxes, he says, is that they yield substantial revenue with relatively little complaint. A second justification is that the cost of the excessive use of commodities is borne by the purchasers, not by society at large. A third argument is to penalize people for a commodity's use (especially popular with commodities such as alcohol). Arguments against traditional excises: they tend to be regressive, because of the low income elasticity of demand, and they place an unequal burden on families at given income levels. They deprive families of the funds for milk and other essential items, without reducing consumption of taxed goods. High rates tend to increase smuggling and illicit production, often of inferior, even dangerous, substitutes. And the case for them is not strong, resting as it often does on moral grounds. But excise taxes are sure to continue as they yield revenues and are generally more acceptable than other sources of revenue, such as income taxes. Taxes on motor fuel and related motor vehicle levies are among the three most productive excises. They are justified as a charge for the use of roads, in lieu of tolls. In Western Europe, they are seen as progressive, as reaching the people most able to pay -- and incidentally as reducing road congestion. Criticism of such taxes centers on how best to attain desired goals -- for example, sorting out the relative burdens on light and heavy vehicles. Luxury excises tend to be applied to commodities and services with a high income-elasticity of demand, the assumption being that they will reach the people best able to pay them -- achieving equity without relying on increased income taxes, which are difficult to enforce in developing countries and hurt incentives. A luxury excise tax, limited to certain items, is viewed as being progressive, which a sales tax rarely is. But if various rates apply, compliance and administration become complex, and consumers may discriminate among closely related commodities. Moreover, the goods taxed are often widely used by lower income groups (sugar and kerosene are prime examples). For these reasons, many countries are introducing sales taxes, with few rates or a single rate (with exemptions), with simplified processing, and with less ambiguity about what is or is not taxed.Environmental Economics&Policies,Public Sector Economics&Finance,Municipal Financial Management,Urban Economics,Economic Theory&Research

Program for the 19th Annual John F. Sonnett Memorial Lecture Series: Legal Remedies Against the Council\u27s Failure to Act

Program for Legal Remedies Against the Council\u27s Failure to Act by Judge Ole Due, President of the European Court of Justice (1988-1994).https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/events_programs_sonnett_miscellaneous/1005/thumbnail.jp

John F. Sonnett Memorial Lecture Series: Legal Remedies Against the Council\u27s Failure to Act

Lecture by President Ole Due of the European Court of Justice (1988-1994), regarding judicial activism in Europe and the United States. Includes biography and speaker introduction.https://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/events_programs_sonnet_lectures/1004/thumbnail.jp

The King

In lieu of an abstract, below is the essay\u27s first paragraph. \u27Meow,\u27 I say as I patiently wait for my owner to change the litter box. Ah, what a life! I have to do nothing. I can simply lay around and play and eat and sleep if that\u27s what I chose to do. What could be better? Wait, I think I hear her coming, my owner that is. She is a nice enough person

Tax evasion and labour supply in Norway in 2003: Structural models versus flexible functional form models

A Box-Cox structural utility model is estimated on tax evasion survey data and it is shown that this model gives a better representation of individual utility maximizing behavior than a flexible model, represented by a polynomial of degree 3. It is found that an overall wage increase has a positive impact on hours worked in the regular part of the economy and a negative impact on hours work in the irregular part

Construction Tender Subcontract Selection using Case-based Reasoning

Obtaining competitive quotations from suitably qualified subcontractors at tender tim n significantly increase the chance of w1nmng a construction project. Amidst an increasingly growing trend to subcontracting in Australia, selecting appropriate subcontractors for a construction project can be a daunting task requiring the analysis of complex and dynamic criteria such as past performance, suitable experience, track record of competitive pricing, financial stability and so on. Subcontractor selection is plagued with uncertainty and vagueness and these conditions are difficul_t o represent in generalised sets of rules. DeciSIOns pertaining to the selection of subcontr:act?s tender time are usually based on the mtu1t1onand past experience of construction estimators. Case-based reasoning (CBR) may be an appropriate method of addressing the chal_lenges of selecting subcontractors because CBR 1s able to harness the experiential knowledge of practitioners. This paper reviews the practicality and suitability of a CBR approach for subcontractor tender selection through the development of a prototype CBR procurement advisory system. In this system, subcontractor selection cases are represented by a set of attributes elicited from experienced construction estimators. The results indicate that CBR can enhance the appropriateness of the selection of subcontractors for construction projects

Mapping the Health Experiences of Australians Who Were Female Assigned at Birth But Who Now Identify with a Different Gender Identity

Copyright 2013 Föreningen Lambda Nordica. Published version of the paper reproduced here with permission from the publisher