Flandes: pedra de toc de la identitat

Flandes gaudeix de poders de regulació cada vegada més amplis, però la tendència és a reclamar-ne més. L’interès se centra més en la integració cultural que no pas en els drets civils dels nouvinguts. Malgrat les restriccions d'entrada i les xifres relativament baixes d'immigració, la xenofòbia dels ciutadans i les actituds de rebuig van en augment

Optimal Taxation of Risky Human Capital

In a model with ex-ante homogenous households, earnings risk and a general earnings function, we derive the optimal linear labor tax rate and optimal linear education subsidies. The optimal income tax trades off social insurance against incentives to work and to invest in human capital. Education subsidies are not used for social insurance, but are only targeted at off-setting the distortions of the labor tax and internalizing a fiscal externality. Both optimal education subsidies and tax rates increase if labor and education are more complementary, since education subsidies indirectly lower labor tax distortions by stimulating labor supply. Optimal education subsidies (taxes) also correct non-tax distortions arising from missing insurance markets. Education subsidies internalize a positive (negative) fiscal externality if there is underinvestment (overinvestment) in education due to risk. Education policy unambiguously allows for more social insurance if education is a risky activity. However, if education hedges against labor market risk, optimal tax rates could be lower than without education subsidies.labor taxation, human capital investment, education subsidies, idiosyncratic risk, risk properties of human capital

On the Desirability of Taxing Capital Income in Optimal Social Insurance

This paper analyzes optimal linear taxes on labor income and savings in a two-period life cycle model with ex ante identical households, endogenous leisure demands in both periods, and general processes of skill shocks over the life cycle. We demonstrate that the Atkinson-Stiglitz theorem breaks down under risk. Capital taxes are employed besides labor income taxes for two distinct reasons: i) capital taxes reduce labor supply distortions on second-period labor supply, since second-period labor supply and saving are substitutes, ii) capital taxes insure first-period income risk, although this benefit is partially off-set because first-period labor supply and saving are complements. Our results imply that (retirement) saving should not be actuarially fair.Optimal Capital Taxation, Risk, Atkinson-Stiglitz theorem

Construction and Import of Ethnic Categorisations: “Allochthones” in The Netherlands and Belgium

Schematically one can distinguish two traditions related to ethnic statistics in Europe. In France, Germany and most southern European countries, the dominant statistical categorisations merely distinguish individuals on the basis of their nationality. In contrast, most northern European countries have been producing data on the ethnic and/or foreign origin of their populations. Belgium is caught somewhere in between these two traditions. The French speaking part of Belgium tends to follow the French tradition of refusing ethnic categorisation, while the Flemish (the Dutch speaking part) try to copy the Dutch model in distinguishing “allochthones” and “autochthones”. This contribution wants to offer an analysis of the construction of ethnic categories as it has been undertaken in the Dutch context. It equally wants to shed light on how the category of “allochthones” has been (partially) imported into the Belgian context and what the consequences are.Ethnic Categorisation, Statistics, “Allochthones”, the Netherlands, Belgium

Photon-Photon Interactions in Dynamically Coupled Cavities

We study theoretically the interaction between two photons in a nonlinear cavity. The photons are loaded into the cavity via a method we propose here, in which the input/output coupling of the cavity is effectively controlled via a tunable coupling to a second cavity mode that is itself strongly output-coupled. Incoming photon wave packets can be loaded into the cavity with high fidelity when the timescale of the control is smaller than the duration of the wave packets. Dynamically coupled cavities can be used to avoid limitations in the photon-photon interaction time set by the delay-bandwidth product of passive cavities. Additionally, they enable the elimination of wave packet distortions caused by dispersive cavity transmission and reflection. We consider three kinds of nonlinearities, those arising from $\chi^{\scriptscriptstyle(2)}$ and $\chi^{\scriptscriptstyle(3)}$ materials and that due to an interaction with a two-level emitter. To analyze the input and output of few-photon wave packets we use a Schr\"odinger-picture formalism in which travelling-wave fields are discretized into infinitesimal time-bins. We suggest that dynamically coupled cavities provide a very useful tool for improving the performance of quantum devices relying on cavity-enhanced light-matter interactions such as single-photon sources and atom-like quantum memories with photon interfaces. As an example, we present simulation results showing that high fidelity two-qubit entangling gates may be constructed using any of the considered nonlinear interactions

On the Desirability of Taxing Capital Income to Boost Social Insurance

This paper analyzes optimal linear taxes on labor income and savings in a standard two-period life-cycle model with endogenous leisure demands in both periods and non-insurable income risks. Households are subject to skill shocks in both periods of the life-cycle. We allow for completely general skill processes including those with persistence in skill shocks. We demonstrate that capital taxes are optimal since they reduce moral hazard in social insurance in two distinct ways: i) capital taxes reduce labor supply distortions on second-period labor supply, since second-period labor supply and saving are substitutes, ii) capital taxes reduce distortions in first-period labor supply by allowing for a lower level of labor taxes, although this effect is partially off-set because first-period labor supply and saving are complements. Capital taxes will be more attractive for social insurance if a larger part of risk is realized in the first period of the life-cycle. Our results suggest that taxing (retirement) saving is optimal to boost the retirement age and to reduce the tax-burden on working-age individuals

On the smallest poles of Igusa's p-adic zeta functions

Let K be a p-adic field. We explore Igusa's p-adic zeta function, which is associated to a K-analytic function on an open and compact subset of K^n. First we deduce a formula for an important coefficient in the Laurent series of this meromorphic function at a candidate pole. Afterwards we use this formula to determine all values less than -1/2 for n=2 and less than -1 for n=3 which occur as the real part of a pole.Comment: 27 page

Optimal Taxation of Risky Human Capital

In a model with ex-ante homogenous households, earnings risk and a general earnings function, we derive the optimal linear labor tax rate and optimal linear education subsidies. The optimal income tax trades off social insurance against incentives to work and to invest in human capital. Education subsidies are not used for social insurance, but are only targeted at off-setting the distortions of the labor tax and internalizing a fiscal externality. Both optimal education subsidies and tax rates increase if labor and education are more complementary, since education subsidies indirectly lower labor tax distortions by stimulating labor supply. Optimal education subsidies (taxes) also correct non-tax distortions arising from missing insurance markets. Education subsidies internalize a positive (negative) fiscal externality if there is underinvestment (overinvestment) in education due to risk. Education policy unambiguously allows for more social insurance if education is a risky activity. However, if education hedges against labor market risk, optimal tax rates could be lower than without education subsidies