Tax Evasion in Kenya and Tanzania:Evidence from Missing Imports

In this paper we estimate the amount of tax evasion in customs authorities in both Kenya and Tanzania by calculating measurement errors in reported trade flows between the two countries and correlate those errors with tax rates. We find that the measurement error is correlated with the tax rates in both Kenya and Tanzania. According to the Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index, Kenya is more corrupt than Tanzania, but we find that the coefficient on tax is higher in Tanzania compared to Kenya implying that tax evasion on imported goods is higher in Tanzania compared to the Kenya. We also introduced a third country into our analysis, the United Kingdom, and tax evasion seems to be more severe in trade flows between Kenya and Tanzania compared to trade flows between the United Kingdom and Kenya/Tanzania. Finally we also find that the tax evasion coefficient is lower in the Kenya-United Kingdom case compared to the Tanzanian-United Kingdom case which supports our previous finding that tax evasion is more severe in the Tanzanian customs authority.Tax evasion; corruption; trade; Kenya; Tanzania

Do Startups in the Agricultural Sector Generate Employment in the Rest of the Economy? - An Arellano-Bond Dynamic Panel Study

By means of an Arellano-Bond dynamic panel data study of Swedish data over 1993-2004, it is concluded that startups in the agricultural and forestry sector may cause startups in the remaining sectors of the Swedish economy. Thus, new entries in the agricultural and forestry sector may lead to dynamic effects, which may lead to employment in completely other sectors of the economy. The agricultural and forestry small-business sector is therefore a very important factor in the quest to reduce unemployment and to increase the economic growth in Sweden. Another important finding, outside of the main purpose of this paper, is that the per capita propensity to start a new firm is significantly higher in rural areas compared to urban areas. Consequently, people in rural areas are more entrepreneurial per capita (in the context of starting new firms) compared to the population living in urban areas. A substantially high fraction of the rural population faces the forced option of unemployment or self-employment. However, fortunately, a disproportionally high share of the rural population chooses the latter alternative

Firm formation in rural and urban regions explained by demographical structure

In this paper we focus on the question of how population demography influences firm formation. In particular, we focus on this question with respect to the presence of differences between urban and rural areas, and if the demographical structure is a significant factor that can explain regional variation in firm formation? In the empirical analysis we perform a cross-sectional analysis where we use data on municipalities in Sweden. Furthermore, we make a distinction between the two types of regions in the Swedish economy (rural and urban) in order to analyze how these areas differs from each other with respect to our specific question of how population demography influences firm formation in rural and urban areas. By the use of spatial regression models the results show that households in the age where we can assume they have small children have a negative effect on the propensity of firm formation, households that are in the retirement age have a positive effect on the propensity of firm formation. We also find that rurality have a positive effect on firm formation. Our results correspond to other studies in the area with respect to a positive correlation between firm formation and age

A note on the Sumerian expression SI-ge4-de3/dam

The expression SI-ge4-dam/de3 appears in some of the loan documents of the Ur III period where it was used to establish the interest rate or the loan fee. In addition, it is sometimes preceded by ki-ba 'in its/this place/ground' or, in some cases, ma2 -a 'in the boat'. The regular verb SI.g was closely related, perhaps even synonymous with, the reduplication verb ḡar/ḡa2-ḡa2 'to put' or 'to place'. While it may be concluded that SI-ge4-dam/de3 had nothing to do with the verb si 'to fill' or gi4 'to return', the correct analysis of the expression remains somewhat uncertain. The article proposes that the SI should be read se and understood as a phonetic writing for the regular verb se3.g 'to put', 'to place'. The combination of the verb with the ki-ba may suggest that a more parochial form of keeping products existed side by side with the large centralized granaries and storehouses of the city.La expresión SI-ge4-dam/de3 aparece en algunos contratos de préstamo del período de Ur III, donde se empleaba para determinar el interés de dicho préstamo. Por otra parte, este término se hallaba a veces precedido de ki-ba 'en su/este lugar/suelo', y en algunos casos por ma2 -a 'en la barca'. El verbo regular SI.g está muy relacionado (quizás es incluso sinónimo) con el verbo de la clase de la reduplicación ḡar/ḡa2-ḡa2 'poner' o 'colocar'. Mientras que puede concluirse que SI-ge4-dam/de3 no tiene nada que ver con el verbo si 'llenar', ni con gi4 'regresar, devolver', el análisis correcto de la expresión sigue siendo, de algún modo, incierto. En el artículo se propone que SI puede leerse como se , entendiéndolo como una escritura fonética del verbo regular se3.g 'poner', 'colocar'. La combinación del verbo con ki-ba podría indicar que, junto a los grandes graneros y almacenes centrales de la ciudad, había un modo distinto y más modesto de conservar los productos

Death of a salesman by Arthur Miller

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Boston Universit

Performance of distributed information systems

There is an increasing use of distributed computer systems to provide services in both traditional telephony as well as in the Internet. Two main technologies are Distributed Object Computing (DOC) and Web based services. One common DOC architecture investigated in this thesis is the Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), specified by the Object Management Group. CORBA applications consist of interacting software components called objects. Two other DOC architectures investigated are the Telecommunications Information Net- working Architecture (TINA) and a CORBA based Intelligent Network (IN/CORBA) system. In a DOC environment, the objects of an application are distributed on mul- tiple nodes. A middleware layer makes the distribution transparent to the application. However, the distributed nature creates a number of potential performance problems. Three problems in DOC systems are examined in this thesis: object distribution, load balancing and overload protection. An object distribution describes how objects are distributed in the network. The objective is to distribute the objects on the physical nodes in such a way that intern-node communication overhead is as small as possible. One way to solve the object distribution problem is to use linear programming. The constraints for the problem are then given by both ease of management of the system and performance concerns. Load balancing is used when there are multiple objects that can be used at a particular time. The objective of load balancing is to distribute the load e±ciently on the available nodes. This thesis investigates a number of de- centralized load balancing mechanisms, including one based on the use of intelligent agents. Finally, overload protection mechanisms for DOC systems are investigated. While overload protection is well-researched for telecom networks, only little work has been performed previously concerning DOC and overload protection. Also, this thesis examines the use of overload protection in e-commerce web servers. Two schemes are compared, one which handles admission to the e-commerce site on request basis, and another which handles admission on session basis. The session based mechanism is shown to be better in terms of user-experienced performance