This paper shows an estimate of the fiscal capacity of the municipalities in Mexico from two alternatives: a Macrofórmula based on the local GDP per capita (for 1.954 municipalities) and our approximation (for 1.461 municipalities) for a Representative Revenue System (RRS), Which is obtained...

The aim of this paper is to provide new empirical evidence about the determinants of per capita income in African countries, with particular attention to the affects of governance institutional quality and sub regional integration on income level. We use a sample of 49 countries from the period...

In this paper we apply a semi-parametric approach (quantile regression - QR) to the last 2007 wave of the EU-SILC data set, in order to explore the connection between education and wage inequality in 8 European countries. We find that wages increase with education and this holds true across the...

Benefit reductions will likely be a part of the eventual Social Security reform in the United States. This research attempts to quantify the intragenerational and intergenerational impacts of different benefit reduction proposals on the incomes of the elderly. Reforms include across-the-board...

Pakistan’s pension system is in the process of increasing funding in anticipation of providing for a growing elderly population. The pension assets are mainly invested domestically, as it was just in January 2007 that regulations changed to allow the purchase of international assets. In this...

With countries from around the world set to meet in Copenhagen to try to hammer out a post-2012 climate change agreement, no one would disagree that a U.S. commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions is essential to such a global pact. However, despite U.S. president Obama’s recent announcement...

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) expansion affects labor supply and hence wages through changes in marginal tax rates (MTRs). This paper describes the effects of the 1993 EITC expansion on MTRs experienced by unmarried women. To demonstrate changes in MTRs, I use variation in the federal and...

This short paper shows that the Allais Paradox and the Common Ratio Effect regarded as classic examples of the violation of the Expected Utility Theory Axioms – may be easily explained by assuming that changes in wealth (i.e. gains and losses) are perceived in relative terms. The preference...

The Vietnam Living Standard Surveys (VLSS) are supposed to be representative of the entire population in Vietnam. However, we uncover an anomaly that the amount of remittances received from domestic sources is significantly larger than the amount of remittances sent to domestic sources, implying...

We seek to analyze a number of important issues related to the ownership of government pensions. In the United States, Social Security is operated on a pay-as-you-go basis, with some limited pre-funding to prepare for the baby boom retirement. Moving toward more of a defined contribution system...