Researchers have utilized the fact that many states have term limits (as opposed to being eligible for re-election) for governors to determine how changes in electoral incentives alter state regulatory agency behavior. This paper asks whether these impacts spill over into private sector...

On 3 December EY hosted a SUERF conference on banking reform with Sir Howard Davies, the Chairman of RBS, and Dame Colette Bowe, the Chairman of the Banking Standards Board, as the two keynote speakers. Professor David Miles (Imperial College) gave the SUERF 2015 Annual Lecture on Capital and...

An extensive literature has analyzed the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) legislation enacted in 2002, but its social welfare consequences remain controversial. One of the most significant provisions of SOX – auditor attestation of internal controls under Section 404(b) – has been applied only to firms...

There is only limited evidence of how small firms respond to size-based regulations applied in various countries. We study this question by examining the value-added tax (VAT) threshold in Finland. We find sizable bunching of firms in the sales distribution just below the exemption threshold,...

How to fight petty day-to-day corruption is a question often debated by politicians, by the public and in the economic literature. Early studies have noted that a simple and well-known way to fight day-to-day corruption is to create competition among corrupt officials. This paper shows that even...

We consider a political economy model in which agents have the possibility to hide part of their earnings in order to avoid taxation. Taxation is exclusively used to finance a pension system. If the pension system is implemented, agents in their old age receive a benefit which includes both a...

Small and medium sized enterprises account for over 99% of all companies in Eu-ropean Union and have very important position in the EU economy in the area of growth and employment. However, they face great deal of obstacles, such as com-pliance costs of taxation, 28 different tax systems in...

Die Angemessenheit von Bankenregulierung wird aktuell in Wissenschaft und Praxis intensiv diskutiert. Bankwirtschaftliche ComplianceVorgaben sind dabei ein wichtiger Bestandteil der Debatte und rücken zunehmend in den Vordergrund. Viele kleine und mittlere Banken, zu denen auch viele...

Die Auswirkungen der Bankenregulierung auf die Kreditinstitute sind in der genossenschaftlichen FinanzGruppe ein sehr intensiv diskutiertes Thema. Es besteht die Befürchtung, dass ein unproportionaler regulatorischer Markteingriff die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit von regional aufgestellten Banken...

As documented by empirical research, tax compliance costs are a considerable burden for private businesses. However, cost estimates may be biased due to survey non-response and questionnaire framing effects. This paper investigates the impact of both aspects on cost estimates. We do not find...

There is only limited evidence of how small firms respond to size-based regulations applied in various countries. We study this question by examining the value-added tax (VAT) threshold in Finland. We find sizable bunching of firms in the sales distribution just below the exemption threshold,...

Researchers have utilized the fact that many states have term limits (as opposed to being eligible for re-election) for governors to determine how changes in electoral incentives alter state regulatory agency behavior. This paper asks whether these impacts spill over into private sector...

An extensive literature has analyzed the Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) legislation enacted in 2002, but its social welfare consequences remain controversial. One of the most significant provisions of SOX – auditor attestation of internal controls under Section 404(b) – has been applied only to firms...

We examine the optimal rules of origin (ROO) in a free trade area/agreement (FTA). We incorporate compliance costs of the ROO into the model. In particular, compliance costs are higher for a firm located in a non-member country of the FTA than for a firm located in an FTA member country,...

The United States is increasing its share in global production of olive oil along with other “New World†producers. Recently, the state of California, where most of the olive oil in the US is produced, approved new regulations governing the grades of olive oil, labeling, methods of...

Die in Folge der Wirtschafts- und Finanzkrise kontinuierlich steigenden regulatorischen Anforderungen an die Kreditwirtschaft resultieren in einer erhöhten Kostenbelastung durch die Implementierung und laufende Erfüllung zusätzlicher Bestimmungen. Da bürokratischen Anforderungen...

We consider a political economy model in which agents have the possibility to hide part of their earnings in order to avoid taxation. Taxation is exclusively used to finance a pension system. If the pension system is implemented, agents in their old age receive a benefit which includes both a...

How to fight petty day-to-day corruption is a question often debated by politicians, by the public and in the economic literature. Early studies have noted that a simple and well-known way to fight day-to-day corruption is to create competition among corrupt officials. This paper shows that even...

This paper critically examines a number of issues relating to the measurement of tax complexity. It starts with an analysis of the concept of tax complexity, distinguishing tax design complexity and operational complexity. It considers the consequences/costs of complexity, and then examines the...

Taxation has several significant excess burdens, including enforcement costs, compliance costs, and deadweight losses. Most estimates find that raising a dollar of tax revenue costs much more than a dollar. Unfortunately, commonly used public finance textbooks do not integrate these costs into...

Our paper provides a comprehensive report of empirical research on tax compliance costs. Compared to previous reviews, our focus is on average costs for sub-groups (individual taxpayers, small businesses, large businesses) and the composition of the cost burden with regards to different cost...

This paper explores the feasibility to extend the Standard Cost Model (SCM) for calculating the costs of government regulation by taking all transaction costs into account which stem from the principal/agent relationship between regulatory authorities and economic entities. From that perspective...

Enste and Wicher suggest that political regulation is always wealth-reducing. However, their analysis neglects various relevant determinants of the wealth indicator. Economic wealth cannot be estimated from the quantity of regulation, as quality and other aspects matter. Hence, political acumen...