A self-employed taxpayer experimental study on trust,power,and tax compliance in eleven countries

The slippery slope framework explains tax compliance along two main dimensions,trust in authorities and power of authorities,which influence taxpayers’compliance attitudes.Through frequentist and Bayesian analyses,we investigated the framework’s assumptions on a sample of 2786 self-employed taxpayers from eleven post-communist and non-post-communist countries doing business in five economic branches.After using scenarios that experimentally manipulated trust and power,our results confirmed the framework’s assumptions regarding the attitudes of the self-employed taxpayers;trust and power fostered intended tax compliance and diminished tax evasion,trust boosted voluntary tax compliance,whereas power increased enforced tax compliance.Additionally,self-employed taxpayers from post-communist countries reported higher intended tax compliance and lower tax evasion than those from non-post-communist countries.Our results offer tax authorities insights into how trust and power may contribute to obtaining and maintaining high tax compliance levels amid global economic challenges,downturns,and increasing tax compliance costs.

Education and Employment （2005-2009） A Comparative Analysis Between the Spanish and Foreign Working Population

Spain became a net receiver country of a high number of foreigners entering the labour market in the first decade of the 21 st century. The ensuing economic crisis, beginning in 2007, led to the destruction of a large number of companies and jobs. The objective of this paper is to analyze the relationship between educational level, employment and economic activity, in the Spanish and foreign working population in the Spanish labour market and the impact that the economic crisis is having on employment and self-employment. The hypotheses considered have been as followed--HI： The economic crisis mainly affects the less educated working population, both Spanish and foreign; H2： Self-employment is characterized by being an initiative of a working population with low educational levels for both population groups （Spanish and foreign）; H3： Employment is related to the productive economic structure. Micro-data from the Labour Force Survey 2009 （EPA in Spanish） has been used, compiled by Spains National Statistics Office （INE in Spanish）, and it has been applied Multiple Correspondence Analysis （MCA） to detect possible associations among the study variables （nationality, level of education, salaried employment, self-employment and economic activity）. The results show significant differences between both groups： Spanish and foreign working population. The study also shows how the crisis affects employment, and the important role played by the educational level of the working population, especially foreigners employed in certain economic activities.

Estimating the Relative Level of Minimum Wage in China

It is generally believed in existing literature that China＇s minimum wage is too low and must be raised substantially. Such a view is highly misleading given the inconsistent statistical standards for minimum and average wages. In order to ensure comparability, this paper has adjusted the statistical scope for minimum and average wages respectively. If employees of urban private and self-employed businesses are included in calculating the average wage, the minimum-to-average wage ratio will increase by about 0.06; if the minimum wage standards of various localities include personal contributions to social insurance and the housing fund, the minimum-to-average wage ratio will increase by 0.008; if overtime pay is deducted from the average wage, the minimum-to-average wage ratio will further increase by around O. 06.In addition, if the median wage is used in place of the average wage, the minimum-to-average wage ratio will increase by at least 0.08. After these adjustments, China＇s minimum-to-average wage ratio for 2013 will increase from 0.28 to 0.49, which is within the range of between 0.40 and 0.60 that is recognized internationally as reasonable. Our analysis suggests that as far as the immediate interests of workers are concerned, it is more imperative to unify the statistical approaches for minimum and average wages in China than to raise the minimum wage standard. In order to achieve the expected effect, simply raising the minimum wage alone is not enough. What is also necessary is to enhance supervision and inspection on compliance by firms with the minimum wage policy, particularly the overtime pay regulations. An alternative is to replace monthly minimum wage with hourly minimum wage.