Troubled by unequal pay rather than low pay:The incentive effects of a top management team pay gap

We examine the relationships with firm performance of the internal pay gap among individual members of the top management team(TMT) and the compensation level of TMT members relative to their industry peers. We find that pay gap is positively related to firm performance and that this positive relation is stronger when the TMT pay level is higher than the industry median. However, we do not observe such effects in Chinese state-owned enterprises(SOEs),in which both the executive managerial market and compensation are government-regulated. We also document that cutting central SOE managers' pay level can increase firm value, whereas doing so for local SOE managers has the opposite effect. Our findings have important implications for research on TMT compensation as well as for policy makers considering SOE compensation reform.

Health professionals’perspective on the impact of community health care reform in different regions of China

Objective:Changes in supplying community health services,degree of satisfaction,and pol-icy suggestions are presented from the perspectives of health professionals in different regions of China with the purpose of further facilitating comprehensive reform of community health services.Methods:Based on geographic location and economic level of development,eight cities were selected and 12 community health service institutions were chosen by random sampling from each city.A questionnaire survey was conducted by the health professionals.Results:With respect to working enthusiasm,reduction in antibiotic drug use,social image and trust of patients,more health professionals in middle and western China showed positive feed-backs than those in eastern China.With respect to preliminary results of the reform,performance and salary,and health care insurance policies,health professionals’satisfaction levels in middle and western China were higher than in eastern China.The health professionals in middle and western China were more concerned about equipment,infrastructure and increasing training op-portunities.The health professionals in both eastern and middle China accentuated improving the variety of essential drugs covered by health insurance,while health professionals in eastern China suggested performance-related payment reform.Conclusions:The performance of health professionals in middle and western China was improved more signifi cantly through comprehensive reform than that of health professionals in eastern China.For health professionals in middle and western China,it is essential to strengthen infrastructure and increase professional training,while health professionals in middle and eastern China would like to see an increase in the variety of essential drugs,and those in eastern China require strengthening performance-related payment reform.

Changes of Withholding Tax in Poland in 2019-2021:Impact on Foreign Investments

This study focuses on the taxation of foreign investments in Poland in terms of withholding tax.Over the past three years,there have been significant changes in the way they are taxed,as a result of which the relief at source mechanism has been replaced by the pay and refund mechanism.Despite the urgent need to implement this reform,the application of the new mechanism was repeatedly suspended due to its inconvenience for entrepreneurs.Enterprises that are able to obtain all the necessary information from their contractors will be able to benefit more easily from preferential taxation contained in the EU law or in tax treaties on double taxation avoidance(DTT).On the other hand,companies that have a weaker market position may face difficulties in obtaining information from the recipient of the payment,so they de facto will have to credit the recipients of their payments.