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We present new cross-country empirical evidence that tax system complexity affects the location of international investment. The evidence comes from a database of foreign direct investment (FDI) bi...

Due to the pro-independence demands of part of its electorate, the political fit of Catalonia within Spain has given rise to notable political tensions over the last few years. This conflict has progressively affected several dimensions of Catalan society, including, potentially, the economy. The illegal referendum on independence, held in October 2017, marked the climax of political and social tensions, leading to a Constitutional crisis and further stoking the conflict as opposed to offering any hope of an early resolution. We analyze a complete set of margins potentially affected by the referendum, including real (aggregate demand and supply) and financial responses. Using a synthetic control method, we find strong evidence of the outflow of short-term bank deposits after the referendum; while, on the real side, we find evidence of responses in aggregate supply (number of capital increases and number of new firms registered).

The paper aims at investigating mechanisms that affect the possible development of integrated reporting (IR) practices in the healthcare sector. Through a performative case study in a university hospital, this paper discusses the process of production, construction, and consumption of a management commentary, which is a report combining financial and non-financial information about organizational performance; a management commentary can be considered the natural setting to develop IR. Findings from interviews with both the report’s preparers and institutional users show that the management commentary mainly addresses normative requirements, which results in a heavy document stemming from the preparers’ silo mentality, with very limited usefulness for its users. Interviews with users provided insights about the material non-financial information that would have added value to their decision making if addressed within the hospital’s reporting practices. Users reported that the management commentary could be meaningful if it arose from a shared planning process emphasizing the connectivity of the university hospital’s activities with the local stakeholders’ activities. This latter assertion, however, is not shared by the organization’s top management. Although the implementation of an IR framework is recommended in the literature, even in the context of the public sector, it emerges that the features of an organization can challenge its applicability.

An important area of urban sustainability planning refers to the reduction of environmental impacts. Transport sector is one of the main contributors of these impacts due to its role in air pollution, greenhouse gases and CO2 emissions. Effective actions are needed to limit the environmental impacts of transport activities. Transition studies focus on these types of actions and plans. The role of local authorities as the closest level of government to the citizens in managing transition process is highlighted because they can better understand, inform, and guide local inhabitants, businesses and industries for achieving sustainability targets. The paper aims at assessing the efforts of local public authorities in transition toward low carbon mobility in Italy. To achieve this aim a mixed method analysis was applied. First, the analysis of qualitative data obtained from interviews with urban mobility stakeholders; used to design a framework for evaluating the role of local government in transition process. Then a quantitative analysis conducted on the data gathered through a questionnaire distributed to a sample of mobility managers (or transport responsible) in municipalities. The analyses provided a final framework showing how municipalities influence low carbon mobility transition process in Italy. In conclusion, municipalities’ strategies and plans have a direct effect on the final goals. These strategies are influenced by financial support and cooperative activities, while the level of cooperation is dependent on the attitudes of deciding authorities. The paper also discusses the need to identify challenges and impediments for sustainable urban mobility transitions which was highlighted by stakeholders but less valued by local authorities.

El objetivo de esta investigación es reconstruir los límites de la gestión de las finanzas públicas en la Unión Monetaria Europea, utilizando la perspectiva del camino de la "constitución económica" alemana posterior a Weimar. El proceso federativo de la UE no presenta las mismas características legales de ningún otro, incluido el alemán. Sin embargo, algunos problemas son necesariamente similares y similares soluciones se pueden encontrar. En consecuencia, esto documento se centra en la sucesión de reformas en la governance económica europea desde 2008 analizando, en particular, el tema de compartir las obligaciones de la deuda a nivel europeo, esto a través del diálogo entre el Bundesverfassungsgericht y la institución de la UE.

Summary: Taxes in the host country matter a lot for FDI inflows, but only for non-OECD countries. Taking advantage of the rich dataset constructed by Djankov et al. (2010), we show, for example, that raising the first-year effective corporate income tax rate by 10 pp reduces FDI inflows by 3.4 to 1.9 pp in non-OECD countries; and the effect is null for OECD countries. Not taking this heterogeneity into account upward (downward) biases the estimated impact of the corporate tax on FDI inflows for OECD (non-OECD) countries.