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Nations attempt to attract major enterprises to their territories by implementing lower tax rates while simultaneously enhancing tax collection efficiency within their jurisdictional boundaries. In this study, we scrutinize the correlation between the Baltic countries' tax systems and the levels of the shadow economy inherent to their respective economic landscapes. Our analysis indicates that tax reform can substantially influence diminishing the corporate shadow economy within a society. More specifically, our research delves into how economic growth can mitigate the corporate shadow economy, primarily driven by shifts in tax collections within Lithuania. Utilizing quarterly data from 2002 to 2022, we use panel regression and causality analyses as the overall analytical approach. The analyses uncover a complex relationship between various effective taxes and the extent of the shadow economy. Notably, we find that while an increase in the effective income tax rate is associated with a growing shadow economy, an uptick in the effective corporate income tax rate has the opposite effect, reducing its scale. Additionally, a rise in the effective VAT rate is linked to an expanded shadow economy. However, the influence of these effective taxes on imports has limited significance in regulating the scope of the shadow economy, likely due to increased tax evasion incentives. Overall, this study contributes to our understanding of how tax reform can impact the shadow economy and underscores the need for more comprehensive strategies to address this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigate the potentially changing effect of urbanization on per capita and per unit of GDP carbon dioxide emissions for 69 nations from 1960 to 2010. We examine the effect of urbanization, measured as the percent of nation's population residing in urban areas, for the overall sample as well as for smaller regionally-defined samples of nations. The results of two-way fixed effects longitudinal models for both outcomes highlight that the changing effects of urbanization on national carbon emissions throughout the world regions are far from monolithic, and these differences are hidden by the analyses of emissions for the overall sample. We provide tentative explanations for our regionally-specific findings, and conclude by emphasizing the need for more nuanced urban data and future research to increase our collective understanding of the carbon emissions / urbanization relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Military expenditures have escalated over the last three decades in both developed and less developed countries, without a corresponding expansion of military personnel. Spending has instead been directed towards hi-tech weaponry, what we refer to as the “new” military. We hypothesize that this new, increasingly capital-intensive military is no longer a pathway of upward mobility or employer of last resort for many uneducated, unskilled, or unemployed people, with significant consequences for those individuals and society as a whole. One such consequence, we argue, is an increase in income inequality. We test this hypothesis with cross-national panel models, estimated for 82 developed and less developed countries from 1970 to 2000. Findings indicate that military capital-intensiveness, as measured by military expenditures per soldier, exacerbates income inequality net of control variables. Neither total military expenditures/GDP nor military participation has a significant effect. It appears from these findings that today’s “new” military establishment is abrogating its historical role as an equalizing force in society, with important policy implications. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We utilize first-difference panel regression analysis to assess the direct effect of urban slum prevalence on national level measures of under-5 mortality rates over the period 1990 to 2005. Utilizing data on 80 less developed countries, the results illustrate increasing urban slum prevalence over the period is a robust predictor of increasing child mortality rates. This effect obtains net the statistically significant influence of gross domestic product per capita, fertility rate, and educational enrollment. Cross-sectional analyses for 2005 that include additional controls provide further evidence of the mortality / urban slum relationship. The results confirm urban slum prevalence growth is an important contextual dynamic whereby the social production of child mortality is enacted in the less developed countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, Burns, Kentor, and Jorgenson [Crises and resistance in the 21st century world-system, Greenwood Press, 2003] empirically identified the effects of export commodity dependence on organic water pollution, which has disastrous effects on infant mortality rates in peripheral and semiperipheral countries. In this paper I build upon this recent study, while addressing three limitations in its analyses. First, instead of using per capita GNP as a measure of world-system position, I employ an indicator that captures the economic and political/military dimensions of position in the core/periphery hierarchy. Second, instead of excluding OECD countries from the study, I include all countries that data are available for. Third, I include a critical indicator neglected in Burns et al.’s analyses: agricultural production as a percentage of a country’s total gross domestic product. Results of the quantitative cross-national analyses provide additional support for the previous key findings of Burns et al. (2003). Moreover, agriculture production proves to be a significant predictor of both organic water pollution and infant mortality rates, a finding that enhances our overall analytical and empirical accuracy in explaining environmental degradation and disastrous social domestic conditions, particularly in non-core, export commodity dependent societies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]