Taxes and declared profits: Evidence from gold mines in Africa

in Resources Policy (2022), 78

In this paper, we analyze the effects of tax changes on the declared profits of extractive firms. We consider a country that levies a profit tax and a royalty on the profits of extractive firms to ... [more ▼]

In this paper, we analyze the effects of tax changes on the declared profits of extractive firms. We consider a country that levies a profit tax and a royalty on the profits of extractive firms to maximize its tax revenues. Mining companies located in the country engage in overstating extractive costs to reduce their taxable income. We show that the higher taxes, the lower the declared profit. Then, we estimate the effect of the change of profit taxes and royalties on the extracting firms’ profit in African countries during the period spanning from 2007 to 2018. We employ the Mining Intelligence database to constitute an individual data panel of gold mines located in Sub-Saharan countries. Our empirical findings also suggest an inverse relationship between the tax rate change of the tax instruments and the declared profit of the firms. This link indicates that firms decide on how much profit to declare depending on the tax levels. [less ▲]

Labor Market Effects Of Technology Shocks Biased Toward The Traded Sector

in Journal of International Economics (2022)

Our VAR evidence for OECD countries reveals that the non-traded sector alone drives the increase in hours worked following a technology shock that increases permanently traded relative to non-traded TFP ... [more ▼]

Our VAR evidence for OECD countries reveals that the non-traded sector alone drives the increase in hours worked following a technology shock that increases permanently traded relative to non-traded TFP. The shock generates a reallocation of labor toward the non-traded sector which contributes to 35% of the rise in non-traded hours worked. Both labor reallocation and variations in labor income shares are found empirically connected with factor-biased technological change. Our quantitative analysis shows that a two-sector open economy model with flexible prices can reproduce the labor market effects we document empirically once we allow for imperfect mobility of labor, a demand for home-produced traded goods which is elastic enough w.r.t. the terms of trade, and factor-biased technological change. When calibrating the model to country-specific data, its ability to account for the cross-country reallocation and redistributive effects we estimate increases once we let factor-biased technological change vary between sectors and countries. [less ▲]

Earthquakes and Mental Health

E-print/Working paper (2021)

Earthquakes may seriously deteriorate mental health by generating fear and stress as a result of economic and human losses. However, mental health has also been found to improve as a result of greater ... [more ▼]

Earthquakes may seriously deteriorate mental health by generating fear and stress as a result of economic and human losses. However, mental health has also been found to improve as a result of greater social cohesion in affected communities after the event. We examine the short-run effects of earthquakes on a wide set of mental health outcomes in Ecuador. To this end, we combine hospital admissions, death records, and survey data with precise measures of local seismic activity to exploit the plausibly random spatial and temporal nature of earthquake intensity. We find that damaging earthquakes decrease the propensity to be admitted, the number of days of hospitalisation for mental and behavioural disorders, and deaths due to suicide. Estimates from nationally-representative surveys provide suggestive evidence of increased life satisfaction, trust, and religious observance, and thus provide a possible explanation for the fall in admissions and suicides after an earthquake. [less ▲]

Impact of mining boom on the quality of public goods in Sub-Saharan Africa

E-print/Working paper (2021)

In this paper, we investigate the impact of public mining revenues on perception indicators of public goods quality in five mining countries that have recently experienced a boom in their government ... [more ▼]

In this paper, we investigate the impact of public mining revenues on perception indicators of public goods quality in five mining countries that have recently experienced a boom in their government revenues: Burkina Faso, Ghana, D.R. Congo, Tanzania, and Zambia. The effect of the tax revenue boom is identified using a difference-in-differences estimation strategy. Our estimations indicate that people living in mining regions as having a sense of structural disadvantage in terms of the provision of public goods; however, this perception is pro-cyclical in the presence of resource booms/busts. Our results hold even after taking account of the possible endogeneity of our measure of resource revenue. [less ▲]

A gravity analysis of refugee mobility using mobile phone data

in Journal of Development Economics (2021)

Relative Productivity and Search Unemployment in an Open Economy

in Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control (2020), 117

Using a panel of eighteen OECD countries, we find empirically that the long-run effects of higher productivity of tradables relative to non-tradables vary across time, space and stages of the business ... [more ▼]

Using a panel of eighteen OECD countries, we find empirically that the long-run effects of higher productivity of tradables relative to non-tradables vary across time, space and stages of the business cycle. More specifically, our evidence reveals that elasticities of the relative wage and relative price of non-tradables with respect to relative productivity of tradables increase over time. Our estimates also show that the fall in the relative wage is more pronounced whilst the appreciation in the relative price is less in countries where labor markets are more regulated and during periods of recession. To rationalize the evidence, we differentiate between labor mobility costs caused by job search efforts and hiring costs resulting from search frictions in the labor market in a two-sector open economy model. While time-declining labor mobility costs can account for the time-increasing effects of a productivity differential, international differences in labor market regulation and variations of hiring costs across the business cycle, respectively, can rationalize the cross-country and state-dependent effects we estimate empirically. Finally, labor market frictions have important implications for sectoral unemployment since labor mobility and hiring costs bias labor demand toward the traded sector which results in a greater decline in unemployment in tradables relative to unemployment in non-tradables following higher relative productivity. [less ▲]

Refugee Mobility: Evidence from Phone Data in Turkey

in Salah, Albert Ali; Pentland, Alex; Lepri, Bruno (Eds.) et al Guide to Mobile Data Analytics in Refugee Scenarios: The 'Data for Refugees Challenge' Study (2019)

Our research report employs the D4R data and combines it with several <br />other sources to study one of the multiple aspects of integration of refugees, namely <br />the mobility of refugees across ... [more ▼]

Our research report employs the D4R data and combines it with several <br />other sources to study one of the multiple aspects of integration of refugees, namely <br />the mobility of refugees across provinces in Turkey. In particular, we employ a <br />standard gravity model to empirically estimate a series of determinants of refugee <br />movements. These include the standard determinants such as province characteristics, <br />distances across provinces, levels of income, network effects as well as some <br />refugee-specific determinants such as the presence of refugee camps and the intensity <br />of phone call interaction among refugees. Importantly, we explore the effect <br />of certain categories of news events, notably protests, violence, and asylum grants. <br />Considering news as an indicator of policy implemented at the provincial level, we <br />gain a better understanding as to how policy can facilitate refugee mobility and thus <br />enhance integration. To benchmark our findings, we estimate the same model for the <br />mobility of individuals with a non-refugee status. [less ▲]

The Impact of Unilateral Commitment on Transboundary Pollution

in Environmental Modeling & Assessment (2018), 23

To reach a common target of environmental quality, countries can choose to commit to a stream of pollution abatement right from the beginning of the game or decide upon abatement at each moment of time ... [more ▼]

To reach a common target of environmental quality, countries can choose to commit to a stream of pollution abatement right from the beginning of the game or decide upon abatement at each moment of time. Though most of the previous literature studies homogeneous strategies where no country or all countries commit to a (same) predefined policy, reality goes along a different way: some countries make more efforts than others to reduce pollutant emission. The main novelty of this paper resides in the introduction of this kind of heterogeneous strategic behavior currently observed among large pollution nations. We find that the pollution level can be lower under heterogeneous than under homogeneous strategies. A stringent environmental quality target will induce the committed player to produce an abatement effort that more than compensates the free-riding attitude of the non-committed player. [less ▲]

Tax Mobilization in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Impact of Tax and Business Law Reforms

in Economics Bulletin (2016), 36(3), 1805-1810

This paper contributes to measuring the influence of business (and tax) law reforms on sub-Saharan African countries tax mobilization ability. Relying on a new business law reform indicator, our results ... [more ▼]

This paper contributes to measuring the influence of business (and tax) law reforms on sub-Saharan African countries tax mobilization ability. Relying on a new business law reform indicator, our results validate the significant impact of corporate law modernization on governmental revenue, and unearth a complementary effect between business and tax law reforms. [less ▲]

Réformes fiscales et du droit des affaires en Afrique subsaharienne. Quel impact sur la mobilisation des ressources fiscales ?

Scientific Conference (2014, November)