Research Papers in Economics and Finance

Reforms to the Israeli income tax

Beny Tzarfati — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Income tax is a major component of state revenues, earmarked to finance the services provided by the government. Income taxes have a significant impact, among other things, on economic growth and income distribution. According to economic theory, personal income tax—perceived as progressive tax—is the main policy tool of the governments of developed countries and is aimed at reducing inequality in income distribution. The Israeli in- come tax has been through major reforms in the last decade and a half. These reforms include a reduction in income tax exemp- tions, steadily decreasing tax rates, simplification of tax calculation rules, reallocation of resources from the public and revenue sharing by reducing the income tax burden on the middle classes, a transfer from territorially based taxation of income earned or accrued in Israel to personally based taxation of income of Israeli residents, regardless of the place of earning the income. The result of changing the tax system and the transition to taxation on a personal basis means, in practice, an expansion of the tax base in Israel. This paper aims to describe the income tax prior to the reforms and the major reforms that had taken place up to 2017.

Environmental, Social and Governance Responsibility, financial performance and assets: A study of Exchange Traded Funds

Gerasimos Rompotis — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Two research questions are examined in this study with a sample of 168 passive Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). The first one asks whether a high Environmental, Social and Governance Responsibility (ESG) rating induces investors to allocate more money in an ETF. The empirical findings indicate that the level of assets is not affected by the ESG rating whatsoever, but it is affected by factors such as the historical performance, the expense ratio and the age of each fund. The second question raised concerns the relationship between the performance of an ETF and its ESG rating. The hypothesis examined is that the higher the ESG rating of an ETF is, the higher the return of the ETF should be. The results do not confirm this hypothesis. Not surprisingly, to a large extent, the performance of ETFs is driven by the return of the tracking indexes. To a lesser degree, expense ratio bears a negative impact on ETFs’ performance.

Economic openness, institutional quality and per capita income: Evidence from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

Mon, 20 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The controversy surrounding the actual impact of institutional quality and economic openness on economic growth is among the motivating factors for this study. The study seeks to investi- gate this relationship in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) by using the panel autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) test with annual series covering the period from 2000 to 2020. Findings indicate that in the short-run, regulatory quality and FDI outflows had an adverse impact on the economic performance of the ECOWAS bloc. Furthermore, the long-run results show that trade openness, political stability and FDI outflows had an adverse impact on the economy of the bloc, while regulatory quality positively affected the economy. Consequently, the paper recommends that member countries in the ECOWAS bloc should put in place effective regulatory framework in the short and medium term to attract FDI inflows, while building a strong and stable political environment in the long term.

Application of the vector-autoregression VAR model in the analysis of unemployment hysteresis in the context of Okun’s Law

Patryk Kołbyko — Wed, 22 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Unemployment is an important macroeconomic issue both in theoretical terms and for economic reality. On the theoretical ground, the unemployment rate, which is a measure of the share of unemployed units of the labour supply in the economy, determines the output gap at a certain adjustment parameter determined by the marginal productivity of labour. One of the causes of rising or persistent unemployment in the economy is the phenomenon of unemployment hysteresis, which occurs as a result of changes in the marginal disutility of labour, the strength of the wage bargain and other exogenous conditions arising in previous periods. The purpose of the study conducted in the following paper is to investigate the phenomenon of hysteresis in the labour market by analysing the significance of the impact of the unemployment rate in previous periods. In addition, the work aims to study Okun’s Law as an effect of production dynamics on the unemployment rate. The study of the dependence was carried out through the estimation of a macroeconometric time series model—vector-autoregression (VAR) on the example of statistical data for Poland obtained from Statistics Poland (Stat.gov.pl) and complied raports about national accounts in the quarterly sequence for the years 2015–2021.

Third time lucky: An analysis of Paris’ bids for the Olympic Games in 2008, 2012 and 2024

Julia Jastrząbek — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Hosting the Olympic Games has become a unique occasion to implement several projects aimed at upgrading public infrastructure and improving the economic performance of the host city. Thus, some cities are so determined to host the Olympics that they decide to bid multiple times. One of the examples of such a city is Paris, which since the 2000s has submitted its bids three times, for 2008, 2012, and 2024, of which the last attempt turned out to be successful. Based on the above, the main aim of this article is to present the trajectory of changes and developments made by the three successive bid attempts, with an emphasis on the latest successful campaign. This study demonstrates that there are some recurrent ideas, projects, and plans shared by each bid with some modifications to emphasize their uniqueness, novelty, and up-to-date approach. In some aspects, the Paris 2024 bid builds on its previous candidature from 2012 in the field of long-term legacy effects and sustainability. Therefore, there is a consistent action taken by the bid managers and city authorities in terms of using the Olympic Games as a tool for urban regeneration and sports development.

Limiting meat consumption in the view of the students of the Poznań University of Economics and Business

Marceli Hązła, Kamila Michowska — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0100

The aim of the study was to examine the attitudes of students at the Poznań University of Economics and Business towards limiting meat consumption, in the context of global trends related to sustainable development. The two main identified areas of consideration are related to the impact of excessive meat production and consumption on human health and the state of the environment. The survey involved 296 respondents (61.8% women, 37.8% men, 0.4% other). Throughout the study, it was found out that more than half (51.4%) of the respondents limit their meat consumption. The gender of the respondents was important in this regard (63.4% of women and 31.3% of men limit their meat consumption). The most frequently cited reasons for limiting meat consumption include concerns for the environment (42.6% of respondents) and the desire to improve health and well-being (41.9% of respondents). Meat consumption decisions among 30.7% of respondents are not influenced by any arguments.

Preface

Piotr Lis — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0100

Dear Readers,

We are pleased to present the latest issue of the Research Papers in Economics and Finance published by the Poznań University of Economics and Business Press. We have invested a lot of work to ensure that the papers we present to you add significant value to the scientific discussion. We hope that the studies presented together with their results will meet your expectations.

The issue opens with an empirical paper entitled Reforms to the Israeli income tax, written by Beny Tzarfati, on assessing income tax changes in Israel over the last decade. The author shows that the major directions of the reforms include the transfer from a territorial basis for taxation of income derived or accrued in Israel only to a personal basis for taxation of the income of residents of Israel, regardless of the place of producing income, expansion of the tax base and reduction of income tax exemptions. Despite the success of the tax reforms, there are still topics for public discussion such as tax evasion, Israel’s competitiveness and consistent income tax policy. Besides, the Israel tax authority must take into account the impact on the socio-economic system and act reasonably and transparently, so that citizens understand that the tax burden is fair.

The second paper entitled Environmental, Social and Governance Responsibility, financial performance and assets: A study of Exchange Traded Funds was written by Gerasimos G. Rompotis. The author carried out research based on the sample of 168 passive Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs), demonstrating that a high Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) rating does not induce investors to invest more capital in ETFs. The author has not confirmed the relationship that the higher the ESG rating of an Exchange Traded Fund, the higher its return should be. According to the author, the performance of Exchange Traded Funds is largely determined by the return of indices. To a lesser extent, the performance of ETFs is negatively affected by the expense ratio.

The third paper entitled Economic openness, institutional quality and per capita income: Evidence from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was written by Innocent Chile Nzeh, Hycenth Oguejiofoalu Richard Ogwuru, David Ogomegbunam Okolie and Jonathan Ibekwe Okolie. The authors address a very important issue of the impact of institutional quality and economic openness on growth in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Based on an ARDL test, the authors demonstrate that in the short term, regulatory quality and outflows of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) negatively affect the economic performance of ECOWAS countries. In the long run, trade openness, political stability and outflows of Foreign Direct Investment negatively affect the economy of ECOWAS countries, while the quality of regulation affects it positively. The authors believe that ECOWAS countries should introduce an effective regulatory framework in the short and medium term to attract FDI inflows, while in the long term they should build a strong and stable policy environment.

The fourth paper entitled Application of the vector-autoregression VAR mod- el in the analysis of unemployment hysteresis in the context of Okun’s Law was written by Patryk Kołbyko. The author verifies the occurring phenomenon of hys- teresis in the labour market in Poland and the relationship resulting from the macroeconomic Okun’s Law. The study confirmed the usefulness of the trend-adjust- ed VAR model in forecasting the unemployment rate for the Polish economy. The analysis provides important guidance for other researchers conducting studies of economic fluctuations or for policy mix practitioners, to use time series models as much as possible on the methodology of the field of positive economics characteristic of empiricism and economic operationalism, instead of long-run macroeconometric models based on estimation under the assumption of stationary Walrasian equilibrium.

The fifth paper entitled Third time lucky: An analysis of Paris’ bids for the Olympic Games in 2008, 2012 and 2024 was written by Julia Jastrząbek. In a very original way, the author has analysed Paris’ three bids to host the Olympic Games in 2008, 2012 and 2024. Only the last bid was successful. The author analyses the trajectory of changes in the bids made by Paris to host this global sporting event. The author argues that there are some fixed elements of the bid, such as heritage and sustainability. There is a consistent effort by the Paris authorities to use the Olympic Games as a tool for urban regeneration and sports development.

The final paper entitled Limiting meat consumption in the view of students of the Poznań University of Economics and Business was written by Marceli Hązła and Kamila Michowska. The authors used a questionnaire survey to explore students’ attitudes towards reducing meat consumption, in the context of global trends related to sustainability. The authors identified two main areas of analysis, i.e. the impact of excessive meat production and consumption on human health and on the environment. The survey included 296 respondents. According to the results, more than half of the respondents—predominantly women—limit their meat consumption. The key determinants of limiting meat consumption are environmental concerns and the desire to improve one’s health and well-being. One in three respondents will not change their eating habits regardless of the arguments.

Piotr Lis

Editor-in-Chief