World Bank

About: World Bank is a other organization based out in Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poverty. The organization has 7813 authors who have published 21594 publications receiving 1198361 citations. The organization is also known as: World Bank, WB & The World Bank.

Fiscal Paradise: Foreign Tax Havens and American Business

Abstract: The offshore tax haven affiliates of American corporations account for more than a quarter of US foreign investment, an nearly a third of the foreign profits of US firms. This paper analyzes the origins of this tax haven activity and its implications for the US and foreign governments. Based on the behavior of US fins in 1982, it appears that American companies report extraordinarily high profit rates on both their real and their financial investments in tax havens. We calculate from this behavior that the tax rate that maximizes tax revenue for a typical haven is around 6%. The revenue implications for the US are more complicated, since tax havens may ultimately enhance the ability of the US government to tax the foreign earnings of American companies.

Consumer information search revisited: Theory and empirical analysis

Abstract: A comprehensive theoretical framework for understanding consumers' information search behavior is presented. Unlike previous research, our model identifies not only what factors affect consumers' search behavior but also how these factors interact with each other. In particular, the model emphasizes the effect of prior brand perceptions on the search process. We argue that when consumers have brand-specific prior distributions of utility, the existence of relative uncertainty among brands is necessary for search to be useful. Thus, we explain why product class involvement or low search costs may not be sufficient to induce large amounts of search activity and why there may be an inverted-U-shaped relationship between search activity and experience. We test our theory on consumers' search behavior for new automobiles, using data collected contemporaneously with consumers' actual decision process. Our data support our theory.

Are women really the "fairer" sex? Corruption and women in government

Abstract: Numerous behavioral studies have found women to be more trust-worthy and public-spirited than men. These results suggest that women should be particularly effective in promoting honest government. Consistent with this hypothesis, we find that the greater the representation of women in parliament, the lower the level of corruption. We find this association in a large cross-section of countries; the result is robust to a wide range of specifications.