Economic education is commonly blamed for negatively affecting students’ values and attitudes. Students of economics are repeatedly reported to differ from other majors. The differences are commonly explained by the learning effect (the indoctrination hypothesis) and the self-selection of specific persons to economics. We aim to contribute to the nurture vs nature debate on economics students by testing the indoctrination (nurture) and the self-selection (nature) hypotheses. Working with undergraduate economics and non-economic majors (N=286), we ran a Public Good Game (PGG) quasi-experiment. To test the self-selection hypothesis, we compared levels of donation in the PGG by both subsamples. To test the indoctrination hypothesis, we (1) analysed the results of economics students at different stages of their education and (2) juxtaposed their donations in the PGG with their academic performance. If economic education affects student attitudes, those who master economic theory better should be more “indoctrinated” and, as such, less eager to donate their endowments to the common fund in the PGG. However, no difference between the results of the first-year and second-year students has been found. Also, no correlation between exam scores and students’ donations in the PGG has been revealed. Nonetheless, we have detected a statistically significant difference between the economics and non-economics majors, which allows us to conclude that economics students’ atypicality comes from their self-selection of economic studies and is not attributable to economic teaching.
Purpose – Without undertaking a comprehensive assessment of the costs and benefits of the urban sprawl, this article attempts to analyse the impact of this phenomenon on the financial standing of municipalities. Research method – We have primarily used difference-in-differences (DiD) regression analysis with refe-rence to the treatment group (suburban municipalities) and the control group (other municipalities excluding cities with county status). The research was undertaken during the years 2004-2018 and used financial data from the Ministry of Finance. Results – Urban sprawl is a beneficial phenomenon, at least in the short and medium term from the perspective of the financial standing of municipalities (which experience an inflow of new residents). It is clearly evidenced in the revenues of the budgets of suburban municipalities, i.e. an increase in both total and per capita revenues in relation to the control group. The effect of suburbanisation is also visible on the spending side, although, due to the economies of scale, current expenditures grow relatively slower than the number of inhabitants. The operating surplus of the budget per capita is increasing more rapidly in suburban municipalities compared to the control group. The same is true for municipal investment expenditures. Originality /value / implications /recommendations – In reviewing the subject literature, the issue of the impact of urban sprawl on the finances of local government units (LGU) is treated marginally and indirectly, e.g. when discussing the costs of providing local public services. This article aims to present a synthetic and quantitative review of the impact of suburbanisation on the financial position of LGU budgets, comparing the situation of suburban municipalities to other municipalities. Attracting “new” residents is a desirable strategy in the development of municipalities, hence with the current system of financing, LGUs are likely to oppose changes aimed at limiting or controlling the suburbanisation process.
Excise duty is a powerful tool of alcohol policy. The fact that excise is a unit tax means that lack of excise adjustment with inflation means in fact excise reduction in real terms. To understand tax policy with respect to tobacco and alcohol, political perspective must be taken into account. Policymakers consider the political cost and benefits of tax changes. If the public awareness of alcohol epidemic and the social cost of alcohol consumption is low, then it is difficult for politicians to initiate far-reaching alcohol control policies. They may seek popularity among voters, leading to a lose-lose situation: low tax revenue and high social and medical cost of alcohol consumption. This happened in Poland when in 2002 the excise duty on spirit was reduced by 30% resulting in great surge in alcohol related deaths. Social awareness is therefore the key factor for the success of comprehensive alcohol control policy.
The purpose of this article is twofold. First, to re-energize discussion on local personal tax, and second, to show how such a tax could curb urban sprawl. The authors start with a short description of the communal tax and its potential links to urban sprawl. In the current system of communities’ financing in Poland, suburban municipalities have a significant incentive to increase the number of inhabitants as the PIT revenues follow their inflow. The authors propose and discuss a simple variant of local PIT called Self-government Tax Rate which is a flat tax on a broadly defined tax base. Contrary to the present system of Polish local government units’ share in progressive PIT, this system is linear, which reduces the gains in PIT revenues from taxpayers in the second tax bracket moving to suburbia. This is the first paper in the relevant literature that investigates the links between communal tax and urban sprawl.
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