Alternative forms of sales taxation for a developing country

In an increasing n umber of developing countries, as in virtually all of the major industrial countries, one or other form of sales taxation has taken root as an important provider of revenue, though in spite of much recent debate—much of it concerning the value added tax—no single form of sales taxation has emerged as being the most efficacious. This article does not discuss the merits of sales taxation, nor its effects or, development, but rather focuses on the question of which form of sales tax should be adopted assuming that one is to be.     

Not Seeing Eye to Eye on Frontline Work: Manager‐Employee Disagreement and Its Effects on Employees

The author uses nationally representative data on matched pairs of public school principals and teachers to test whether principal–teacher disagreement about the severity of school problems is associated with teacher turnover. More specifically, the author tests a managerial efficacy hypothesis that proposes that employees will be less likely to leave their jobs when their managers perceive problems to be severe, holding employees’ perceptions of the same problems constant. The author also tests a managerial buffering hypothesis that proposes that employees’ perceptions of problem severity will be more weakly related to their turnover probability when managers perceive problems to be severe. Little evidence is found for either hypothesis, raising questions about public school principals’ ability to translate problem recognition into problem remediation. More generally, the findings suggest a reexamination of the generic claim that “management matters,” which implies that public managers have the power to do things that can help employees perform their jobs well.     

Castlereagh and France

As Foreign Secretary, Castlereagh had to cope with the reality of France as an enemy as well as with France as a potential ally. This article examines the pragmatic evolution of Castlereagh's diplomacy from 1812, when an international coalition had to be brought and then kept together that could defeat Napoleon, to the aftermath of the Congress of Vienna, where France emerged as a vital part of the new European equilibrium. In settling Europe after nearly two decades of war the fate of France was central.