Trusts find a tax rule within the Italian financial bill 2007

The revision of the Italian tax laws on trusts reduces the riskof different interpretations on the taxation of trusts and whichshould encourage a better understanding and use of trusts byresidents in Italy. The authors examine the new law and discussthe interpretation of some of the more difficult provisions.     

Security challenges in alliance: The southern periphery

Barack Obama's first year should appear disappointing only to persons blind to the constraints imposed by the Bush legacy, the still reeling world economy, an intimidating agenda of domestic problems, a polarised domestic politics, and at least temporarily intractable opponents of the President's undoubted ambitions to tame the Middle East and promote cooperation among the leading states without jettisoning a commitment to liberal values. By ordering an end to torture and moving to close Guantanamo, he has signalled the restoration of moral restraint on the exercise of American power and implicitly expressed belief in the efficacy of soft power assets. Additionally, he has attempted to create political space for change by pushing the conventional limits of American presidential discourse. A decent start, but the hard part lies ahead.     

Distributional Effects of Maize Price Increases in Malawi

Abstract

In the wake of highly volatile world prices of staple commodities, we examine the impacts of increases in maize prices on various categories of households in Malawi. Using household-level data, changes in household income are calculated taking into account the net maize production status of the household and food price elasticities estimated from a censored demand system. While maize price increases have unequivocal deleterious effects on the incomes of urban households, rural households experience differential impacts. Net producing households in rural areas benefit from price increases with households above the poverty line obtaining proportionally higher incomes.     

Social preferences and private provision of public goods: A ‘double critical mass’ model

We set up an evolutionary game-theoretic model aimed at addressing the issue of local public good provision via direct commitment of voluntary forces (private donors and nonprofit providers) only. Two classes of agents are assumed to strategically interact within a ‘double critical mass’ model and we investigate the critical factors affecting the dynamic outcomes of such interaction. Further, we explore the conditions under which (what we term) ‘evolutionary crowding-out/in’ occurs, depending on agents’ degree of opportunism, social comparison and positive selective incentives (such as subsidies given by the government to ‘virtuous’ citizens or nonprofits only).     

Independent auditors as fiscal gatekeepers

This paper develops a framework for the analysis of gatekeeping in tax enforcement, whereby independent auditors are assigned the duty of attesting taxpayers’ returns. The equilibrium of the market for gatekeepers’ services is characterized, as well as taxpayers’ and auditors’ optimal behavior. The paper identifies the conditions under which the introduction of a mandatory attestation system is likely to be desirable.The results of the paper suggest that: (1) collusion may disrupt the gatekeeping system if the compounded liability of the auditor and the taxpayer is not sufficiently high; (2) a more extended delegation of the enforcement power to private auditors is generally desirable; (3) the cartelization of the gatekeepers’ market has definitely detrimental effects; and (4) when the probability that erroneous attestations are detected and sanctioned depends on the effort exerted by a public enforcer, multiple equilibria may arise, due to the substitutability of public and private monitoring.     

Externalizing and oppositional behaviors and karate-do: the way of crime prevention. A pilot study

Childhood disruptive behaviors can be precursors to later deviance. To verify the efficacy of karate, a complex psychomotor activity that enhances self-regulation and executive skills, as an intervention for externalizing behaviors, 16 children, ranging in age from 8 to 10 years, and meeting diagnostic criteria for oppositional defiant disorder were studied. Eight were randomly assigned to a 10-month Wa Do Ryu karate program, whereas 8 children received no intervention. The children were assigned to a larger karate class, composed of typically developing youngsters. Three domains of temperament--intensity, adaptability, and mood regulation--were measured at the beginning and the end of the training period in all 16 participants. A significant improvement in temperament scale scores was measured in the karate group for all tested items compared to controls. Karate, when properly taught, can be a useful adjunct in multimodal programs aimed at externalizing behavior reduction.     

Validation of a large Italian Database of 15 STR loci

Results from a collaborative exercise with proficiency testing conducted by 20 Italian laboratories on the 15 loci included in the Identifiler kit were analyzed by allele sharing methods and by standard population genetics tests. The validated database, including about 1500 subjects, was merged with that of a previous exercise conducted on nine loci, and the resulting allele frequencies, subdivided by Italian region, were published on-line.     

Frontal sinuses for identification: quality of classifications, possible error and potential corrections

Many studies have examined the characteristics of the frontal sinuses and their use for forensic purposes, particularly when an individual is edentulous. One of the most widespread classification systems is that proposed by Yoshino et al. The aim of this study was to improve the performance of Yoshino's method for identifying unknown skeletal remains by replacing the first two morphological items, frontal sinus size and bilateral asymmetry, by SOR1 = left frontal sinus area/left orbit area, and SOR2 = right frontal sinus area/right orbit area. According to the bivariate distribution of SOR = (SOR1, SOR2) and available data, we also estimated the probability of positive misclassification.     

Comments on the Security Council Referral of the Situation in Darfur to the ICC

Recently, the United Nations (UN) Security Council (SC) decidedto refer the situation in Darfur to the International CriminalCourt (ICC), following the suggestion of the UN Commission ofInquiry established by the Secretary-General pursuant to SCRes. 1564 (2004). The authors discuss four main problematicissues raised by the first SC referral of a situation to theICC. First, they emphasize that States Parties to the ICC andnon-States Parties have different obligations to cooperate withthe Court, irrespective of the adoption of a SC Resolution.Secondly, they discuss the question of immunity granted to nationalsof non-States Parties. Thirdly, the puzzling reference containedin the SC Resolution to exemption agreements is commented upon.Finally, the paper concludes with a criticism of the lack ofany measure providing for compensation to victims.