Reminder: Finance Conference Announcement

2013 FMC2 Finance Conference
http://www.fmc-cluster.org/

May 1, 2013, Dublin, Ireland

The Financial Mathematics and Computation Cluster (FMC2) is pleased to announce that the 2013 FMC2 Finance Conference will be held in Dublin on May 1, 2013.

Papers will cover the areas of real estate risk, asset pricing, trading and portfolio performance.  The speakers include Andrew Karolyi, Matt Spiegel and René Stulz, The FMC Scientific Advisory Board (see below for membership) will be present at the conference.

TALK SCHEDULE:

08.30 – 8.50 Registration (tea and coffee)

08.50 – 9.00        Douglas Breeden (Duke) Conference Opening

09.00 – 13.00 Talks

09.00 – 09.55      G. Andrew Karolyi (Cornell), The Role of Investability Restrictions on Size, Value, and Momentum in International Stock Returns

09.55 – 10.50      Semyon Malamud (Swiss Finance Institute) Decentralized Exchange

10.50 – 11.10 Break (tea and coffee)

11.10 – 12.05      Matthew Spiegel (Yale) Human Capital and the Structure of the Mutual Fund Industry

12.05 – 13.00      René Stulz (Ohio State) Why did financial institutions sell RMBS at fire sale prices during the financial crisis?

13.00 – 13.05      Michael Brennan (UCLA) Conference Closing

13.05 – 13.30 Lunch and networking

REGISTRATION: Registration for the conference is free.  To book a place at this conference please complete this form

CONFERENCE ORGANISERS: Chair: John Cotter (University College Dublin);

Vice-Chairs: Anthony Brabazon (UCD), Gregory Connor (NUIM), David Edelman (UCD), Paolo Guasoni (DCU), Michael O’ Neill (UCD);

FMC2 Scientific Advisory Board: Douglas Breeden (Duke), Michael Brennan (UCLA), Maureen O’ Hara (Cornell), John McConnell (Purdue), Matthew Spiegel (Yale), René Stulz (Ohio State), Hassan Tehranian (Boston College).

Taxation Trends in the EU

Eurostat have published a news release with some summary tables of taxation trends in the EU.  The data are taken from the 2013 Statistical Book on the same topic.  The section on Ireland in the book opens with the following summary.

At 28.9 % in 2011, the total tax-to-GDP ratio in Ireland is the sixth lowest in the Union and the second lowest in the euro area. In recent years this ratio gradually decreased from a 2006 high of 32.1 %, but has increased again in 2011, apparently on foot of budgetary measures aimed at raising tax receipts.

The taxation structure is characterised by a strong reliance on taxes rather than social contributions. Direct and indirect taxation make up 43.4 % and 39.4 % of the total revenue in 2011 respectively, whereas the social contributions raise only 17.2 % of total tax revenue. The share of social contributions is the second lowest in the EU. The structure of taxation differs considerably from the typical structure of the EU-27, where each item contributes roughly a third of the total. As in the majority of Member States, the largest share of indirect taxes is constituted by VAT receipts, which provide 54.1 % of total indirect taxes (53.3 % for the EU-27). The structure of direct taxation is similar to that found in the EU-27. The shares of personal income taxes and corporate income taxes are in line with the EU-27 average and represent 9.2 % and 2.4 % of GDP. Social contributions represent a meagre 5 % of GDP (second lowest in the Union after Denmark), compared to an EU-27 average of 12.7 %. Employers’ and employees’ contributions are at 3.5 % and 1.3 % of GDP, respectively.

Ireland is one of the most fiscally centralised countries in Europe; local government has only low revenues (3.5 % of tax revenues). The social security fund receives just 16.4 % of tax revenues (EU-27 37.3%), while the vast majority (79.2 %) of tax revenue accrues to central government. This ratio is exceeded only by Malta and the UK.

Trust in the EU, again

It has been evident for quite some time that citizens right across Europe are losing faith in the European Union, and the fact is making the headlines today. If the Euro experiment needs meaningful banking union, including some element of fiscal union, and probably other “deepening” reforms as well in order to survive, and if citizens are becoming increasingly hostile to “Europe”, meaning that such reforms are politically impossible, then the Euro may be doomed in the long run. In the meantime the never-ending Eurozone crisis, caused by a flawed currency, a dysfunctional central bank, and a perverse macroeconomic policy response, is dragging the entire European project down with it.

Update: bang on cue, Spain’s unemployment rate has reached 27 percent this morning. Solving the periphery’s economic problems rather than saving the Euro really has to become the continent’s top priority. Apart from anything else, you won’t be able to do the latter if you don’t do the former.

Inside Merkel’s Bet on the Euro’s Future

The WSJ provides an ‘insider’ view here.

EC Winter 2012 Review of Irish Programme

The details of the Commission’s quarterly reviews tend to get into the public domain in draft form a couple of weeks before their official release.  The ninth staff review has now been published.