The traditional view that excise taxes are regressive has been challenged. I document the history of the term regressive tax, show that traditional definitions have always found cigarette taxes to be regressive, and illustrate the implications of the greater price responsiveness observed among the poor. I explain the different definitions of tax burden: accounting, welfare-based willingness to ...

Exploring an alternative way to approach famine relief interventions, this paper draws on the work of French philosopher Michel Foucault and David Keen's recent work on south-west Sudan. It suggests that different discourses on 'famine' can lead to the dominance of certain kinds of institutional practices, and the prioritisation of special kinds of knowledge, at the expense of other modes of un...

Urban water systems will be increasingly challenged under future climates and global pressures. Meeting challenges by reconfiguring water systems to integrate supplies and deliver multifunctional uses is technically well described. Adjusting the institutions that frame the management of these systems is not well operationalized in practice or conceptualized in theory. This study seeks to addres...

This paper extends the application of institutional theory to electronic human resource management (e-HRM), and strategic information systems (IS) more generally, in a multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiary setting. By adopting Scott’s (2001) institutional theory perspective, this paper explores the effects of host-country institutional factors on strategic e-HRM practices in foreign subsid...

Shared technology platforms are often governed by standard setting organizations (SSOs), where interested parties use a consensus process to address problems of technical coordination and platform provision. Economists have modeled SSOs as certification agents, bargaining forums, collective licensing arrangements and R&D consortia. This paper integrates these diverse perspectives by adapting El...

We studied the effect of two social settings (collaborative versus competitive) on the visual and auditory expressions of uncertainty by children in two age groups (8 and 11). We conducted an experiment in which children played a quiz game in pairs. They either had to collaborate or compete with each other. We found that the Feeling-of-Knowing of eight-year-old children did not seem to be affec...