http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/7702 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/42417 Reinventing VAT collection : industry vertical assessment, revenue increase, and public sector reliability Pinhanez, Monica F. (Monica Fornitani) This dissertation shows how administrative reforms of the State Tax Administration Bureaus (STABs) in Brazil between 1997 and 2005 contributed to strengthening public sector bureaucracies and institutions at the sub-national level, while increasing tax revenues and compliance. STABs' administrative reform comprised changes in organizational structure (i.e. rationalization of procedures and processes), technological processes (i.e. computerization and on-line processes), and institutional arrangements (i.e. development of public-private sector relationships to improve tax collection and tax collector professionalization). Beyond the market-oriented reforms, these joint changes made possible to taxpayers and tax collectors to visualize the connections and functioning of the tax administration and collection process that they were not able to think about before, i.e., there is evidence for how the administrative reform facilitated the understanding of the links among the several processes in the tax collection, particularly the backward and forward linkages in each industry. The understanding of these linkages advanced a conceptual shift and the adoption of a new cognitive axis-the industry linkages that changed the way tax collectors envisioned the tax collection process. This dissertation shows that understanding these new connections led to increased efficiency, effectiveness, accountability, and transparency, providing faster and more accurate information on taxpayers and tax returns. In addition, I show that in the case of tax administration reforms in the Brazilian STABs the conjunction of tailored organizational and technological changes influenced tax collectors' and taxpayers' compliance, cooperation, and adhesion to reform efforts. (cont.) Technological change enabled the new understanding of the tax sector and enabled industry vertical assessment and functional specialization. The capacity to grasp the conceptual shift emerged from the joint efforts. In turn such efforts led to institutional change and the strengthening of public sector bureaucracies, particularly of the STABs. Through a multi-level methodology, I use quantitative and statistical analysis to show that separate and joint aspects of the administrative reforms had an effect on Value Added Tax (VAT) collection. Then, I carry out a qualitative analysis using case studies to evaluate the aspects of reform that had an impact on the changes in the STABs and how they acted together to create a shift in the conceptual understanding of taxations, of its relationship to industry structure, and of the identity of tax collectors. The choice of cases was structured to track public sector reform, development capabilities (e.g. public officials' capacity training), and the effectiveness of tax collection over time, specifically a period of eight years, between 1997 and 2005. (cont.) The focus was on the local states system that implemented tax administration reforms, specifically related to the collection of the VAT. This data, presented in this dissertation, supports the argument that success is a function of technology, organizational changes, functional specialization, and institutional arrangements, which combined, led to envision a new way to achieve greater tax collection and compliance, a shift in tax-collectors identities, and the strengthening of public sector's institutions. Finally, the diversity of features in the chosen states range from wealth and industrialized, to rural and agricultural, to developing states. Yet, the same national policies cut across states, forcing less developed and active states to engage and catch-up with the reform plans. In this fashion, my findings can be applied to the most developed nations as well as to striving developing countries and poorer nations. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 207-221). http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/42414 Constructing Community : class, privatization and social life in a Boston mixed income housing development Graves, Erin Michelle Social interaction among friends and neighbors is generally considered an informal process. Consequently, we often think of the structure of personal social networks as an expression of people's individual preferences. The observed homogeneity within social networks is often treated as a near socio-biological fact: people, like "birds of a feather," flock together. This dissertation examines unexpected influences on cross-class interaction in a privatized mixed income housing development in Boston, Massachusetts. The research site Maverick Landing was constructed as an alternative to low-income public housing as part of the HOPE VI program funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Through research methods including fourteen months of residency and participant observation at Maverick Landing, semi-structured interviews and document analysis, this study shows how formal processes interacted with informal ones at the interpersonal level and impacted cross-class interaction. Management enforced a formal structure -- including rules and control of physical space, as well as more subtle measures such as information control and resource distribution - that substantially negatively influenced interpersonal relations. Larger structural realities too shaped the actions of the management company. Relative to their lower income neighbors, higher income residents had considerable leverage in the housing market, making them much harder to recruit and retain. Due to this structural disparity, management sought to satisfy the market rate residents over the subsidized ones, resulting in cross-class resentment. Additionally, the social structure evident at Maverick Landing was in part the outcome of a chain of processes that began at the Federal level where the potential for privatization and income mixing was promoted through policy. (cont.) Following the "implementation chain" from the federal level, to the local level, to the site of implementation, Maverick Landing and finally to residents' actions and reactions, this research shows how social interaction is structured by public and private actors outside of the implementation site, Maverick Landing. Privatized mixed income developments, many hoped, would reduce inequality between lower and higher income people. But in important ways, the intervention reproduced inequality. And it shows us how class is protected, not just by its members but also by institutions. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 268-277). http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/42413 Institutional arrangements and land reallocation during transition : a regional analysis of small farms in Romania Vidican Sgouridis, Georgeta My dissertation examines an unexpected outcome of post-socialist agricultural transformation in the Central and Eastern European countries. Contrary to the initial expectations of Neoliberal transition policy-makers, various forms of agricultural associations emerged throughout the former communist countries, following the distribution of private property rights to individuals. The reallocation of land in associations occurred while this institutional arrangement was criticized in the literature and individual farming was portrayed as the panacea for these countries. The main research question that frames my dissertation is: Why do farmers still persist in joining associations despite perceived collective action problems and the availability of leasing as a close substitute? Additional questions are also examined: Why did associations emerge in some regions and not in others? What are the factors that affect landowners' choices between associations and leasing transactions? How different, or similar are associations from the old socialist collective farms? While earlier literature focused on explaining why landowners choose to farm the land individually, the choice between associations and leasing has not been previously researched. Using statistical analysis on household surveys and qualitative fieldwork I explain why and under what conditions associations are the optimal farming alternatives for landowners. Going beyond the capital constraints argument, I examine the role of institutional legacies and the effect of collectivization in explaining regional differences in land reallocation during transition. (cont.) Based on my findings, theories of institutional change that view transition as a homogeneous and atemporal process across and within countries do not fully capture the interdependencies between different factors that shape individuals' responses to the incentives and constraints imposed by transition. This research provides policy recommendations especially for land consolidation efforts. Given high transaction costs associated with participating in land markets, farming associations should be strongly emphasized as a channel for achieving land consolidation. Support measures, such as improved access to credit and marketing channels, can enhance the competitiveness of associations. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 299-309). http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/42412 Impacts of greenhouse gas mitigation policies on agricultural land Wang, Xiaodong, Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are widely acknowledged to be responsible for much of the global warming in the past century. A number of approaches have been proposed to mitigate GHG emissions. Since the burning of fossil-based fuels is an important source of GHGs, the policies on GHG-mitigation encourage the replacement of fossil-based energy with biomass energy. However, a large-scale development of biomass energy may lead to changes in agricultural land use, which are important sources of GHG emissions, and therefore undermine the effectiveness of GHG-mitigation policies. In this research, I analyze the impacts of GHG-mitigation policies on five types of agricultural land (cropland, managed forestry land, pasture land, un-managed forestry land, and un-managed grassland) as well as carbon stored in such land during the 21st century. The scholars in the MIT Joint Program of Science and Policy on Global Change use the Integrated Global Systems Model (IGSM) to simulate changes in climate in response to GHG-mitigation policies, while the researchers at the U. S. Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) apply the Terrestrial Ecosystem Model (TEM) to simulate land productivities. Based on the predictions of land characteristics affecting land-use decisions, I develop an econometric model to predict the land use affected by climate, GHGs, and tropospheric ozone at the grid-cell scale of 0.5 * 0.5 longitude by latitude. I use the Emissions Prediction and Policy Analysis (EPPA) model to capture the regional land use driven by economic forces. Then, I develop the downscaling methods to link these two land-use effects. I conduct this research in two scenarios: in the baseline, I assume that there are no policies to mitigate GHG emissions during the 21st century; in the policy scenario, I assume that there are specific policies to limit GHG emissions during the 21st century. (cont.) I confirm the hypothesis that biomass-energy production would lead to the conversion of the five types of agricultural land, and the carbon stored in such land would decrease; the GHG-mitigation policies, leading to more production of biomass energy and conversion of agricultural land, would cause an even more severe loss of the carbon stored in agricultural land. Although the GHG-mitigation policies would generally reduce the atmospheric GHG emissions by using more energy from biomass, such endeavors would be partly counteracted by the land-use conversion as a result of large-scale production of biomass energy. Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 2008. Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-162).