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Course of studies
This thesis has the purpose to investigate the oil price as the global economic factor but also to examine its implications on the worldwide economy. Thereby the determinants of the oil price are investigated by tackling the oil price itself from three different perspectives – the supply and demand framework, the prevailing world oil market structure as well as from the perspective of already statistically proven oil price determinants. In addition, the arising macroeconomic implications of oil price fluctuations on oil-importing and oil-exporting countries are examined. The investigation based on a thought experiment demonstrates the supply and demand framework to be unable to fully explain all past price changes. The examination on the prevailing market structure identifies the world oil market to be best described as a supply, pure, closed, partial and collusive form of an oligopoly. Analyzing the competitive behavior of the world oil market on three levels identifies non-OPEC producers’ competition to behave in a Cournot manner whereas among OPEC producers Saudi Arabia is identified to be a Stackelberg-follower with certain conditions while at the same time permanently bearing the ambition to become the Stackelberg-leader. The identification on the best describing oligopoly model for the overall industry is inconclusive. Investigating OPEC’s cartel hypothesis does not fully exclude its collusive behavior but denies the OPEC to be described as a prime example of a cartel. The examination of already existing econometric analyses identified a total of 13 determinants to play a key role in the oil price definition process. Investigating the arising macroeconomic implications of oil price fluctuations show oil price changes to be of great importance for the overall economic performance and is best described as a form of a positive of negative vicious circle in which the interconnected second or even third round effects intensify the implications on the macroeconomic activity.
Considering the ever-increasing government debts of industrial countries as well as missing financial resources of emerging and developing countries, the international press outdoes themselves with headlines on the subject tax, tax evasion, tax dodging and tax shifting. International corporations like Amazon, Apple, Google, Ikea or Starbucks are obviously able to shift their profits legally across the world in order to deliberately save tax payments. The arising tax loss out of such activities in Europe is estimated to be around one trillion Euro, while in Germany it is estimated to be around 160 billion euros. In order to counteract this phenomenon states as well as the OECD are developing concepts, practices and actions to combat tax shifting of corporations on an international base. The true objective is, to pay taxes where the actual added value creation takes place.
This bachelor thesis considers the general representation of this subject and provides a deeper look on the different parties involved in tax shifting operations as well as on their respective motifs. Basic constructions of techniques are outlined and shown. By assumption models it can be determined that in Non-Tax haven countries tax shifting leads to a substantial economic loss, whereas for countries considered as tax havens this characteristic does not necessarily lead to a greater economic growth in the country. Further it is illustrated to which extent companies are able to establish a competitive advantage over other companies through tax shifting methods. Additionally it becomes obvious that the use of tax havens is finally leading to a closure of gaps in the law within the different tax systems and consequently it will lead to an increased tax justice in the long run.