Fee Reduction Research Articles

Web3 Subscriptions: A Catalyst for a More Inclusive and User-Centric Financial System

This paper explores the burgeoning landscape of Web3 subscriptions, highlighting their potential to revolutionize recurring payments within the decentralized space. It contrasts traditional, centralized subscription models with Web3 alternatives, emphasizing the latter's advantages such as user control, fee reduction, and financial inclusion for the unbanked. The paper then delves into a pioneering project that leverages smart contracts and L2 scaling solutions to offer a user-centric and automated subscription management system. By analyzing this project's features, the paper underscores the transformative potential of Web3 subscriptions to reshape the future of recurring payments within the digital economy.

Analysis on the impact of internet use on residents' tourism consumption behavior and the mechanism of action.

Tourism consumption as a typical representative of service consumption, has strong comprehensiveness and driving force, continuously expanding new consumption upgrade space. In the context of the digital economy, the development of the mobile internet has opened up new opportunities for the tourism industry acting as an important factor influencing the consumer behaviour of the residents. Based on 9007 resident survey data from the China General Social Survey (CGSS) in 2017, this paper explores the relationship between Internet use, access to information and residents' travel consumption behavior by means of probit model and mediating effect model. First, according to the findings, Internet use has a positive impact on residents' travel consumption behavior, increasing residents' tourism expenditure. Second, the mechanism suggests that access to information plays a partially mediating role between Internet use and travel consumption behavior. Third, further analysis revealed that, for the retired population, the more frequently they use the Internet, the more likely they are to spend on travel. Compared to those with lower incomes, those with higher incomes will spend less on travel after retirement. With this in mind, in order to promote residents' tourism consumption, speed and fee reduction should be continuously promoted, urban and rural information infrastructure should be strengthened, and accessibility of tourism information for residents should be improved. At the same time, there is a need to innovate the way tourism products are promoted, improve the types of tourism products and launch diversified tourism products.

Tuition Fees Reduction on Student Performance in Public Secondary Schools of Rwanda

The research investigated the contribution of tuition fee reductions to student performance in public secondary schools in Rwanda. Specifically, the research examines the specific factors that contribute to the effectiveness of tuition fee reduction in public secondary schools in Rwanda, assesses the level of academic performance of students in public secondary schools due to the reduction in tuition fees in Rwanda, and analyzes the relationship between tuition fee reduction and the students ‘academic performance in public secondary schools in Rwanda. This study's target population will consist of 415 respondents. The sample size will be 194 people. This study utilized primary sources like questionnaires, interviews, and observation to gather data. It employed purposive, stratified, and simple random sampling methods. Both quantitative and qualitative methodologies were used for analysis. For the first objective, results indicate that the majority of teachers, with a total of 92.0%, strongly agreed or agreed that a rising percentage of students are enrolling; 96.0% either strongly agreed or agreed that class participation and engagement; and 90.7% strongly agreed or agreed that low completion rates show the specific factors that contribute to the effectiveness of tuition fee reduction. For the second objective, 94.0% strongly agreed or agreed that graduation rates were high, and 98.6% either strongly agreed or agreed that a high number of students attended. Additionally, 96.6% strongly agreed or agreed that higher national examinations resulted, and 72.0% strongly agreed or agreed that retention rates indicate the academic performance of students in public secondary schools due to the reduction of the reduction of tuition fees in Rwanda. Results on the relationship between tuition fee reduction and the students ‘academic performance in public secondary schools in Rwanda. The correlation matrix between independent variables (government funding, institutional budget, and program section) and dependent variables (increased number of graduates, high student attendance, and increased student retention rates) shows positive significance since the p-value was less than 0.05. Based on research findings It is recommended that A tiered tuition fee structure, scholarships, grants, increased government funding, a free education policy, private sector involvement, and cost-sharing programs can make education more accessible and affordable for students.

Who Cares? Women entrepreneurs and the transition to the Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreement in Nova Scotia

The Canada-wide Early Learning and Child Care Agreements signed in 2021/2022 represent an unprecedented investment into child care across Canada, supporting the expansion of care spaces, reductions in parent fees, and increased wages for care workers. In the province of Nova Scotia, however, the new funding model faced considerable pushback from women entrepreneurs in the care field, who felt overlooked and bullied by the provincial government amidst the policy rollout. This paper evaluates the experiences of child care owners in Nova Scotia during the transition to the new funding agreement through a series of interviews with entrepreneurs. The paper posits that the consultation and communications between the province and care owners reified gendered power relations, particularly through the devaluation and exploitation of women's care work. Interviewees report feeling treated as “glorified babysitters” and experiencing significant mental health strains as a result of the policy negotiation with the province.

Бюджет российского крестьянина-колхозника в 1953–1958 годах (по материалам рассекреченных архивных документов)

The article analyzes statistics, closed for many decades for an ordinary user, on the budgets of families of peasant collective farmers in 1958. Comparing with the indicators of the period of the beginning of agrarian reforms, we can conclude that the position of the collective farm peasantry has improved somewhat due to the reduction of taxes and fees. At the same time,cash and natural income were small, the structure of expenses did not undergo significant changes. The socio-economic situation of collective farmers in the second half of the 1950s remained difficult.

The Impact of Dish Innovation on China's Intangible Cultural Heritage Economy

In recent years, the food industry has proven to be a crucial driver of economic development. However, it has been greatly affected by the impact of the epidemic. Nevertheless, with the rising vaccination rates and the implementation of effective prevention and control measures, it is gradually picking up momentum and presenting a new opportunity for a food craze. The prolonged lockdowns have led to a surge in consumer demand for food, creating unprecedented levels of desire. As a result, food and beverage companies are actively engaging in innovation and adjusting their strategies to meet market demands. The government has also played a role in supporting the industry's recovery by introducing various measures, such as rent reductions, tax cuts, fee reductions, and loan support. Additionally, technology has made a significant contribution to the recovery process. The implementation of intelligent ordering systems, mobile payments, and fresh food delivery has not only made the food industry more convenient but also enhanced its operational efficiency and customer experience. The combination of government efforts and the application of technology is assisting the food industry in recovering and growing.

Social security fee reduction, industrial robots, and labor income share

This study explores whether the policy of reducing labor payments can have opposite effects to those expected. Specifically, it investigates whether reducing the social insurance contribution rate can increase labor employment and enhance overall labor income. This study focuses on a direct social security fee reduction event in China. This event targets labor-intensive enterprises and encourages adopting industrial robots. By leveraging this quasi-natural experiment, we construct a mathematical model. Further, using a triple-difference strategy, we examine the impact of social security fee reduction on firm factor structures and income distribution. This study observes that a social security fee reduction decreases the labor income share of enterprises. However, this only applies to non-small and medium-sized enterprises (non-SMEs) and is not observed in SMEs. Consequently, because of the social security fee reduction, automation is the primary cause of the decline in the labor income share. The reduction in social security fees enables companies to use the saved funds for further automation, causing labor productivity to exceed labor costs and ultimately reducing the labor income share. The findings suggest that industrial specialization is one of the reasons for labor income share decline in transitioning economies.

Effects of Performance-Based Financing on Availability, Quality, and Use of Family Planning Services in the Democratic Republic of Congo: An Impact Evaluation.

Access to high-quality family planning services remains limited in many low- and middle-income countries, resulting in a high burden of unintended pregnancies and adverse health outcomes. We used data from a large randomized controlled trial in the Democratic Republic of Congo to test whether performance-based financing (PBF) can increase the availability, quality, and use of family planning services. Starting at the end of 2016, 30 health zones were randomly assigned to a PBF program, in which health facilities received financing conditional on the quantity and quality of offered services. Twenty-eight health zones were assigned to a control group in which health facilities received unconditional financing of a similar magnitude. Follow-up data collection took place in 2021-2022 and included 346 health facility assessments, 476 direct clinical observations of family planning consultations, and 9,585 household surveys. Findings from multivariable regression models show that the PBF program had strong positive impacts on the availability and quality of family planning services. Specifically, the program increased the likelihood that health facilities offered any family planning services by 20 percentage points and increased the likelihood that health facilities had contraceptive pills, injectables, and implants available by 23, 24, and 20 percentage points, respectively. The program also improved the process quality of family planning consultations by 0.59 standard deviations. Despite these improvements, and in addition to reductions in service fees, the program had a modest impact on contraceptive use, increasing the modern method use among sexually active women of reproductive age by 4 percentage points (equivalent to a 37 percent increase), with no significant impact on adolescent contraceptive use. These results suggest that although PBF can be an effective approach for improving the supply of family planning services, complementary demand-side interventions are likely needed in a setting with very low baseline utilization.

Spillover effect of digital transformation along the supply chain: From the perspective of suppliers’ audit fees

This research contributes to understanding the spillover effect of customer digital transformation along the supply chain. We take a supply chain relationship perspective to explore the influence of customers’ digital transformation on suppliers’ audit fees and find a significant reduction in such fees when customers undergo digital transformation. An economic mechanism analysis reveals that this transformation reduces audit fees by lowering the risks and costs encountered by auditors. This is achieved by mitigating suppliers’ business risks and improving earnings quality. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the impact of customers’ digital transformation on suppliers’ audit fees is more pronounced when the supply chain is geographically distant, suppliers with more specific investments and with high levels of market competition.

A study on the impact of the threat of exit from non-controlling shareholders on audit fees

Taking all A-share listed companies from 2010 to 2021 as a sample, this paper examines the impact of the withdrawal threat of non-controlling shareholders on audit fees. The results demonstrate a considerable reduction in audit fees in the event of an exit threat by a non-controlling shareholder. Further analysis shows that the impact of the withdrawal threat on audit fees is particularly obvious in non-state-owned enterprises and enterprises with a high degree of marketization. Mechanism test reveals that the threat of exit can reduce the risk of stock price crash, inhibit surplus management, and thus reduce audit fees. This paper provides new ideas and empirical support for the role of non-controlling shareholders in corporate governance structure.

Hedge accounting, IFRS 9, and audit fees: Evidence from China

AbstractUsing data for 2016–2021 on a sample of Chinese non‐financial firms, this study documents a positive association between the use of hedge accounting and audit fees and finds that the new requirements under International Financial Reporting Standards 9 (IFRS 9) help mitigate this positive relationship. Channel analyses show that the new hedge accounting requirements mitigate earnings volatility and accruals management, which results in audit fee reductions. Further, the post‐IFRS 9 audit fee decrease is greater among large audit firms, firms in regions with higher marketisation levels and firms with better corporate governance.

Pattern matching algorithms in blockchain for network fees reduction

Blockchain received a vast amount of attention in recent years and is still growing. The second generation of blockchain, such as Ethereum, allows execution of almost any program in EVM, making it a global protocol for distributed applications. The code deployment and each operation performed in EVM cost the network fee called gas, whose price varies and can be significant. That is why code optimization and well-chosen algorithms are crucial in programming on the blockchain. This paper evaluates the gas usage of several exact pattern matching algorithms on the EVM. We also propose an efficient implementation of the algorithms in the Solidity/YUL language. We evaluate the gas fees of all the algorithms for different parameters (such as pattern length, alphabet size, and text size). We show a significant gas fee and execution time reduction with up to 22-fold lower gas usage and 55-fold speed-up compared to StringUtils (a popular Solidity string library).

The Estimation of Macroeconomic Effects of Tax Cuts and Fee Reductions: An Analysis from the Perspective of Consumer Income and Expenditure

This paper analyses the macroeconomic effects of China's Tax Cuts and Fee Reduction policies (TC&FR) from the perspective of consumer income and expenditure. It combines factors such as local and central government, population structure and consumption, household savings and corporate investment. The paper then draws three conclusions: firstly, that China's TC&FR reforms have had significant effects; secondly, that the reforms have had a greater impact on the younger consumer group than on the older one; and thirdly, that the goal of multiplying fiscal effects can be achieved by expanding the proportion of middle-income groups. The continuous improvement of the legal taxation and fee collection mechanism has enhanced the governance level of local governments, enabling the policies to be implemented steadily and far-reaching. Secondly, the implementation of TC&FR should focus on the young consumer group and emphasize the protection of welfare for the elderly group. This will help to achieve the goal of multiplying fiscal effects by expanding the proportion of middle-income groups. Thirdly, the difference between China and Western countries lies in China's higher per capita willingness to save. Consequently, TC&FR can be expected to perform optimally when coupled with monetary policies designed to stabilize market investment expectations.

A study on the benefit incidence of a place-based education fee reduction program: Evidence from a local housing market in China

This paper studies an Education Fee Reduction and Exemption Program for preschool childcare in Jinan, China, to explore the benefit incidence among different stakeholders by observing how housing prices and rents change in response to this program and by employing a method of difference-in-differences combined with boundary discontinuity. The empirical findings indicate that the housing prices in the experimental area rose by 5–7 percent while the rents rose by 10–13 percent due to the capitalization effects of this equalization program. Falsification tests are conducted using artificial boundaries and fake policy implementation dates. A back-of-the-envelope welfare analysis demonstrates that a considerable portion of the program's benefits is offset by house price increases for new home buyers and rent increases for tenants, with significant distributional implications for different stakeholders.

322 A Cost Analysis of Medical Students Applying to Neurological Surgery Residency: An Analysis of the Texas STAR Database

INTRODUCTION: Medical Students applying to competitive residencies such as neurosurgery incur substantial costs associated with interviews, away rotations, and application fees. Researchers in the past have examined the sources of expenses during the residency application cycle, but few studies have compared the expenses prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: The TEXAS STAR database was surveyed for applicants of neurosurgical residency programs during the COVID-19 pandemic (2021) and post-pandemic (2022). In total, 66 applicants for the 2021 application cycle and 50 applicants for the 2022 application cycle completed the survey. We compared the application fees, away rotations cost, interview cost, and total expenses as reported by the neurosurgery applicants of the 2021 and 2022 application cycle. A Shapiro-Wilk test was used to test for data normality, and a Mann-Whitney U-Test was used to compare costs during the 2021 and 2022 neurosurgery application cycle. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant reduction in total expenses in 2021 vs 2022 ($3,934 vs $9,860). Interview expenses and away rotation expenses were also decreased in 2021 vs 2022 (interview expenses $786 vs $4511, away rotation $1,083 vs $3,000, p < 0.001). Application fee expenses were not different between the 2021 and 2022 application cycle. Regional stratification revealed the greatest reduction in cost, an $11,908 savings, in the South region for the year of 2021. CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic caused a significant reduction in the total fees associated with the neurosurgical residency application. The use of virtual platforms in place of in-person interviews could lessen the financial burden on applicants and alleviate socioeconomic barriers in the neurosurgical application process even after COVID-19.

Analysis on the Influence of Tax Reduction and Fee Reduction Policies on Digital Development Level of Enterprises Based on AHP-DEMATEL

Since structural tax cuts were first incorporated into active fiscal policy in 2008, various tax breaks have been introduced. Based on the detailed enumeration of tax reduction policy measures, this study constructs an evaluation index system for the level of digital development of enterprises in terms of strategy implementation, operation status, technology level, and quality management. Then DEMATEL hierarchical analysis method and big data analysis method are used to analyse and determine the comprehensive influence degree of each index. Finally, this paper analyses the benefits and convenience brought by tax reduction and fee reduction to the digital development of enterprises and puts forward countermeasures and suggestions for the development of digital transformation of enterprises in the context of tax reduction and fee reduction. This study aims to put forward relevant countermeasures for enterprises to enhance their digital transformation and development capabilities.

Supporting Small and Medium-sized Enterprises to Resume Production During the Epidemic Effect Analysis of Tax Policy

At the beginning of 2020, the spread of COVID-19 brought a huge impact on China's national economy and social life. Sudden outbreak of SMEs daily production and management and future development suffered a heavy blow, SMEs into a very embarrassing plight. As an indispensable part of the national economy and a major participant in market economic activities, it is of great significance to help SMEs mitigate the impact of COVID-19 and promote their resumption of work and production is of great significance for the comprehensive implementation of the tasks of "stability on the six fronts" and "security in the six areas". Based on the global spread of COVID-19 epidemic, this paper reviews the tax and fee reduction policies issued by the central and local governments since the epidemic, analyzes the effects of the corresponding policies on the resumption of work and production of SMEs, and puts forward suggestions to further improve the effect of tax policies to support SMEs to tide over the difficulties and help their development.

Performance improvement of fuel cell and photovoltaic system

This article considers and studies a hybrid energy storage system as a potential replacement for a utility grid. It also examines its organisational structure. The hybrid energy storage technology is used to ensure a constant supply of convenient grid electricity that is sufficient to handle changing power spikes. Batteries are used to stabilise the surges with measurable variation, whereas a massive capacitor is utilised to stabilise the surges with fast variation. In isolated areas where connecting to the main utility grid is impractical, standalone renewable generation may provide the advantage of a reduced operational cost as well as a reduction in protection fees. In order to encourage non-conventional power production in the overall renewable energy system, advancements in solid oxide fuel-cell technology and solar photovoltaic (PV) technology have also been made. Grid-coupled solar PV energy producing systems are being extensively used worldwide, and solar PV modules are increasingly being used in residential applications linked to the electrical grid.

Big data Research on the Application of Tracking Policy Audit in the Implementation of Tax Reduction and Fee

Since 2018, chinese government have conducted tracking audits on the implementation of tax reduction and fee reduction policies, facing the challenges of insufficient audit resources and massive unstructured data storage. This article attempts to introduce big data technology into tracking audit policies. This article elaborates on the importance and urgency of tracking and auditing the implementation of tax and fee reduction policies. The impact of big data technology in the field of auditing on the tracking and auditing of the implementation of tax and fee reduction policies is also discussed. It is proposed that auditing agencies should apply big data technology to the tracking and auditing of the implementation of tax and fee reduction policies. And we also attempted to design an audit plan based on Neo4j graphical database technology, which includes audit objectives and scope, audit content and focus, specific big data audit steps and audit results. In response to the problems that hinder the application of big data technology, suggestions have been put forward to improve the standardization of the data process system, actively promote more efficient big data technology, and increase the training of big data audit talents.

The Impact of “Tax Reduction and Fee Reduction” on the Industrial Structure of Jiangxi Province

The Impact of “Tax Reduction and Fee Reduction” on the Industrial Structure of Jiangxi Province