Italy Travel Resources Italy

Italy Vacation Travel - resorts, books, agents, photos, real estate Italy Vacation Travel Resorts -- Resources --Books -- Agents -- Photos - Real Estate Don't forget to bookmark this page! Currency converter click here Travel agents Cheap air fares Value hotels Italy Travel Resources Italy Travel Books Italy Travel Photos Italy Real Estate Agents - cheap air fares - value hotels - rail passes Hot Deals! - from Travelocity Book a Flight - Find the lowest fare or best schedule on over 400 airlines worldwide Visit SmarterLiving's Deal Alert section for the latest travel deals. Lowest International airfares Economy Travel Resorts Select Tour Destination Any World Country Any USA State Afghanistan Algeria Argentina Armenia Aruba Australia Austria Bahamas Bangladesh Belgium Belize Benin Bhutan Bolivia Botswana Brazil British Virgin Is. Bulgaria Burkina Faso Cambodia Canada Cayman Is. Chile China Colombia Cook Is. Costa Rica Croatia Czech Republic Denmark Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Eritrea Ethiopia Fiji Finland France Georgia Germany Ghana Greece Guatemala Guinea Guyana Honduras Hong Kong Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Ireland Israel Italy Ivory Coast Jamaica Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kyrgyzstan Laos Libya Macau Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Mauritius Mexico Monaco Mongolia Morocco Myanmar Namibia Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Norway Pakistan Palau Panama Papua New Guinea Peru Philippines Poland Portugal Romania Russia Seychelles Singapore Slovakia South Africa S. Georgia & S. Sandwich South Korea Spain Sri Lanka Swaziland Sweden Switzerland Tajikistan Tanzania Thailand The Gambia Togo Tonga Trinidad Truk Tunisia Turkey Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos US Virgin Is. Uganda United Arab Emirates United Kingdom Uzbekistan Vanuatu Venezuela Vietnam West Indies Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Missouri Montana Nebreska Nevada New Hampshire New Mexico New York North Carolina Oregon Pennsylvania Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia Washington Washington D.C. West Virginia Wyoming Books Books about Venice , Amalfi Coast, Capri, Vesuvius, Pompeii . Books on the National Parks of America, the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley Italy Resources ITALY TRAVEL TOURS, vacation packages to Rome, Venice, Florence by ... Discount vacation travel packages, hotels and tours to all the exciting destinations in Italy . Visit Rome, Vatican, Milan, Venice ... www. italy - travel .net/ Travel Italy Vacation Packages - Italian Tours and Honeymoons Tour Italy with Rome, Florence, Venice vacation packages by train, Tuscany travel by car with villa hotels, and romantic Italian honeymoons. ... www. italy source.com/ Italy Vacations & Tourism, Hotels in Italy - Yahoo! Travel ... Sponsored Links. Italy Tourism Vacation in beautiful and historic Italy ... www.go-to- italy .com. ( What's this ... Travel : Your best choice for cheap airline tickets ... travel .yahoo.com/ p- travel guide-191501764- italy _ vacation s-i Italy Vacation - Places to see & Things to do Italy Vacation Things To See & Things To Do. FEATURE ATTRACTION: Meaning Behind The Art. ... ITALY VACATION : Everything You'll Need to plan Your Trip. ... www.goporta.com/ Slow Travel - Vacation rentals in Italy , Switzerland, England ... ... Slow Travelers stay in vacation rentals around ... used are self-catering, tourist rentals, holiday rentals, holiday cottages, agritourism ( Italy ), Gites (France ... www.slowtrav.com/ Slow Travel Italy - Vacation rentals, villas, apartments in ... Slow Travel Italy . Slow Travel Italy gives you the information you need to find and book a vacation rental in Italy . Find a villa ... www.slowtrav.com/ italy / Escorted Tours- Travel Packages-Discount Travel -Tour Packages ... 9 Day Galapagos w/3 day cruise - escorted tours, travel packages, vacation packages, discount travel , tour packages, escorted tour, ... www.gate1 travel .com/ Italy Tours, Italy Vacation , Italy tour, Italy Vacations , Italy ... ... Italy vacations . We have Italy tours, travel packages, and Italy vacations to suit your travel time and budget. Italian vacations ... www.gate1 travel .com/ italy - travel / Private Italy tours, custom vacations , Italian experience ... which includes information on your vacation , travel and transport arrangements, vouchers and airline tickets if required. To experience Italy , call our ... www.roadto italy .com/ Italy vacation packages - Reviews of Italy travel packages Also features discount vacation and travel packages to Italy including SmartDeals. Italy vacation packages Reviews of hotels and vacations . ... www.tripadvisor.com/ Packages-g187768-Vacation-Package-Discount-Italy.html Venice School of photography The Venice School of Photography is an English speaking company specialising in photography workshops, tours and holidays in many of the worlds most awe-inspiring locations. www.learninitaly.com Italy Photos Photos of Venice , Amalfi Coast, Capri, Vesuvius, Pompeii Italy Real Estate Italy real estate - properties for sale free landscape photos | free Venice photos | free tools for websites Advertise with us Link to us Awards we have won Distinctive Websites Royalty Free Stock Photos web design UK by beaufortweb search engine optimisation services UK website design and promotion UK

Cheap Travel Plane Tickets:

Secrets of Cheap Travel Travel Writing Home Home-Travel Agent Cheap Travel Travel Light Secretsof Cheap Travel by: Steve Gillman There are two ways to save money traveling. Thefirst way is to get the best deals on the specific things you want. There is alimitation to this type of approach though. If , for example, you find thelowest price on the best hotel in Honolulu at the height of the season, you WILLsave money, but still have a very expensive vacation. Trying to get exactly whatyou want, or what you think you want, will generally be an expensiveproposition, in travel and in life. Be a Travel Opportunist The other approach is to be a true opportunist.This will be difficult for some of you, and entirely unacceptable to others.Nonetheless, the travelers who get to travel the most, go to the widest varietyof places, learn the most and do the most, are the opportunists. This will betrue until you are so wealthy that you have no monetary limits. The first time I went to Ecuador, I went therebecause it was cheap. If it wasn't, I would have had a great time - somewhereelse. The trip lasted a month, and cost $1045, which included airfare and eventhe $130 fee for a guide to take me to the top of glacier-covered MountChimborazo. I cut the cost by taking a bus from my home inMichigan to Miami, and back again when I returned from Ecuador. The round-tripticket cost $158. The round-trip flight to Quito from Miami was only $256,because it was a courier flight, which meant I signed for some luggage (carparts), and could only take carry-on luggage. Never did I feel deprived, or bored. I had agreat time, eating wherever it was cheap and clean, doing all sorts ofinexpensive, but interesting things, and traveling across the country to climbChimborazo. I also met and fell in love with my wife Ana. How to Become an Opportunist Traveler Can you drink rum at a dollar per bottle, insteadof your favorite beer? Can you eat chicken instead of steak? How about visitingthe free sights first, and dancing in the street festival instead of the disco? Being an opportunist means you'll have just asmuch variety, and probably almost everything you want - eventually. You justhave to stop trying to get exactly what you want exactly when you want it. Ifthe guide that took me up Chimborazo hadn't dropped his price from $200 to $130,I would have spent $2 for a bus and gone hiking on El Altar, another greatAndean mountain. That would have left me with enough money for several otherminor adventures. More Secrets of Cheap Travel Plane Tickets: My wife and I were planning a tripto visit family in Ecuador. The cheapest airfare from Traverse City, Michigan toQuito, was $1720. Out of curiosity, I checked Miami to Quito, and it was only$404. Airfare from Traverse City to Miami was $300. Book two separate flightsand save more than $2000! The discount sites aren't set up to search in this way(yet), so you have to do this on your own. By the way, the whole six-week trip,which we took in 2004, cost $2400, including losing $100, and being robbed of$174. Food: Whether traveling here or in othercountries, it is usually cheaper to buy some healthy snacks in a grocery store,rather than eat every meal in a restaurant. When you do eat in restaurants, itcan be cheaper to to order individual items on the menu from the list ofappetizers or side dishes. You also may get more variety in that way. Accommodation: For a long trip, you may want torent an apartment in an interesting city. We did this for two months in Tucson,for about $600 less per month, compared to even the cheaper motels. Watch forhotel coupon-books in gas stations. The coupons will often save you $10 on aroom you would have stayed in anyhow. If you have a conversion van or RV, youcan camp a couple nights a week, like we do, to save on motels. We love the hotsprings we've stayed at, for a $3 fee to the BLM, instead of $40 for thecheapest motel in the area. Travel Expenses: Do more and travel less. It isoften the traveling part that costs the most, due to the cost of gas, convenientfast food, and expensive hotels you are forced to pay for when you just can'tdrive any further. So if you find a place with a reasonable motel, and a lot todo in the area - stay for a while! About the Author Steve Gillman first hit the road on his own whenat sixteen, and traveled alone across the United States and Mexico at 17. Now40, he continues to travel and backpack with his wife Ana, whom he met inEcuador. Many of his stories, plus tips and information on travel andlightweight backpacking, can be found on his websites, http://www.EverythingAboutTravel.com ,and http://www.TheUltralightBackpackingSite.com . Home Home-TravelAgent CheapTravel TravelLight

Travel Guides Community Special

Adventure Travel & World Travel | iExplore FORBES' #1 ADVENTURE TRAVEL SITE 5 YEARS IN A ROW — TIME MAGAZINE TOP 50 Keyword Search: -- Home Trip Finder Travel Guides Community Special Offers Store My iExplore About Us | Testimonials | Corporate Travel | Advertise | Contact Us -- All Regions Africa Antarctica Australia and the South Pacific Caribbean Central and South America Europe Far East Middle East North America South and Southeast Asia All Countries All Activities Bicycle Touring Canal and River Cruising Canoeing Culinary Cultural Exploration Expedition Cruises Field Research / Volunteering Fishing Hiking / Trekking / Walking Horseback Riding Miscellaneous Mountain Biking Mountaineering Multi-Sport Once-in-a-Lifetime Rainforests and Ecotours Safari Sailing and Yachting Scuba Diving Sea Kayaking Snow Sports Whitewater -- -- Featured Destination The people, the place, the unhurried pace... Come discover the enchantment of Ireland. Check out Ireland's great cycling, hiking and horseback riding trips! Partner Offer -- Tour Spotlight iExplore Cape to Cairo Adventure Africa's ultimate journey... Trip Overview Trip Itinerary Departure Dates Egypt Photos Egypt Travel Guide Destination Of The Day Portugal Portugal is a country of astonishing beauty and diversity, not to mention clear blue skies and friendly, courteous people. Pick any destination and the view from your window might be a rugged stretch... Overview Where To Go Travel Tips Portugal Tours Portugal Photos Travel Photos Browse over 225,000 user-submitted travel photos. Journals & Reviews Read and write travel journals & reviews. Find a Travel Buddy Post a listing to find a like-minded travel buddy. Get Answers Find answers for all of your travel-related questions. Top Selling iExplore Tours 1. Machu Picchu Peru 2. Adventure in Argentina 3. Cultural Tour in Thailand 4. Safari in South Africa 5. The Pyramids of Egypt 6. Safari in Gabon 7. Cruise the Galapagos 8. Cultural Tour in Greece 9. Culinary Tour in Italy 10. Cultural Tour in Tunisia Client Testimonials " I had an absolutely wonderful time!! The staff treated the guests like family. Overall it was one of the best trips I have ever taken. Thank you so much! " Penny, 12/01/2005, Argentina " I wanted to let you know that my trip was beyond my wild dreams. I loved it!! Thanks for helping me. " Mary Lou , 11/16/2005, Vietnam & Cambodia Click here to view more testimonials Sponsored Listings ( Add your listing ) Europe and Russia Africa Central and South America South and Southeast Asia North America England France Germany Greece Hungary Ireland Italy Russia Spain Botswana Egypt Kenya Morocco Namibia South Africa Tanzania Argentina Belize Brazil Chile Costa Rica Ecuador Galapagos Islands Guatemala Peru Venezuela India Nepal Philippines Thailand Vietnam Indonesia Alaska Canada Greenland Mexico United States Australia and South Pacific Far East Caribbean Middle East Antarctica Australia Fiji French Polynesia New Zealand Papua New Guinea China Hong Kong Japan Mongolia South Korea Tibet Bahamas Barbados Cuba Dominican Republic Jamaica Puerto Rico U.S. Virgin Islands Iran Israel Jordan Syria Turkey Advertisement -- advertisement Why iExplore? About Us Advertise Site Map Privacy Policy Travel Agents Contact Us © 2005 Adventure Travel with iExplore --

European Vacation There's a

Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis - The Region - European Vacation (December 2003) I'm at: Home > Publications > The Region > December 2003 > Article Publications Expand All Collapse All The Region Index by Issue Interviews President's Columns fedgazette Index by Issue Topics Index Annual Report Quarterly Review Community Dividend Banking and Policy Studies Articles Toolbox ( advanced search ) December 2003 European Vacation There's a simple reason Americans work longer hours than Europeans, says economist Ed Prescott. And it isn't what you think Douglas Clement Editor It's no secret that Europeans work less than Americans do. Every Labor Day the media tell us that Europeans have just enjoyed weeks of summer vacation while Americans have been toiling away. These stories often depict Americans as hard-working drones who revere material possessions above all else. Europeans meanwhile bask in the good life of long lunches and months at the beach. There is some truth to the portrayal, at least in terms of hours worked. The International Labor Organization reports that the average American worked 1,815 hours in 2002, well above the comparable figures for France (1,545) and Germany (1,444), for example. (The average South Korean, on the other hand, worked over 2,400 hours.) But if it's widely acknowledged that Americans work more hours than Europeans, it remains a puzzle quite why there's such a large difference. With similar economies and social structures—at least relative to the rest of the world—it would seem that labor patterns should also be alike. Social scientists have been hard-pressed to explain the disparity. Most accounts focus on cultural explanations. The most popular is the notion that Europeans have a fuller appreciation of la dolce vita —the sweet life—the Italian version of the idea that life is to be enjoyed, not endured. Work is a means to an end, not an end in itself. The idea of cultural and religious influences on economic activity isn't new. German sociologist Max Weber wrote The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism nearly a century ago, attributing the rise of capitalist economies to the “Protestant work ethic.” It was an immensely persuasive theory in its time, and derivative explanations have held great sway ever since. “Why do Europeans and Americans differ so much in their attitude toward work and leisure? I can think of two reasons,” opines a recent Time magazine essay. “Broadly speaking, Americans value stuff—SUVs, 7,000-sq.-ft. houses—more than they value time, while for Europeans it's the opposite. Second, ... in the puritanical version of Christianity that has always appealed to Americans, religion comes packaged with the stern message that hard work is good for the soul. Modern Europe has avoided so melancholy a lesson.” “It all comes down to what people feel is important and how they feel about their lives,” argues a September 2003 U.S. News & World Report editorial. “We value more money and more stuff; they value more leisure time. ... We are proud of being busy—it is a virtue; being idle is perceived as a vice.” Economic explanations Economists have always been suspect of such cultural explanations. Standard economic theory assumes that people's preferences are, on average, homogeneous, and that choices depend largely on economic factors. Still, while economists agree that dollars and cents lie behind the work pattern differential, there is little harmony among them as to the right economic explanation. Some economists say work regulations keep Europeans from working longer hours and point favorably to recent European reforms on vacation time. Others argue that greater inequality in the United States motivates workers to try harder to get ahead. Most of these explanations come from the perspective of labor economics and its core belief that social structures and institutions such as unions are the major determinants of labor patterns. But in a recent series of papers and lectures, Edward C. Prescott, senior monetary adviser to the Minneapolis Fed and economist at Arizona State University, looks at the labor supply question through the prism of the growth model—a different perspective altogether—and provides a convincing and remarkably straightforward explanation for the dramatic differences in hours worked. It is an explanation that has far-reaching implications for policymakers—and for anyone else who's ever received a paycheck. According to Prescott, the reason for these large differences in labor supply is not culture. “French, Japanese, and U.S. workers all have similar preferences,” he writes. “The French are not better at enjoying leisure. The Japanese are not compulsive savers.” The reason for the wide range in working hours is, in a word, taxes. Europeans supply less labor because there's a much larger wedge in most European countries between what a worker is paid and what that worker actually gets to keep after taxes are taken out. This tax wedge, argues Prescott, distorts the trade-off people make between consumption and leisure by making consumption more expensive. And since people work, ultimately, to earn money to pay for consumption goods, they'll supply less labor if consumption goods become relatively more expensive. The cheaper alternative: leisure. Hello, Riviera. If the concept seems straightforward, its evolution was anything but. Like most ideas that seem obvious in retrospect, the awareness that taxes distort labor markets dramatically and account for major international differences in work patterns came about indirectly and as a revelation to those who happened upon it. The discovery Prescott's discovery about the role of taxes in labor supply variation began, simply enough, in his classroom at the University of Minnesota, where he taught from 1980 to 2003. “I was making up exercises for my students,” he recalled in a recent interview. “I said, 'use this nice little growth model.'” The “nice little model” he presented to his students is the workhorse of modern macroeconomics; it says, mathematically, that a nation's total output (or gross domestic product, GDP) is dependent on three sources: labor, capital and the efficiency (or productivity) with which it merges them to create economic value. The other key part of this standard theory is, in the jargon of economics, a utility function: a formula representing the notion that households try to maximize their happiness by finding the best possible combination of leisure and consumption, given their resources. Prescott wanted his students to become familiar with this model by looking at how it performed in different nations over time, and how key variables—capital endowments, productivity, labor supply—could account for differences among nations in per capita GDP. “I wanted to try to get across the basic ideas and the importance of productivity,” said Prescott. “And then I thought, let's put a few taxes in.” The intuition was far more significant than Prescott suspected, but that became clear only after looking at the relative contributions of capital, productivity and labor. The data, compiled by the United Nations and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, showed that in the mid-1990s among developed countries—the United States, much of Europe and Japan—relative levels of capital differ little and explain just a small portion of the variation in per capita GDP (see adjacent table). “The capital factor is not an important factor in accounting for differences in incomes across the OECD countries,” writes Prescott in his 2002 Richard T. Ely Lecture to the American Economic Association. “[It] contributes at most 8 percent to the differences in income between any of these countries.” Capital, Labor, Productivity and GDP 1993-96 Country Capital/ Output Ratio (1990) Hours worked per Week per Person 15-64 Productivity: GDP per hour Worked; US=100 GDP per Person 15-64; US=100 Germany 2.7 19.3 99 74 France 2.2 17.5 110 74 Italy 2.6 16.5 90 57 Canada na 22.9 89 79 United Kingdom 2.6 22.8 76 67 Japan 2.5 27.0 74 78 United States 2.3 25.9 100 100 Source: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Research Department Staff Report 321 and Working Paper 618 . Productivity, on the other hand, is very important, at least for some national differences. Japan and the United States, for example, have similar levels of labor and capital, but per capita GDP in Japan is far below that in the United States because its productivity is less than three-quarters that of the United States. But what of European countries like France, Italy and Germany? Why are their levels of per capita GDP so much lower? All these nations have capital endowments comparable to the United States. Their productivity levels also are similar to U.S. rates, or in the case of France, even higher. The data suggest that the differences in wealth are due almost exclusively to the markedly lower number of hours worked in these European countries. Germany, for instance, had a slightly higher capital endowment than the United States and an equal level of productivity, but just 74 percent of the U.S. per capita GDP. The evident reason: Its workers supplied just over 19 hours of labor per week compared to nearly 26 hours a week per American worker. While many believe that cultural differences lead to fewer hours worked in Europe than in the United States, Prescott doubts it. After all, data from the early 1970s show that the French actually worked more hours per week than did Americans at that time. Has French culture changed radically over the last two decades? Probably not: They still like good wine, aged cheese and, inexplicably, Jerry Lewis. Prescott's hunch was that differences in marginal tax rates might explain the differences in labor supplied and thus account for differences in per capita GDP. Enter the tax wedge “What is important is the price of consumption relative to leisure,” Prescott writes in the lecture he gave in April 2003 as he accepted Northwestern University's prestigious Erwin Plein Nemmers Prize in Economics. “And it is determined by the consumption tax rate and the labor income tax rate.” (See the lecture, “ Why Do Americans Work So Much More Than Europeans? ”) By introducing these taxes into the growth model, and making standard microeconomic assumptions, Prescott derived what he calls “the key equilibrium relation.” 1 It's a mathematical formula for labor supply that says workers will supply labor dependent on, among other things, their preference for consumption now over consumption later (spend or save?), their preference for leisure relative to consumption (play or work?) and the effective tax rate. Holding the first two variables fixed and looking empirically at different national tax rates enables Prescott to see if tax differences can account, fully or partially, for variations in labor hours supplied. Estimating the effective tax rates in these countries was, in itself, a major accounting exercise. Consumption taxes include value-added taxes, sales taxes, excise taxes and property taxes. Labor is subject to both income taxes and Social Security taxes. For each nation under consideration, Prescott and his students crunched the numbers, determined a tax rate, plugged it into the formula along with fixed estimates of the other variables, and derived predictions of labor hours supplied per week per worker. How good were the predictions? Dead-on for Germany and the United Kingdom, a bit low for Canada and the United States, and a bit high for the other countries (see table below). Given measurement inaccuracies, the rough nature of the tax-rate estimates and the difficulty of international comparisons, writes Prescott, the model's predictions were “surprisingly close to the actual.” Tax Rates and Labor Supply 1993-96 Country Tax Rate (percent) Actual Hours Worked per Week per Person 15-64 Predicted Hours Worked per Week per Person 15-64 Difference (Predicted Minus Actual) Germany 59 19.3 19.5 0.2 France 59 17.5 19.5 2.0 Italy 64 16.5 18.8 2.3 Canada 52 22.9 21.3 -1.6 United Kingdom 44 22.8 22.8 0.0 Japan 37 27.0 29.0 2.0 United States 40 25.9 24.6 -1.3 Source: “ Why Do Americans Work So Much More Than Europeans ?” Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Research Department Staff Report 321. Here, notes Prescott, “the important observation is that the low labor supplies in Germany, France and Italy are due to high tax rates. In these countries if someone works more and produces 100 additional euros of output, that individual gets to consume only 40 euros of additional consumption and pays directly or indirectly 60 euros in taxes.” Put in such stark terms, it seems obvious that many Europeans might opt to work less, while Americans and Japanese, taxed more lightly, would be keen to put in extra hours. Confirmation and implications Prescott found further confirmation for his hypothesis when he looked at tax rates and labor supply in the early 1970s (see table below). While his model's predictions of labor hours supplied diverge from the actual in several cases—Italy and Japan, in particular—Prescott observes that “when European and U.S. tax rates were comparable, European and U.S. labor supplies were roughly equal.” Tax Rates and Labor Supply 1970-74 Country Tax Rate (percent) Actual Hours Worked per Week per Person 15-64 Predicted Hours Worked per Week per Person 15-64 Difference (Predicted Minus Actual) Germany 52 24.6 24.6 0.0 France 49 24.4 25.4 1.0 Italy 41 19.2 28.3 9.1 Canada 44 22.2 25.6 3.4 United Kingdom 45 25.9 24.0 -1.9 Japan 25 29.8 35.8 6.0 United States 40 23.5 26.4 2.9 Source: “ Why Do Americans Work So Much More Than Europeans ?” Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Research Department Staff Report 321. As for the outliers, Italy and Japan, Prescott suggests that other factors may be significant. In Italy, cartels may have played a role in depressing labor supply below its predicted value. In Japan, significant measurement errors in actual hours worked could account for the overly high prediction by the model. And what seems another anomaly is very likely an indirect confirmation of the importance of marginal tax rates on labor supply, according to Prescott. In the United States, actual hours worked per person increased by 10 percent from the 1970s to the 1990s, though the marginal tax rate remained at 40 percent. Prescott argues that U.S. tax reforms in the 1980s changed the effective marginal tax faced by married couples—dropping the rate in half for the second earner's income—even though it remained nominally at 40 percent. “In the 1993-96 [period],” he writes, “the marginal income tax on the labor income associated with switching between a one-earner and a two-earner household is only 20 percent, not 40 percent.” The issue warrants more attention, he says, and indeed, his colleagues Larry Jones, Rodolfo Manuelli and Ellen McGrattan have recently released a paper on this exact question. (See “ Wives at Work .”) On the whole, Prescott states, the results show that “people are remarkably similar across countries” and not only for these relatively prosperous and homogeneous nations, but for Chile, Mexico and Argentina, as well, where other economists have found similar relationships. “Apparently, idiosyncratic preference differences average out and result in the [representative] household having almost identical preferences across countries.” The policy implications are enormous for high-tax countries. If France were to lower its effective tax rate from 60 percent to 40 percent, estimates Prescott, its people would work more (taking 6.6 percent less leisure) and—remember their high productivity?—would generate considerably more output. Tax revenues wouldn't diminish, because the 40 percent rate would be levied on a higher base. And overall French “welfare gains,” as economists put it, would increase nearly 20 percent. In the United States, reducing marginal tax rates would have a more modest impact, according to the model: A 10 percent rate reduction would produce a 7 percent welfare gain. But even in the United States, Prescott's findings have huge implications for the viability of the Social Security system. (See “ Shrinking a deadweight loss .”) Foreign affairs In recent months, Prescott has traveled widely, presenting his findings not only to American audiences but to economists and policymakers in London, Berlin, Toulouse, Tokyo and elsewhere overseas. And in fact, says Prescott, Europeans tend to be more receptive than Americans. “The economists there understand that there is a problem,” he said after returning from France in mid-September. “I got some excellent suggestions when I presented the paper, the best so far.” But at all venues, he observes, the common denominator is surprise. Prescott is the first to admit that he, too, thought the results were startling, unexpected. “I find it remarkable that virtually all of the large difference in labor supply between France and the United States is due to differences in tax systems,” he writes in his Ely lecture. “I expected institutional constraints on the operation of labor markets and the nature of the unemployment benefit system to be more important.” Moreover, he concedes that cultural explanations might carry the day in a few settings. “Scandinavians seem to be a little bit different,” he said recently, referring to research by Richard Rogerson, an economist at Arizona State University. “My theory is when one of those Swedes looks at you when you're not working, it's pretty intimidating.” More seriously, he allows that in small, homogeneous cultures, social pressures can be quite strong. But even in large, heterogeneous nations, tax wedges don't always tell the whole story, according to Prescott. “Taxes are not the only reason that the labor factors differ,” says Prescott's Ely lecture. Unemployment benefits and housing subsidies—not taxes—distorted labor mobility in the United Kingdom between the first and second World Wars, contributing significantly to that country's interwar depression. New Deal policies supporting cartels in America's heavy industries distorted wages and employment in the last half of the 1930s, contributing to the depth and duration of the Great Depression in the United States. Similarly, cartels in 1970s Italy may have suppressed employment there. Prescott relies on work by University of California, Los Angeles economists Harold Cole and Lee Ohanian in making these conjectures. Still, while taxes aren't the all-powerful explanatory factor for all nations and eras, Prescott contends that in major developed countries in the time period under consideration, the labor supply impact of tax wedges is a powerful and undeniable fact. Other academics As befits the work of any prominent scholar, Prescott's theory has attracted close academic scrutiny—beyond the initial reaction of surprise—from both adherents and critics. In one recent paper, Peter Lindert, an economist at the University of California, Davis, refers to Prescott's study as dependent upon “a theoretical model heavily laden with assumptions. It is educated, intelligent, plausible fiction—but fiction nonetheless.” On the other hand (as Lindert points out) Prescott's model and findings are cited quite favorably by Nobel Laureate Robert Lucas in his 2003 presidential address to the American Economic Association. Lindert calls for empirical tests. Steven Davis at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and Magnus Henrekson of the Stockholm School of Economics oblige with a careful econometric analysis of the impact of labor income and consumption taxes on employment and work activity. In their study of rich countries in the mid-1990s, they find that a 12.8 percentage point difference in tax rates is associated with 122 fewer market work hours per adult per year and nearly a 5 percentage point decrease in employment—population ratios—an indirect affirmation of Prescott's theory. A very different perspective was presented earlier this year in a series of lectures by British economist Richard Layard, co-director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics. Layard takes issue with GDP itself as a satisfactory measure of human welfare—or utility, as Jeremy Bentham and subsequent economists have termed it—noting that “happiness has not increased, despite huge increases in living standards.” To summarize a lengthy argument, Layard's idea is that a tax wedge on labor income could actually increase utility by decreasing a sort of pollution: overwork brought on by the inherent human desire to do better than our peers, regardless of our absolute level of income. Keeping up with the Joneses, in other words, leads to overwork, ill health and unhappiness—rivalry distorts the leisure/labor decision. Appropriate public policy should diminish this pollution by taxing it. “In an efficient economy,” Layard writes, “there will be substantial levels of corrective taxation ... 60 percent would not seem inappropriate, and that is in fact the typical level of marginal taxation in Europe—if you allow for direct and indirect taxes.” Prescott responds Prescott's reactions to these ideas vary widely. Sitting in his seventh-floor office at the Minneapolis Fed, he reads through the first pages of Lindert's paper, then drops it on his desk. “It doesn't seem to be coherent,” he says. Davis and Henrekson's study, on the other hand, intrigues him. That might seem predictable given its broad support of Prescott's findings, but Davis and Henrekson employ a technique Prescott generally scorns: statistical regression. “Progress, don't regress,” he says with a smile, quoting the slogan featured prominently on his Internet home page. Regardless of their method, Prescott is drawn to the findings and has invited Davis to Minneapolis to get a closer look at their work. But Prescott's response to Layard's argument—more complete and nuanced—conveys a sense of Prescott himself. He begins by summarizing Layard's case in a phrase: “I'm happy if I have a lot more income—than you,” he says, grinning and quite aware that he does. As to the overwork such rivalry might cause, “that just says there's a consumption externality.” Then he conveys the concept with a story. “I always tried to create a positive externality in Pittsburgh for my neighbors who had these beautiful lawns,” he jokes of his grad school days at Carnegie Mellon University. “By my having a messy lawn, their lawns looked so much better. I mowed it, but I didn't do much else with my lawn. And it gave me utility to see them happier.” He tells the story with a verbal wink, acknowledging silently that his Pittsburgh yard care externality may well have been less than zero. The conspiratorial smile changes to professorial zeal as he begins to dissect Layard's reasoning: “Suppose everybody cares about relative consumption as well as own consumption. You work out the equilibrium, it's not Pareto optimal. Let's deal with the case where everybody enters symmetrically. So it's simple to make the ordering. Well, you can make everybody better off by just putting a tax on consumption so that they work less. That's a very standard model. Now what would be the empirical evidence for and against that?” In under five minutes, Prescott has crystallized an argument, communicated it to a visitor in plain language and personal anecdote, then converted it to the idiom of economics and laid out steps for its confirmation or refutation. It's vintage Prescott: analytically brilliant, unexpectedly funny and several beats ahead of everyone else. That last bit is the essence of a conversation with the economist. When you ask him a question, it sometimes seems that his reply is off-topic; then it dawns on you that Ed Prescott is answering the question you should have asked. A pattern of surprise Prescott's willingness to entertain alternatives, to listen to critics, to incorporate the unexpected is deeply characteristic of his work. That flexibility is, in fact, the paradoxical outcome of a rigid research discipline. In setting model parameters, for instance, or reporting research results, “the investigator has no degrees of freedom,” he says. “You have to tie your hands and if there's a deviation from your predictions, you report it. You can speculate on why, but you've got to be totally honest.” Intellectual honesty also means allowing findings to modify, even subvert initial hypotheses. It happens frequently, says Prescott. Much of the work for which he's best known—theories on time inconsistency, real business cycles, the equity premium and growth theory—has been developed in an ongoing process of research and revelation. “When I work out the implications, I'm quite often surprised: The findings change my views quite dramatically,” he says. “When I did the real business cycles work with Finn Kydland, I was certain that monetary shocks were the reason the economy fluctuated with the business cycles. Our findings were just the opposite. When I did some work with Rajnish Mehra on the equity premium puzzle, I was certain that the reason for the high historical difference in the return on equity relative to debt was just a premium for bearing aggregate, nondiversifiable risk. We found it wasn't.” For time inconsistency and the impact of taxes on labor supply, as well, surprise has been an intrinsic part of the process. Future direction As striking as his labor supply findings are—and though many aspects of it remain unresolved—Prescott senses that the big theoretical questions in economic growth lie elsewhere, and he is now turning his attention to them. “I think I've had my say on labor supply,” he concludes. In his Ely lecture, he lays out three sources of economic growth: capital, labor and productivity. The first two are important in understanding why some nations remain poor while others prosper, but the central question, contends Prescott, is what determines productivity? “Given productivity, our macro models are great,” he says. “But we treat it as exogenous. We've got to have a better understanding of mapping between policies and productivity.” In other words, what can governments do to enhance productivity? Prescott's main candidates are efficient financial markets, competition among producers and trading clubs. And currently, the last is his major focus. “What is a trading club?” he asks rhetorically. “Well, first, free movement of goods between the member states. But it's much, much more than that. ...” Prescott continues at length, with a discourse ranging from Toyota factories in Wales to trade among the U.S. states in the 19th century. He speaks quickly, and as he does there is a sense that each research question he asks leads him to a dozen more, each more interesting than the last. He will travel soon to Warsaw and then Bogotá to explore these ideas with other economists and policymakers. “It's going to be fascinating to see what's happening in Poland,” he remarks. In Colombia, “the president is trying to do some good things there, and we have to go down and help out.” He's not a policymaker himself. “I leave that to other people,” he says. “I'm no good at it. My comparative advantage is working out implications of theory.” And in so doing, it seems there is just one constraint: Even for Ed Prescott, a scholar who understands labor supply dynamics as well as anyone on earth, there are only 24 hours in a day. “Time,” observes the economist, “is the most valuable resource.” 1 The two assumptions: (1) that people decide between leisure and consumption based on their relative prices, at the margin, and (2) that in a competitive market, wages are equal to their marginal product of labor. The “key equilibrium relation” also depends on the share of a nation's output due to capital. Top of document Advanced Search Glossary See also: Shrinking a deadweight loss

Ski Vacation

Ski Vacation - Ski Vacation Packages from Fairmont Hotels and Resorts Ski Vacation - Ski Vacation Packages from Fairmont Hotels and Resorts Barbados Bermuda Canada Mexico Monaco United Arab Emirates United Kingdom United States Fairmont Gold Destination Map Hotel Finder All Hotels New Hotels Resorts St. James Resorts Fairmont Hamilton Princess Fairmont Southampton City Hotels Calgary, Alberta Edmonton, Alberta Montréal, Québec Ottawa, Ontario St. John's, Newfoundland Toronto, Ontario Vancouver, British Columbia Winnipeg, Manitoba Resorts Banff, Alberta Jasper, Alberta Charlevoix, Québec Lake Louise, Alberta Montebello, Québec Mont-Tremblant, Québec Québec City, Québec St. Andrew's, New Brunswick Victoria, British Columbia Whistler, British Columbia Fairmont Hotel Vancouver Fairmont Vancouver Airport Fairmont Waterfront Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello Fairmont Kenauk at Le Chateau Montebello Resorts Acapulco Riviera Maya Resorts Monte Carlo Fairmont Acapulco Princess Fairmont Pierre Marques City Hotels Dubai City Hotels London City Hotels Boston, Massachusetts Chicago, Illinois Dallas, Texas Kansas City, Missouri New Orleans, Louisiana Newport Beach, California San Francisco, California San Jose, California Santa Monica, California Seattle, Washington Washington, D.C. Resorts Scottsdale, Arizona Kohala Coast, Hawaii Maui, Hawaii Sonoma, California Miami, Florida Residence Telluride, Colorado Experience Fairmont Packages FairmontSAVERS Package Finder Entire Site Hotels Packages Press Releases Introduction Member Benefits Enroll Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy FAQ Newsletter Already a member Sign In In Your Opinion -- In Your Opinion My Profile Corporate Rewards Gift Certificate High Speed Internet ResPlus Sign In ResPlus Information Our Philosophy Environment Our History Press Room Contact Us Careers Programs & Partners Fairmont Community Investor Relations Destination Map Vacation Planner Fairmont Experience Slideshow Online Demo -- Hotel Fact Sheets Weddings Meeting Planners Discover FAIRMONT SKI DESTINATIONS Skiers will marvel at the natural beauty of Fairmont's Canadian ski destinations. Ragged peaks, high cliffs, and impossibly blue lakes overlaid by snowy blankets that dazzle in the bright sunlight. Whether it is the drama of the Rocky Mountains in Jasper, Banff and Lake Louise, the rolling Laurentians of Tremblant and Charlevoix, or the inspired setting at Whistler, voted North America's finest ski destination - skiing with Fairmont guarantees you the experience of a lifetime. After an invigorating day on the slopes, step into consummate luxury. Our ski resorts offer unmatched hospitality. Have a massage and whirlpool soak at Willow Stream - The Spa at The Fairmont Banff Springs. Delight in fine dining in The Wildflower at The Fairmont Chateau Whistler, or test your luck in the Casino de Charlevoix at the elegant Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu. If you crave waist-deep powder and black diamond runs, or just an afternoon on the bunny hill, ski holidays don't get better than this. With hundreds of marked runs, short lift lines and a vast selection of well-groomed cross-country trails, ski enthusiasts of every calibre from around the globe come to experience the world of skiing at Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. Slideshow The Fairmont Chateau Whistler Ski and Breakfast Package Whistler, British Columbia, Canada 11-24-2005 to 4-23-2006 Enjoy the convenience of The Fairmont Chateau Whistler's Ski & Breakfast Package. More Information Similar Packages Discover Ski Destinations at Fairmont. Ski Destination Map sPathName/CDA/Home/Hotels/Facilities/CDRecreationFacilities -Select a Ski destination- Fairmont Le Château Frontenac Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu Fairmont Tremblant The Fairmont Banff Springs The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise The Fairmont Chateau Whistler The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge Fairmont Heritage Place FranzKlammer Lodge -Select a Property- United States - Residence - Fairmont Heritage Place Franz Klammer Lodge Canada - Resort - Fairmont Le Château Frontenac Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu Fairmont Tremblant The Fairmont Banff Springs The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise The Fairmont Chateau Whistler The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2005 2006 2007 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2005 2006 2007 2008 1 2 3 4 0 1 2 3 Non-Smoking Smoking King or Queen Two Beds No Preference Best Available Rate FairmontSAVERS Bed & Breakfast *ID required at Check-in * if applicable More Information -- Choose a Category Celebration Discovery Family Food & Wine Golf Spa Culture Signature Package Special Offers Ski Fairmont SAVERS Bed and Breakfast Destination The Fairmont Kea Lani Maui The Fairmont Orchid, Hawaii The Fairmont Scottsdale Princess The Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn & Spa The Fairmont Turnberry Isle Resort & Club Fairmont Heritage Place Franz Klammer Lodge Fairmont Newport Beach The Fairmont Chicago The Fairmont Copley Plaza in Boston The Fairmont Dallas The Fairmont Kansas City at the Plaza The Fairmont Miramar Hotel Santa Monica The Fairmont New Orleans The Fairmont Olympic Hotel, Seattle The Fairmont San Francisco The Fairmont San Jose The Fairmont Washington, D.C. The Savoy The Fairmont Acapulco Princess The Fairmont Mayakoba The Fairmont Pierre Marques Fairmont Monte Carlo Fairmont Kenauk at Le Château Montebello Fairmont Le Château Frontenac Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu Fairmont Tremblant The Fairmont Algonquin The Fairmont Banff Springs The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise The Fairmont Chateau Whistler The Fairmont Empress The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge Fairmont Château Laurier Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth The Fairmont Hotel Macdonald The Fairmont Hotel Vancouver The Fairmont Newfoundland The Fairmont Palliser The Fairmont Royal York The Fairmont Vancouver Airport The Fairmont Waterfront The Fairmont Winnipeg The Fairmont Hamilton Princess The Fairmont Southampton The Fairmont Royal Pavilion The Fairmont Dubai 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec 2005 2006 2007 After a day of ski revitalize yourself at Willow Stream Spa. Replenish Your Energy R ECENT NEWS 11/4/2005 - Lake Louise To Host Top Hollywood Celebrities 9/6/2005 - Cold Play at The Fairmont Chateau Whistler More News -- FAIRMONT RESERVATIONS: 1(800) 257-7544 Last Updated: 12/28/2005 Fairmont Hotels & Resorts © 2005