A costly search for food in subterranean rodents resulted in various adaptations improving their foraging success under given ecological conditions. In Spalax ehrenbergi superspecies, adaptations to local ecological conditions can promote speciation, which was recently supposed to occur even in sympatry at sites where two soil types of contrasting characteristics abut each other. Quantitative description of ecological conditions in such a site has been, nevertheless, missing. We measured characteristics of food supply and soil within 16 home ranges of blind mole rats Spalax galili in an area subdivided into two parts formed by basaltic soil and pale rendzina. We also mapped nine complete mole rat burrow systems to compare burrowing patterns between the soil types. Basaltic soil had a higher food supply and was harder than rendzina even under higher moisture content and lower bulk density. Population density of mole rats was five-times lower in rendzina, possibly due to the lower food supply and higher cover of Sarcopoterium shrubs which seem to be avoided by mole rats. A combination of food supply and soil parameters probably influences burrowing patterns resulting in shorter and more complex burrow systems in basaltic soil.

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The increasing globalization and integration of markets are one of the causes of tax competition. Even though tax competition may be beneficial for some countries, on the other hand for others states it may mean an erosion of their public budgets. The Member States are therefore forced to compete for a capital by a reducing of the tax burden (especially a cutting of the corporate effective tax rates) to don’t lose their tax bases. At present time of the debt crisis, when most of the Member States look for a solution to a balance of their deficit budgets, there a question arises whether a tendency towards a cutting of corporate effective tax rates does not lead to a race to the bottom and the erosion of their public budgets. In this context, the aim of this paper is to answer whether the race to the bottom is real in the European Union. This paper empirically evaluates the level of the race to the bottom in the European Union and using panel analysis it verifies on a sample of 27 Member States over the period 1998 to 2010 whether the tendencies of the race to the bottom are real. According to the panel analysis this paper concludes that the tendencies of the race to the bottom are particularly evident in the new Member States, i.e. in the EU-12 countries, while for the old Member States, i.e. for the EU-15 countries, the race to the bottom cannot be statistically confirmed.