bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Elusive Juvenile Court
Authors: Tanenhaus David S.
Published: February 2013

This article traces the ideological origins and legal foundations of the juvenile court. It examines juvenile courts at work in the early twentieth century, their guiding principles, and the later development of federal juvenile justice in the 1930s. It also assesses the U.S. Supreme Court's due process revolution that introduced more procedural requirements as well as lawyers into juvenile court during the 1960s, but simultaneously undercut one of the rationales (i.e., “the rehabilitative ideal”) for having a separate justice system for juveniles. It further focuses on the “get tough” era of the 1980s and 1990s, a time when most states made it easier to prosecute adolescents in the criminal justice system. Finally, it gives a brief discussion of future of the juvenile court. Despite jurisdictional changes, procedural reforms, and the erosion of the rehabilitative ideal, the juvenile court remains a flawed but resilient fixture in modern American governance.
Racial and Ethnic Differences in Delinquency and Justice System Responses
Authors: Bishop Donna M. , Leiber Michael J.
Published: February 2013

This article discusses racial and ethnic differences in delinquency and justice system responses. It begins by reviewing national data on the minority presence in the juvenile justice system from arrest to post dispositional confinement. It then examines research bearing on the “differential offending” thesis. Following this, the article reviews the research literature on race bias in justice processing. The reviews reflect that overall assessment states that racial disparities in processing are attributable in part to differences in offending; yet race differences in offending alone are insufficient to account for minority over-representation in the juvenile justice system. Also, there is some truth to both the “differential offending” and “differential treatment” arguments. Finally, the article attempts to explore implications for justice policy in a preliminary way.
The Front End of the Juvenile Court
Authors: Mears Daniel P.
Published: February 2013

This article is focused on front-end processing in the juvenile court. The front end of juvenile justice refers to initial court decisions about how to process cases. The article discusses how the traditional mission of the juvenile court, which emphasizes punishment, treatment and services, and individualized attention, contributes to the goals and structure of front-end decision-making. Following this, it reveals two critical front-end activities: screening and assessment and informal and formal processing encompassing the roles of intake officers and prosecutors in these activities and how they comport with the juvenile court's traditional mission. Furthermore, it explores the stakes involved in front-end decision-making, including the potential impacts on how cases are processed and describes the implications of front-end processing for policy and practice. It concludes with a call for better monitoring of and research on front-end juvenile court processing and its impacts on recidivism, juvenile crime rates, and other outcomes.
Trends in Juvenile Justice Policy and Practice
Authors: Bishop Donna M. , Feld Barry C.
Published: February 2013

Over the last century, the juvenile justice system has strayed far, opposed of its foundational ideals. Attentiveness to children's needs has given way to concentration on the offense. Emphasis on punishment and accountability has overshadowed the social welfare model. This article examines trends in juvenile justice policy and practice. It opens with a brief overview of the early juvenile court, its philosophical underpinnings and historic mission. Following this, the article scans the due process revolution of the 1960s and 1970s and assesses its intended and unintended consequences. It focuses on punitive shifts in the 1980s and 1990s, their structural and political origins, and their impact on the juvenile justice landscape. Finally it takes a look at a number of policies and programs that have emerged in the past decade. It concludes by calling for a much-needed correction to the punitive excesses to shift toward more sensible and humane practices.
Integration
Authors: Block Geoffrey
Published: February 2013

The article explains different aspects of the integration of musicals. The ideal integration in the Broadway musical, which includes the European imports of the 1980s and 1990s, led to the super-integrated musical that has generated a split between critical and popular acclaim. The principles of integration that are suggested by Hammerstein and Rodgers include that the songs advance the plot, the songs flow directly from the dialogue, and the songs express the characters who sing them. Other principles include that the dances advance the plot and enhances the dramatic meaning of the songs that precede them and the orchestra, through accompaniment and underscoring, parallels, complements, or advances the action. Scholars have explained that integration is actually present in musicals formerly dismissed for alleged incongruities between dialogue and song. The work of Stephen Sondheim demonstrates that it is possible to write “integrated” musical scores without paying allegiance to a Wagnerian ideal characterized by continuous orchestral underscoring beneath a through-sung melodic language that is neither recitative nor aria. Film historian John Mueller emphasizes the importance of the “Night and Day” dance sequence to the integration in the Broadway show Gay Divorce (1932), starring Fred Astaire, and soon thereafter in the Astaire and Ginger Rogers film adaptation with its less scandalous title, The Gay Divorcee (1934).
Class and Culture
Authors: Savran David
Published: February 2013

Historians have reported that the defined hierarchy cultural forms did not become established in the United States until the end of the nineteenth century. The words “highbrow” and “lowbrow” were coined during that period. The former, first used in the 1880s, describes intellectual or aesthetic superiority and the latter, first used shortly after 1900, means someone or something neither “highly intellectual” nor “aesthetically refined”. These terms were used to accentuate the differences between a European-inspired, morally and spiritually uplifting art and an allegedly primitive, vulgar, commercialized art and the culture of the intellectual and economic elites versus that of the working classes. The older elite used the division between highbrow and lowbrow as a tool to organize and rationalize the social and economic realms and to buttress their own power. European concert music, opera, literary classics, and paintings by the old masters defined a highbrow culture at odds with an indigenous, turn-of-the-century popular culture. The musical theater that is positioned between highbrow and lowbrow and between art theater and variety entertainments has for almost a century represented the culture called middlebrow, an elastic category into which a great many artifacts belongs. The categorization of musical theater as a middlebrow art is related to the fact that it was long ignored or derided by University Theater and music departments.
Labor Supply and Human Capital Formation in Professional Team Sports
Authors: Gerrard Bill
Published: February 2013

This chapter uses a variety of economic models to examine the success of teams in the Football Association (FA) Premier League in England. A short review of the relevant literature on coaching efficiency and the resource-based view of the firm and a multidimensional human capital model of team performance is presented. Additionally, an initial empirical application of the multidimensional human capital model is provided by exploring labor supply and human capital formation in the FA Premier League in England, the leading domestic soccer league globally in financial terms. The chapter then offers a summary of the principal theoretical and empirical findings, some discussion of the limitations of the proposed model, and suggestions for future research. It has been shown that the English Premiership has the highest penetration rate by foreign players among the top European soccer leagues. European soccer coaches continue to place value on home-grown talent.
Prejudice and Progress in Baseball
Authors: Walters Stephen J. K.
Published: February 2013

This article explores the organized baseball's racial record as far back as the 1880s, when segregation took root in baseball, through Branch Rickey's hiring of Jackie Robinson in 1947, up to the present day. It describes how baseball became segregated and segregation's feedback effects on black players' labor supply decisions. It presents data on black-white earning differences prior to reintegration of the sport. It addresses why reintegration took so long and how it ultimately occurred. Robinson's breakthrough and its immediate aftermath, and the empirical literature on the post-integration period are evaluated. The existence of an active market for baseball memorabilia has enabled researchers to test for fan bias in the form of a willingness to pay more for products featuring white (black) players, ceteris paribus. Baseball has taught a great deal about how complicated and persistent are racial bias' effects, and about the short- and long-term economic consequences of discrimination.
The Production Technology of Major League Baseball
Authors: Krautmann Anthony C.
Published: February 2013

This article outlines some of the seminal papers found in the literature pertaining to the production of wins in Major League Baseball (MLB). It also addresses a number of different specifications of the talent vector, and compares the impact on winning of the different inputs. It includes a number of additional considerations that should impact the transformation of talent-inputs into winning-output. A test of the coefficients on on-base percent (OBP) and slugging percent (SLG) rejected the null that the two inputs have an equal effect on total wins (WINS). Pitching has a greater impact on WINS in the American League (AL) than in the National League (NL); and two, earned-run average (ERA) has one of the largest effects on winning of all the inputs. Fielding efficiency appears to have a greater impact in the NL than the AL.
Overview of the Impulse Control Disorders Not Elsewhere Classified and Limitations of Knowledge
Authors: Grant Jon E. , Potenza Marc N.
Published: February 2013

Several disorders have been classified together in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (4th ed.; DSM-IV) as impulse control disorders not elsewhere classified. These impulse control disorders have been grouped together based on perceived similarities in clinical presentation and hypothesized similarities in pathophysiologies. The question exists whether these disorders belong together or whether they should be categorized elsewhere. Examination of the family of impulse control disorders generates questions regarding the distinct nature of each disorder: whether each is unique or whether they represent variations of each other or other psychiatric disorders. Neurobiology may cut across disorders, and identifying important intermediary phenotypes will be important in understanding impulse control disorders and related entities. The distress of patients with impulse control disorders highlights the importance of examining these disorders. More comprehensive information has significant potential for advancing prevention and treatment strategies for those who suffer from disorders characterized by impaired impulse control.
Current Classification of Impulse Control Disorders: Neurocognitive and Behavioral Models of Impulsivity and the Role of Personality
Authors: Padhi Ashwini K. , Mehdi Ali M. , Craig Kevin J. , Fineberg Naomi A.
Published: February 2013

Impulse control disorders (ICDs) are common disabling disorders that have impulsive behavior as a core feature. They emerge early in life and run a chronic lifelong course. They are assumed to lie at the severest end of a continuum of impulsivity that connects normal with pathological states. People with ICDs experience a drive to undertake repetitive acts. Although the consequences are damaging, performance of the impulsive act may be experienced as rewarding, or alternatively may relieve distress, implicating dysfunction of the neural circuitry involved in reward processing and/or behavioral inhibition. Clinical data are increasingly pointing toward an etiological association between some ICDs, such as pathological gambling and addiction, and others, such as trichotillomania and compulsive disorders. Comorbidity with other psychiatric disorders is also common, and hints at overlapping psychobiological processes across several diagnostic groups. The results of neurocognitive studies suggest that impulsivity is multidimensional and comprises dissociable cognitive and behavioral indices governed by separate underlying neural mechanisms. For example, trichotillomania may primarily involve motor impulsivity, whereas problem gambling may involve reward impulsivity and reflection impulsivity. Exploring neurocognitive changes in individuals with ICDs and other mental disorders characterized by poor impulse control, and among their family members, may help to elucidate the underpinning neurocircuitry and clarify their nosological status.
Psychology of Impulsivity
Authors: Patton Jim H. , Stanford Matthew S.
Published: February 2013

Impulsive behavior is generally viewed as counterproductive by society, and individual differences in impulsivity have been found to be related to a number of socially relevant behaviors. Yet, there are times when acting quickly and without thinking may seem desirable, even adaptive. With the possible exception of intelligence, no other personality dimension or trait so broadly influences various areas of human endeavor: interpersonal relationships, education, fiscal responsibility, personal moral behavior, business ethics and entrepreneurship, aggression, and criminality. This chapter gives an overview of impulsivity from a personality theory perspective. Topics discussed include the historical development of the construct, the place of impulsivity in a broader personality theory, self-report and behavioral assessment, and the role of impulsiveness in impulse control disorders.
Legal Aspects of Impulse Control Disorders
Authors: Grant Jon E. , Odlaug Brian L.
Published: February 2013

Impulse control disorders present unique legal issues for the criminal justice system.

These behaviors require that the courts differentiate an uncontrolled act from an uncontrollable act. Kleptomania is by definition a disorder linked to illegal behaviors, whereas pathological gambling and compulsive sexual behavior are two impulse control disorders that are often associated with illegal activities for some individuals. Can and should a psychiatric disorder be used as a defense for criminal responsibility? This chapter will discuss the legal aspects of certain impulse control disorders and how courts have struggled to understand these complex behaviors from the criminal justice perspective.
The Economics of Sainthood (A Preliminary Investigation)
Authors: Barro Robert J. , McCleary Rachel M. , McQuoid Alexander
Published: February 2013

Saint making has been a major activity of the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. The pace of sanctifications has picked up noticeably in the past several decades under the most recent two popes, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. This article explores the economics of sainthood, applying social science reasoning to understand the Church's choices on numbers and characteristics of saints, gauged by the location and socioeconomic attributes of the persons designated as blessed. It analyzes long-term data on canonization (approval as a saint) and beatification (final stage of qualification for canonization) by the Catholic Church since 1588, when official Vatican records began.
Religion under Communism
Authors: Smith Steven Rathgeb
Published: February 2013

During the twentieth century, various communist governments undertook concerted efforts to secularize their societies through means of force and persuasion. These governments can be understood as regimes that combined Marxist-Leninist one-party rule with state ownership of the means of production and central planning. They attempted to regulate religious markets by intervening in both the supply of and the demand for religion, pursing policies that can be characterized as combining the strategies of regulation and substitution. Religion was to be substituted with “scientific atheism,” a key feature of communist ideology. Atheist or intentionally secular ceremonies and rituals replaced religious ones both in public and in private life. By regulating the market, the communist regimes sought to control the supply of religion. Ultimately, however, the success of the communist project depended on eliminating people's demand for religion. This article examines religion under communism, focusing on state regulation, scientific atheism, and the dynamics of supply and demand.
Archaeology in Guatemala
Authors: Chinchilla Mazariegos Oswaldo
Published: February 2013

The historiography of archaeology in Guatemala is still in its infancy. Accounts of Maya archaeology are mostly concerned with the development of ideas in North America and Europe, where strong traditions of Maya research developed since the nineteenth century. Few authors delve into the sociopolitical events that have conditioned the work of foreign scholars in the country, their interaction with Guatemalan students, and the intellectual currents that have influenced the latter. Guatemalan archaeology has also been overlooked in general surveys of Latin American archaeology. This article describes selected stages in the history of Guatemalan archaeology, based on previous overviews.
The Archaeology of Belize in the Twenty-First Century
Authors: Awe Jaime J.
Published: February 2013

Located on the southeastern corner of the Yucatán Peninsula, Belize is the second smallest country in Central America. In spite of its size, however, the country has an incredibly rich and diverse cultural heritage that includes the remains of pioneering preceramic cultures, numerous prehistoric cities that reflect the grandeur of Maya civilization, the ruins of several “Visita” churches that represent the failed efforts of sixteenth-century Spanish entradas, and various historic sites of the British colonial period. This article provides a brief history of the management of archaeological resources in Belize, a summary of archaeological investigations during the last two hundred years, and the present direction of archaeological research in the country.
Ice Age Hunter-Gatherers and the Colonization of Mesoamerica
Authors: Ochoa Guillermo Acosta
Published: February 2013

This article reviews archaeological evidence of Ice Age hunter-gatherers and the colonization of Mesoamerica. Data currently available indicate that the land bridge known as Beringia linked Asia with the Americas when the sea level dropped during the Pleistocene. To date, this appears to have been the most viable route for the first inhabitants of the New World, who may have followed game that migrated to the new continent. However, there is an ongoing debate regarding whether this migration occurred over land or along the coast and how early the process began. One theory suggests that initial colonization occurred through coastal routes from the Pacific Northwest. This model allows for the possibility that the first Americans gradually colonized coastal ice-free areas along the coast of Beringia and the Pacific Northwest via boats. The model is supported by studies that indicate that the coast of Beringia could have included ecosystems richer in resources than inland areas, suggesting a habitable migratory corridor along the continental landmass. This model also appears to be the most parsimonious theory for explaining the technological diversity observed toward the end of the Pleistocene era, in both Middle America and the rest of the New World.
Interaction among the Complex Societies of Classic-Period Mesoamerica
Authors: Chávez Sergio Gómez , Spence Michael W.
Published: February 2013

This article reviews archaeological evidence of interactions among the complex societies of Mesoamerica in the Classic period. All of the Classic-period (250–900 ad) societies of Mesoamerica carried on trade and diplomatic exchanges with their neighbors, but some were also involved in direct contacts over much greater distances. Long-distance exchange was structured to a considerable degree by the diversity of natural environments and the variety of ecological niches existing in Mesoamerica, particularly the contrast between highlands and lowlands. Cotton, cacao, rubber, salt, marine shell, and copal sap were desirable lowland and coastal products, while obsidian, nopal and maguey products, basalt, jadeite, and various semiprecious stones were primarily highland items. Other goods (e.g., decorated ceramics) acquired their value from the input of highly skilled labor. In many cases the goods and routes of these exchange systems had developed much earlier, for example, the movement of highland Guatemalan obsidian throughout the Maya region. In the Early Classic era they expanded and intensified, reflecting the growing formal relationships among the rulers and nobles of the various states—alliances sustained by intermarriage, reciprocal visits, frequent gift exchanges, and perhaps tribute.
The Classic Maya Collapse
Authors: Webster David
Published: February 2013

This article discusses the collapse of the Classic Mayan civilization of southern and eastern Mesoamerica. Archaeologists now commonly recognize that there are several dimensions to this general collapse: the disappearance of royal dynasties and their ideological underpinnings; the dissolution of larger sociopolitical patterns, most importantly the disappearance of nonroyal elites; and a demographic collapse that greatly reduced populations or eliminated them altogether. All these things were once commonly assumed to be closely linked, but it is increasingly evident that each one must be treated independently.
The Aztec Empire
Authors: Smith Michael E. , Sergheraert Maëlle
Published: February 2013

The Aztec Empire was created within a setting of competing city-states ( altepetl) that covered the landscape of central Mexico starting around 1100 ad. These small polities, ruled by kings ( tlatoani) and a council of nobles, consisted of a modest urban center and the surrounding farmland. In a dynamic political setting, tlatoque (plural of tlatoani) sought to expand their areas of control, and by 1400 ad several small empires had been formed through conquest. Rebellions happened each time a subjected people had the feeling that the empire was weakened (e.g., at times of tlatoque succession). But the Aztecs were fast to respond and always put down these rebellions. The arrival of the Spaniards in 1519 presented a new occasion for some of the subjected people to rebel against the Aztecs, uniting themselves with the Spanish forces, and this time, they were stronger. The Aztec Empire fell at the hands of its Spanish and native enemies on August 13, 1521.
Aztec Boundary Interactions
Authors: Ohnersorgen Michael A. , Venter Marcie L.
Published: February 2013

Interactions at the Aztec imperial edges varied considerably, with some marked by a general congruence of political, economic, and symbolic domains, suggesting that border-like conditions shaped interactions, while other boundary areas were more permeable frontiers where cultural domains overlapped and were interconnected, but differently bounded. Most previous characterizations of Aztec boundary interactions come from documents of the sixteenth-century Basin of Mexico or late sixteenth-century Relaciones Geográficas. Data from recent archaeological projects complement the rich ethnohistorical record, and several of these studies explicitly frame Aztec provincial relationships as a dynamic process of negotiation. This article presents summaries of this information for the western, southern, and eastern margins of the Aztec Empire.
As the Whorl Turns
Authors: McCafferty Geoffrey , McCafferty Sharisse
Published: February 2013

Woven textiles were highly prized commodities in Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, to the extent that they were commonly used as tribute items and even as a standard of value in commercial exchange. This article discusses ways that textile production has been approached archaeologically in terms of both its function and cultural meanings. Textile production was important both functionally and symbolically. Major female deities from throughout Mesoamerica were closely associated with this important aspect of domestic production, which was also linked metaphorically with sexual reproduction. Textile symbolism in Mixtec codices were also used to denote architectural and natural spaces, as a metaphor for the acculturation of the landscape.
Households in Ancient Mesoamerica
Authors: Carballo David M.
Published: February 2013

Mesoamerican peoples built for themselves a wide array of domestic units, ranging from modest wattle-and-daub structures in the earliest villages to Teotihuacan's highly planned urban apartment compounds, which were among the most populous residences of the ancient world. This article outlines four broad dimensions of Mesoamerican households: their social organization, their variability related to status, their productive activities, and their ritual practices.
Communities in Ancient Mesoamerica
Authors: Canuto Marcello A. , Yaeger Jason
Published: February 2013

This article reviews research showing the importance of an archaeology of communities for Mesoamerica. Methodologically, the community is situated between the scales of household and polity, which permits researchers to have new insights into the broader social and political dynamics through which these other social institutions were constituted and changed over time. As a paradigm, this approach treats communities as emergent social institutions in which local identities were constituted as a consequence of shared quotidian and extraordinary practices. Because they often were important nodes within regional political and economic structures, communities also become the key arenas for the negotiation of relationships and affiliations that linked its members with other social groups, institutions, and networks.
Cities and Urbanism in Prehispanic Mesoamerica
Authors: Blanton Richard E.
Published: February 2013

Cities became an important and endurable characteristic of Mesoamerican civilization after 500 bc. This aspect of the Mesoamerican past was not widely recognized until the 1960s and 1970s when settlement-pattern archaeologists initiated field research at Teotihuacan, Monte Albán, and Dzibilchaltún. Since these pioneering efforts, archaeologists and ethnohistorians not only have amassed an impressive body of data, but they also have turned to other disciplines, principally sociology and geography, for new methods and theories. This article discusses the regal-ritual city concept; cities, towns, and urbanism in society; the problems with urbanism; and city and moral community.
Creation and Cosmology
Authors: Taube Karl A.
Published: February 2013

This article discusses gods and mythic origins in ancient Mesoamerican thought. In ancient Mesoamerican thought, the creation and maintenance of the ordered world was only achieved through a concerted effort by the gods, a weighty responsibility that continued through the sacrificial offerings and rituals of mortals. The myths and behavior of gods not only explained the origins of the world but also served as models for human behavior for commoners and elites alike. Given the time depth and many cultures of Mesoamerica, it is not surprising that there is an extensive and complex array of deities and myths pertaining to this region. Some myths, such as the Aztec (or Mexica) episode of the birth of Huitzilopochtli, are unique to a particular time, place, and people. However, certain cosmogonic episodes and types of deities are particularly salient, making it possible to discuss broad and basic patterns of belief. Among these, the relation of events of creation to calendrical cycles is fundamental, both in terms of ordering the world and, as such, timed moments and in socially replicating and reifying the original acts of deities in the world of mortals.
Mesoamerican Religious Beliefs
Authors: Reilly F. Kent
Published: February 2013

Mesoamerica was unified by a commonly held, if not unified, system of religious practice. Mesoamerican religion possessed a cosmology that saw the visible world as multitiered, consisting of the Above Realm of the heavens; the middle Earthly Realm, the home of living humanity; and the watery Beneath Realm of the dead and thus of the ancestors. Within this layered cosmic model, directionality and coloration played pivotal roles. Each cosmic layer possessed its own deities, and they were linked by an axis-mundi that could take the form of a world tree or mountain, or a temple or sacred fire. At times this axis mundi could assume the personified form of a ruler or important religious practitioner. The deities and supernatural entities that inhabited these realms could and often did cross the three cosmic realms.
The Living and the Dead
Authors: Fitzsimmons James L.
Published: February 2013

In ancient Mesoamerica, the dead remained social actors and, as such, they often continued to play significant roles in the lives of everyday people. Unlike contemporary Western views of the dead, where even deceased political figures lack true agency, the dead of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica were ever-present and were believed to be capable of making their influence tangible for the living. In addition to passively defining territorial boundaries and resource rights, for example, the dead could engage in a variety of more active exploits, ranging from “dancing” at weddings to “witnessing” royal accessions. In short, the dead were a vital part of life in Mesoamerica. Hence, the death of an individual in ancient Mesoamerica may be viewed as the beginning of a long process of social rebirth and reinvention. This article discusses ancient Mesoamerican views about the relationships between the living and the dead; the use of physical spaces in which the dead were buried in order to establish social or political positions; human remains and mortuary rituals; and ancestor veneration.
Art in the Aztec Empire
Authors: Umberger Emily
Published: February 2013

Archaeological remains testify to the spread of goods and ideas over broad areas of Mesoamerica at different times throughout its prehispanic history. However, most material expansions are unaccompanied by texts, so it is difficult to identify which resulted from empires, and which from other types of interaction, like trade, gift giving, and emulation. In contrast, the Aztec Empire, which dominated central Mexico during its final pre-conquest years, is known to us mostly through documents written during and after its overthrow by Spaniards in 1521. Ironically, the material remains do not match the expectations raised by the documents. More relics have been excavated and studied in the last few decades than previously, but relatively few scholars have yet engaged with their evidence. This article shows how the imagery of sculptures can supplement and refine our notions of Aztec strategies.
Early Mesoamerican Writing Systems
Authors: Justeson John
Published: February 2013

From a comparative perspective, the early development of writing in Mesoamerica is poorly preserved. In Mesopotamia, more than six thousand tablets attest the first two centuries of the archaic, proto-cuneiform stage of the world's most ancient writing system. In contrast, the first few centuries of Mesoamerican writing, up to about 400 bc, are probably represented by fewer than a dozen texts. This article discusses Formative period scripts, relationships among the scripts, representational principles, spelling grammatical morphemes, and precursors of writing.
Maya Writing
Authors: Grube Nikolai
Published: February 2013

Ancient Maya civilization is widely known for its hieroglyphic writing system. Although the Maya were not the only Mesoamerican civilization that had developed writing, Maya hieroglyphs have received major attention because of the sheer size of the script corpus as well as the fact that Maya writing has been deciphered during the last thirty years so that approximately 75 percent of its written texts can now be understood. This article discusses the structure of Maya writing, sentences and text structure, the language of Maya inscriptions, and social dimensions of Maya writing and literature.
Population Decline during and after Conquest
Authors: Storey Rebecca
Published: February 2013

Two big controversies continue to be debated about what happened to Native Americans when Europeans arrived in the Western Hemisphere to conquer and colonize. The first controversy is over how many people were present and thus what was the scale of the depopulation. The second controversy is over what caused the depopulation. Most researchers agree that there are two main culprits: the introduction of new diseases from the Old World and the stresses caused by conquest and colonization. This article first looks at the evidence for the pre-contact population of Mesoamerica. Then, it discusses the casualties of conquest. The important controversy over the causes of depopulation after conquest is then investigated in depth. Research on this subject is still ongoing.
Legal Institutions and Economic Development
Authors: Beck Thorsten
Published: February 2013

This article focuses on the economic approach to institutions, looking at their role of supporting markets and exchange between economic agents, overcoming market frictions. The article is organized as follows. First, it defines legal institutions and presents different attempts at measuring them. Then, it surveys the historic, theoretical, and empirical literature that shows the importance of legal institutions for capitalism and economic development. It presents different theories of the divergence of legal institutions across countries and empirical evidence. The final section summarizes and looks forward.
Capital Markets and Financial Politics: Preferences and Institutions
Authors: Roe Mark J.
Published: February 2013

This article outlines the main weaknesses in the interaction between political institutions and capitalism in both developed and developing nations, illustrates this interplay with historical capital markets examples, and shows how the interaction between capital markets and politics has been seen in the academic literature. It focuses not on the standard and important channel of how institutions affect preferences and outcomes, but on how and when immediate preferences can trump, restructure, and even displace established institutions. The article is organized as follows. First, it describes the concepts of how capital markets depend on political institutions and preferences. The second part shows how political divisions can lead to differing capital markets outcomes in the developed world, describing conflicts between haves and have-nots and fissures among the haves. The third part develops these concepts for the developing world, looking at elites' interests, nonelites' interests, political stability, and the impact of economic inequality. The fourth part examines several contemporary and historical examples in the developed world, including the power of labor in Europe, managers in modern America, populists in American history, and the forces for codetermination in mid-twentieth-century Germany. The fifth part extends and deepens the argument, showing the impact of left-to-right shifts over time and how these can be better analyzed in the academic literature. The sixth part describes overall limits to a political economy approach, while the final section concludes.
The Role of Finance in Economic Development: Benefits, Risks, and Politics
Authors: Beck Thorsten
Published: February 2013

This article explores the role of the financial sector for economic growth, the causes and consequences of financial fragility, and the politics behind financial deepening and fragility. In doing so, it identifies the critical role of the financial sector within capitalist economies, a role with bright and dark sides. Specifically, it surveys the large theoretical and empirical literature that links a sound financial system to the process of economic development. It discusses the theoretical and empirical literature on bank fragility and banking crises and surveys the literature on the political economy of financial deepening. Importantly, it relates these three strands of the literature to each other and to the current crisis.
Management and Governance of the Business Enterprise: Agency, Contracting, and Capabilities Perspectives
Authors: Teece David J.
Published: February 2013

This article contrasts three views or paradigms of the business enterprise and of critical management issues regarding governance. The first two are the agency and contracting paradigms. These dominate most discussion of the governance of corporate activities. The third is the capabilities perspective, which is starting to gain attention in the literature. Agency theory highlights how incentives should be crafted and governance activities focused to bring about better performance for shareholders when ownership and control are separated. Transaction cost economics highlights, as does agency theory, the importance of opportunism. But it adds asset specificity considerations that are also relevant to organizational design choices, including governance mechanisms. The capabilities perspective focuses less on managing opportunism and more on harnessing and managing opportunity. In that sense, it is closer to the essence of capitalism.
Executive Compensation: Governance and the Financial Crisis
Authors: Conyon Martin J.
Published: February 2013

This article provides a broad discussion of executive compensation and incentives, investigating whether outcomes are consistent with economic theory. The rest of this article is organized as follows. It discusses various economic approaches to executive pay. Then it investigates factors that have been driving the growth in CEO compensation. It provides a commentary on executive compensation and the recent financial crisis. A final section offers some concluding remarks.
The East Asian (mostly Japanese) model of Capitalism
Authors: Odagiri Hiroyuki
Published: February 2013

This article discusses the East Asian model of capitalism, contrasting it with the textbook version of capitalism, which in most cases is based on an Anglo–American model, and illustrates that the latter is hardly universal. In fact, the latter can be a minority model. It discusses the East Asian model from four perspectives that must be at the center of any such discussion. They are business groups, corporate ownership and management, interfirm relationships, and laissez-faire versus industrial policy.
Refounding Capitalism
Authors: Phelps Edmund
Published: February 2013

This article addresses the following questions: What is capitalism? What is the distinctive merit of a well-functioning capitalism? Can dynamism justify capitalism? It considers how the element of instability in capitalist systems affect the argument for continuing with capitalism. This is followed by discussions of whether there are reforms that address speculative swings while causing little or no damage to economic dynamism and inclusion; address the decline in the past decade of economic dynamism while causing little or no increase in instability; and address the still insufficient levels of economic inclusion without stifling dynamism.
The Private Equity Contract
Authors: Davidoff Steven M.
Published: February 2013

This article studies the question of the private equity contract in the post-2007 financial crisis. It considers the causes and consequences of the private equity contract during periods of financial crisis. It then argues that the private equity contract is a relevant part of the past success of private equity, and outlines the development and origins of the private equity contract and its structure. From there the article examines the effect of the financial crisis on the private equity contract, where it emphasizes the role that the private equity contract has had in the private equity industry. This article also presents the failures of the private equity contract and its ability to limit the development of private equity.
Buyouts in Western European Countries: The Impact on Company Growth and Innovation
Authors: Ughetto Elisa
Published: February 2013

This article studies a sample of 265 buyouts that were conducted from 1997 until 2004. These buyouts involved companies in the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Belgium, Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands. It explores the extent to which buyouts affect the performance of target companies for a three-year period around the deal date. It then assesses whether such operations encourage or limit the innovation activity of acquired firms. Finally, this article discusses the effects of private equity investments on firm growth. An assessment of the total innovative effort of the sample firms is also included.
Private Equity: Value Creation and Performance
Authors: Graf Christian , Kaserer Christoph , Schmidt Daniel M.
Published: February 2013

This article serves as a comprehensive overview of the performance of private equity transactions. It gathers information from an analysis of 10,328 private equity deals, which include 3,296 pure buyout transactions. It introduces a new perspective for the analysis of the key drivers of value creation of private equity. It then isolates the impact of market timing, leverage, and operational improvements on transactions returns before focusing on the transactions in the financial institution industry. This article also provides indirect evidence that shows the possibility of operational improvements being the primary value drivers in other industries as well.
Do Private Equity Fund-of-Funds Managers Provide Value?
Authors: Knill April
Published: February 2013

This article addresses the question of whether the private equity fund-of-funds managers provide value or not. It studies the value added by funds of funds, and suggests that fund-of-funds managers do not appear to perform better on a risk-adjusted basis than their peers. This article also tries to determine if these managers provide the private equity investor with value. It also considers if the institutional investors should invest in getting the necessary connection that would help them directly access private equity investments.
The Role of Private Equity in Private Acquisitions
Authors: Gonenc Halit , Leisink Koos
Published: February 2013

This article addresses the role of private equity in private acquisitions, and studies strategic bidder announcement returns for firms that obtain private targets that are backed with private equity or not. It first determines what bidders of private equity-backed targets gain from private deals. Next, it examines the announcement returns of bidders across gains that involve only private equity firms and introduces the firms' ability to control.
Buyouts Around the World
Authors: Andres Christian , Betzer Andre , Gider Jasmin
Published: February 2013

This article discusses global buyouts. It tries to explain the international differences in buyout markets across countries, but is not concerned with the performance and investment strategies on the fund level. The first section takes a look at the buyout activity of different countries, and then it forms a relationship between buyouts, the institutional environment, and the quality of corporate governance. The following section reviews the present empirical evidence of buyout strategies that are pursued in various geographical regions. Finally, this article tries to relate the findings to the institutional environments.
Keys to Fundraising Success in Nascent Venture Capital Firms
Authors: Walske Jennifer , Zacharakis Andrew
Published: February 2013

This article applies resource-based view (RBV) theory and asks which founding conditions are most closely related to a new firm's ability to capture its earliest resources. RBV theory suggests that a firm creates a competitive advantage if its strategy is closely married to firm-specific resources. By tightly linking firm resources and strategy, other firms are less likely to replicate firm strategy. While RBV theory has been widely used to assess firm performance, its use in understanding early firm resource acquisition has been largely unexplored. The article explores how the combination of founders' human capital and early strategy correlate with a nascent venture capital firm's ability to raise its first fund. It begins with a discussion of theory and related hypotheses, and then elaborates on findings, noting the research's limitations. It concludes with a summary of findings and suggestions for future research.
Performance Implications of Venture Capital Syndication Networks
Authors: Trapido Denis
Published: February 2013

This article considers the performance implications of venture capital syndication networks. First, it reviews theories of functions of syndication networks. Each of these theories suggests a way that networks help venture investors access better-performing investment targets or better manage them. The four functions that can be examined with the data used in this article—trust generation, preventing abuse of information asymmetries, sharing of management experience, and sharing of risk evaluation expertise—are discussed in detail. Next, it constructs measures of these four functions and uses them to describe the evolution of the venture capital (VC) syndication networks in the United States. This description focuses on the role of VC networks in and after the venture investment boom that peaked in 2000. Finally, it examines the effect of the four functions on the performance of venture investment recipients. As the performance of VC investors is determined by that of their investment recipients, the conclusions of this analysis extend to the performance of VC investors. The concluding section discusses the implications of the results for the sustainability of VC's role in nurturing cutting-edge, breakthrough technologies.
Venture Capital Law Firms: An Analysis of Equity Investments and Networks
Authors: Vronsky Paul
Published: February 2013

This article explores the role of lawyers in the venture capital industry. It addresses two interrelated topics: how lawyers factor into venture capital networks and the role of equity investments by Silicon Valley law firms in the companies they represent. The structure of the article follows the parallel tracks of network effects in venture capital and equity investments by lawyers in client companies, tying them together at appropriate points. First it explores the existing literature in these two fields. Next it develops a theoretical framework for lawyers as a part of venture capital networks and for lawyers taking equity investments in clients, concluding with why the two may be interrelated. The final section includes empirical results from data gathered by the authors of initial public offerings from a one-year sample in 2006–2007 as well as three years for specific venture capital law firms and venture capital funds. Aside from linking equity investment and network effects, these results are quite unlike what has been analyzed by other authors. The article offers a more comprehensive survey of Silicon Valley law firms and venture capital funds, as well as a more rigorous comparison to what law firms are doing in other geographical and industry spaces. It concludes with a discussion of the study's limitations and suggestions for further research.