cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Static and Dynamic Pricing of Excess Capacity in a Make-to-Order Environment

We consider a make-to-order manufacturer that serves two customer classes: core customers who pay a fixed negotiated price, and “fill-in” customers who make submittal decisions based on the current price set by the firm. Using a Markovian queueing model, we determine how much the firm can gain by explicitly accounting for the status of its production facility in making pricing decisions. Specifically, we examine three pricing policies: (1) static, state-independent pricing, (2) constant pricing up to a cutoff state, and (3) general state-dependent pricing. We determine properties of each policy, and illustrate numerically the financial gains that the firm can achieve by following each policy as compared with simpler policies. Our main result is that constant pricing up to a cutoff state can dramatically outperform a state-independent policy, while at the same time achieving most of the increase in revenue achievable from general state-dependent pricing. Thus, we find that constant pricing up to a cutoff state presents an attractive tradeoff between ease of implementation and revenue gain. When the costs of policy design and implementation are taken into account, this simple heuristic may actually out-perform general state-dependent pricing in some settings.
Estimating Geweke's (1982) Measure of Instantaneous Feedback:

In this article, we describe the gwke82 command, which implements a measure of instantaneous feedback for two time series following Geweke (1982, Journal of the American Statistical Association 77: 304�313).
CAN PREDICTION MARKETS MITIGATE PRICE BIASES

This study examines the pre-game and within-game price movements of contracts listed on Tradesports to determine whether relevant information is quickly and accurately embedded into asset prices. Each contract represents a totals (over/under) bet on an NFL game. In traditional casino-style totals betting markets, it has been demonstrated that the effects of adverse weather conditions are not fully incorporated into totals bet prices. If prediction markets are more efficient that are traditional NFL betting markets, then this price bias should be mitigated. We find that while price biases disappear quickly after kickoff, prior to this point they remain largely intact suggesting that casino-style markets and prediction markets may have similar informational limitations.
Small-Sample Bias in GMM Estimation of Covariance Structures

We examine the small-sample properties of the generalized method of moments estimator applied to models of covariance structures, in which case it is commonly known as the optimal minimum distance (OMD) estimator. We find that OMD is almost always biased downward in absolute value. The bias arises because sampling errors in the second moments are correlated with sampling errors in the weighting matrix used by OMD. Furthermore, OMD is usually dominated by equally weighted minimum distance (EWMD). We also propose an alternative estimator that is unbiased and asymptotically equivalent to OMD. The Monte Carlo evidence indicates, however, that it is usually dominated by EWMD.
Interest groups and the electoral control of politicians

Abstract We develop a model of interest group influence in the presence of repeated electoral competition. In each period of the game, an interest group attempts to “buy” an incumbent's policy choice, and a voter chooses whether to replace the incumbent with an unknown challenger. The voter faces a tension between retaining good politician types and rewarding past performance. The model predicts that “above average” incumbents face little discipline, but others are disciplined increasingly – and re-elected at a higher rate – as the interest group becomes more extreme. Extensions of the model consider term limits, long-lived groups, and multiple groups.
Technology Convergence and Federalism: Who Should Decide the Future of Telecommunications Regulation?

This Article critically examines the division of regulatory jurisdiction over telecommunications issues between the federal government and the states. Currently, the line between federal and state jurisdiction varies depending on the service at issue. This compartmentalization might have made sense fifteen years ago, but the advent of technology convergence has largely rendered this model obsolete. Yesterday’s telephone and cable companies now compete head-to-head to offer consumers the vaunted “triple play” of voice, video, and internet services. But these telecommunications companies are finding it increasingly difficult to fit new operations into arcane, rigid regulatory compartments. Moreover, services that consumers view as near-perfect substitutes - such as cable and satellite television - face different regulatory treatment largely due to historical accident. This Article proposes that Congress instead allocate jurisdiction in a platform-neutral manner based upon the relative strengths of federal and state regulators. The federal government is best positioned to regulate economic issues that, if left to the states, would generate substantial spillover effects and disrupt economies of scale. By comparison, state regulators are best qualified to make decisions that turn upon local knowledge. The Article recommends a hybrid model for consumer protection, whereby states bring local issues to the FCC’s attention, and the FCC adjudicates these issues from an appropriately national scope.
Human actions, the survival of keystone species, and the resilience of ecological–economic systems

Abstract Human (managerial) actions affect the survival probabilities of the keystone species of an ecological–economic system. In turn, the well-being of these keystone species translates into the well-being or the resilience of the underlying ecological–economic system. What are the theoretical connections between human actions, keystone species survival, and the resilience of ecological–economic systems? In this note, we construct a simple stochastic model to draw out the links between this trinity.
Does high school quality matter? Evidence from admissions data

This paper examines the effect of attending elite private high school on college placement using admissions data from the most selective high school in a large metropolitan area. To overcome omitted variable bias, we limit the sample to admitted applicants and control directly for the scores assigned by admissions based on in-depth analyses of the applicants and their families. In addition, we control for a wide set of covariates including student and family characteristics and entrance exam scores. Results indicate that attending selective private high school rather than other public and private high schools causes students to attend more selective universities. Effects are driven by gains for girls and students from lower-income neighborhoods.
Sequencing of reforms, financial globalization, and macroeconomic vulnerability

I use a large cross country data set and panel probit analysis to investigate the way in which the interaction between trade and financial openness affect the probability of external crises. This analysis is related to debate on the adequate sequencing of reform. I also investigate the role played by current account and fiscal imbalances, contagion, international reserves holdings, and the exchange rate regime as possible determinants of external crises. The results indicate that relaxing capital controls increases the likelihood of a country experiencing a sudden stop. Moreover, the results suggest that “financial liberalization first” strategies increase the degree of vulnerability to external crises. This is particularly the case if this strategy is pursued with pegged exchange rates and if it results in large current account imbalances. J. Japanese Int. Economies 23 (2) (2009) 131–148.
Seven imperatives for improving the measurement of party nationalization with Evidence from Chile

Abstract Party nationalization measures are often used to describe and analyze the nature of political parties and party systems. However, the term “party nationalization” is imprecise, with little consensus on how to measure it or evaluate its implications. This article advances the literature on nationalization in a number of crucial ways. In it, we make seven concrete suggestions for improving the measurement of party nationalization in theoretical terms and then demonstrate the problems and biases with existing studies through a theoretical discussion and application to Chilean political parties. Given that our theoretical and empirical analyses show there are important weaknesses in all nationalization measures, we argue in favor of approaching the phenomenon with a variety of tools in order to avoid misleading conclusions.
Concentration in Publishing at Top‐Tier Business Journals: Evidence and Potential Explanations*

We first investigate how articles are distributed among universities in a set of 14 highly ranked academic business journals over the period 1990-2002. We find the top publishing schools in accounting and finance supply a greater portion of their discipline's major journal articles than in management or marketing. Much of the concentration in accounting occurs at privately sponsored journals, where faculty at private (public) schools publish a relatively high (low) portion of the articles. Next, we investigate how articles are distributed among individuals. We find the following: substantially fewer accounting faculty publish in a major journal; the average number of articles by accounting faculty who publish at least once exceeds that of finance, management or marketing; and successful accounting publishers are more likely to be affiliated with highly ranked research universities or private schools. Finally, we examine if economic consequences arise from this concentration and find evidence of lower promotion rates and salary increases for accounting full professors.
Regulations, regime switches and non-monotonicity when non-compliance is an option: an application to content protection and preference

Abstract Direct regulations have two regimes. In one, all firms behave in the same manner and, in the other, they behave differently. Past work assumed all firms were identical, thereby neglecting the non-monotonicity in comparative statics arising from the regime change.
Distributional Effects of Public Education in an Economy with Public Pensions

We study how the allocation of government expenditures between two major outlays—education and pay-as-you-go social security—affects human capital distribution in an economy with heterogeneous agents. We consider an overlapping generations economy where the government maintains both programs, and allocates tax revenues to finance them. In our model, human capital is one of the factors of production. It is itself produced as a combined result of public inputs and private inputs. Parents' decisions to invest time and material resources in education of their children are motivated by altruism, heterogeneous in its strength across the population, which leads to heterogeneity of incomes. We investigate the effect of an increase in public funding for education on the human capital distribution. We show that in this framework, contrary to some earlier results, increased spending on public education may lead to higher inequality. Our results depend crucially on the interaction of education funding with the social security budget and on the elasticity of substitution in the learning technology.
Rational Judicial Behavior: A Statistical Study

This paper analyzes the connection between ideology and voting of judges using a large sample of court of appeals cases decided since 1925 and Supreme Court cases decided since 1937. The ideological classifications of votes (e.g., liberal or conservative) are dependent variables in our empirical analysis and the independent variables include the party of the appointing President, the relative number of Republican and Democratic Senators at the time of the judge‘s confirmation, the appointment year, characteristics of the judge (e.g., gender, race and prior experience), and the ideological make-up of the judges on the court in which the judge sits as measured by the relative number of judges appointed by Republican and Democratic Presidents. We have a number of interesting results, including how a judge‘s voting‘s is affected by the voting of the other judges he serves with. We find a political-polarization effect among Justices appointed by Democratic but not by Republican Presidents; that is, the fewer the judges appointed by Democratic Presidents, the more liberally they vote. With regard to court of appeals judges, we find a conformity effect: if the number of judges appointed by Republican Presidents increases (decreases) relative to the number appointed by Democratic Presidents, all judges in the circuit tend to vote more conservatively (more liberally).
How to deal with real estate booms: Lessons from country experiences

Abstract The financial crisis showed, once again, that neglecting real estate booms can have disastrous consequences. In this paper, we spell out the circumstances under which a more active policy agenda on this front would be justified. Then, we offer insights on the pros and cons as well as implementation challenges of various policy tools that can be used to contain the damage to the financial system and the economy from real estate boom–bust episodes. These insights derive from econometric analysis, when possible, and case studies of country experiences. Broadly, booms financed through credit and involving leverage are more likely to warrant a policy response. In that context, macroprudential measures can be targeted more precisely to specific sources of risk, but they may prove ineffective because of circumvention. In that case, monetary policy may have to be used to lean against the wind.
Reflections on Blackcrit Theory: Human Rights

'BlackCrit Theory' addresses the significance of racial attitudes toward Africans and peoples of African descent in the structure and operation of the international human rights system. It further highlights and resists the continued marginalization and subordination of Blacks in international human rights law and politics. 'BlackCrit Theory: Human Rights,' re-asserts the existence of historical critiques and raises new possibilities in the exploration of international approaches to the human rights of Black peoples in their different geographies. This Article identifies a few of the historical links between intellectuals and activists concerned with the impact of racism within the United States and internationally. It then outlines three major critiques of international human rights law identified by BlackCrit human rights theorists. Finally, it uses hypothetical scenarios of Black migrants (and other travelers) with state (and non-state) power to illustrate the global context in which racial discrimination occurs. Critical Race human rights scholars from must continue to include the shape-shifting nature of racism on the international plane in order to eliminate marginalization and subordination of peoples of color, whatever their geographical or cultural ties.
Military Spending and GDP Growth: Is there a General Causal Relationship?

Abstract The existence of a causal relationship between GDP growth and military spending has been a long-lasting debate. Earlier studies report mixed findings employing cross-sectional, pooled or fixed effects panel data. Recent studies employing causality tests also find mixed results. In this study, it is argued that structural changes in data (i.e. significant economic or military events) play an important role and should not be ignored. Also, treatment of stationarity around mean and around time trends needs special attention. Structural changes, if ignored, have the potential to cause bias in long-run tests through VECM. Mistreatment of trend stationarity may result in spurious results. With a sample of 65 countries, for the 1975–2004 period, a Granger-type causal relationship between military spending and GDP growth is analyzed with special emphasis on structural change and stationarity around time trends. While trend stationarity is a common trait of the variables, there are structural changes in t...
Concrete Private Interest in Regulatory Enforcement: Tradable Environmental Resource Rights as a Basis for Standing

This Note proposes a novel solution to standing problems faced by environmental plaintiffs seeking to enforce, or to compel agencies to enforce, environmental regulation. It argues that environmental plaintiffs should be able to obtain standing to bring an Administrative Procedure Act review action or citizen suit based on ownership of private tradable environmental resource rights, created by increasingly popular environmental privatization programs, when they would otherwise be unable to meet standing requirements of individual injury, causation and redressability. Using tradable rights to environmental resources as a basis for standing in APA review actions or citizen suits would maximize the benefits of citizen participation while averting the concerns associated with broad grants of standing, including worries about constitutional limits on federal court jurisdiction, floodgates, and for whether plaintiffs are in the ‘zone of interests’ benefitted by the legislation.
The Seventh Amendment Right to a Civil Jury Trial: The Supreme Court Giveth and the Supreme Court Taketh Away

This article examines the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence relating to the historic Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial. I describe the three-prong analysis that the Court employs, analyze the Court’s decisions that analyze the jury trial, and conclude that the Court’s decisions are consistent with its Seventh Amendment line of cases in which it emphasizes the preservation of the basic right to jury under the first inquiry, while it de-emphasizes the essence and scope of that right under the second and third inquiries.
A pension for injured victims of the Troubles: reparations or reifying victim hierarchy?

Reparations have been often-used victim-centred measures to redress both private harm and gross violations of human rights. However, with the increasing occurrence of internal armed conflict and political violence, identities of victims and perpetrators in protracted conflicts can become blurred for some individuals. In countries like Peru and Northern Ireland that have suffered protracted violence, victimhood has been contested around which individuals are seen as innocent and deserving in order to exclude any members of non-state armed groups from claiming reparations. This article explores the issue of a proposed Bill on a pension for injured victims of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. It identifies that there is no consistent state practice or human rights jurisprudence in this area, but instead offers a more complex approach through four models that can grapple with the seeming diametrically opposed victimhood and responsibility, by including victimised perpetrators in reparations programmes such as that proposed for a pension for seriously injured victims in Northern Ireland.
Relational and Informational Privileges and the Case of the Mysterious Mediation Privilege

The most common rationales for evidentiary privileges are the instrumental and humanistic rationales. The instrumental rationale is that privileges are necessary to encourage communication in certain socially useful situations. The humanistic rationales include those based on the power theory (privileges are the reflection of the power of various professions and institutions to protect their interests by controlling their information and communications), a general right to privacy, and the right to personal autonomy (meaning freedom from control as opposed to freedom from scrutiny). This article describes the limitations of the instrumental and humanistic rationales for evidentiary privileges. These limitations stem in part from their treatment of privilege doctrine as a unitary concept. The article then posits a new theory of evidentiary privileges, which divides the world of privilege into relational and informational privileges, each with its own rationale and characteristics. Relational privileges enhance certain fiduciary or "special" relationships. Relational privileges provide the strongest protection against disclosures in legal proceedings, as they are not subject to discretionary balancing by the trial court. Informational privileges recognize that some kinds of information have such value that, as a general rule, one who owns, or in some cases merely possesses, the information should be allowed to control its use as evidence in legal proceedings. However, this control is qualified; it is subject to the trial court's ability to weigh the value of the informational privilege against the need for the information as evidence in particular cases. The distinction between relational and informational privileges will aid both the drafters and interpreters of evidentiary privileges by adding greater clarity, predictability, and integrity to their decisions to withhold certain evidence from the trier of fact because of its "privileged" status. The final section of the article focuses on the California mediation privilege, as interpreted by Rojas v. Superior Court 93 P.3d 260 (Cal. 2004), to illustrate the confusion that results from the unitary concept of privileges and to suggest how an approach based on relational and informational privileges could help in both the interpretation and redrafting of the mediation privilege.
Teaching the CISG in Contracts

The failure to teach the CISG in first-year Contracts is problematic. As a treaty the CISG is federal law, which preempts state common law and the UCC. Whenever a party whose place of business is in the United States contracts for the sale of goods with a party whose place of business is in another country that has joined the CISG, it is the CISG and not the UCC or the common law that governs the formation of their contract and their respective rights and obligations under it. Incorporating the CISG into first-year Contracts may seem a daunting task. Almost none of the existing casebooks devote much space to the CISG. Many Contracts teachers feel that there is already too much for them to cover in the allotted hours, and some may fear that teaching the CISG will require them to become experts in international law. My purpose in this article is to overcome such inhibitions. First, I hope to convince my fellow Contracts teachers (and perhaps some casebook authors as well) that they have a professional obligation to introduce students to the CISG in first-year Contracts. Second, I will try to make it easier for them to do so by offering suggestions about where to raise the CISG and even a few cases with which to supplement whatever casebook they use.
Non‐thermal escape of molecular hydrogen from Mars

[1] We present a detailed theoretical analysis of non-thermal escape of molecular hydrogen from Mars induced by collisions with hot atomic oxygen from the Martian corona. To accurately describe the energy transfer in O + H2(v, j) collisions, we performed extensive quantum-mechanical calculations of state-to-state elastic, inelastic, and reactive cross sections. The escape flux of H2molecules was evaluated using a simplified 1D column model of the Martian atmosphere with realistic densities of atmospheric gases and hot oxygen production rates for low solar activity conditions. An average intensity of the non-thermal escape flux of H2 of 1.9 × 105 cm−2s−1 was obtained considering energetic O atoms produced in dissociative recombinations of O2+ions. Predicted ro-vibrational distribution of the escaping H2was found to contain a significant fraction of higher rotational states. While the non-thermal escape rate was found to be lower than Jeans rate for H2molecules, the non-thermal escape rates of HD and D2 are significantly higher than their respective Jeans rates. The accurate evaluation of the collisional escape flux of H2and its isotopes is important for understanding non-thermal escape of molecules from Mars, as well as for the formation of hot H2 Martian corona. The described molecular ejection mechanism is general and expected to contribute to atmospheric escape of H2 and other light molecules from planets, satellites, and exoplanetary bodies.
Low-Wage Labor Markets and the Power of Suggestion

The paper argues that a non-binding minimum wage may serve as a focal point which facilities tacit collusion by low-wage employers, effectively pulling down wages of the lowest-paid workers. This can explain the puzzle as to why the minimum wage does not reduce employment, as predicted by the traditional economic theory. A simple game-theoretic argument explains when collusion emerges. The hypothesis is tested using the 1990–2002 CPS data on service occupation workers. The results suggest that during this period, on average 19.3%, and as much as 31% of service occupation workers, who earned minimum wage or less, could had been affected by collusive wage-setting.
DISTRIBUTING THE GAINS FROM TRADE WITH INCOMPLETE INFORMATION

We argue that the incomplete information which the government has about domestic agents means that tariffs become an optimal instrument to protect them from import competition. Using a model where agents have private information about their endowments, we solve for the optimal government policy subject to the political constraint of ensuring Pareto gains from trade, the incentive compatibility constraint, and the government's budget constraint. We find that the optimal policy takes the form of nonlinear tariffs. These tariffs are never complete, in the sense of bringing prices back to their initial level, but always allow some individuals to be strictly better off than at the initial prices.
Do employment quotas explain the occupational choices of disadvantaged minorities in India

This article investigates the effects of a large-scale public sector employment quota policy for disadvantaged minorities (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) in India on their occupational choices, as defined by skill level, during the 1980s and 1990s. We find that, first, the employment quota policy significantly affects the occupational structure of both disadvantaged minority populations. In response to the employment quotas, individuals belonging to the Scheduled Caste group are more likely to choose high-skill occupations and less likely to choose low- and middle-skill occupations, while individuals belonging to the Scheduled Tribe group are less likely to choose high-skill occupations and more likely to choose low- and middle-skill occupations. Second, the impact of the employment quotas is significantly related with an individual’s years of schooling. Overall, the results indicate that the employment quota policy changes the occupational choices of individuals within the targeted populations an...
Competing for recognition through public good provision

Consider a setting in which several groups of individuals with common interests (“clubs”) compete with each other for recognition by other individuals. Depending on the context, recognition may be expressed by these other individuals joining a club, or choosing one club to admire. Clubs compete by providing a public good. Some examples for applications of this model include: (i) Churches missionarizing to attract new members; (ii) Open-source software projects and Wikipedia; (iii) professors of an economics department competing to attract graduate students to their respective fields; (iv) artists and researchers aiming for recognition of their work by their peers and the public. Competition between clubs increases the public good provision level, and a sufficiently strong competition effect may even lead to overprovision.
Spousal Election: Suggested Equitable Reform for the Division of Property at Death

Testators have traditionally enjoyed immense discretion in directing the disposition of their wealth upon death; however, when a spouse survives the testator, public policy dictates a limitation on the testator's ability to dispose of property. American jurisdictions impose this limitation through the elective share in common law states and by the nature of property ownership in community property states. Ideally, this limitation should ensure equitable financial protection for the surviving spouse and protect his or her interest in assets that were accumulated with the decedent, yet the current elective share methods fall short of these goals.
Physical approach to price momentum and its application to momentum strategy

Abstract We introduce various quantitative and mathematical definitions for price momentum of financial instruments. The price momentum is quantified with velocity and mass concepts originated from the momentum in physics. By using the physical momentum of price as a selection criterion, the weekly contrarian strategies are implemented in South Korea KOSPI 200 and US S&P 500 universes. The alternative strategies constructed by the physical momentum achieve the better expected returns and reward–risk measures than those of the traditional contrarian strategy in weekly scale. The portfolio performance is not understood by the Fama–French three-factor model.
The stock price effects of changes in dispersion of investor beliefs during earnings announcements

Existing research provides competing theories about how dispersion of investor beliefs might affect stock prices. We measure changes in dispersion of investor beliefs around earnings announcements using changes in the dispersion of individual analysts’ forecasts. We find that the 3-day market response to earnings announcements is negatively associated with changes in dispersion, consistent with the cost of capital hypothesis. The results hold after controlling for the current earnings surprise, forecast revisions of future earnings, and reported earnings relative to various earnings thresholds. Our study provides new insight about the information contained in earnings announcements that is incremental to the magnitude and timing of cash flows.
Recognizing Guarantees and Assurances of Non-Repetition: LaGrand and the Law of State Responsibility

This brief note looks at an often negelcted implication of the ICJ decision in the LaGrand case. It argues that by expressly recognising guaranatess and assurances of repetition as a remedy for breaches, the Court has displayed a new openness towards a future-oriented conception of state responsibility.
Executive Compensation, Strategic Competition, and Relative Performance Evaluation: Theory and Evidence

We examine compensation contracts for managers in imperfectly competitive product markets. We show that strategic interactions among firms can explain the lack of relative performance-based incentives in which compensation decreases with rival firm performance. The need to soften product market competition generates an optimal compensation contract that places a positive weight on both own and rival performance. Firms in more competitive industries place greater weight on rival firm performance relative to own firm performance. We find empirical evidence of a positive sensitivity of compensation to rival firm performance that is increasing in the degree of competition in the industry.
Agenda Setting in the Supreme Court: The Collision of Policy and Jurisprudence

For decades, scholars have searched for data to show that Supreme Court justices are influenced not only by policy goals but also by legal considerations. Analyzing justices’ agenda-setting decisions, we show that while justices are largely motivated by policy concerns, jurisprudential considerations can prevail over their policy goals. When policy goals and legal considerations collide, policy gives way. If legal considerations and policy goals align toward the same end, law liberates justices to pursue policy. In short, we find that at the intersection of law and politics, law is both a constraint on and an opportunity for justices.
Bringing Home the Right to Housing to Advance Urban Sustainability

The human right to housing, although not a formal American federal or constitutional right, provides an important legal and normative framework that can help American cities and states better balance the needs of owners and non-owners in local housing and development struggles. If American cities and states want to create sustainable urban communities that will flourish for generations, they will need the human right to housing as one legal tool in their sustainability toolkit. If we understand the term urban sustainability to include not just the sustainability of the land, air, water, and spaces that humans occupy, but also the sustainability of the inhabitants and positive social relationships in urban spaces, then the human right to housing must become a part of cities’ urban sustainability arsenal. The right to housing is an international human right, enshrined in the constitutions of several countries and in the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (“The Covenant”). While the United States has signed the Covenant, Congress has not ratified it. Thus, the right to housing does not have the force of law in the United States. Yet, if ratified by Congress, the right to housing could provide America with a normative rubric to better balance private property rights and non-owners’ housing needs. Even in the absence of federal legal adoption, cities and states can use the right to housing to help resolve housing and property challenges at the local level.
Dividends and strength of Japanese business group affiliation

Abstract While the study of dividend policy in Japan has investigated the role of group affiliation, it has heretofore neglected the impact of the strength of group affiliation. Using the strength of group association, a new variable in the study of dividend policy, we document that the probability of dividend payment by firms in Japanese business groups declines as the affiliation to the business group strengthens – a finding consistent with transferring cash from weakly associated firms to those strongly associated with the business group. Further, the contractual claimant position of main banks seems important as the ratio of short-term debt to long-term debt is negatively related to dividend payment in Japanese firms. Finally, we also reconfirm that dividends in Japan are positively related to firm size, profitability, and investment opportunities, and negatively to firm risk. These findings should be of much interest to managers, scholars, and policy-makers.
Law and Economics of Intellectual Property: In Search of First Principles

Economic theory has struggled to produce a coherent narrative justifying the implementation of intellectual property regimes, although a variety of rationales have been advanced as explanations. The most prevalent justification characterizes the subject matter of intellectual property in terms of public goods, which are nonrivalrously and nonexclusively consumed and thus likely to be underproduced due to free-riding problems. On this view, intellectual property regimes are intended to provide an incentive for investment in valuable intangible goods. But because the social costs of intellectual property may be significant, this explanation is not an entirely persuasive justification. Consequently, other rationales, such as incentives to disclosure, or coordination of resources, have been advanced. Given the vast variety of innovative and creative activities subject to intellectual property protection, it may be that no one explanation is adequate but rather that different rationales, or different combinati...
Importance of Perceived Personnel Selection System Fairness Determinants: Relations with Demographic, Personality, and Job Characteristics

This study explored the relative importance attached to various perceived personnel selection fairness determinants (e.g., selection system content-based variables, features of selection system administration). We investigated how demographic variables (ethnicity and gender), individual differences characteristics (the Big Five and cognitive ability) and job characteristics (job complexity and domestic/expatriate assignment status) relate to the importance of ratings of perceived personnel selection system determinants. The results, especially for race/ethnicity analyses indicated that there might be differences across demographic groups in importance placed on different aspects of selection system characteristics. The magnitudes of the relationships were small to moderate for Asian– White and Hispanic–White comparisons. Asian–Hispanic and gender differences in importance assessments were small. Few individual differences variables (i.e., personality and cognitive ability) were associated with importance placed on various aspects of selection system characteristics. Notable exceptions were moderate positive relationships between general mental ability and importance of content-based selection system characteristics, and moderate negative relationships between emotional stability, conscientiousness and cognitive ability, and importance of selection system context variables. The complexity levels of the jobs held by respondents did not appreciably affect the importance placed on the different selection system characteristics. There were few notable differences between importance assessments for domestic versus expatriate positions. Implications for practice, especially managing cultural diversity in organizations, and for theory development are discussed.
The Effects of Open-Market Stock Repurchases by Insurance Companies

We examine the effects of stock repurchase announcements on the value of the announcing insurance firms and on the value of rival insurance firms. We find that insurance firms experience a significant increase in value at the time of the announcement. Repurchasing firms continue to earn excess returns for several months after the announcement. We study the intra-industry effect of the announcements and find that there is a significant decrease in value of rival insurance firms. This suggests that perceived changes in the competitive positions of repurchasing firms occur at the expense of rival firms and dominate any signals of favorable industry conditions. Cross-sectional tests show that the increase in the value of repurchasing firms is related to the relative size of the buyback, stock returns prior to the announcement, and the market-to-book ratio.
Legal Constraints on Supreme Court Decision Making: Do Jurisprudential Regimes Exist?

The founding debate of judicial politics—is Supreme Court decision making driven by law or politics? —remains at center stage. One influential line of attack involves the identification of jurisprudential regimes, stable patterns of case decisions based on the influence of case factors. The key test is whether the regime changes after a major precedent-setting decision, that is, whether the case factors are subsequently treated differently by the Supreme Court justices themselves so that they vote as though constrained by precedent. We analyze whether binding jurisprudential regime change actually exists. The standard test assumes votes are independent observations, even though they are clustered by case and by term. We argue that a (nonparametric) “randomization test” is more appropriate. We find little evidence that precedents affect voting.
On construction of equitable social welfare orders on infinite utility streams

Abstract This paper studies the nature of social welfare orders on infinite utility streams, satisfying the consequentialist equity principles known as Hammond Equity and the Pigou–Dalton transfer principle. The first result shows that every social welfare order satisfying Hammond Equity and the Strong Pareto axioms is non-constructive in nature for all non-trivial domains, Y . The second result shows that, when the domain set is Y = [ 0 , 1 ] , every social welfare order satisfying the Pigou–Dalton transfer principle is non-constructive in nature. Specifically, in both results, we show that the existence of the appropriate social welfare order entails the existence of a non-Ramsey set, a non-constructive object. The second result also provides an example of a social welfare order which can be represented, but which cannot be constructed.
Capital Structure in Corporate Spin‐Offs*

In a spin‐off, the parent divides the assets of the firm and chooses the capital structure for the new, stand‐alone entity. I therefore use this sample to investigate how firms determine their capital structure. I find that the subsidiary has a leverage ratio lower than the parent's but similar to that of a comparable non‐spin‐off firm. Growth opportunities are the primary determinant of the subsidiary’s leverage. Profitability has no impact on leverage choice. These results support the predictions of the trade‐off theory of capital structure and provide insight into why previous studies find a negative relation between leverage and profitability.
A quest for fundamental theorems of social choice

We explore the frontier between possibility and impossibility results by analyzing different combinations of “pro-socialness” and “consistency” conditions. This exercise delivers stronger versions of four classical impossibility theorems, and offers a thorough understanding of connections among them. We also characterize social choice functions that are “independent of irrelevant alternatives,” which makes evident that the fundamental difficulty of social choice lies in “pairwise” consistency requirements. We also introduce a concise pedagogical approach to classical impossibility theorems.
Research with Decisionally Incapacitated Human Subjects: An Argument for a Systemic Approach to Risk-Benefit Assessment

The amount of medical research with persons who lack decision-making capacity is rapidly increasing, but in most states it takes place without clear legal authority. In addition to creating significant liability risks for researchers and persons who provide consent on behalf of incapacitated subjects, the lack of explicit legal standards means that few, if any, safeguards exist to protect incapacitated persons' rights and welfare. Previous efforts to close the gap between clinical reality and legal requirements have failed in part because they have not provided a coherent or persuasive ethical justification for permitting this research. This Article seeks to fill that void by proposing a new way of thinking about the ethics of research with incapacitated persons, grounded in a long-term, systemic approach to risk-benefit assessment. This approach explains why it is ultimately in incapacitated persons' best interests to be governed by a policy that permits them to be enrolled in research without their personal authorization?even if such a policy puts them at risk of participating in studies that, when viewed in isolation, may involve more burdens than benefits. Unlike other approaches, the framework developed here does not depend on false analogies between participating in research and receiving medical treatment, or dubious claims about family members' inherent authority or incapacitated persons' obligations to society. Because the proposed framework directly responds to the criticism that research with incapacitated persons is a form of exploitation, it may increase the likelihood that proposals to authorize this research will actually be adopted. It also has important implications for both how laws governing research with incapacitated persons should be structured, and the roles and responsibilities of surrogate decision makers.
Criteria, Use Cases and Effects of Information Technology Process Automation (ITPA)

More and more IT organizations or IT outsourcing service providers are embracing Information Technology Process Automation (ITPA) as it has transformed the way IT services are delivered to end users. As a result, one of the highly claimed benefits of ITPA is total cost reduction in IT operations. However, ITPA subjects to different interpretations on topics like ITPA criteria, use cases as well as its effects on organizations. Today, there is limited literature and conflicting views on such ITPA topics. The objective of this study is to shed some lights on ITPA criteria, use cases as well as the effects ITPA brings. The effects include the benefits as well as negative effects of ITPA. Moreover, some factors to guide organizations how to adopt and deploy ITPA are also discussed. This study has taken a qualitative approach in which ITPA literature was reviewed and some IT professionals were interviewed. Lastly, limitations of the study, future research and conclusion were also provided.
Pension Fund Activism and Firm Performance

This paper studies the efficacy of pension fund activism by examining all firms targeted by nine major funds from 1987 to 1993. I document a movement away from takeover-related proxy proposal targetings in the late 1980s to governance-related proxy proposal and nonproxy proposal targetings in the 1990s. For the vast majority of firms, there are no significant abnormal returns at the time of targeting. The subset of firms subject to nonproxy proposal targeting, however, experiences a significant positive wealth effect. There is no evidence of significant long-term improvement in either stock price or accounting measures of performance in the post-targeting period. Collectively, these results cast doubt on the effectiveness of pension fund activism as a substitute for an active market for corporate control.
Arguing for Amnesty

This commentary addresses scholars and activists in liberal national states who advocate on behalf of undocumented immigrants, and offers some reflections on some of the intellectual and political challenges we encounter. I will suggest that the nature of our standard arguments on behalf of immigrants can sometimes give too much ground to current social conditions, and that we may – in our efforts to remain immediately policy-relevant – relinquish the opportunity to develop more fundamental social criticism of existing immigration relations.
The Future of Organization Design: An Interpretative Synthesis in Three Themes

In the inaugural issue of the Journal of Organization Design (Vol. 1, #1, 2012), noted scholars and experienced practitioners presented their views on the future of organization design. The seven wise and provocative statements were subsequently discussed by members of the Organizational Design Community at a conference held at Harvard University on August 3, 2012. I was asked by JOD to monitor the discussion and identify the broad organization design themes that emerged. Although the discussion was wide ranging, three themes were noticeable. The first theme is that there are fundamentals of organization design, and all agreed that design involves creating a cohesive socio-technical system from a number of constituent elements. The second theme is that the boundaries of many newer organizational forms extend beyond that of the single firm, so the scope of organization design needs to expand to include ecosystems, collaborative communities, industries, and other supra-firm architectures. The third theme involves time and change, requiring a shift in focus from how organizations become stable and predictable to how they can become more agile.
Should we let people starve – for now?

It may well be that we could save more people overall by not aiding those in need now and instead giving aid in the future. This would be true, for instance, if either the price of life-saving interventions fell, or if we could increase our wealth in real terms over time. Additionally, saving people later is better for us, since we can invest the money in a way that benefits us. Instead of giving $1,000,000 now, we might use that money to buy a mansion that we could then live in till we sold it at a profit decades later, and give the money away then. This would allow us to save more people and to lessen the costs of giving for us. Together, these two points create a puzzling case for answering the title-question affirmatively.