cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Aspects of lattice N=4 supersymmetric Yang--Mills

Non-perturbative investigations of N = 4 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory formulated on a space-time lattice have advanced rapidly in recent years. Large-scale numerical calculations are currently being carried out based on a construction that exactly preserves a single supersymmetry at non-zero lattice spacing. A recent development is the creation of an improved lattice action through a new procedure to regulate flat directions in a manner compatible with this supersymmetry, by modifying the moduli equations. In this proceedings I briefly summarize this new procedure and discuss the parameter space of the resulting improved action that is now being employed in numerical calculations.
Testing and detecting jumps based on a discretely observed process

Abstract We propose a new nonparametric test for detecting the presence of jumps in asset prices using discretely observed data. Compared with the test in Ait-Sahalia and Jacod (2009) , our new test enjoys the same asymptotic properties but has smaller variance. These results are justified both theoretically and numerically. We also propose a new procedure to locate the jumps. The jump identification problem reduces to a multiple comparison problem. We employ the false discovery rate approach to control the probability of type I error. Numerical studies further demonstrate the power of our new method.
Generalized Transform Analysis of Affine Processes and Applications in Finance

Nonlinearity is an important consideration in many problems of finance and economics, such as pricing securities and solving equilibrium models. This article provides analytical treatment of a general class of nonlinear transforms for processes with tractable conditional characteristic functions. We extend existing results on characteristic function-based transforms to a substantially wider class of nonlinear functions while maintaining low dimensionality by avoiding the need to compute the density function. We illustrate the applications of the generalized transform in pricing defaultable bonds with stochastic recovery. We also use the method to analytically solve a class of general equilibrium models with multiple goods and apply this model to study the effects of time-varying labor income risk on the equity premium. The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com., Oxford University Press.
Optimal cash holdings under heterogeneous beliefs

This paper explores a oneâ€ period model for a firm that finances its operations through debt provided by heterogeneous creditors. Creditors differ in their beliefs about the firm's investment outcomes. We show the existence of Stackelberg equilibria in which the firm holds cash reserves in order to provide incentives for pessimistic creditors to invest in the firm. We find interest rates and cash holdings to be complementary tools for increasing debt capacity. In markets with a high concentration of capital across a small interval of pessimistic creditors or by a few large creditors, cash holdings is the preferred tool to increase the debt capacity of the firm.
Evaluating Mutual Fund Performance

We study standard mutual fund performance measures, using simulated funds whose characteristics mimic actual funds. We find that performance measures used in previous mutual fund research have little ability to detect economically large magnitudes ~e.g., three percent per year! of abnormal fund performance, particularly if a fund’s style characteristics differ from those of the value-weighted market portfolio. Power can be substantially improved, however, using event-study procedures that analyze a fund’s stock trades. These procedures are feasible using timeseries data sets on mutual fund portfolio holdings. THIS PAPER USES simulation procedures to study empirical properties of performance measures for mutual funds ~i.e., managed equity portfolios!. Recent studies of mutual fund returns ~e.g., Carhart ~1997!, Daniel et al. ~1997!! have moved beyond performance measures based on the Capital Asset Pricing Model, such as “Jensen alpha.” These studies account for nonmarket factors in the cross section of expected returns, such as size, book-to-market, and momentum. Applying multifactor benchmarks to performance measurement has been characterized as “simple” and “straightforward” ~Fama and French ~1993!, p. 54!. The basis for this view is that multifactor benchmarks are crosssectionally well specified. However, the power of multifactor benchmarks to detect abnormal performance of a managed portfolio has received little attention. Further, the specific method for implementing a multifactor benchmark could also affect the power of the tests. For example, there is reason to believe that regression-based benchmarks ~e.g., four-factor alpha! will have lower power than characteristic-based benchmarks, which form comparison portfolios using information on fund holdings ~Daniel et al. ~1997!!. However, the magnitude of the difference is an unresolved empirical issue.
Corporate Governance as Social Responsibility: A Research Agenda

In the post-Enron years, corporate governance has shifted from its focus on agency conflicts to address issues of ethics, accountability, transparency, and disclosure. Moreover, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has increasingly focused on corporate governance as a vehicle for incorporating social and environmental concerns into the business decision-making process, benefiting not only financial investors but also employees, consumers, and communities. Currently, corporate governance is being linked more and more with business practices and public policies that are stakeholder-friendly. This article examines these developments and their impact on the formulation of a hybridized body of business legal norms by proceeding in three stages: First, the article explores the recent transformations in the regulation of corporate governance and corporate social responsibility and the shifts these two fields have experienced after Enron. Second, it reads these transformations as a convergence that encompasses both corporate self-regulation and the efforts by various social groups to make it more effective ('meta-regulation'). Third, the article discusses the prospects and challenges of this convergence by outlining a series of conceptual and methodological inquiries as well as policy ramifications to be pursued by scholars and practitioners in the field of law and corporate conduct.
Mega-Cases, Diversity, and the Elusive Goal of Workplace Reform

Class actions have changed the stakes of employment discrimination litigation. The initial workplace cases, although critical in addressing discriminatory practices, overwhelmingly involved individual claims. That changed with the Civil Rights Act of 1991. 2 It expanded compensatory and punitive damages, and made jury trials a matter of right, thus providing economic incentives for class claims. From 2001 to 2004, a time when class action suits were decreasing across the board, employment discrimination class suits rose by 67 percent. These cases have produced scores of multi-million dollar settlements against some of the nation’s largest employers. They have encouraged greater use of litigation to address deeply entrenched corporate practices. In addition, the consent decrees have inspired increasingly sophisticated social science research on the remedies that do—and do not—make a difference in workplace inclusivity. With successful models of employment discrimination consent decrees now in place, informed by recent sociological research, the question now arises: What are the most
Committees, Hierarchies and Polyarchies

This paper examines optimal decision making under three different organizational forms: committees, hierarchies, an d polyarchies. Focus is on the trade-off between errors of rejecting good projects versus errors of accepting bad projects, and on the tra de-off between gains from more extensive evaluations of projects vers us costs of evaluation. The authors characterize the optimal sizes of these organizations (as well as the optimal level of consensus in co mmittees), and then analyze how these optima change under different o rganizational environments. They also analyze the influence of organi zational environment on the relative performance of these alternative organizational forms. Copyright 1988 by Royal Economic Society.
Judging unions’ future using a historical perspective: the public policy choice between competition and unionization

VII. Conclusion In discussing the future of private sector union membership one needs to evaluate the early period of union ascendancy (1930s through the early 1950s) as well as the past few decades when unions have been in decline. We know trends currently in place are unfavorable to unions. What conditions would be favorable? When the earlier period of union growth us studied, two factors become prominent — the competitiveness of the labor market and the ability of unions to fullfill their major goal of either extracting economic rents or remedying market failures that result in exploitive employment relationship.
Sports Arbitration and Enforcing Promises: Brian Shaw and Labor Arbitration

This article discusses the important Sports Law case involving Brian Shaw and the Boston Celtics. It explains how the Boston Celtics used expedited arbitration with subsequent summary court enforcement to secure the services of its prized point guard. In exchange for a multi-year contract and a signing bonus, Shaw promised to return to the Celtics after a year in the Italian Basketball League. He then reneged on his promise when informed he could earn a much higher salary after playing another year in Rome. The club invoked arbitration and compelled Shaw to fulfill his promises. The article includes profiles of Shaw, Celtics president Red Auerbach and labor arbitrator Dan Collins.
TOP PRODUCTION AND DECAY AT LINEAR COLLIDERS: QCD CORRECTIONS

We present the results of an exact calculation of gluon radiation in top production and decay at high energy electron-positron colliders. We include all spin correlations and interferences, the bottom quark mass, and finite top width effects in the matrix element calculation. We study properties of the radiated gluons and implications for top mass measurement. We also discuss virtual corrections to the process.
Beer in Good Times and Bad: A U.S. State-Level Analysis of Economic Conditions and Alcohol Consumption

Data on U.S. state-level beer shipments from 1970 to 2007 provided by The Beer Institute are used to estimate pooled time-series models of annual consumption regressed on economic and demographic variables, using the common correlated effects (CCE) estimators to control for unobserved common effects and to allow for heterogeneous responses across units. Beer is found to be a procyclical good, varying negatively with the state unemployment rate. Previous findings for the negative effect of excise taxes on consumption are supported, though the estimated elasticities are smaller than those reported in earlier research. Demographics have a significant and material effect on consumption, with larger shares of young adults in the population implying greater consumption of beer per capita. (JEL Classification: D12, C23)
Uncertainty Shocks in a Model of Effective Demand

This paper examines the role of uncertainty shocks in a one-sector, representative-agent dynamic stochastic general-equilibrium model. When prices are exible, uncertainty shocks are not capable of producing business-cycle comovements among key macro variables. With countercyclical markups through sticky prices, however, uncertainty shocks can generate uctuations that are consistent with business cycles. Monetary policy usually plays a key role in osetting the negative impact of uncertainty shocks. If the central bank is constrained by the zero lower bound, then monetary policy can no longer perform its usual stabilizing function and higher uncertainty has even more negative eects on the economy. Calibrating the size of uncertainty shocks using uctuations in the VIX, we nd that increased uncertainty about the future may indeed have played a signicant role in worsening the Great Recession, which is consistent with statements by policymakers, economists, and the nancial press.
“Final” Awards Reconceptualized: A Proposal to Resolve the Hall Street Circuit Split

This article discusses the current circuit split over the continued validity of manifest disregard of the law (“manifest disregard”) as a nonstatutory ground for vacatur of arbitration awards under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”). Today, as commercial parties decide whether to include arbitration agreements in their business contracts, they weigh the risks of proceeding to arbitration versus litigation to resolve their disputes. This topic is especially pertinent in light of the current economic climate. Dicta from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Hall Street Associates, L.L.C. v. Mattel, Inc. called into question the continued validity of nonstatutory grounds for vacatur. The circuit courts have severely split on the question of one ground in particular: manifest disregard. Although seemingly ripe for review, the Supreme Court has appeared reluctant to resolve the issue, even side-stepping the Second Circuit’s opinion in Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. AnimalFeeds International Corp. and ruling on other grounds. Rather than opining on which side of the split should prevail, this article posits first that manifest disregard should never have been a valid ground for vacatur under the FAA. Next, the article takes a historical perspective that shows the FAA does not allow courts to look at the merits of an arbitration award. Instead, courts should look only to the award itself, determining its enforceability exclusive of the merits of the arbitrator’s or tribunal’s decision. Inquiry into the merits of the decision violates the FAA and damages arbitration’s finality and efficiency, two of the most important benefits of the arbitration bargain. Excluding the merits from judicial review conforms to FAA requirements and retains these two critical benefits. In other words, this article proposes a resolution to the circuit split that maintains the integrity of both the FAA and the arbitration process without excluding concerns surrounding a full abandonment of judicial review.
A Grudging Defense of Wal-Mart v. Dukes

The Supreme Court's denial of class certification in Wal-Mart v. Dukes has been viewed by many as a wholesale rejection of the use of discrimination law for social change. In this Article, I argue that the Supreme Court would have been open to certification had the plaintiffs given more careful attention to the difficult doctrinal and normative issues raised by their case. The plaintiffs' evidence suggested significant problems with the treatment of women at Wal-Mart, but these facts were never tied in any systematic way to a plausible theory of liability under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Wal-Mart Court squarely endorsed the view already adopted by many lower courts that the common interests required for class certification can be established only by some examination of the theory to be advanced at trial. Wal-Mart was a structural lawsuit, one that challenged features of the workplace that are alleged to produce discriminatory outcomes. Structural suits, especially those challenging delegated discretion, raise far more difficult issues that the canonical discrimination case, which focuses on outcomes rather than on employer practices, and which alleges a clear intent to discriminate. Structural claims will be politically and morally acceptable only if they are based on a notion of employer fault such as negligence that is intermediate between strict liability and intentional discrimination. Although current Title VII doctrine does not directly provide for intermediate levels of fault, legal scholars have proposed several thoughtful approaches that would extend existing law to allow for negligence liability. Plaintiffs could have used these theories, in conjunction with an emphasis on Title VII's "pattern or practice" provision, to construct a strong argument that members of the putative class in Wal-Mart had claims that were tied together by common questions of fact and
Three guys walk into a bar: an information theoretic analysis

This study posits a scenario in which three famous information theorists meet each other in a bar and compare notes. The three include the celebrated information theorist Claude Shannon, the eighte...
Social capital and public goods

This article analyzes the relationship between social networks and trust (two measures of social capital) and self-reported charitable contributions of time and/or money (pro-social behavior) using data collected from two ethnically distinct, low-income neighborhoods.
Ethnicity, Immigration, and Wealth Fluctuations in the United States

Wealth in the United States rose and fell precipitously during the first decade of this century for all major ethnic groups, but the fluctuations in Hispanic wealth were especially extreme. We show that household characteristics and location can account for the Hispanic experience during the boom but not the bust. We argue that the sudden collapse in credit availability to undocumented immigrants at the start of the recession led, through a contraction in demand for the homes of natural sellers in this market, to a loss in wealth far greater than could be predicted based on household characteristics and location alone.
On the Optimal Number of Paddocks in Short Duration Grazing

This paper addresses the following previously unstudied question in rangeland management: What is the optimal number of paddocks for rangelands that are managed using short duration grazing? We first use queuing theory to provide a novel stochastic characterization of a rangeland with paddocks that is managed using short duration grazing. Next, we use this characterization to show that the optimal number of paddocks is the solution to an expected profit maximization problem faced by a rancher.
Mating and starvation modulate feeding and host-seeking responses in female bed bugs, Cimex lectularius.

Reproductive fitness and survival are enhanced by adaptive behaviors that are modulated by internal physiological states and external social contexts. The common bed bug, Cimex lectularius, is an obligate hematophagous ectoparasite that requires host blood for growth, development, and reproduction. We investigated how mating, starvation and social interactions affect host-seeking, blood feeding, oviposition, and survival of female bed bugs. The percentage of females that fed and the amount of blood they ingested were greater in mated females (90–100%) than in unmated females (48–60%). Mating state also modulated the female’s orientation towards human skin odor in an olfactometer; more mated (69%) than unmated (23%) females responded to human odors. The response rate of unmated females (60%) to skin odor increased with longer starvation period, while the opposite pattern was observed in mated females (20%). Although fecundity after a single blood meal was unaffected by long or short residence and interaction with males, females subjected to frequent copulation attempts had lower survivorship and lifespan than females housed with males for only 24 h. Taken together, these results indicate that by adaptively and coordinately expressing behaviors based on the internal physiological state, females maximize their survival and reproductive fitness.
Domestic and foreign disturbances in an optimizing model of exchange-rate determination

Abstract This paper analyzes the effects of various disturbances of domestic and foreign origin in a small open economy under imperfect capital mobility in which the behavioral relationships are divided from optimization by the private sector. In this model the domestic economy jumps instantaneously to its new equilibrium following a change in either the domestic monetary growth rate or domestic fiscal policy. In response to a disturbance in either the foreign interest rate or inflation rate, the economy undergoes an initial partial jump towards its new equilibrium, which it thereafter approaches gradually. The implications of these results for exchange-rate adjustments and the insulation properties of flexible exchange rates are discussed.
On the Consistency of Maximum Likelihood Estimators for Causal Network Identification

We consider the problem of identifying parameters of a particular class of Markov chains, called Bernoulli Autoregressive (BAR) processes. The structure of any BAR model is encoded by a directed graph. Incoming edges to a node in the graph indicate that the state of the node at a particular time instant is influenced by the states of the corresponding parental nodes in the previous time instant. The associated edge weights determine the corresponding level of influence from each parental node. In the simplest setup, the Bernoulli parameter of a particular node’s state variable is a convex combination of the parental node states in the previous time instant and an additional Bernoulli noise random variable. This letter focuses on the problem of edge weight identification using Maximum Likelihood (ML) estimation and proves that the ML estimator is strongly consistent for two variants of the BAR model. We additionally derive closed-form estimators for the aforementioned two variants and prove their strong consistency.
Responsiveness in an Era of Inequality: The Case of the U.S. Senate

To what extent do members of Congress respond unequally to people in different economic situations? How does partisan control of the agenda change the way in which Senators respond to the poor? Using data from the 2004 National Annenberg Election Survey, and multiple roll call votes, I examine Senate responsiveness for the 107th through 111th Congresses. The results show consistent responsiveness toward upper income constituents. Moreover, Republicans are more responsive than Democrats to middle-income constituents in the 109th Congress, and a case study of the 107th Senate reveals that responsiveness toward the wealthy increases once Democrats take control of the chamber.
Thinking through Internment: 12/7 and 9/11 ©

What 12/7 Has to Teach about 9/11: Race MattersThe terrorist attacks on 9-11 have frequently been analogized to Pearl Harbor. In many ways, the analogy is apt. Just as that attack launched us into World War II, the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have launched us into a new kind of war, against terrorism. But waging this sort of borderless war poses great risks, not only to the soldiers commanded to fight but also to core American values. In this way, Pearl Harbor raises other disturbing memories, those of the internment.
Building a Better Laboratory: The Federal Role in Promoting Health System Experimentation

While expanding federal involvement in the health care system, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) preserves states' roles as policy laboratories and private providers' roles as health care delivery laboratories. State-based and provider-based laboratories suffer from many shortcomings, however, as mechanisms to develop, evaluate, and facilitate diffusion of reforms within the health system. This Article argues that the federal government can take steps to address these shortcomings. It first briefly reviews ACA provisions that promote policy and delivery experimentation. It then suggests that by tying funding to policy outcomes, making use of regulatory variation and regulatory menus, and conditioning waivers on systematic evaluation, the federal government could further improve the performance of the nation as a laboratory. I. INTRODUCTION 766 II. STATES AND DELIVERY SYSTEMS AS LABORATORIES 769 A. States as Laboratories 770 B. Delivery Systems as Laboratories 774 III. BUILDING A FEDERAL LABORATORY 776 A. The Problems with State Laboratories 776 * Professor of Law and Health Sciences, Northeastern University. I thank Laura Appleman, David Friedman, Rob Gatter, Jesse Goldner, Tim Greaney, Allison Hoffman, Jon Michaels, Efthimi Parasidis, Wendy Parmet, David Rochefort, Nic Terry, Sidney Watson, participants in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review Symposium on the New American Health Care System, and the faculties of the law schools of Northeastern University, St. Louis University, UCLA, the University of Illinois, and Willamette University for their comments and suggestions. I also thank Matt Adler and Cary Coglianese for many helpful conversations.
Structuring and Restructuring Sovereign Debt: The Role of Seniority

We show how the willingness-to-pay problem and lack of exclusivity in sovereign lending may result in an equilibrium sovereign debt structure that is excessively difficult to restructure. A bankruptcy regime for sovereigns can alleviate this inefficiency but only if it is endowed with far-reaching powers to enforce seniority and subordination clauses in debt contracts. A bankruptcy regime that makes sovereign debt easier to restructure without enforcing seniority may decrease welfare. Copyright , Wiley-Blackwell.
Corporate finance theory: Introduction to special issue

Abstract Theoretical research in corporate finance is critical for our understanding of real-world phenomena, for interpreting empirical results, and for deriving policy implications. We discuss the benefits and limitations of research in corporate finance theory and link them to the nine articles in this special issue on “Corporate Finance Theory.” We provide a perspective on the nine articles in this special issue, and outline our perception of how future research may evolve. We also review several themes that emerge out of the articles, which we think deserve more attention from theorists going forward: interactions between financial markets and corporate finance and dynamic models of corporate decisions, such as capital structure and managerial compensation.
The Dynamic Effects of Tax Law Asymmetries

Under the laws of most countries, a distinction is made between gains and losses by businesses. Losses that must be "carried forward" are subjept to two penalties: a loss of interest, and expiration. Previous examinations have focused on the higher expected tax payments such a tax system without "full loss offset" imposes on risky projects. This paper presents a dynamic analysis of the impact of taxation on investment when gains and losses are treated asymmetrically. The results demonstrate how firm characteristics and the timing of taxes can influence behaviour. Under current U.S. tax law, a distinction is made between gains and losses by businesses. For corporations, gains are taxed at what is essentially a flat rate of 46%, while losses do not necessarily qualify for a refund at the same rate. To obtain an immediate refund, the taxpayer must have had taxable income during the three previous years in excess of the current loss. Any losses that cannot be "carried back" in this fashion must be "carried forward", subject to two implicit penalties: such loss "carryforwards" earn no interest, and they expire after fifteen years. Similar provisions apply in other countries. Hence, businesses investing in risky projects for which the probability of having to carry losses forward is positive can expect to pay higher taxes than they would under a system with full "loss offset", i.e. the immediate refund of taxes for losses incurred. Many corporations
The Effects of Focus on Performance: Evidence from California Hospitals

We use hospital-level discharge data from cardiac patients in California to estimate the effects of focus on operational performance. We examine focus at three distinct levels of the organization---at the firm level, at the operating unit level, and at the process flow level. We find that focus at each of these levels is associated with improved outcomes, namely, faster services at higher levels of quality, as indicated by lower lengths of stay (LOS) and reduced mortality rates. We then analyze the extent to which the superior operational outcome is driven by focused hospitals truly excelling in their operations or by focused hospitals simply “cherry-picking” easy-to-treat patients. To do this, we use an instrumental variables estimation strategy that effectively randomizes the assignment of patients to hospitals. After controlling for selective patient admissions, the previously observed benefits of firm level focus disappear; focused hospitals no longer demonstrate a statistically significant reduction in LOS or mortality rate. However, at more granular measures of focus within the hospital (e.g., operating unit level), we find that more focus leads to a shorter LOS, even after controlling for selective admission effects. This paper was accepted by Yossi Aviv, operations management.
Financial engineering and the arms race between accounting standard setters and preparers

SYNOPSIS: This essay analyzes some problems that accounting standard setters confront in erecting barriers to managers bent on boosting their firms' financial reports through financial engineering (FE) activities. It also poses some unsolved research questions regarding interactions between preparers and standard setters. It starts by discussing the history of lease accounting to illustrate the institutional disadvantage of standard setters relative to preparers in their speeds of response. Then, the essay presents a general theorem that shows that, independent of how accounting standards are written, it is impossible to eliminate all FE efforts of preparers. It also discusses the desirability of choosing accounting standards on the basis of the FE efforts the standards induce preparers to engage in. Then, the essay turns to accounting boards' concepts statements; it points out that no concept statement recognizes the general lack of goal congruence between preparers and standard setters in their desires...
No More Wilder Effect, Never a Whitman Effect: When and Why Polls Mislead about Black and Female Candidates

The 2008 election renewed interest in the Wilder or Bradley effect, the gap between the share of survey respondents expressing support for a candidate and the candidate's vote share. Using new data from 180 gubernatorial and Senate elections from 1989 to 2006, this paper presents the first large-sample test of the Wilder effect. It demonstrates a significant Wilder effect only through the early 1990s, when Wilder himself was Governor of Virginia. Evidence from the 2008 presidential election reinforces this claim. Although the same mechanisms could affect female candidates, this paper finds no such effect at any point in time. It also shows how polls’ overestimation of front-runners’ support can exaggerate estimates of the Wilder effect. Together, these results accord with theories emphasizing how short-term changes in the political context influence the role of race in statewide elections. The Wilder effect is the product of racial attitudes in specific political contexts, not a more general response to u...
The role of political ideology in the structural design of new governance agencies

This paper employs theories of structural politics and delegation to develop a set of propositions about the legislative delegation of authority to quasi-governmental entities, known as “quangos.” Legislators have incentives to condition their choice of structure for an organization charged with implementing policy on their own political attitudes toward “good government.” The quasi-independence of quangos provides credibility for legislators to commit to a process that takes policy making out of their hands while creating a structure that increases the likelihood of achieving their policy goals. Theoretical implications are empirically examined using data on the financial autonomy of Dutch public bodies. The results support the argument that it is important to consider politicians’ ideologies directly in governance studies because they form the key component of structural politics.
Teaching Ethics in Context: Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon in the First Year Curriculum

More and more attention is being placed on the importance of teaching ethics throughout the law school curriculum. This article focuses on the seminal contracts law case of Wood v. Lucy, Lady Duff-Gordon and demonstrates how it raises numerous ethical issues that can serve as the basis for stimulating discussion, encouraging even first-year law students to understand the importance of ethical thinking and behavior in their education and their careers.
Why do Shareholder Derivative Suits Remain Rare in Continental Europe

INTRODUCTION 844 1. THE BASICS 846 1.1. The Significance of Derivative Suits 846 1.2. The Tradeoff between Enforcement and Abuse 849 1.3. Continental European Models of Derivative Litigation .853 2. THE ANNA KARENINA PRINCIPLE: EXPLANATIONS FOR THE ABSENCE OF SUITS 856 2.1. Minimum Share Ownership Requirements 856 2.2. Costs and the Allocation of Litigation Risk 861 2.2.1. Law Firm Driven Litigation in the U.S 861 2.2.2. The “Loser Pays” Principle 862 2.2.3. No Contingency Fees 866 2.2.4. Requirement to Advance Court Fees 869 2.3. Access to Information 870 2.4. Limitations Regarding Potential Defendants 875 3. THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE: DO WE NEED DERIVATIVE LITIGATION? 881 3.1. Rescission Suits 881 3.2. Criminal Investigations 887
Structuring Medicaid Accountable Care Organizations to avoid antitrust challenges.

 J.D., New York University School of Law; Research Fellow & Lecturer in Law, Center for Health & Pharmaceutical Law & Policy, Seton Hall University School of Law. The author was a member of a working group in New Jersey that collaborated to identify issues to assist the State in its drafting of regulations to implement its Medicaid Accountable Care Organization (ACO) legislation, which is the focus of this article. The author is indebted to the members of the working group for their insights on antitrust and other matters, especially John V. Jacobi, Dorothea Dix Professor of Health Law and Policy at Seton Hall Law School, who provided essential guidance throughout the researching and drafting of this article; Elizabeth G. Litten, Partner, Fox Rothschild LLP; and Naomi Wyatt, Director of Legal and Governmental Affairs, Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers. Thomas L. Greaney, CoDirector, Center for Health Law Studies, and Chester A. Myers Professor of Law, St. Louis University School of Law, also generously shared his deep expertise in antitrust matters. John Barry and Jonathan Keller, Seton Hall University School of Law Class of 2013, provided helpful research assistance in preparation to present this topic at the Law Review’s Symposium in Fall 2011. 1 See JAMES C. COSGROVE, U.S. GOV’T ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, GAO-12-291R, FEDERAL ANTITRUST POLICY: STAKEHOLDERS’ PERSPECTIVES DIFFERED ON THE ADEQUACY
Disclosure Decisions Surrounding Permanently Reinvested Foreign Earnings

ABSTRACT: We examine the determinants of disclosure decisions relating to the unrecognized deferred tax liability on permanently reinvested earnings (PRE). Prior research shows firm value is lower when firms disclose an estimated deferred tax liability for PRE, suggesting investors find this information useful. Since accounting rules provide managers with flexibility in disclosures about the estimated tax liability on PRE, managers may have discretion in the level of transparency related to these disclosures. We find that transparency relating to disclosures about the unrecognized deferred tax liability on PRE is decreasing in the complexity of the tax calculation. We find that disclosure transparency is increasing in the size of the estimated tax liability on hypothetical repatriation of PRE. However, we do not find that disclosure is more transparent when the tax department is more sophisticated or of higher quality. We predict, but do not find, that disclosure transparency is positively related to the ...
At the water’s edge: The decline of partisan liberal internationalism?

In this paper we examine the decline in the ‘liberal consensus hypothesis’ or the proposition that there has been a move away in the West from a partisan consensus that favors commitment to international engagement and multilateralism towards a greater scepticism about international engagement. Using data from the Comparative Manifesto Project, we examine whether changes in consensus were the result of shifts in the international environment or a function of domestic political changes (such as party systems changes and economic performance). We test these hypotheses using data from 131 parties in 23 Organization for Economic Development countries across 365 elections from 1945 to 2010 and find that mixed support for the decline hypothesis. We find that positive partisan consensus in support of internationalism was higher after 1991 (that is, after the Cold War) than before (contrary to the decline in liberal consensus argument), but was lower after 2001 than before (in support of the hypothesis). We offer an explanation for these seemingly disparate findings.
Corporate social responsibility at the base of the pyramid

Abstract The base of the pyramid proposition holds that transnational corporations (TNCs) can profitably serve the needs of the poor at the base of the global economic pyramid. This article explores the ethical dimensions of business ventures targeting the 2.6 billion moderate and extremely poor (MEP) at the base of the pyramid. It is shown that MEP populations are both cognitively and socially vulnerable, rendering them susceptible to harmful exploitation. We defend an empowerment theory of morally legitimate BoP business ventures and provide a multi-stage opportunity assessment process that allows TNC managers to determine when BoP ventures should be pursued and when they should be abandoned. This analysis is used to demonstrate the inadequacy of an instrumental, or economic, conception of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and to defend an ethical conception of CSR.
Towards Open Electronic Contracting

A design and pilot implementation of a system, called InterProcs, supporting electronic contracting is presented. A key concept in the design of this system is the notion of electronic trade scenarios (or procedures), which are generic may be downloaded by the trading parties for a particular transaction. These scenarios may be fixed in structure, with simple parameter substitution, or they may also be designed to be customizable, within a certain range of flexibility, depending on the type of transaction. The system also includes multi-lingual text generation, in support of international trade transactions.
Slutsky Matrix Norms and Revealed Preference Tests of Consumer Behaviour

Given any observed nite sequence of prices, wealth and demand choices, we characterize the relation between its underlying Slutsky matrix norm (SMN) and some popular discrete revealed preference (RP) measures of departures from rationality, such as the Afriat index. We show that testing rationality in the SMN aproach with nite data is equivalent to testing it under the RP approach. We propose a way to \summarize" the departures from rationality in a systematic fashion in nite datasets. Finally, these ideas are extended to an observed demand with noise due to measurement error; we formulate an appropriate modication of the SMN approach in this case and derive closed-form asymptotic results under standard regularity conditions. JEL classication numbers: C60, D10.
ENTRY AND COMPETITION IN LOCAL HOSPITAL MARKETS

There has been considerable consolidation in the hospital industry in recent years. Over 900 deals occurred from 1994-2000, and many local markets, even in large urban areas, have been reduced to monopolies, duopolies or triopolies. This surge in consolidation has led to concern about its effect on competition in local markets for hospital services. In this paper we examine the impact of market structure on competition in local hospital markets – specifically, does competition increase with the number of firms? We extend the entry model developed by Bresnahan and Reiss to make use of quantity information and apply it to data on the US hospital industry. The results from the estimation are striking. In the hospital markets we examine, entry leads to markets quickly becoming competitive. Entry reduces variable profits and increases quality. Indeed, most of the effects of entry come from having a second and possibly a third firm enter the market. The use of quantity information allows us to infer that entry is welfare increasing.
From White Plains to Austin: The Road from the Prison Reform Revisited Conference to the Opening Up a Closed World Conference

In 2003, from all parts of the country and from abroad, leading experts in the field of correction including judges, lawyers, corrections professionals and academics came to Pace Law School in White Plains, New York, to attend a conference entitled Prison Reform Revisited: the Unfinished Agenda.
Transfer Reinforcement Learning Across Homotopy Classes

The ability for robots to transfer their learned knowledge to new tasks—where data is scarce—is a fundamental challenge for successful robot learning. While fine-tuning has been well-studied as a simple but effective transfer approach in the context of supervised learning, it is not as well-explored in the context of reinforcement learning. In this work, we study the problem of fine-tuning in transfer reinforcement learning when tasks are parameterized by their reward functions, which are known beforehand. We conjecture that fine-tuning drastically underperforms when source and target trajectories are part of different homotopy classes: We demonstrate that fine-tuning policy parameters across homotopy classes compared to fine-tuning within a homotopy class requires more interaction with the environment, and in certain cases is impossible. We propose a novel fine-tuning algorithm, Ease-In-Ease-Out fine-tuning, that consists of a relaxing stage and a curriculum learning stage to enable transfer learning across homotopy classes. Finally, we evaluate our approach on several robotics-inspired simulated environments and empirically verify that the Ease-In-Ease-Out fine-tuning method can successfully fine-tune in a sample-efficient way compared to existing baselines.
Into the Wild with AudioScope: Unsupervised Audio-Visual Separation of On-Screen Sounds

Recent progress in deep learning has enabled many advances in sound separation and visual scene understanding. However, extracting sound sources which are apparent in natural videos remains an open problem. In this work, we present AudioScope, a novel audio-visual sound separation framework that can be trained without supervision to isolate on-screen sound sources from real in-the-wild videos. Prior audio-visual separation work assumed artificial limitations on the domain of sound classes (e.g., to speech or music), constrained the number of sources, and required strong sound separation or visual segmentation labels. AudioScope overcomes these limitations, operating on an open domain of sounds, with variable numbers of sources, and without labels or prior visual segmentation. The training procedure for AudioScope uses mixture invariant training (MixIT) to separate synthetic mixtures of mixtures (MoMs) into individual sources, where noisy labels for mixtures are provided by an unsupervised audio-visual coincidence model. Using the noisy labels, along with attention between video and audio features, AudioScope learns to identify audio-visual similarity and to suppress off-screen sounds. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach using a dataset of video clips extracted from open-domain YFCC100m video data. This dataset contains a wide diversity of sound classes recorded in unconstrained conditions, making the application of previous methods unsuitable. For evaluation and semi-supervised experiments, we collected human labels for presence of on-screen and off-screen sounds on a small subset of clips.
Adaptive Experimental Design: Prospects and Applications in Political Science

Experimental researchers in political science frequently face the problem of inferring which of several treatment arms is most effective. They may also seek to estimate mean outcomes under that arm, construct confidence intervals, and test hypotheses. Ordinarily, multi-arm trials conducted using static designs assign participants to each arm with fixed probabilities. However, a growing statistical literature suggests that adaptive experimental designs that dynamically allocate larger assignment probabilities to more promising treatments are better equipped to discover the best-performing arm. Using simulations and empirical applications, we explore the conditions under which such designs hasten the discovery of superior treatments and improve the precision with which their effects are estimated. Recognizing that many scholars seek to assess performance relative to a control condition, we also develop and implement a novel adaptive algorithm that seeks to maximize the precision with which the largest treatment effect is estimated.
Gaia Gaps and the Physics of Low-mass Stars. I. The Fully Convective Boundary

The Gaia M-dwarf gap is a significant under-density of stars observed near $M_G = 10.2$ in a color-magnitude diagram for stars within 200 pc of the Sun. It has been proposed that the gap is the manifestation of structural instabilities within stellar interiors due to non-equilibrium $^{3}$He fusion prior to some stars becoming fully convective. To test this hypothesis, we use Dartmouth stellar evolution models, MARCS model atmospheres, and simple stellar population synthesis to create synthetic $M_G$-($G_{\rm BP} - G_{\rm RP})$ color-magnitude diagrams. We confirm that the proposed $^{3}$He instability is responsible for the appearance of the M-dwarf gap. Our synthetic gap shows qualitatively similar features to the observed gap including: its vertical extent in $M_G$, its slope in the color-magnitude diagram, and its relative prominence at bluer colors as compared to redder colors. Furthermore, corresponding over-densities of stars above the gap are reproduced by the models. While qualitatively similar, the synthetic gap is approximately 0.2 magnitudes bluer and, accounting for this color offset, 0.16 magnitudes brighter than the observed gap. Our results reveal that the Gaia M dwarf gap is sensitive to conditions within cores of M dwarf stars, making the gap a powerful tool for testing the physics of M dwarf stars and potentially using M dwarfs to understand the local star formation history.
Non-congruent non-degenerate curves with identical signatures

While the equality of differential signatures (Calabi et al., Int. J. Comput. Vis. 26: 107–135, 1998) is known to be a necessary condition for congruence, it is not sufficient (Musso and Nicolodi, J. Math Imaging Vis. 35: 68–85, 2009). Hickman (J. Math Imaging Vis. 43: 206–213, 2012, Theorem 2) claimed that for non-degenerate planar curves, equality of Euclidean signatures implies congruence. We prove that while Hickman’s claim holds for simple, closed curves with simple signatures, it fails for curves with non-simple signatures. In the latter case, we associate a directed graph with the signature and show how various paths along the graph give rise to a family of non-congruent, non-degenerate curves with identical signatures. Using this additional structure, we formulate congruence criteria for non-degenerate, closed, simple curves and show how the paths reflect the global and local symmetries of the corresponding curve.
Quantization coefficients for uniform distributions on the boundaries of regular polygons

Abstract In this paper, we give a general formula to determine the quantization coefficients for uniform distributions defined on the boundaries of different regular m -sided polygons inscribed in a circle. The result shows that the quantization coefficient for the uniform distribution on the boundary of a regular m -sided polygon inscribed in a circle is an increasing function of m , and approaches to the quantization coefficient for the uniform distribution on the circle as m tends to infinity.