cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Unsupervised Ensemble Classification with Sequential and Networked Data

Ensemble learning, the machine learning paradigm where multiple models are combined, has exhibited promising perfomance in a variety of tasks. The present work focuses on unsupervised ensemble classification. The term unsupervised refers to the ensemble combiner who has no knowledge of the ground-truth labels that each classifier has been trained on. While most prior works on unsupervised ensemble classification are designed for independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) data, the present work introduces an unsupervised scheme for learning from ensembles of classifiers in the presence of data dependencies. Two types of data dependencies are considered: sequential data and networked data whose dependencies are captured by a graph. For both, novel moment matching and Expectation-Maximization algorithms are developed. Performance of these algorithms is evaluated on synthetic and real datasets, which indicate that knowledge of data dependencies in the meta-learner is beneficial for the unsupervised ensemble classification task.
SHARKS: Smart Hacking Approaches for RisK Scanning in Internet-of-Things and Cyber-Physical Systems based on Machine learning

Cyber-physical systems (CPS) and Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices are increasingly being deployed across multiple functionalities. These devices are inherently insecure across their comprehensive software, hardware, and network stacks, thus presenting a large attack surface that can be exploited by hackers. In this article, we present an innovative technique for detecting unknown system vulnerabilities, manage associated vulnerabilities, and improve incident response when such vulnerabilities are exploited. The novelty of this approach lies in extracting intelligence from known real-world CPS/IoT attacks, representing them in the form of regular expressions, and employing machine learning (ML) techniques on this ensemble of regular expressions to generate new attack vectors and security vulnerabilities. Our results show that 10 new attack vectors and 122 new vulnerability exploits can be successfully generated that have the potential to exploit a CPS or an IoT ecosystem. The ML methodology achieves an accuracy of 97.4% and enables us to predict these attacks efficiently with an 87.2% reduction in the search space. We demonstrate the application of our method to the hacking of the in-vehicle network of a connected car. To defend against the known attacks and possible novel exploits, we discuss a defense mechanism for various classes of attacks.
Strategic revenue management of preemptive versus non-preemptive queues

Abstract Consider a two-class unobservable priority queue, with Poisson arrivals, generally distributed service, and strategic customers. Customers are charged a fee when joining the premium class. We analyze the maximum revenue achievable under the non-preemptive (NP) and preemptive-resume (PR) policies, and show that a provider is always better off implementing the PR policy. Further, the maximum revenue under PR is sometimes achieved when only a fraction of the customers join the premium class.
FT-CNN: Algorithm-Based Fault Tolerance for Convolutional Neural Networks

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are becoming more and more important for solving challenging and critical problems in many fields. CNN inference applications have been deployed in safety-critical systems, which may suffer from soft errors caused by high-energy particles, high temperature, or abnormal voltage. Of critical importance is ensuring the stability of the CNN inference process against soft errors. Traditional fault tolerance methods are not suitable for CNN inference because error-correcting code is unable to protect computational components, instruction duplication techniques incur high overhead, and existing algorithm-based fault tolerance (ABFT) techniques cannot protect all convolution implementations. In this article, we focus on how to protect the CNN inference process against soft errors as efficiently as possible, with the following three contributions. (1) We propose several systematic ABFT schemes based on checksum techniques and analyze their fault protection ability and runtime thoroughly. Unlike traditional ABFT based on matrix-matrix multiplication, our schemes support any convolution implementations. (2) We design a novel workflow integrating all the proposed schemes to obtain a high detection/correction ability with limited total runtime overhead. (3) We perform our evaluation using ImageNet with well-known CNN models including AlexNet, VGG-19, ResNet-18, and YOLOv2. Experimental results demonstrate that our implementation can handle soft errors with very limited runtime overhead (4% $\sim$ ∼ 8% in both error-free and error-injected situations).
Competition and Coalition among Underwriters: The Decision to Join a Syndicate

This paper studies the decision of lead investment banks to organize hybrid syndicates (commercial banks participating as co-managers) versus pure investment bank syndicates. The findings show that hybrid underwriting issues are more challenging to float. Compared to pure investment bank syndicates, hybrid syndicates serve clients that are smaller, have lower common stock rankings and less prior access to the capital markets, rely more on bank loans, and invest less capital but issue larger amounts, which indicates that commercial banks' participation enhances hybrid services. Moreover, lead investment banks tend to invite banks' participation when clients exhibit higher loyalty in reusing their services. THIS PAPER UTILIZES A UNIQUE opportunity created by the Federal Reserve Board to empirically examine the economics of syndicate formation. In 1989, the Board granted five commercial banks permission to underwrite corporate bonds through the so-called "Section 20 Subsidiaries" (Federal Reserve (1989)). During the process of repealing the Glass-Steagall Act, which separated commercial banking and investment banking in the United States, incumbent investment banks (IB) were the major opponents of the repeal. Although investment banks have competed fiercely with entrant commercial banks (CB) in the legislative arena, commercial banks' entry into security underwriting has been accommodated to some extent. Cooperative arrangements between these two types of underwriters accounted for nearly one-third of corporate bond underwriting in 1996. Why would lead investment banks invite commercial banks to join the syndicates as co-managers? In particular, in the early bank entry stage, why did investment banks not compete more aggressively by excluding commercial banks from the syndicates? If commercial banks do not provide additional functions
The Effect of Mechanical Strain on Lithium Staging in Graphene

Lithium intercalation into graphite is the foundation for the lithium-ion battery, and the thermodynamics of the lithiation of graphitic electrodes have been heavily investigated. Intercalated lithium in bulk graphite undergoes structural ordering known as staging to minimize electrostatic repulsions within the crystal lattice. While this process is well-understood for bulk graphite, confinement effects become important at the nanoscale, which can significantly impact the electrochemistry of nanostructured electrodes. Therefore, graphene offers a model platform to study intercalation dynamics at the nanoscale by combining on-chip device fabrication and electrochemical intercalation with in situ characterization. We show that microscale mechanical strain significantly affects the formation of ordered lithium phases in graphene. In situ Raman spectroscopy of graphene microflakes mechanically constrained at the edge during lithium intercalation reveals a thickness-dependent increase of up to 1.26 V in the electrochemical potential that induces lithium staging. While the induced mechanical strain energy increases with graphene thickness to the fourth power, its magnitude is small compared to the observed increase in electrochemical energy. We hypothesize that the mechanical strain energy increases a nucleation barrier for lithium staging, greatly delaying the formation of ordered lithium phases. Our results indicate that electrode assembly can critically impact lithium staging dynamics important for cycling rates and power generation for batteries. We demonstrate strain engineering in two-dimensional nanomaterials as an approach to manipulate phase transitions and chemical reactivity.
Of Defense Lawyers and Pornographers: Pretrial Asset Seizures and the Fourth Amendment

This article posits that the issue of whether a defendant may use money in his possession to retain an attorney must be examined primarily as a Fourth Amendment question rather than exclusively as a Sixth Amendment question. Using established Fourth Amendment jurisprudence has several advantages over viewing a pretrial seizure of assets as an incursion on only the right to counsel. First, it leaves no doubt that the government has the burden of adducing specific facts to demonstrate that particular assets are traceable to particular crimes. This is consonant not only with the presumption of innocence, but also with recognition that affording talented and aggressive representation to those accused of even heinous crimes is a defining characteristic of the American adversarial system of criminal justice. Second, a Fourth Amendment approach still affords consideration of a challenged seizure's Sixth Amendment implications. However, because every seizure triggers Fourth Amendment scrutiny, defendants would no longer be required to demonstrate an impact on the right to counsel just to prove their entitlement to a hearing. Instead, a hearing would be presumptively required, just as it is when the government seizes expressive works that may be protected by the First Amendment. A seizure of assets that an accused intends to use for his defense should be met with the same heightened judicial concern as a seizure of books or films. The Supreme Court, however, has been more willing to accept, in the name of the Constitution, the risk that pornographers will propagate obscenity than the risk that an accused would pay his attorney with tainted funds. Viewing pretrial asset seizures as raising Fourth Amendment issues ensures that the government will have to make some evidentiary showing to restrain money that a defendant might use for attorney's fees. Lastly, a Fourth Amendment approach forces recognition of the fact that attorneys who are paid for legal services rendered before the government has made the required probable cause showing ought to be entitled to the money they earned. While the government cannot remove an allegedly obscene book from circulation before proving that it is obscene, under current law it can prevent an accused from using contested assets to fund his defense with little more than an allegation. A Fourth Amendment approach would expose this anomaly and dispel the unmerited cloud of ignobility and the spectre of criminal exposure that current law casts upon those who undertake to provide constitutionally guaranteed representation.
Perception and Decision at the Threshold of Tort Law: Explaining the Infrequency of Claims

Although numerous studies have confirmed that tort victims rarely litigate and that most simply "lump" their losses, we lack an understanding of why this should be so. Why do the vast majority of injured persons choose inaction over action? Explanations relying on rational actor theories on the one hand or cultural determinism on the other have been sharply challenged by recent studies of mind, culture, and cognition, particularly with respect to individual responses to physical trauma and disablement. This article, drawing on a broad interdisciplinary literature dealing with injury victims, proposes a new model of perception and decision by persons who are situated at the threshold of tort law, and it offers some suggestions about why they so seldom cross it. This model takes into account the effects of nonconscious thought, which is grounded in the body itself. It also highlights the role of the social and cultural environment in shaping the interpretation of injurious experiences and the decisions that follow. Finally, it considers the injury victim’s interactions with friends, family co-workers, and others, all of whom collaborate in constructing a narrative of the injury and a decision about how to respond.
Homeland Security, Pesticide Regulation and Common Household Chemicals: Are We Adequately Protecting All Our Sources

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, legislators, business owners, consumers and everyday citizens, all with a view of how to protect our interests, voiced their opinions on how to improve national security with patriotic zest. FIFRA's main purpose is to ensure federal regulation of pesticide distribution and use. This power is of particular importance given the terroristic threat of possible chemical warfare. Chemical professionals were cognizant of the importance of site security even prior to the September 11th terrorist attacks. With respect to the risk of terrorist attacks using pesticides or other chemical agents, EPA suggested that "those who manufacture, distribute, transport or store pesticides should continue to be vigilant regarding the physical security of those pesticides. An intricate aspect of any response plan is the identification of responders in the event of a terrorist attack. Who regulates pesticides on store shelves? Can anyone walk into a store and buy one bottle of a potentially lethal chemical and, if so, how about a ton of such a compound? Is society at risk of being poisoned by the unregulated sale of pesticides? Are we assisting illicit users by publishing what appear to be innocuous documents on methodologies of pesticide use? Just as a person cannot walk into a store and purchase a firearm without precautionary requirements, so should a potential pesticide or chemical purchaser undergo similar scrutiny.
The Efficiency of Equity-Linked Compensation: Understanding the Full Cost of Awarding Executive Stock Options

To properly align incentives using equity-linked compensation, the firm’s managers must be exposed to firm-specific risks, but this forced concentrated exposure prevents the manager from optimal portfolio diversification. Because undiversified managers are exposed to the firm’s total risk, but rewarded (through expected returns) for only the systematic portion of that risk, managers will value stock or option-based compensation at less than its market value. This paper derives a method to measure this deadweight cost, which empirically can be quite large: managers at the average NYSE firm who have their entire wealth invested in the firm value their options at 70% of their market value, while undiversified managers at rapidly growing, entrepreneurially-based firms, such as Internet-based firms, value their option-based compensation at only 53% of its cost to the firm. These estimates prompt questions of whether compensation plans in such firms are weighted too heavily towards incentive-alignment to be cost effective.
The effect of ASU 2014–08 on the use of discontinued operations to manage earnings

Accounting regulations require firms to separately disclose the profits and losses from discontinued operations. These discontinued operations are typically excluded from the definition of income used by investors, analysts, and others. Barua, Lin, and Sbaraglia (2010) show that managers manipulate earnings by shifting core expenses into discontinued operations. In light of recent changes in the regulations pertaining to this item, we reexamine this finding. The new rules, which change the criteria for what can be considered discontinued and the associated disclosure requirements, substantially reduce any significant evidence of earnings management using discontinued operations. A decline in the manipulation of large negative discontinued operations drives this reduction. We also find that the new rules decrease the frequency and persistence of discontinued operations.
Martingale properties of self-enforcing debt

Not-too-tight debt limits are endogenous restrictions on debt that prevent agents from defaulting and opting for a specified continuation utility, while allowing for maximal credit expansion. For an agent facing some fixed prices for the Arrow securities, we prove that discounted not-too-tight debt limits must differ by a martingale.
Respecting Religious Freedoms and Protecting the Public's Health.

Public Health Reports / September–October 2015 / Volume 130 laboratories in STD testing. 2011 [cited 2014 Dec 9]. Available from: URL: http://www.aphl.org/aboutAPHL/publications/documents /ID_2011May_STDIssueBrief.pdf 14. Nardin R, Zallman L, McCormick D, Woolhandler S, Himmelstein D. The uninsured after implementation of the Affordable Care Act: a demographic and geographic analysis. Health Aff Blog 2013 Jun 6 [cited 2014 Dec 15]. Available from: URL: http://healthaffairs .org/blog/2013/06/06/the-uninsured-after-implementation-of-theaffordable-care-act-a-demographic-and-geographic-analysis 15. Bergal J. Churning between Medicaid and Exchanges could leave gaps in coverage, experts warn. The Washington Post 2014 Jan 5 [cited 2014 Dec 15]. Available from: URL: http://www .washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/churning-betweenmedicaid-and-exchanges-could-leave-gaps-in-coverage-expertswarn/2014/01/05/cf858d7e-73fa-11e3-8def-a33011492df2_story .html 16. Drainoni ML, Sullivan M, Sequeira S, Bacic J, Hsu K. Health reform and shifts in funding for sexually transmitted infection services. Sex Transm Dis 2014;41:455-60. 17. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US). Public health preparedness: mobilizing state by state [cited 2014 Nov 15]. Available from: URL: http://www.bt.cdc.gov/publications/feb08phprep /section1/phlab.asp 18. Pub. L. No. 111-148, §1311, 124 Stat. 855 (March 2010). 19. Kaiser Family Foundation. Medicare Advantage fact sheet. May 2014 [cited 2014 Dec 13]. Available from: URL: http://kaiserfamily foundation.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/2052-18-medicareadvantage.pdf 20. Pub. L. No. 111-148, §3022, 124 Stat. 855 (March 2010). 21. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (US). Pioneer ACO model [cited 2014 Nov 8]. Available from: URL: http://innovation.cms .gov/initiatives/pioneer-ACO-model 22. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (US). State innovation models initiative: general information [cited 2014 Nov 8]. Available from: URL: http://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/state-innovations 23. Internal Revenue Service (US). New requirements for 501(c)(3) hospitals under the Affordable Care Act. March 2014 [cited 2014 Nov 8]. Available from: URL: http://www.irs.gov/charities-&-nonprofits/charitable-organizations/new-requirements-for-501(c) (3)-hospitals-under-the-Affordable-Care-Act
The impacts of mandatory financial education: Evidence from a randomized field study

a b s t r a c t Financial education is commonly assumed to affect knowledge and behavior, yet its impacts remain relatively untested. Very low-income families in a subsidized housing program were randomly assigned to a mandatory financial education program and tracked for 12 months. Financial education led to improvements in self-reported behaviors, but no measurable effects on savings or credit, except for participants in education expanding their use of credit, albeit with no evidence of problems in the study period. This study also illustrates the methodological issues that arise in social experiments with small samples, including non-compliance, attrition and self-report bias. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Does policy uncertainty affect mergers and acquisitions

Abstract Political and regulatory uncertainty is strongly negatively associated with merger and acquisition activity at the macro and firm levels. The strongest effects are for uncertainty regarding taxes, government spending, monetary and fiscal policies, and regulation. Consistent with a real options channel, the effect is exacerbated for less reversible deals and for firms whose product demand or stock returns exhibit greater sensitivity to policy uncertainty, but attenuated for deals that cannot be delayed due to competition and for deals that hedge firm-level risk. Contractual mechanisms (deal premiums, termination fees, MAC clauses) unanimously point to policy uncertainty increasing the target’s negotiating power.
Overstepping Ethical Boundaries? Limitations on State Efforts to Provide Access to Justice in Family Courts

Family law courts in America are overwhelmed with self-represented parties who try their best to navigate an unfamiliar territory laden with procedural and evidentiary rules. Efforts to level the playing field in these courts have resulted in state entities and judges taking on roles that previously belonged to attorneys. State supreme court judges and state agencies draft and promulgate family law forms, such as divorce pleadings and paternity acknowledgments, to provide poor citizens access to justice. While these efforts have resulted in positive outcomes for some families, reliance on the state’s imprimatur has caused significant harm to others. Upon closer examination, the state has not adhered to the same ethical standards that ordinarily apply to judges and attorneys with regard to the development and dissemination of these forms. This Article is the first to explore whether state courts and agencies have overstepped ethical boundaries and subverted public interest to satisfy private interests of the state as regulator. It argues that these state forms are poor substitutes for attorneys and that the complexities of family law continue to warrant legal counsel in our current adversarial court practice.
State Constitutional Restrictions on Special Legislation as Structural Restraints

State constitutional restrictions on special legislation are common to nearly every state constitution. Modern interpretations of these provisions appear to protect individual rights to equal treatment. This article argues that these interpretations are wrong or, at least, the case law is largely misunderstood. Rather, an examination of these provisions'history and texts reveals that these provisions solve important structural problems that arise within state legislatures and shift a great deal of governmental power from the legislative chamber to the judiciary and executive branches. This understanding reveals that most special-legislation doctrine implements a concern for legislative evasion, rather than a concern for individual nghts. It also reveals a number of doctrinal reforms that would make future case law more consistent with the text of these provisions.
Application of functional analysis to models of efficient allocation of economic resources

The present paper studies existence and characterization of efficient paths in infinite-horizon economic growth models: the method used is based on techniques of nonlinear functional analysis on Hilbert spaces developed earlier by Chichilnisky. Necessary and sufficient conditions are given for the existence of positive competitive price systems in which the efficient programs maximize present value and intertemporal profit. Approximation of these competitive price systems by strictly positive ones with similar properties is studied. A complete characterization is also given f a class of welfare functions (nonlinear operators defined on consumption paths) for continuity in a weighted L2-norm.
Network ties among low-tax firms

ABSTRACT: This study examines (1) whether network ties help explain variation in tax avoidance, and (2) how the relation between network ties and tax avoidance varies depending on the nature and co...
Heterogeneous Market Responses and the Listing Effect in M&A

Unlisted acquisitions differ from listed ones in three important aspects: the possibility of forming blockholders, which substitute debt as a monitoring mechanism; the liquidity discount, which mitigates managerial hubris; and the distinct deal process through which two-sided asymmetric information is revealed. Due to these differences, same firm and deal characteristics could induce heterogeneous market responses, depending on the target listing status. We find that such heterogeneous responses exist in usual characteristics such as method of payment, relative size, acquirer size, leverage, and market-to-book ratios. After these heterogeneous responses are incorporated, the puzzling "listing effect" disappears. Our results also indicate that the conventional approach used to investigate pooled samples of listed and unlisted acquisitions is effectively misspecified due to omitted variables.
Exposure order effects and advertising competition

This paper applies the theories of exposure order effects, developed in the psychology literature, to an industrial organization model to explore their role in advertising competition. There are two firms and infinitely many identical consumers. The firms produce a homogeneous product and distribute their brands through a common retailer. Consumers randomly arrive at the retailer and buy their most preferred brands. The order in which a consumer sees the advertising messages affects his brand preferences. Under the primacy effect the consumer prefers the brand he first saw advertised, under the recency—the last encountered brand. The equilibrium of the advertising game is characterized separately under the primacy and the recency effects. In the first setting all consumers are initially unaware of the product existence. The equilibrium advertising intensities, remarkably, do not depend on the type of exposure order effect. In the other two settings some consumers have already formed their brand preferences. The primacy and the recency effects give rise to different equilibrium outcomes.
Semi-supervised clustering methods

Cluster analysis methods seek to partition a data set into homogeneous subgroups. It is useful in a wide variety of applications, including document processing and modern genetics. Conventional clustering methods are unsupervised, meaning that there is no outcome variable nor is anything known about the relationship between the observations in the data set. In many situations, however, information about the clusters is available in addition to the values of the features. For example, the cluster labels of some observations may be known, or certain observations may be known to belong to the same cluster. In other cases, one may wish to identify clusters that are associated with a particular outcome variable. This review describes several clustering algorithms (known as "semi-supervised clustering" methods) that can be applied in these situations. The majority of these methods are modifications of the popular k-means clustering method, and several of them will be described in detail. A brief description of some other semi-supervised clustering algorithms is also provided.
Labor-Technology Substitution: Implications for Asset Pricing

This paper studies the asset pricing implications of a firm's opportunities to replace routine‐task labor with automation. I develop a model in which firms optimally undertake such replacement when their productivity is low. Hence, firms with routine‐task labor maintain a replacement option that hedges their value against unfavorable macroeconomic shocks and lowers their expected returns. Using establishment‐level occupational data, I construct a measure of firms' share of routine‐task labor. Compared to their industry peers, firms with a higher share of routine‐task labor (i) invest more in machines and reduce more routine‐task labor during economic downturns, and (ii) have lower expected stock returns.
Unintelligible Management Research and Academic Prestige

Modest support was found for the “Dr. Fox phenomenon”: Management scientists gain prestige by unintelligible writing. A positive correlation (+0.7) was found between the prestige of 10 management journals and their “fog indices” (reading difficulty). Furthermore, 32 faculty members were asked to rate the prestige of four passages from management journals. The content of the passages was held constant while readability was varied. Those passages that were more difficult to read were rated higher in research competence.
Breaking Bucks in Money Market Funds

This Article argues that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s first and most significant response to the economic crisis increases rather than decreases the likelihood of future failures in money market funds and the broader capital markets. In newly promulgated regulations addressing the “breaking of the buck” in the $3 trillion money market—a debacle at the fulcrum of the 2008 financial meltdown—the SEC endorses practices that obfuscate rather than illuminate the capital markets, including fixed pricing for money market funds, potentially riskier portfolio requirements, and the continued use of discredited ratings agencies. These policies, premised implicitly upon doubt in the ability of markets to process information effectively, obscure the true perils of money market funds. Rather than swaddling investment risks in misleading regulatory padding, the SEC should illuminate the possible menace of these funds. This Article offers transparent solutions to alleviate moral hazard and systemic risk in the broader market and to end the regulatory subsidy of these specific investments.
Data Integration Using Web Services

In this paper we examine the opportunities for data integration in the context of the emerging Web Services systems development paradigm. The paper introduces the programming standards associated with Web Services and provides an example of how Web Services can be used to unlock heterogeneous business systems to extract and integrate business data. We provide an introduction to the problems and research issues encountered when applying Web Services to data integration. We provide a formal definition of aggregation (as a type of data integration) and discuss the impact of Web Services on aggregation. We show that Web Services will make the development of systems for aggregation both faster and less expensive to develop. A system architecture for Web Services based aggregation is presented that is representative of products available from software vendors today. Finally, we highlight some of the challenges facing Web Services that are not currently being addressed by standards bodies or software vendors. These include context mediation, trusted intermediaries, quality and source selection, licensing and payment mechanisms, and systems development tools. We suggest some research directions for each of these challenges.
Sales and the (Mis)Measurement of price level fluctuations

Abstract I use scanner data to investigate whether temporary price reductions (“sales”) play a role in aggregate price adjustment. Sales have a large and variable impact on the growth rate of average price paid. Even after aggregating across goods and markets, the monthly growth rate of average price paid is four times as volatile as the regular price because of changes in sale frequency, depth, and quantity response. The impact of sales is positively correlated with the local unemployment rate during recessions. The CPI item indexes used to deflate nominal consumption expenditure do not fully account for variation in sale activity. I show evidence that real consumption growth was understated during the last two recessions.
Paying Women For Their Eggs For Use In Stem Cell Research

On June 11, 2009, the Empire State Stem Cell Board (“Board”), which administers the $600 million in New York State funds allotted to stem cell research, voted to allocate a portion of those funds to compensate women up to $10,000 for “donating” their eggs for use in stem cell research. The Board's decision makes New York the first state to affirmatively allow state funds to be used to compensate women for providing their eggs for use in stem cell research beyond mere reimbursement of associated medical and other expenses, and, similarly, distinguishes it from most international countries, which either prohibit payment of any amount to women donating their eggs for research purposes or limit compensation to reimbursement for certain expenses. As expected, the Board's decision elicited divergent reactions. Proponents focused on the potential advancements in stem cell research and the inconsistency between permitting payment in the reproductive context and disallowing payment in the research context. Opponents voiced fears that payment might unduly induce women to donate their eggs.This Article analyzes the Board's decision, first outlining the aims of stem cell research, the logistics of egg production, and why payment is necessary to obtain a sufficient number of eggs for stem cell research purposes; then summarizing the arguments regarding compensation; and finally, relying on insights from those arguments, focusing on the safeguards the Board set out in its written statement. In evaluating the decision, this Article concludes that the Board has not crafted sufficient safeguards to protect against the possibility that women may be unduly influenced to supply their eggs, as it sought to do. Thus, the Article ends by identifying further safeguards that the Board should adopt in order to confront the full expanse of women‟s potential interactions with its compensation program, both as to guarding against undue influence and exploitation, and creating a program that addresses the continuing needs of the women that New York entices with large sums of money to provide their eggs.
Shifting Borders and the Boundaries of Rights: Examining the Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the United States

This article analyzes the Canadian Federal Court and Federal Court of Appeal decisions assessing the Safe Third Country Agreement between Canada and the United States (STCA). It examines how each court’s treatment of the location and operation of the Canada-US border influences the results obtained. The article suggests that both in its treatment of the STCA and in its constitutional analysis, the Federal Court decision conceives of the border as a moving barrier capable of shifting outside Canada’s formal territorial boundaries. The effect of this decision is to bring refugee claimants outside state soil within the fold of Canadian constitutional protection. In contrast, the Federal Court of Appeal decision conceives of the border as both static and shifting. In its treatment of the STCA, the Court conceives of the border as a moving barrier that shifts outside Canada’s formal territorial boundaries to extend state power outwards. Yet, in its constitutional analysis, the Court conceives of the border as a static barrier that remains fixed at the state’s geographic perimeter to limit access to refugee rights. By simultaneously conceiving of the border in these opposing ways, the Court of Appeal decision places refugee claimants in an impossible legal bind: it requires them to present at the (static) border to claim legal protection, but at the same time shifts the border in ways that preclude them from doing so. The decision thus suspends refugee claimants between two opposing directives, deprives them of otherwise actionable rights, and denies them recourse to meaningful legal action under Canadian law. The article argues that, in this key way, the Federal Court of Appeal decision does much more than clarify the executive discretion of the Governor-in-Council, as it purports. Rather, it redefines the Canadian refugee regime as fundamentally exclusionary towards STCA claimants, and calls into question the central principles by which this regime is distinguished and defined.
Corruption and Resource Allocation: Evidence from China

Exploiting a unique data set containing transactions data from a panel of 769 Chinese state-owned enterprises between 1980 and 1989, this paper tests microeconomic implications of a pervasive form of corruption --official diversion of under-priced, in-plan goods to the market. Corruption has the predicted effects on resource allocation. Official under-pricing of in-plan goods, which lowers the marginal cost of diversion, increases the procurement of output into the plan for the purpose of diversion. Market competition introduced by allowing firms to sell directly to the market appears to reduce corruption and therefore lessen its distortions.
A Theoretical Basis for 19th-Century Changes to the Port of New York Imported Goods Auction☆

Abstract The completion of the Erie Canal traditionally receives primary credit for the rapid growth of trade through the Port of New York relative to trade through other East Coast ports. This credit ignores the dramatic increase in imports through New York prior to the completion of the canal. We examine an alternative explanation for this earlier growth. Specifically, in 1817, the New York legislature changed the law regarding auction of imports. In developing a theory to demonstrate the benefits of the new auction design, we give credence to claims that the change in the auction law contributed to New York's rapid growth.
Getting Even: The Role of the Victim

Achilles is vindictive; he wants to get even with Agamemnon. Being so disposed, he sounds rather like many current crime victims who angrily complain that the American system of criminal justice will not allow them the satisfactions they rightfully seek. These victims often feel that their particular injuries are ignored while the system addresses itself to some abstract injury to the state or to the rule of law itself—a focus that appears to result in wrongdoers being treated with much greater solicitation and respect than their victims receive. If the actual victims are noticed at all (other than to alert the state to a violation of its interests), they will likely be told that there is another branch of law—tort law—that has the job of dealing with private injuries and grievances and that, if they pursue this route at their own expense, they might ultimately get some financial compensation for the wrongs done to them. However, just as Achilles felt that mere compensation was inadequate to the kind of injury done to him by Agamemnon, many of these victims will often claim that the injuries they have suffered (brutal rape, perhaps) do not admit of financial compensation.
COMPETITION OR PREDATION? CONSUMER COORDINATION, STRATEGIC PRICING AND PRICE FLOORS IN NETWORK MARKETS

Although network effects can make predation more likely to succeed, we find that the leading anti-predation rules may lower or raise efficiency and consumer welfare in network markets. We find that: (a) the extensive debates about the ‘correct’ measure of cost on which to base price floors are unlikely to be productive; (b) the Ordover-Willig rule that is widely thought to be correct in theory but difficult to apply in practice is, in fact, incorrect in theory; and (c) efficient price floors would have to depend on consumer expectations and coordination processes that are unlikely to be observable in practice.
How well can we measure and understand foregrounds with 21-cm experiments?

Before it becomes a sensitive probe of the epoch of reionization, the dark ages and fundamental physics, 21-cm tomography must successfully contend with the issue of foreground contamination. Broad-band foreground sources are expected to be roughly 4 orders of magnitude larger than any cosmological signals, so precise foreground models will be necessary. Such foreground models often contain a large number of parameters, reflecting the complicated physics that governs foreground sources. In this paper, we concentrate on spectral modelling (neglecting, for instance, bright point source removal from spatial maps) and show that 21-cm tomography experiments will likely not be able to measure these parameters without large degeneracies, simply because the foreground spectra are so featureless and generic. However, we show that this is also an advantage, because it means that the foregrounds can be characterized to a high degree of accuracy once a small number of parameters (likely three or four, depending on one’s instrumental specifications) are measured. This provides a simple understanding for why 21-cm foreground subtraction schemes are able to remove most of the contaminants by suppressing just a small handful of simple spectral forms. In addition, this suggests that the foreground modelling process should be relatively simple and will likely not be an impediment to the foreground subtraction schemes that are necessary for a successful 21-cm tomography experiment.
Property's Memories

This short essay, presented at Fordham's conference on the social functions of property (and in an earlier form at a conference on law and memory at USC), explores the relationship between property and memory. It distinguishes between property as the object of memory ("memory of property") and property as a medium of memory ("memory in property"). With respect to both kinds of memory, the common law expresses a great deal of ambivalence towards memory. Unlimited memory is no less dangerous to a system of property than it is to an individual’s ability to think. Recent reforms of adverse possession, the rule against perpetuities, and the estate tax seem to reflect their supporters’ apparent disregard of the costs of overprotecting memories of property and memories in property. The common law’s more balanced approach seems implicitly to recognize the need to weigh memory against possession, stability against fluidity. The recognition that ratifying property’s memories generates both costs and benefits does not counsel decisively against the wisdom of modifying the law of adverse possession or abolishing the rule against perpetuities, but it does cast doubt on the one- sided approach of the proponents of these measures. In the law of property, memory is not an unmitigated good.
Kelo, Directed Growth, and Municipal Industrial Policy

This article explores trends towards increased local government land use regulation to spur economic development and towards partnering with private redevelopers. It notes that while Kelo v. City of New London has intensified these trends, the use of condemnation for retransfer for private redevelopment endorsed by Kelo is only one tool by which local government advances what the author terms municipal industrial policy. While Kelo expresses confidence in the ability of courts to distinguish between permissible economic development takings primarily for public benefit and impermissible takings primarily for private benefit, the author maintains that any such distinction is illusory. The article also explores how public choice considerations augur in favor of unnecessary and inefficient condemnations. Finally, it suggests some alternatives that would better effectuate urban redevelopment while avoiding unfair and inefficient exercises of eminent domain. There include greater recognition of fractional prope...
Accumulation and growth in a two-country model: A simulation approach

Abstract This paper analyzes saving and capital accumulation in a two-good growth model of two market economies in which economic agents optimize with perfect foresight. The goal is to present a model in which short-run dynamics and the steady state are soundly integrated. We stress the importance of asset markets as the linkage that transmits disturbances both internationally and intertemporally. While many components of the model described below can be found in the literature on optimal consumption, investment and international growth models, we provide a consistent synthesis. Our framework permits the analysis of structural adjustment in the global economy, and the dynamic effects of a wide range of public policies.
What Model Best Describes Initial Choices in a Cournot Duopoly Experiment

This paper tests empirically four models of bounded rationality using data from first responses in a Cournot duopoly experiment. Specifically, the models considered are Level-k, Quantal Response Equilibrium, Noisy Introspection and Logit Cognitive Hierarchy. It is found that the Level-k model (with proportions of Level-0, Level-1 and Level-8 given by 68.5%, 13.2% and 18.3% respectively) provides the best fit in terms of Log-Likelihood and BIC. Moreover, the robustness of our findings is corroborated analyzing subsets of the original data.
Slow Dutch Auctions

Theorists have long believed that Dutch auctions are strategically equivalent to standard sealed bidding. However, in recent controlled experiments with actual Dutch and sealed-bid Internet auctions of collectibles, the Dutch auctions produced significantly more revenue. We believe that this happened, in part, because the Internet Dutch auctions are a slow process in which bidders incur incremental transaction costs if they delay bidding. This paper presents models of slow Dutch auctions that include these costs and explain this belief. We first present a decision-theoretic model of a slow Dutch auction. While simple, the decision-theoretic model is fairly general and provides the basic intuition underlying our revenue results. We then develop a game-theoretic model of a slow Dutch auction. We derive two symmetric, payoff-equivalent equilibria of the game in the absence of a cost of return and then consider the more general case of costly return. When the cost of return is in an appropriate range, the seller's expected revenue is an increasing function of that cost.
Lawyers' Identities, Client Selection and the Antidiscrimination Principle: Thoughts on the Sanctioning of Judith Nathanson

We lawyers disagree. We are, after all, schooled for conten­ tiousness, and many of us construct our professional identities pri­ marily through adversarial advocacy. That this advocacy is undertaken on behalf of clients and with the expectation of com­ pensation does not always drain it of intensely personal meaning. We frequently come to identify strongly with the interests of the clients we represent. For those of us who specialize, in criminal de­ fense, say, or in civil rights litigation, these interests can transcend the issues presented by any given matter for which we are retained, becoming both institutional and ideological. The frequency of jour­ nalists' solicitation of lawyers' views on issues of public concern is a result of this identification. Our opinions are sought less because we are lawyers than because of the political perspective we are (usually correctly) assumed to represent by virtue of the kind of lawyering we do. For some of us, this confluence of professional identity and personal belief is as much a cause as a consequence of the careers we pursue. If we entered law school after, say, 1960, it is likely that our decision to do so was motivated, at least in part, by a desire to do justice as we saw it. Lawyers such as Ruth Ginsburg, Thurgood Marshall and Leonard Weinglass, to name three eminent examples, were mentors to many of us, even if we never met them. And, though educational loans, the job market, and the twenty-eight years since Earl Warren's retirement have made compromisers of
MISUSING INTERNATIONAL SOURCES TO INTERPRET THE CONSTITUTION

In the keynote address to the 2003 annual meeting of the American Society of International Law, Justice Stephen Breyer declared that “comparative analysis emphatically is relevant to the task of interpreting constitutions and enforcing human rights.” Justice Breyer concluded that nothing could be “more exciting for an academic, practitioner, or judge than the global legal enterprise that is now upon us.” In a room filled with international lawyers and academics, he received a home court standing ovation.
Have the tax benefits of debt been overestimated

Abstract We re-examine the claim that many corporations are underleveraged in that they fail to take full advantage of debt tax shields. We show prior results suggesting underleverage stems from biased estimates of tax benefits from interest deductions. We develop improved estimates of marginal tax rates using a non-parametric procedure that produces more accurate estimates of the distribution of future taxable income. We show that additional debt would provide firms with much smaller tax benefits than previously thought, and when expected distress costs and difficult-to-measure non-debt tax shields are also considered, it appears plausible that most firms have tax-efficient capital structures.