cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Atomic data for neutron-capture elements - III. Charge transfer rate coefficients for low-charge ions of Ge, Se, Br, Kr, Rb, and Xe

We present total and final-state resolved charge transfer (CT) rate coefficients for low-charge Ge, Se, Br, Kr, Rb, and Xe ions reacting with neutral hydrogen over the temperature range 10 2 ‐10 6 K. Each of these elements has been detected in ionized astrophysical nebulae, particularly planetary nebulae. CT rate coefficients are a key ingredient for the ionization equilibrium solutions needed to determine total elemental abundances from those of the observed ions. A multi-channel Landau Zener approach was used to compute rate coefficients for projectile ions with charges q = 2‐5, and for singly-charged ions the Demkov approximation was utilized. Our results for five-times ionized species are lower limits, due to the incompleteness of level energies in the NIST database. In addition, we computed rate coefficients for charge transfer ionization reactions between the neutral species of the above six elements and ionized hydrogen. The resulting total and state-resolved CT rate coefficients are tabulated and available at the CDS. In tandem with our concurrent investigations of other important atomic processes in photoionized nebulae, this work will enable robust investigations of neutron-capture element abundances and nucleosynthesis via nebular spectroscopy.
Do low search costs facilitate like-buys-like mergers? Evidence from common bank networks

Abstract We examine how search frictions affect merger outcomes. Exploiting firm connections in common bank networks (CBNs) as a channel for reducing search costs, we show that like-buys-like mergers are more probable between firms connected through a CBN. This effect is amplified if the connection has been recently formed or the network contains many plausible choices for merger partners. CBN-facilitated mergers exhibit higher synergy and lower post-merger cost of debt. We confirm that CBNs reduce search costs even after alternative explanations are considered. These findings highlight the importance of search in the process of redrawing firm boundaries.
High temperature structure detection in ferromagnets

This paper studies structure detection problems in high temperature ferromagnetic (positive interaction only) Ising models. The goal is to distinguish whether the underlying graph is empty, i.e., the model consists of independent Rademacher variables, versus the alternative that the underlying graph contains a subgraph of a certain structure. We give matching upper and lower minimax bounds under which testing this problem is possible/impossible respectively. Our results reveal that a key quantity called graph arboricity drives the testability of the problem. On the computational front, under a conjecture of the computational hardness of sparse principal component analysis, we prove that, unless the signal is strong enough, there are no polynomial time tests which are capable of testing this problem. In order to prove this result we exhibit a way to give sharp inequalities for the even moments of sums of i.i.d. Rademacher random variables which may be of independent interest.
Adaptive evolution of nontransitive fitness in yeast

It is widely accepted in biology that all life on Earth gradually evolved over billions of years from a single ancestor. Yet, there is still much about this process that is not fully understood. Evolution is often thought of as progressing in a linear fashion, with each new generation being better adapted to its environment than the last. But it has been proposed that evolution is also nontransitive: this means even if each generation is ‘fitter’ than its immediate predecessor, these series of adaptive changes will occasionally result in organisms that are less fit than their distant ancestors. Laboratory experiments of evolution are a good way to test evolutionary theories because they allow researchers to create scenarios that are impossible to observe in natural populations, such as an organism competing against its extinct ancestors. Buskirk et al. set up such an experiment using yeast to determine whether nontransitive effects can be observed in the direct descendants of an organism. At the start of the experiment, the yeast cells were host to a non-infectious ‘killer’ virus that is common among yeast. Cells containing the virus produce a toxin that destroys other yeast that lack the virus. The populations of yeast were given a nutrient-rich broth in which to grow and subjected to a simple evolutionary pressure: to grow fast, which limits the amount of resources available. As the yeast evolved, they gained beneficial genetic mutations that allowed them to outcompete their neighbors, and they passed these traits down to their descendants. Some of these mutations occurred not in the yeast genome, but in the genome of the killer virus, and this stopped the yeast infected with the virus from producing the killer toxin. Over time, other mutations resulted in the infected yeast no longer being immune to the toxin. Thus, when Buskirk et al. pitted these yeast against their distant ancestors, the new generation were destroyed by the toxins the older generation produced. These findings provide the first experimental evidence for nontransitivity along a line of descent. The results have broad implications for our understanding of how evolution works, casting doubts over the idea that evolution always involves a direct progression towards new, improved traits.
General equilibrium rebound from energy efficiency innovation

Abstract Energy efficiency improvements “rebound” when economic responses undercut their direct energy savings. I show that general equilibrium channels typically amplify rebound by making consumption goods cheaper but typically dampen rebound by increasing demand for non-energy inputs to production and by changing the size of the energy supply sector. Improvements in the efficiency of the energy supply sector generate especially large rebound because they make energy cheaper in all other sectors. Quantitatively, general equilibrium channels reduce rebound in U.S. consumption good sectors from 39% to 28% but increase rebound in the energy supply sector from 42% to 80%.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa detachment from surfaces via a self-made small molecule

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a significant threat in both healthcare and industrial biofouling. Surface attachment of P. aeruginosa is particularly problematic as surface association induces virulence and is necessary for the ensuing process of biofilm formation, which hampers antibiotic treatments. Previous efforts have searched for dispersal agents of mature biofilm collectives, but there are no known factors that specifically disperse individual surface-attached P. aeruginosa. In this study, we develop a quantitative single-cell surface-dispersal assay and use it to show that P. aeruginosa itself produces factors that can stimulate its dispersal. Through bioactivity-guided fractionation, mass spectrometry, and nuclear magnetic resonance, we elucidated the structure of one such factor, 2-methyl-4-hydroxyquinoline (MHQ). MHQ is an alkyl quinolone with a previously unknown activity and is synthesized by the PqsABC enzymes. Pure MHQ is sufficient to disperse P. aeruginosa, but the dispersal activity of natural P. aeruginosa conditioned media requires additional factors. Whereas other alkyl quinolones have been shown to act as antibiotics or membrane depolarizers, MHQ lacks these activities and known antibiotics do not induce dispersal. In contrast, we show that MHQ inhibits the activity of Type IV Pili (TFP) and that TFP targeting can explain its dispersal activity. Our work thus identifies single-cell surface dispersal as a new activity of P. aeruginosa-produced small molecules, characterizes MHQ as a promising dispersal agent, and establishes TFP inhibition as a viable mechanism for P. aeruginosa dispersal.
A comparative analysis of media reporting of perceived risks and benefits of genetically modified crops and foods in Kenyan and international newspapers.

We empirically examine the reporting on biotechnology in Kenyan and international newspapers between 2010 and early 2014. We identify news articles that reported on biotechnology and analyze their use of words to determine whether there is a balance in the reporting of perceived risks and benefits. We also consider how the sources used in news articles and how the publication of the Seralini study of rats fed genetically modified maize affect the balance of reporting of perceived risks and benefits. We find that in Kenyan news reporting, more articles mention perceived benefits than risks, but when risks are mentioned, new articles contain more references to risks than to benefits. We also find that sources affect the reporting of perceived risks and benefits and that the Seralini study increased the likelihood that perceived risks are reported in Kenyan news reporting, but not in international newspapers.
An Alternating-Offers Model of Multilateral Negotiations

I develop an infinite-horizon alternating-offers model of multilateral negotiations, a common means of exchange whose strategic complexity has hindered previous modeling efforts. Multilateral negotiations occur in numerous settings in which one party wishes to trade with one of several others, but for concreteness I consider a buyer facing multiple sellers offering potentially different amounts of surplus to be split. The basic model provides surprising insights about introducing competition to an initially bilateral setting, while straightforward extensions provide empirical predictions about how the buyer’s choice of conducting procurement via multilateral negotiations or auctions is affected by factors including the number of sellers, uncertainty when making the choice, and costs of participating in the procurement process. More generally the model provides a tractable foundation for analyzing strategic problems in settings featuring multilateral negotiations.
DISTRIBUTIONAL DISPUTES AND CIVIL CONFLICT

Some polities are able to use constitutionally prescribed political processes to settle distributional disputes, whereas in other polities distributional disputes result in civil conflict. Theoretical analysis reveals that the following properties help to make it possible to design a self-enforcing constitution that can settle recurring distributional disputes between social classes without civil conflict: *Neither social class has a big advantage in civil conflict. *The expected incremental costs of civil conflict are large relative to aggregate appropriable economic rents. *Both social classes are greatly concerned about the future consequences of their current actions. Theoretical analysis also reveals that a self-enforcing constitution can require limitations on the prerogatives of winners of constitutional contests such that on average the distribution of appropriable economic rents under the constitution is not too favorable to one social class or the other and such that the outcome of a constitutional contest does not matter too much for the current distribution of economic rents. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
The Caloric Costs of Culture: Evidence from Indian Migrants

Anthropologists have long documented substantial and persistent differences across social groups in the preferences and taboos for particular foods. One natural question to ask is whether such food cultures matter in an economic sense. In particular, can culture constrain caloric intake and contribute to malnutrition? To answer this question, I first document that inter-state migrants within India consume fewer calories per Rupee of food expenditure compared to their non-migrant neighbors, even for households with very low caloric intake. I then form a chain of evidence in support of an explanation based on culture: that migrants make nutritionally-suboptimal food choices due to cultural preferences for the traditional foods of their origin states. First, I focus on the preferences themselves and document that migrants bring their origin-state food preferences with them when they migrate. Second, I link together the findings on caloric intake and preferences by showing that the gap in caloric intake between locals and migrants is related to the suitability and intensity of the migrants' origin-state food preferences: the most adversely affected migrants (households in which both husband and wife migrated to a village where their origin-state preferences are unsuited to the local price vector) would consume 7 percent more calories if they possessed the same preferences as their neighbors.
The Harmonization of Legal Warranties in European Sales Law: An Economic Analysis

Political and legal efforts to harmonize the international law of sales have been long-lived. Since the initial steps undertaken when the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) attempted to prepare a uniform law on the international sale of goods under the auspices of the League of Nations, the 1964 Hague Conventions, with the resulting adoption of two uniform laws, namely the Uniform Law on the International Sale of Goods (ULIS), the Uniform Law on the Formation of Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (ULF), and the 1980 UN (Vienna) Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG), several other initiatives, at the national European and private levels have taken place.' Most notably, on July 7, 1999 the European Community enacted a directive which likely represents the most significant step towards harmonization of European sales and consumer law, intervening on important issues concerning a core category of contract law.
Workers’ Remittances; An Overlooked Channel of International Business Cycle Transmission?

This paper shows that remittance flows significantly increase the business cycle synchronization between remittance-recipient countries and the rest of the world. Using both aggregate and bilateral remittances data in a panel data setting, the study demonstrates that this effect is robust and causal. Moreover, the econometric analysis reveals that remittance flows are more effective in channeling economic downturns than upswings from the sending countries to remittance-receiving economies. The analysis suggests that measures of openness and spillovers could be enhanced by accounting for the role of the remittances channel.
Skewed Generalized Error Distribution of Financial Assets and Option Pricing

This article provides a mathematical and empirical investigation of the reasons for the presence of skewness and kurtosis in financial data. The results indicate that this phenomenon is triggered by higher-order moment dependencies in the data, such as asymmetric and conditional volatility. Moreover, the article develops and tests successfully a skewed extension of the generalized error distribution (SGED), which is then used to model European call option prices. Under the standard assumptions of risk neutrality, normality of log-returns, and absence of arbitrage opportunities, the SGED model yields as special cases several well-known models for pricing options on stocks, stock indices, currencies, and currency futures.
Foreign Precedents in the Federal Judiciary: The Case of the World Trade Organization’s DSB Decisions

Federal courts have increasingly cited to foreign precedent and Supreme Court Justices have debated the permissibility and effect of citing such opinions in interpreting the Constitution. However, the courts have also cited to the World Trade Organization’s Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). The DSB has received attention from U.S. Congress members for its decisions which rule against U.S. trade laws or their application. This article addresses two questions related to this Congressional concern: first, are federal courts bound to follow such decisions when construing a provision of a U.S. trade statute, and, second, where a provision of a federal statute has been interpreted by the DSB to be in violation of the United States’ World Trade Organization/GATT treaty obligations, is a federal court bound to follow this internationally binding decision?By examining the decision in the case Turtle Island Restoration Network v. Evans, it is clear that federal courts can craft a decision which consistent with the United States’ international legal obligations when the U.S. law has been deemed inconsistent with a GATT/WTO obligation. Therefore, violating international law to act consistently with domestic law is not excusable.
The Macrogenoeconomics of Comparative Development

The importance of evolutionary forces for comparative economic performance across societies has been the focus of a vibrant literature, highlighting the roles played by the Neolithic Revolution and the prehistoric "out of Africa" migration of anatomically modern humans in generating worldwide variations in the composition of human traits. This essay provides an overview of the literature on the macrogenoeconomics of comparative development, underscoring the significance of evolutionary processes and of human population diversity in generating differential paths of economic development across societies. Furthermore, it examines the contribution of a recent hypothesis set forth by Nicholas Wade, regarding the evolutionary origins of comparative development, to this important line of research.
Origins of the myth of social Darwinism: The ambiguous legacy of Richard Hofstadter's Social Darwinism in American Thought

The term “social Darwinism” owes its currency and many of its connotations to Richard Hofstadter’s influential Social Darwinism in American Thought, 1860–1915 (SDAT). The postSDAT meanings of “social Darwinism” are the product of an unresolved Whiggish tension in SDAT: Hofstadter championed economic reform over free markets, but he also condemned biology in social science, this while many progressive social scientists surveyed in SDAT offered biological justifications for economic reform. As a consequence, there are, in effect, two Hofstadters in SDAT. The first (call him Hofstadter1) disparaged as “social Darwinism” biological justification of laissez-faire, for this was, in his view, doubly wrong. The second Hofstadter (call him Hofstadter2) documented, however incompletely, the underside of progressive reform: racism, eugenics and imperialism, and even devised a term for it, “Darwinian collectivism.” This essay documents and explains Hofstadter’s ambivalence in SDAT, especially where, as with Progressive Era eugenics, the “two Hofstadters” were at odds with each other. It explores the historiographic and semantic consequences of Hofstadter’s ambivalence, including its connection with the Left’s longstanding mistrust of Darwinism as apology for Malthusian political economy.
Generous, spiteful, or profit maximizing suppliers in the wholesale price contract: A behavioral study

Abstract Prior experimental research shows that, in aggregate, decision makers acting as suppliers to a newsvendor do not set the wholesale price to maximize supplier profits. However, these deviations from optimal have rarely been examined at an individual level. In this study, presented with scenarios that differ in terms of how profit is shared between retailer and supplier, suppliers set wholesale price contracts which deviate from profit-maximization in ways that are either generous or spiteful. On an individual basis, these deviations were found to be consistent with how the profit-maximizing contract compares to the subject's idea of a fair contract. Suppliers moved nearer to self-reported ideal allocations when they indicated a high degree of concern for fairness, consistent with previously proposed fairness models, and were found to be more likely to act upon generous inclinations than spiteful ones.
The Right of Publicity and Autonomous Self-Definition

Arnold Schwarzenegger recently sued a company that was marketing a machine gun-toting bobblehead doll made in his image. Schwarzenegger claimed that the producer was free-riding on the value of his image, violating his right of publicity. But where the Terminator turned Governor of California saw an attempt to exploit his hard-earned reputation, others saw valuable political speech intended to parody Schwarzenegger. The case ultimately settled, but not before drawing attention to the breadth of the current right of publicity, which has expanded to allow claims against an everincreasing range of conduct. As critics of Schwarzenegger’s case recognized, his was only the latest in a long line of (often successful) attempts by celebrities to extend the claim’s boundaries.6 And there is no end to that trend in sight; one can discern no principle in the current doctrine or its dominant theory on which any limitation might be based.
The Meaning of Contractual Silence: A Field Experiment

The limited capacity of lawmakers to intuit the unstated wishes of contracting parties constitutes a daunting obstacle to the formulation of majoritarian default rules. This paper presents a field experiment that prices consumers’ unstated understandings of contractual silence regarding warranty and return policies for a good. Used iPods were sold via auction on eBay.com with randomly varying return policies. Some iPods came with a satisfaction guaranteed policy, others with an explicit warranty that resembled the default warranty of merchantability, and still other iPods were sold “as is.” Finally, a batch of iPods was silent regarding the return policy. Although the estimates are extremely imprecise, consumers appear to pay approximately the same price for iPods with silence regarding the return policy as they do for iPods with the explicit warranty that resembles the UCC default warranty. Silent iPods sell for less than iPods that are satisfaction guaranteed, and considerably more than iPods sold “as is”—though again a lack of precision precludes confident inferences. Consumers interpret silence in accord with silence’s legal meaning; the UCC framer’s “guess” about majoritarian warranty expectations is an empirically reasonable one. 1 I thank the Oscar M. Ruebhausen Foundation for the funding that enabled this field experiment. I thank Ian Masias for extraordinary research assistance, and Ian Ayres, Robert Daines, Henry Hansmann, Daniel Ho, Roberta Romano, Alan Schwartz and the Sow’s Ear crew for helpful comments and suggestions. All errors are my own.
Taus v. Loftus: Determining the Legal Ground Rules for Scholarly Inquiry

A published article by Elizabeth Loftus and Melvin Guyer (2002) examined the claim of a psychiatrist that “Jane Doe,” interviewed at age 5 and then 11 years later, had recovered a repressed memory of sexual abuse by her mother. The Loftus-Guyer article resulted in a lawsuit by the young woman who claimed invasions of privacy, defamation, and other injuries. This article details the history of the lawsuit and attends in particular to the tension between free speech as a scholarly right and the role of the courts and of Institutional Review Boards, both of which played a prominent role in regard to the research enterprise.
Who is Afraid of Political Instability

Abstract An unstable macroeconomic environment is often regarded as detrimental to economic growth. Among the sources contributing to such instability, much of the blame has been assigned to political issues. This paper empirically tests for a causal and negative long-run relation between political instability and economic growth but finds no evidence of such a relationship. Sensitivity analysis indicates that there is a contemporaneous negative relationship but also that, in the long run and ignoring institutional factors, the group of African countries plays the determining role.
The Needs and Financial Problems of Small and Rural Localities: The Case of West Virginia

The areas of Public Finance and Financial Management present potential problems for small and rural local governments. Responses from a survey of West Virginia local public officials were used to examine the severity of these two issues. Both issues were thought to be of equal importance Instead, the findings showed that Public Finance issues rated very high while Financial Management issues rated very low. Potential influences, such as type of locality, professionalism, and metropolitan area status, fail to explain the differences. Thus, it is concluded that for small and rural localities, Public Finance issues are more important than Financial Management issues
DIVIDEND TAXES AND INTERNATIONAL PORTFOLIO CHOICE

This paper investigates how dividend taxes influence portfolio choices, using the response to the distinctive treatment of a subset of foreign dividends in the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act (JGTRRA) of 2003. An open-economy after-tax capital asset pricing model is used to derive the hypothesis that JGTRRA should lead to a portfolio reallocation by US investors towards equities in tax-favored countries. A difference-in-difference analysis that compares US equity holdings in affected and unaffected countries finds a substantial portfolio reallocation towards the former. This effect cannot be explained by several potential alternative hypotheses, including differential changes to the preferences of American investors, differential changes in investment opportunities, differential time trends in investment, changed tax evasion behavior, or changes in stock prices associated (or contemporaneous) with JGTRRA.
In Search of Skidmore

Ever since 1827, the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly observed that when a court is interpreting a statute that falls within the authority of an administrative agency, the court in reaching its own judgment about the statute‘s meaning should give substantial weight to the agency‘s view.2 Repeated again and again over the years in varying formulations, this proposition found its apotheosis in Skidmore v. Swift & Co.,3 a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Jackson in 1944. His opinion took the proposition to be so obvious that no citation was required. Justice Jackson‘s typically incisive and memorable formulation stuck. It found its way into administrative law casebooks—also without reference to its many predecessors. It has since been universally known as Skidmore deference, treated as if it were simply his remarkable invention. Four years earlier, the proposition had found expression in United States v. American Trucking Ass’ns,4 a case often considered the dawn of postNew Deal reliance on legislative history. The Court made clear that the question before it was one for it to decide, reiterating the oft-cited proposition of Marbury v. Madison: ―The interpretation of the meaning of statutes, as applied to justiciable controversies, is exclusively a judicial function.‖5 But how was it to perform this ―exclusively judicial function‖?
The Design of Field Experiments With Survey Outcomes: A Framework for Selecting More Efficient, Robust, and Ethical Designs

There is increasing interest in experiments where outcomes are measured by surveys and treatments are delivered by a separate mechanism in the real world, such as by mailers, door-to-door canvasses, phone calls, or online ads. However, common designs for such experiments are often prohibitively expensive, vulnerable to bias, and raise ethical concerns. We show how four methodological practices currently uncommon in such experiments have previously undocumented complementarities that can dramatically relax these constraints when at least two are used in combination: (1) online surveys recruited from a defined sampling frame (2) with at least one baseline wave prior to treatment (3) with multiple items combined into an index to measure outcomes and, (4) when possible, a placebo control. We provide a general and extensible framework that allows researchers to determine the most efficient mix of these practices in diverse applications. Two studies then examine how these practices perform empirically. First, we examine the representativeness of online panel respondents recruited from a defined sampling frame and find that their representativeness compares favorably to phone panel respondents. Second, an original experiment successfully implements all four practices in the context of a door-to-door canvassing experiment. We conclude discussing potential extensions.
Government as a discriminating monopolist in the financial market: the case of China

Abstract We show that the many unusual features of China’s financial markets are consistent with a government choosing regulations to maximize a standard type of social welfare function. Under certain conditions, these regulations are equivalent to imposing explicit taxes on business and interest income, yet should be much easier to enforce. The observed implicit tax rates are broadly in line with those observed in other countries. The theory also forecasts, however, that China will face increasing incentives over time to shift to explicit taxes.
Can Feminists Be Cartesians

Cet article defend l'une des theses centrales du cartesianisme (mais pas Descartes lui-meme) contre les objections feministes. Je montre que l'approche «en premiere personne» adoptee par Descartes au sujet de notre connaissance des esprits est au moins compatible avec les positions feministes cles, et peut meme renforcer certaines des plus centrales parmi elles. L'article porte sur deux doctrines cartesiennes: (1) l'individualisme epistemique et (2) l'introspectivisme. Ma defense exploite le potentiel qu'offre la strategie meditative de Descartes pour miner certains presupposes politiquement charges. Plus generalement, il s'agit de montrer que l'approche en premiere personne qu'adopte le cartesianisme a l'endroit des questions epistemiques et conceptuelles peut constituer, pour le feminisme, un tres bon outil anti-autoritarien.
Preliminary Reflections on the Professional Development of Solo and Small Law Firm Practitioners

Solo and small law firm practitioners have long been regarded as marginal, unmentored, unethical and inadequately trained members of the legal profession. Yet technological advances and demographic changes in this segment of the bar suggest reasons for re-examining this view. In an effort to gain a clearer understanding of the current state of the professional development of these lawyers, 41 solo and small firm practitioners in the New York City metropolitan area were interviewed about their work lives and professional development. The questions posed were designed to explore how, if at all, office settings, mentors and other colleagues contribute to the skills development of these lawyers and their ethical decision-making. The article describes and reflects on the findings that these lawyers work in a rich social environment in which they receive more mentoring, skills training and advice from colleagues than previously believed. Nevertheless, the manner in which they increasingly are organizing their offices may ultimately undermine some of the best features of solo and small firm practice.
Priced Risk and Asymmetric Volatility in the Cross-Section of Skewness

Abstract We investigate the sources of skewness in aggregate risk factors and the cross section of stock returns. In an ICAPM setting with conditional volatility, we find theoretical time series predictions on the relationships among volatility, returns, and skewness for priced risk factors. Market returns resemble these predictions; however, size, book-to-market, and momentum factor returns are not always consistent with our predictions. We find evidence that size and book-to-market may be priced post-crisis but not in the decade before. Momentum does not appear priced by our test. We link aggregate risk and skewness to individual stocks and find empirically that the risk aversion effect manifests in individual stock skewness. Additionally, we find several firm characteristics that explain stock skewness. Smaller firms, value firms, highly levered firms, and firms with poor credit ratings have more positive skewness.
Minding our manners: Accounting as social norms

Abstract The accounting standardization project, kicked off by the passage of US securities laws in the 1930s, has steadily gained momentum over seven decades. Today, written standards dominate accounting thought, practice, regulation, instruction, even research. Generally accepted accounting principles—originally a mere description in its plain English meaning—have since been capitalized into a proper name—Generally Accepted Accounting Principles—and the phrase now describes rules and regulations issued by authorities with power to inflict punishment on those who do not choose to accept them. How and why did financial reporting get caught in the standardization project, replacing social norms of corporate and professional behavior by written rules and standards? What are the consequences of this transformation? What alternative courses are available to accounting and corporate governance? I argue that heavy reliance on the codification of financial reporting has been a wrong path. A shift from rules towards norms of behavior may yet help accounting and corporate governance recover a better balance.
Measuring strategic firm interaction in product-quality choices: The case of airline flight frequency

This paper investigates strategic interaction among airlines in product-quality choices. Using an instrumental variables approach, the paper estimates flight-frequency reaction functions, which relate an airline׳s frequency on a route to its own characteristics and to the frequencies of competing airlines. A positive reaction function slope is found in some cases, suggesting the presence of strategic interaction in the choice of frequencies. The paper also asks whether multimarket contact generates mutual forbearance in frequency competition, finding no evidence for such an effect.
Judges as Film Critics: New Approaches to Filmic Evidence

and non-sensory ‘things’ as the plaintiff’s humanity, his suffering, and the ‘impact’ of his injury. . . . To accomplish this task the ‘day in the life’ film uses symbols, but in contrast to the phonetic symbols of speech, the film’s symbols have direct probative value in addition to their symbolic value. The medicine chest in the above example may be of some interest to the jury in and of itself, but in the context of the film it is charged with meaning and becomes a symbol of the plaintiff’s multiple problems.” Herlihy, supra note 45, at 150 (quoting Preiser & Hoffman, Day in the Life Films—Coming of Age in the Courtroom, Trial, Aug. 1981, at 26). 268. Thomas, 465 F. Supp. at 571. 269. Herlihy, supra note 45, at 140 (quoting 1 J. Wigmore, Evidence § 24, C.P. Tillers rev.
Vanquishing Copyright Pirates and Patent Trolls: The Divergent Evolution of Copyright and Patent Laws

Please enter abstract text here.In the last decade copyright law has followed an almost linear path of increasing legal protections for copyright holders' battle against digital piracy. By contrast, proposed changes in patent law are decidedly anti-patent holder due to efforts to battle patent trolls - companies that acquire and use patent portfolios to extract payoffs from technology companies. Patent law reform faces a far more contentious path and will likely lose several of its most significant provisions. This paper analyzes efforts to change the laws of copyright and patent using James Q. Wilson's theory of regulation. With little concerted opposition, copyright law has been shaped by less contentious client politics. Patent law reform faces an interest-groups battle with powerful bio-medical and pharmaceutical companies opposed to many reform provisions. The analysis suggests that future changes to copyright law will be more difficult having to navigate the contentious interest-groups-battle path.
An Analysis of Scoring and Buyer‐Determined Procurement Auctions

In procurement auctions, the object for sale is a contract, bidders are suppliers, and the bid taker is a buyer. The suppliers bidding for the contract are usually the current supplier (the incumbent) and a group of potential new suppliers (the entrants). As the buyer has an ongoing relationship with the incumbent, he needs to adjust the bids of the entrants to include non-price attributes, such as the switching costs. The buyer can run a scoring auction, in which suppliers compete on the adjusted bids or scores, or, he can run a buyer-determined auction, in which suppliers compete on the price, and the buyer adjusts a certain number of the bids with the non-price attributes after the auction to determine the winner. Unless the incumbent has a significant cost advantage over the entrants, I find that the scoring auction yields a lower average cost for the buyer, if the non-price attributes are available. If the non-price attributes are difficult or expensive to obtain, the buyer could run a buyer-determined auction adjusting only the lowest price bid.
Still Trembling: State Obligation Under International Law To End Post-earthquake Rape In Haiti

This Article argues that the right to be free from sexual violence committed by third-party perpetrators is not only required under Haitian domestic and international law but is also a mandatory obligation for States to enforce. The Article examines how post-earthquake conditions in Haiti have left women and girls in a heightened state of vulnerability as well as the ineffectiveness of the U.N. and government to uphold obligations under international law to include grassroots women’s leadership in the planning and implementation sessions to address sexual violence in displacement camps. First, this Article provides a brief overview to pre- and post-earthquake responses to sexual violence in Haiti, and then an overview of sexual violence and the vulnerability of women and girls since the earthquake. Next, this Article discusses Haiti’s obligations under international and regional law to protect women and girls from violence committed by private actors as well as the obligation to include their voices in plans for combating gender-based violence. Finally, this Article examines the recent decision for precautionary measures granted by the IACHR to address sexual violence in 22 Haitian displacement camps and how this decision must be implemented by donor States through building the capacity of the Haitian government and Haitian civil society in order to end the epidemic of post-earthquake sexual violence.
Reining in the Data Traders: A Tort for the Misuse of Personal Information

In 2005, three spectacular data security breaches focused public attention on the vast databases of personal information held by data traders such as ChoicePoint and LexisNexis, and the vulnerability of that data. The personal information of hundreds of thousands of people had either been hacked or sold to identity thieves, yet the data traders refused to reveal to those people the specifics of the information sold or stolen. While Congress and many state legislatures swiftly introduced bills to force data traders to be more accountable to their data subjects, fewer states actually enacted laws, and none of the federal bills were taken to a vote before the election in 2006. In large part, individuals remain powerless to discover the information a data trader holds about them, to discover what information was sold or stolen, to prevent data traders from using their personal information in unauthorized ways, or to hold data traders accountable for lax security. The Article argues that a new common law tort should be used to force reform and accountability on data traders, and to provide remedies for individuals who have suffered harm to their core privacy interests of choice and control-choice about who may receive their information, control over the information revealed, and how the recipient of that information may use it. The Article examines the current legislative and common law regimes, concluding that there are no effective remedies for individuals who have suffered harm from data misuse. Given the ineffective legislative response to the security breaches of 2005, the Article argues that the existing scheme of common law privacy torts should be expanded to create a new tort for information misuse. The new tort borrows from existing privacy torts-in particular, the tort of appropriation-and existing privacy statutes, importing the Fair Information Practices from the Privacy Act of 1974 as a standard of care.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained? A case study of Africa's participation in WTO dispute settlement

The thrust of this research centres on the inadequate participation of African countries in the WTO dispute settlement mechanism. Using the US upland cotton dispute initiated by Brazil as a case study, the author investigates four leading West African cotton exporters – Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad and Mali – the 'Cotton 4'. While Benin and Chad participated in the dispute as third parties, Burkina Faso and Mali were noticeably absent, despite their joint criticism of cotton subsidies in the sectoral initiatives on cotton delivered by the group at two WTO ministerial meetings. The author attempts to ascertain the rationale for African countries' decisions to participate in disputes or to 'free ride' within the international trade arena, arguing that the incentives or disincentives affecting these decisions stem from the inability to retaliate against developed countries under the WTO dispute settlement understanding (DSU); financial and technical limitations in accessing the DSU; disproportionately heavy reliance on principal trading relationships; and other socio-political and economic considerations.
Do sophisticated investors interpret earnings conference call tone differently than investors at large? Evidence from short sales

Abstract Recent research finds that investors, broadly defined, react to the linguistic tone of quarterly earnings conference calls; there is a positive relation between firms' stock returns and call tone (a measure of “sentiment” related word tabulations). However, this type of soft information can be subtle, context-specific, and difficult to interpret. Moreover, the literature suggests cross-sectional variation in information processing skills among investors. Thus, we test whether sophisticated investors interpret earnings conference call tone differently than investors at large by examining short selling activity and its relation to earnings conference call tone. We find that short sellers target firms with simultaneous high earnings surprise and abnormally high management tone. The combination of positive earnings surprise and unusually positive tone strengthens short sellers' return predictability. This result indicates that short sellers interpret revealed “inflated” call language by managers more completely than naive investors. The incomplete stock price reaction by naive investors due to the lack of reliability that they place on this soft information results in overpricing of the stock. However, it also suggests that managers are unable to maintain prolonged overvaluation of their stock by striking an overly optimistic posture in the interactive conference call disclosure forum since short sellers' trades provide additional price discovery.
Beyond bipolar: A three‐dimensional assessment of monetary frameworks

A great deal of attention has been focused recently on the impact of exchange rate regimes, just as previous empirical research examined central bank autonomy and announced targets for domestic monetary policy. To date, however, these three elements of monetary frameworks have been assessed in isolation from one another, and all have been viewed in terms of a unidimensional spectrum of fixity versus flexibility. Using a newly constructed dataset, this paper jointly analyses and compares all three elements' effects on inflation and exchange rate behaviour. The results show that each of the three elements has independent and distinct effects on nominal outcomes. Key findings include: (1) although hard pegs do tend to reduce inflation and attenuate exchange rate fluctuations within some range, they are clearly characterized by large devaluations; (2) central bank autonomy is associated with a more stable exchange rate and lower inflation; and (3) explicit inflation targeting reduces both inflation and its persistence, consistent with the view that inflation targeting increases flexibility through transparency. These results raise the possibility that a combination of central bank autonomy, inflation targeting, and a free float might offer the same benefits as any intermediate exchange rate regime on its own, without the proclivity to occasional large depreciations. Copyright © 2001 Institute for International Economics and Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Biofuels and Land Use Change: Sugarcane and Soybean Acreage Response in Brazil

Scientists and economists are increasingly worried that biofuels production is leading to land use changes in the form of competition with food crops or loss of natural ecosystems. I estimate acreage conversion in response to shocks in sugarcane (a biofuels feedstock) and soybean (thought to be affected by United States corn ethanol production) prices in Brazil at a national and regional level. Using county-level data from 1973 to 2005, I consider a dynamic panel data model of input demand for agricultural land, conditioning on price changes of other commodities. The short-run crop-price elasticity of sugarcane acreage in Brazil is estimated to be approximately zero, whereas the elasticity of soybean acreage is 0.9 when both spot and futures prices change. The regional estimates for soybeans show considerable variation, and are highest in areas of ecological importance, such as the cerrado. Sugarcane estimates are more homogeneous. These results should be taken into account in impact assessments of biofuels.
Is mandatory voting better than voluntary voting

We investigate the welfare effects of policies that increase voter turnout in costly voting models. In a generalized costly voting model, we show that if the electorate is sufficiently large, then increasing voter turnout is generically efficient. Increasing turnout in small elections is only inefficient if the electorate is evenly divided or if there is already almost complete voter participation. Finally, we argue that the effects underlying our results are robust in a large class of endogenous participation models.
Asia's Participation in Global Health Diplomacy and Global Health Governance

This article provides a framework for thinking about Asian approaches to and impact on global health diplomacy and governance that might contribute to more sophisticated analyses on Asia in global health politics, diplomacy, and governance. First, the article examines the “rise of Asia” and “rise of health” as overlapping but unconnected developments in international relations. Second, it analyzes how the shift of power and influence towards Asia, largely caused by China’s and India’s emergence as great powers, affects global health politics and potential Asian contributions to global health diplomacy and governance in the future. Third, the article looks at normative ideas that characterize Asian approaches to international cooperation and how these ideas affect Asian participation in global health diplomacy and governance. Fourth, the article considers Asian practices on international health cooperation, which include bilateral relations, regional activities, and participation in multilateral organizations. The article ends with conclusions about Asian conceptualizations of and contributions to global health diplomacy and governance. * An earlier version of this article was commissioned as a framing paper for the National University of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy’s Study Group on Global Health Governance of the S.T. Lee Project on Global Governance, and will be published in an edited volume with other papers commissioned by the Lee Kuan Yew School for this Project. ** James Louis Calamaras Professor of Law, Indiana University Maurer School of Law, U.S.A.; Member of the Senior Editorial Committee of the Asian Journal of WTO & International Health Law and Policy. The author can be reached at dfidler@indiana.edu.
The micro-price: a high-frequency estimator of future prices

The micro-price estimated using high-frequency data is empirically a better predictor of short-term prices than the mid-price or the weighted mid-price