cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Milware: Identification and Implications of State Authored Malicious Software

The pervasive development and deployment of malicious software by states presents a new challenge for the information security and policy communities because of the resource advantage and legal status of governments. The difference between state and non-state authored code is typically described in vague terms of sophistication, contributing to the inaccurate confirmation bias of many that states simply `do it better'. This paper attempts to determine if state authored code is demonstrably different from that written by non-state actors and if so, how. To do so, we examine a collection of malware samples which, through existing analytic techniques, have been attributed to a mix of state and non-state actors. Reviewing technical information available in the public domain for each sample, reverse-engineering a sub-set, we determine that there is a set of criteria by which state authored code can be differentiated from the conventional malware of non-state groups. This MAlicious Software Sophistication or MASS index relies on a set of characteristics which describe the behavior and construction of malware including the severity of exploits and customization of the payload. In addition to highlighting these particular differences, the paper discusses several policy implications which arise from identifying a separate class of state-authored code. This is an interdisciplinary effort and pilot project based on a limited dataset however the conclusions drawn have important ramifications for both the information security and relevant policymaking communities.
Comparison of least squares Monte Carlo methods with applications to energy real options

Abstract Least squares Monte Carlo (LSM) is a state-of-the-art approximate dynamic programming approach used in financial engineering and real options to value and manage options with early or multiple exercise opportunities. It is also applicable to capacity investment and inventory/production management problems with demand/supply forecast updates arising in operations and hydropower-reservoir management. LSM has two variants, referred to as regress-now/later (LSMN/L), which compute continuation/value function approximations (C/VFAs). We provide novel numerical evidence for the relative performance of these methods applied to energy swing and storage options, two typical real options, using a common price evolution model. LSMN/L estimate C/VFAs that yield equally accurate (near optimal) and precise lower and dual (upper) bounds on the value of these real options. Estimating the LSMN/L C/VFAs and their associated lower bounds takes similar computational effort. In contrast, the estimation of a dual bound using the LSML VFA instead of the LSMN CFA takes seconds rather than minutes or hours. This finding suggests the use of LSML in lieu of LSMN when estimating dual bounds on the value of early or multiple exercise options, as well as of related capacity investment and inventory/production policies.
Inferring subsurface heterogeneity from push-drift tracer tests

We consider the late-time tailing in a tracer test performed with a push-drift methodology (i.e., quasi-radial injection followed by drift under natural gradient). Numerical simulations of such tests are performed on 1000 multi-Gaussian 2D log-hydraulic conductivity field realizations of varying heterogeneity, each under eight distinct mean flow directions. The ensemble pdfs of solute return times are found to exhibit power law tails for each considered variance of the log-hydraulic conductivity field, σln⁡K2. The tail exponent is found to relate straightforwardly to EQσln⁡K2 and, within the parameter space we explored, to be independent of push-phase pumping rate, pumping duration, and local-scale dispersivity. We conjecture that individual push-drift tracer tests in wells with screened intervals much greater than the vertical correlation length of the aquifer will exhibit quasi-ergodicity and that their tail exponent may be used to infer EQσln⁡K2. We calibrate a predictive relationship of this sort from our Monte Carlo study, and apply it to data from a push-drift test performed at a site of approximately known heterogeneity—closely matching the existing best estimate of heterogeneity.
Macroeconomic Risk and Debt Overhang

– Since corporate debt tends to be riskier in recessions, transfers from equity holders to debt holders that accompany corporate decisions also tend to concentrate in recessions. Such systematic risk exposures of debt overhang have important implications for corporate investment and financing decisions, and for the ex ante costs of debt overhang. Using a calibrated dynamic capital structure model, we show that the costs of debt overhang become higher in the presence of macroeconomic risk. We also provide several new predictions on how the cyclicality of a firm’s assets in place and growth options affect its investment and capital structure decisions.
On Being Accountable in a Kaleidoscopic World

It is a great honor and pleasure to deliver the Manley O. Hudson Lecture to this distinguished audience of colleagues and friends from across the world. In this presentation, I want to explore the concept of accountability in the changing world in which international law operates, and to draw upon my own recent experience chairing the Inspection Panel at the World Bank. In doing so, I want especially to recognize the concerns of poor people and bring their plight into the discussion of accountability. The world today differs sharply from that when the United Nations was formed, some 65 years ago. In that world, there were only 51 states, few international organizations, a nascent global civil society, only 2 billion people, many of whom lived under colonialism and in poverty, an emerging recognition of human rights, and the glimmerings of globalization. International environmental law, for the most part, did not exist. Today we have 6.8 billion people, 192 states, nearly 30,000 active international organizations and another 30,000 inactive ones, many transnational networks, innumerable corporations that produce globally, and a thriving, networked civil society. Many of our problems are inherently global, such as climate change, health and disease, and financial stability. Poverty is one of the most pressing problems. More than 1.4 billion people exist on less than $1.25 per day, and another 1.2 billion people exist on less than $2.00 per day.
Dissecting the Causal Mechanism of X-Linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism by Integrating Genome and Transcriptome Assembly

X-linked Dystonia-Parkinsonism (XDP) is a Mendelian neurodegenerative disease endemic to the Philippines. We integrated genome and transcriptome assembly with induced pluripotent stem cell-based modeling to identify the XDP causal locus and potential pathogenic mechanism. Genome sequencing identified novel variation that was shared by all probands and three recombination events that narrowed the causal locus to a genomic segment including TAF1. Transcriptome assembly in neural derivative cells discovered novel TAF1 transcripts, including a truncated transcript exclusively observed in probands that involved aberrant splicing and intron retention (IR) associated with a SINE-VNTR-Alu (SVA)-type retrotransposon insertion. This IR correlated with decreased expression of the predominant TAF1 transcript and altered expression of neurodevelopmental genes; both the IR and aberrant TAF1 expression patterns were rescued by CRISPR/Cas9 excision of the SVA. These data suggest a unique genomic cause of XDP and may provide a roadmap for integrative genomic studies in other unsolved Mendelian disorders.
Low Probability/High Consequence Events: Dilemmas of Damage Compensation

This article was prepared for a Clifford Symposium which challenged paper writers to imagine how our system of tort compensation might look in the year 2020. This paper responds to an aspect of the general challenge: to imagine a tort recovery system which would deal adequately with rare and catastrophic events. To get a handle on this problem, the paper looks closely at how the legal system compensated damages attendant on four recent events that might be considered "rare and catastrophic" - Three Mile Island, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. In no case did the system of compensation meet all the desiderata of a well-functioning tort compensation scheme, but the two no-fault schemes which provided the bulk of the compensation to those injured in the Three Mile Island and 9/11 disasters seem to have done better than the "ordinary" tort system which provided the bulk of the individual compensation for the damages caused by Hurricane Katrina and the Exxon Valdez oil spill. The 9/11 compensation scheme may, however, have been sui generis since it appears to have reflected both a national coming together after an attack on the homeland and Congressional efforts to protect the airline industry, and the Price-Anderson compensation scheme, which worked well in Three Mile Island, might have failed utterly had the disaster been on the scale of Chernobyl. Ultimately, the article concludes, no imaginable compensation scheme is likely to adequately handle a large, unique and unexpected catastrophe, but some improvements in current law and practice are possible and ad hoc political solutions, as with 9/11, may help in some cases.
Revisiting Victim's Rights

This article argues against adoption of the proposed victim's rights amendment. The first set of arguments addresses the lack of fit between claims made by proponents of the amendment and constitutional theory and practice. The second set addresses the difficulties posed by issues of legal representation under the amendment. The final part discusses the author's experience with the criminal justice system in a rape case; the story contradicts the claim that a constitutional amendment is necessary to afford victims human dignity, respect, and individual participation in cases. Discussions of the problems of identifying who properly is a victim entitled to rights under the amendment, determining what assists victims of crime, and knowing the effects of the amendment on substantive criminal law and the criminal justice process are woven into discussions of individual legal issues. The victim's rights amendment would be unique in requiring the government to provide an indeterminate class of individuals with positive liberties and claims on government resources. There is no strong constitutional argument to support such liberties and claims. Whether examined from a social contract, majoritarian, or fundamental rights approach, none of the proponents' claims justify the amendment. Arguments that the amendment is necessary to reduce trauma or provide some form of therapy for victims are unsubstantiated and may be contradicted by what we know about trauma and recovery. Reconciling the amendment with the Bill of Rights, including the First Amendment, raises major concerns about the abrogation of long-standing individual rights against the state. Although the victim's rights amendment does not provide for a right to counsel, the question of representation in exercising consitutional rights cannot be overlooked. The article argues that the assumption prosecutors easily can represent victims as well as the community's interests in criminal cases overlooks the many instances when victim's rights and obligations to criminal justice conflict. The use of private counsel also introduces further uncertainty in the process. The article concludes that the amendment is not necessatry to achieve decent treatment of victims, and that we lack sufficient information and justification for the amendment.
When the Commerce Clause Goes International: A Proposed Legal Framework for the Foreign Commerce Clause

II. THE FOREIGN COMMERCE CLAUSE LEGAL FRAMEWORK: EXISTING OPTIONS INADEQUATE 1150 A. Option #1: The Interstate Commerce Clause Legal Framework—Too Distinctive and Complex 1152 1. History 1153 2. Current Legal Landscape 1155 3. Legal Framework Inapplicable to the Foreign Commerce Clause 1161 4. Relevant Themes 1165 B. Option #2: The Foreign Commerce Clause Legal Framework—In Disarray 1166 1. History 1167 2. Current Legal Landscape 1171 a. Dormant Foreign Commerce Clause Test: “One Voice” 1172 b. (Non-Dormant) Foreign Commerce Clause: Circuit Splits 1175 i. Conduct Related to Trade with Foreign Nations 1175 ii. Conduct of U.S. Citizens who Travel in Foreign Commerce 1177 C. Option #3: The Indian Commerce Clause Legal Framework—Too Unique 1188 1. History 1188 2. Current Legal Landscape 1189
Expert opinions about extrapolation and the mystery of the overlooked discontinuities

We report on the opinions of 49 forecasting experts on guidelines for extrapolation methods. They agreed that seasonality, trend, aggregation, and discontinuities were key features to use for selecting extrapolation methods. The strong agreement about the importance of discontinuities was surprising because this topic has been largely ignored in the forecasting literature.
The effect of domestic antidumping law in the presence of foreign monopoly

Abstract We analyze the effects of antidumping law when utilized by competitive domestic petitioners against a foreign monopolist. The monopolist reduces the cost of holding excess capacity in periods of slack foreign demand by dumping on the domestic market. Antidumping law reduces trade volume both directly (under successful petitions), and indirectly (when no petition is filed) by causing the monopolist to alter its capacity and the allocation of that capacity between markets. Finally, we consider the effects of self-enforcing agreements in which the domestic industry agrees not to file in exchange for a promise that the foreign monopolist limit exports.
Health insurance and the supply of entrepreneurs

Abstract Some commentators have suggested that non-portable health insurance impedes people from leaving their jobs to start new firms, so that universal health insurance would significantly enhance entrepreneurial activity. We investigate this belief by comparing wage-earners who become self-employed during a given period of time with their counterparts who do not. By examining the impact of variables relating to the health insurance and health status of these workers and their families we attempt to infer whether the lack of health insurance portability affects the probability that they become self-employed. The statistical evidence is consistent with a wide range of responses.
A Tale of Two Provinces: The Institutional Environment and Foreign Ownership in China

In this paper, we use a unique dataset covering joint ventures in two provinces of China, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, to test the effect of the institutional environment for domestic private firms on ownership structures of FDI projects. Unlike many studies on this subject, we approach the issue from the perspective of local firms seeking FDI rather than from the perspective of foreign firms seeking to invest in China. Applying the prevailing bargaining framework in studies on ownership structures of FDI projects, we find that a more liberal institutional environment for domestic private firms is associated with less foreign ownership of the joint ventures operating there. Several mechanisms can contribute to this outcome. One is that a more liberal institutional environment may enhance the bargaining power of those domestic firms negotiating with foreign firms to form alliances (the capability effect). The other mechanism is that a more liberal institutional environment may reduce some of the auxiliary benefits associated with FDI - such as greater property rights granted to foreign investors - and thereby attenuate incentive to form alliances with foreign firms (the incentive effect).
The Economic Consequences of Perk Disclosure

In December 2006 the SEC issued new rules requiring enhanced disclosure by public U.S. firms of perquisites granted to their executives. The rules applied to perquisites granted in fiscal year 2006 and thereafter. Because the rules were implemented quickly, the perks disclosed for 2006 reflect the arrangements firms made under prior disclosure rules: firms could not revise perks to reflect the new rules until 2007. For firms that disclose for the first time in 2006, we predict and find that perks decrease in 2007, reflecting both the costs of increased disclosure and enhanced monitoring. This decrease in perks is offset by higher levels of non-perk compensation, however. We also predict and find that the effect of perk disclosure by formerly non-disclosing firms in 2006 leads to higher perks in 2007 for firms that were disclosing perks prior to the rule change. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Democracy, Public Expenditures and the Poor

Countries vary systematically with respect to the incentives of politicians to provide broad public goods, and to reduce poverty. Even in developing countries that are democracies, politicians often have incentives to divert resources to political rents, and to private transfers that benefit a few citizens at the expense of many. These distortions can be traced to imperfections in political markets, that are greater in some countries than in others. The authors review the theory, and evidence on the impact of incomplete information of voters, the lack of credibility of political promises, and social polarization on political incentives. They argue that the effects of these imperfections are large, but that their implications are insufficiently integrated into the design of policy reforms aimed at improving the provision of public goods, and reducing poverty.
DISENTANGLING THE PSYCHOLOGY AND LAW OF INSTRUMENTAL AND REACTIVE SUBTYPES OF AGGRESSION

Behavioral scientists have distinguished an instrumental (or proactive) style of aggression from a style that is reactive (or hostile). Whereas instrumental aggression is cold-blooded, deliberate, and goal driven, reactive aggression is characterized by hot blood, impulsivity, and uncontrollable rage. Scholars have pointed to the distinction between murder (committed with malice aforethought) and manslaughter (enacted in the heat of passion in response to provocation) in criminal law as a reflection of the instrumental‐reactive aggression dichotomy. Recently, B. J. Bushman and C. A. Anderson (2001) argued that the instrumental‐reactive aggression distinction has outlived its usefulness in psychology and pointed to inconsistencies and confusion in criminal law applications as support for their position. But how similar is the legal distinction between murder and manslaughter to the instrumental‐reactive aggression dichotomy in psychology? This article compares and contrasts the psychological and legal models and demonstrates that the purposes for distinguishing between instrumental and reactive aggression in psychology and law are undeniably different in meaningful ways. As such, a perceived shift in law away from differentiating murder and manslaughter has no bearing on the usefulness of the instrumental‐reactive aggression distinction in psychological science.
REVEALED PREFERENCES FOR MACROECONOMIC STABILIZATION

In the new Keynesian model of endogenous stabilization governments have objectives with respect to macroeconomic performance, but are constrained by an augmented Phillips curve. Because they react ...
Isolating Clusters with Wolf-Rayet Stars in I Zw 18*

We present UV images and spectra of the starburst galaxy I Zw 18, taken with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph. The high spatial resolution of these data allows us to isolate clusters containing Wolf-Rayet stars of the subtype WC. Our far-UV spectra clearly show C IV λλ1548, 1551 and He II λ1640 emission of WC stars in two clusters: one within the bright (northwest) half of I Zw 18 and one on the outskirts of this region. The latter spectrum is unusual because the C IV is seen only in emission, indicating a spectrum dominated by WC stars. These data also demonstrate that the H I column in I Zw 18 is strongly peaked in the fainter (southeast) half of I Zw 18, with a column depth far larger than that reported in previous analyses.
Institutional and Individual Justification in Legal Ethics: The Problem of Client Selection

In the second round of the famous Freedman-Tigar debate, Monroe Freedman writes that “[i]t is proper . . . to publicly challenge lawyers to justify their representation of particular clients.” Note the word “particular”—the challenge here is on a case-by-case basis, and is not aimed at the macro-level decision to become a lawyer. Once a lawyer has opted to represent a client, however, the lawyer cannot be criticized
Alternative Alphas from Hedge Fund ETF Speculation

Alternative alpha represents risk-adjust absolute return of an alternative investing instrument regressed on alternative risk factors. Over the years, the definition is extended to the absolute return generated from alternative asset speculation-long-only or long-short strategy on alternative assets to generate additional return on top of existence alpha. In this article, we examine and propose a model with state-dependent stochastic differential equations based on Gaussian mixture model and multi-class Gaussian-kernel support vector machine to analyze hedge fund ETF alpha. We provide a new type of long-short speculation which trades on hedge fund strategies. This long-short alternative portfolio is build based on a Sharpe-ratio-like alpha ratio optimization program, and the historical performance from the portfolio shows statistically significant improvement adding to existing alphas. For passive investors, the portfolio also yields a simple portable alpha strategy which outperforms the S&P 500 benchmark return by 7.8% since 2012.
The New Politics of Linkage: India's Opposition to the Workers' Rights Clause

This article examines why India has opposed a World Trade Organization (WTO) workers' rights clause, and calls for a new way of thinking about international institutions and the link between trade and labor rights. Many labor rights supporters argue that labor rights principles should be integrated into the WTO, either via the addition of a workers' rights clause or through a "judicial" reading of labor rights values into the existing WTO framework. But India has led a large block of developing countries in opposing any link between labor rights and the WTO. This opposition has been based primarily on economic arguments that suggest linkage is motivated by protectionism, concerns about political sovereignty and neocolonialism, and structural arguments about the proper institutional roles of the ILO and WTO. These arguments, it is suggested, must be understood in both a contemporary and historical context. In light of this opposition by developing countries, the article proposes a transition from a WTO-centered view of trade and labor linkage to a paradigm based on bilateral and regional market-based agreements that utilize the ILO-a model that would engage more dynamically with the concerns presented by India and other stakeholders in the developing world.
The Evolution of Enterprise Unionism in Japan: A Socio-Political Perspective

This article proposes an alternative framework for understanding enterprise unionism by emphasizing political dynamics and the role of the state in labour relations. Our framework delineates the strategic behaviour patterns of each of the tripartite IR actors under collective bargaining. It maintains that the initial period of the collective bargaining era constituted a critical juncture for state labour policy that occurred in distinctive ways in different countries and that these differences played a central role in shaping the different union structures in the following decades. Our historical analysis shows that unlike its Western counterparts, the Japanese state was able to eradicate the horizontal union movement at the onset of the collective bargaining era because of its advantages as a late developer and Cold War politics, which resulted in enterprise unionism in Japan.
A Flexible Economy? Entrepreneurship and Productivity in New Zealand

This paper (a) provides a framework for quantifying any economy's flexibility, and (b) reviews the evidence on New Zealand firms' birth, growth and death. The data indicate that, by and large, the labour market and the financial market are doing their job. How business-friendly is New Zealand? Are there barriers in the way of entrepreneurship? This paper provides a framework for measuring any economy's flexibility and reviews the evidence on the New Zealand economy's flexibility.
Bloomberg's Health Legacy: Urban Innovator or Meddling Nanny?

Michael Bloomberg assumed office as the 108th mayor of New York City on January 1, 2002. As he leaves the mayoralty—having won re—election twice-his public health legacy is bitterly contested. The public health community views him as an urban innovator—a rare political and business leader willing to fight for a built environment conducive to healthier, safer lifestyles. To his detractors, Bloomberg epitomizes a meddling nanny—an elitist dictating to largely poor and working—class people about how they ought to lead their lives. His policies have sparked intense public, corporate, and political ire—critical of sweeping mayoral power to socially engineer the city and its inhabitants. Here, I seek to show how Bloomberg has fundamentally changed public health policy and discourse. He has used the engine of government to make New York City a laboratory for innovation-raising the visibility of public health, testing policy effectiveness, and probing the boundaries of state power. Even though the courts have blocked some of his boldest initiatives, he has offered a paradigm for the “new public health”—reaching beyond infectious diseases to upstream risk factors in everyday life and the human habitat. I also critically probe various arguments designed to derail his policies, along with the overarching charge of unjustified paternalism.
Comparative Tales of Origins and Access: Intellectual Property and the Rhetoric of Social Change

This Article argues that the open-source and antiexpansionist rhetoric of current intellectual-property debates is a revolution of surface rhetoric but not of deep structure. What this Article terms “the Access Movements” are, by now, wellknown communities devoted to providing more access to intellectual-property-protected goods, communities such as the Open Source Initiative and Access to Knowledge. This Article engages Movement actors in their critique of the balance struck by recent law (statutes and cases) and asks whether new laws that further restrict access to intellectual property “promote the progress of science and the useful arts.” Relying on cases, statutes and recent policy debates, this Article contrasts the language of traditional intellectual-property law (origins and exclusivity) with the new language of the Access Movements (antiorigins and † Associate Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School. J.D., Ph.D. (Comparative Literature), University of Michigan; A.B., Stanford University. Thanks to Ann Bartow, Andrew Beckerman-Rodau, Dan Burk, Michael Carroll, Maggie Chon, Julie Cohen, Kevin Collins, Laura Dickinson, Laura Heymann, Mark Janis, Sonia Katyal, Greg Lastowka, Michael Madison, William McGeveran, Steven McJohn, Jeff Pokorak, Michael Rustad, Patrick Shin, Ilene Seidman, David Simon, Chris Sprigman, Rebecca Tushnet, and Molly Shaffer Van Houweling. This Article benefited from presentations at the 2009 Intellectual Property Scholars Conference, 2009 Works in Progress Intellectual Property Conference, and the 2008 Cyberlaw Colloquium at American University Washington College of Law. Comments welcome at jsilbey@suffolk.edu. 12/30/2010 8:34:29 PM 196 CASE WESTERN RESERVE LAW REVIEW [Vol. 61:1 access). The Article compares the language of the Access Movements to that of sociopolitical movements of the past, and it draws lessons for successful and unsuccessful uses of rhetoric to enact social change. The Article concludes by showing how the language of the Access Movements retains certain core elements of the intellectual-property regime to which it is reacting and investigates whether this is an effective strategy (whether or not a conscious one) to stimulate change.
Affordable Private Education and the Middle Class City

City leaders, who have struggled for decades with public education reform, are well aware that good schools are needed to attract residentially mobile families to urban neighborhoods. But, while critically important, public education reform alone is not enough. Rather, state and local officials hoping to make our central city neighborhoods attractive places to raise children should come to understand that affordable private schools serve an important urban-development function: they partially unbundle the residential and educational decisions of families with children. Most middle class families, however, cannot afford to send their children to private schools. Thus, state and local officials hoping to make our central city neighborhoods attractive places to raise children should consider employing a familiar urban development tooltax incentivesto make quality private schools more financially accessible to middle-income families.
Why are retail prices in Japan so high? Evidence from German export prices

Abstract It is well documented that retail prices in Japan are higher than in other countries for similar products. The two main competing explanations for this finding are: (1) a relatively high degree of discriminatory practices against imports and (2) relatively high distribution costs associated with getting goods to the point of final sale in Japan. The first explanation implies that foreign exporters should charge higher prices on shipments to Japan, provided at least some of the rent associated with restrictive practices can be captured by the exporter, while the second does not. For the 37 seven-digit German export categories studied here, the 1975-87 data are inconsistent with the view that higher distribution and retail costs explain all of the retail price differential. Prices on shipments to Japan appear to be significantly higher than prices on shipments to the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, controlling for exchange rate and income changes in the destination markets.
Fiscal competition in space and time

Abstract This paper analyzes fiscal competition among numerous spatially-separated jurisdictions in an explicitly dynamic framework. The degree of factor mobility between jurisdictions is imperfect because it is costly and time-consuming to adjust factor stocks. Even if it is harmful in the long run, taxation of mobile factors redistributes income in favor of the owners of immobile resources in the short run. The locally-optimal tax on mobile factors is lower, the faster the speed with which factors adjust to fiscal policy. Anticipated taxes are less beneficial than those that can be imposed unexpectedly.
Materials Requirements of High-Speed and Low-Power Spin-Orbit-Torque Magnetic Random-Access Memory

As spin-orbit-torque magnetic random-access memory (SOT-MRAM) is gathering great interest as the next-generation low-power and high-speed on-chip cache memory applications, it is critical to analyze the magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) properties needed to achieve sub-ns, and ~fJ write operation when integrated with CMOS access transistors. In this paper, a 2T-1MTJ cell-level modeling framework suggests that large spin Hall conductivity and moderate SOT material sheet resistance are preferred. We also benchmark write energy and speed performances of SOT-MRAM cells using several existing SOT materials, such as Pt, β -W, and Bi x Se (1−x) based on the established framework. This work will provide essential guidelines for SOT-MRAM materials and device research in the future.
Applying Basic Gamification Techniques to IT Compliance Training: Evidence from the Lab and Field

ABSTRACT: Companies depend on internal control to protect the integrity of information systems. IT security and data privacy training are critical controls for safeguarding company information. Employees often dislike the training, however, which can cause a lack of attention to, and poor understanding of, training concepts leading to less effective internal control. To improve the training experience, companies are implementing principles of games in employee training modules, a practice known as gamification. Utilizing a laboratory experiment on data privacy training and a field study involving IT security training for employees of a bank, we test whether a training environment with basic gamification elements results in greater trainee satisfaction and knowledge acquisition than traditional, non-gamified training. We find basic gamification results in higher satisfaction levels in the lab and field, but only marginally significant improvements in learning. Furthermore, these learning improvements are q...
When Optimizing f-Divergence is Robust with Label Noise

We show when maximizing a properly defined f-divergence measure (an extended definition of f-mutual information) with respect to a classifier's predictions and the supervised labels is robust with label noise. Leveraging its variational form, we derive a nice decoupling property for this particular f-divergence when label noise presents, where the divergence is shown to be a linear combination of the variational difference defined on the clean distribution and a bias term introduced due to the noise. The above derivation helps us analyze the robustness of this measure for different f-divergence functions. With established robustness, this family of f-divergence functions arises as useful metrics for the problem of learning with noisy labels, which do not require the specification of the labels' noise rate. When they are possibly not robust, we propose fixes to make them so. In addition to the analytical results, we present thorough experimental studies.
Debt Structure and Conditional Conservatism

ABSTRACT We investigate whether characteristics of firms' debt structure, beyond leverage and debt covenants, are associated with predictable variation in conditional conservatism. The contracting ...
Distributive Politics and Economic Growth

A crude distinction between economics and politics would be that economics is concerned with expanding the pie while politics is about distributing it. In this paper we analyze the relationship between the two. We focus on how an economy's initial configuration of resources shapes the political struggle for income and wealth distribution, and how that, in turn, affects long-run growth. Our main conclusion is that inequality is conducive to the adoption of growth-retarding policies. We derive this result from a simple political-economy model of growth, and present cross-country evidence consistent with it. The key feature of our model is that individuals differ in their relative factor endowments. We distinguish between two types of factors: an accumulated factor (called "capital") and a nonaccumulated factor (called "labor"). Growth is driven by the expansion of the capital stock, which is in turn determined by individual saving decisions. Long-run growth is endogenous, as the aggregate production function is taken to be linearly homogeneous in capital and (productive) government services taken together. The provision of government services is financed by a tax on capital. Because government services are productive, a "small" tax on
The hierarchy of roads, the locality of traffic, and governance

Abstract This study investigates the use of road networks both within and outside of home jurisdictions (city (or town) and county of residence) by analyzing GPS data collected in the Minneapolis—Saint Paul metropolitan area. The study tracked volunteers' travel behavior to determine which roads (and thus which class of roads) users chose to accommodate their travel needs. More than half of the travel on county roads and city streets occur outside of one's home city, but most travel is within one's home county. The average share of travel distance in the home county is more than 70% for both county and city streets. The high share, which does not account for non-residents destined for the county to work or shop, e.g., implies that the free rider problem on city and county streets at the county level is minimal. Of particular concern is travel on city roads in cities other than one's own. To the extent that this is to go to a destination in that city, that travel is also local. However, because city and county roads are typically funded by those jurisdictions from land-based sources such as property taxes, through trips with neither end in the city through which they are traveling are in a very real sense “free riders”, and pose a problem. With growing trip lengths and emerging economies of scale in road management, it may be appropriate to consider moving more roads from township, town, or city level to the county level of government.
Exchange rate volatility and the stability of stock prices

Abstract Using a sample of American Depositary Receipts (ADRs), we test whether the volatility of ADRs is explained by exchange-rate volatility in the ADR home country. Tests show that variability in the home-country currency leads to greater volatility in ADRs as a 1% increase in exchange-rate volatility corresponds to an approximate 2% increase in ADR volatility. To make stronger causal inferences, we show abnormal volatility in Chinese ADRs surrounding the largely unexpected 2005 unpegging of the Chinese Yuan to the U.S. dollar. These results provide an important link between currency markets and equity markets.
Ability to Pay

The landmark Dodd-Frank Act of 2010 transforms the landscape of consumer credit in the United States. Many of the changes have been high-profile and accordingly attracted considerable media and scholarly attention, most notably the establishment of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). But when the dust settled, one profoundly transformative innovation that did not garner the same outrage as CFPA did get into the law: imposing upon lenders a duty to assure borrowers’ ability to repay. Ensuring a borrower’s ability to repay is not an entirely unprecedented legal concept, to be sure, but its wholesale embrace by Dodd-Frank represents a sea change in U.S. consumer credit market regulation. This article does three things regarding this new duty to assess a consumer’s ability to pay mortgage loans. First, it tracks the multifaceted pedigree of this requirement, looking at fledgling strands in U.S. consumer law as well as other areas such as securities law; it compares too its more robust embrace in foreign systems. Second, it offers conjecture regarding just how this broadly stated principle might be put into practice by the federal regulators. Finally, it provides a brief normative comment, siding with the supporters of this new obligation on lenders.
The impact of piped water provision on infant mortality in Brazil: A quantile panel data approach

Abstract We examine the impact of piped water on the under-1 infant mortality rate (IMR) in Brazil using a recently developed econometric procedure for the estimation of quantile treatment effects with panel data. The provision of piped water in Brazil is highly correlated with other observable and unobservable determinants of IMR — the latter leading to an important source of bias. Instruments for piped water provision are not readily available, and fixed effects to control for time-invariant correlated unobservables are invalid in the simple quantile regression framework. Using the quantile panel data procedure in Chen and Khan [Chen, S., Khan, S., Semiparametric estimation of non-stationary censored panel model data models with time-varying factor. Econometric Theory 2007; forthcoming], our estimates indicate that the provision of piped water reduces infant mortality by significantly more at the higher conditional quantiles of the IMR distribution than at the lower conditional quantiles (except for cases of extreme underdevelopment). These results imply that targeting piped water intervention toward areas in the upper quantiles of the conditional IMR distribution, when accompanied by other basic public health inputs, can achieve significantly greater reductions in infant mortality.
Motivation and Ability? A Behavioral Perspective on the Pursuit of Radical Invention in Multi-Technology Incumbents

We examine the role of incumbent firms in developing radical technologies, distinguishing between their motivation and ability to develop radical inventions. We argue that the motivation to pursue ...
The mythology of game theory

Non-cooperative game theory is at its heart a theory of cognition, specifically a theory of how decisions are made. Game theory's leverage is that we can design different payoffs, settings, player arrays, action possibilities, and information structures, and that these differences lead to different strategies, outcomes, and equilibria. It is well-known that, in experimental settings, people do not adopt the predicted strategies, outcomes, and equilibria. The standard response to this mismatch of prediction and observation is to add various psychological axioms to the game-theoretic framework. Regardless of the differing specific proposals and results, game theory uniformly makes certain cognitive assumptions that seem rarely to be acknowledged, much less interrogated. Indeed, it is not widely understood that game theory is essentially a cognitive theory. Here, we interrogate those cognitive assumptions. We do more than reject specific predictions from specific games. More broadly, we reject the underlying cognitive model implicitly assumed by game theory.
Contracting around Copyright: The Uneasy Case for Unbundling of Rights in Creative Works

The Copyright Act grants authors and users a set of entitlements in copyrightable works. It is questionable whether and to what extent authors and users can reallocate these rights by entering into legally enforceable contracts. The Seventh Circuit’s historic decision in ProCD, Inc v Zeidenberg, which held that contracts are usually not preempted by the Copyright Act, produced an extensive debate in the copyright literature regarding the enforceability and desirability of such contracts. Many participants in this debate, both supporters and critics of the court’s holding, assume that the ProCD rule enhances economic efficiency by allowing authors to unbundle the set of rights prescribed by the Copyright Act. In this Article, I claim that, from an economic efficiency perspective, it is difficult to defend the ProCD rule. I argue that the prevailing belief that this rule reduces the wasteful deadweight loss associated with copyright is oversimplified and inaccurate. A more persuasive argument is that the ProCD rule increases the incentive to create in the long run. Such an efficient outcome, however, is desirable only when it allows society to mitigate the harm caused by other damaging components of the copyright system, and this was not achieved by the ProCD decision.
THE LAWS OF WAR AND THE “LESSER EVIL”

One of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law (IHL) is that it recognizes no lesser-evil justification for breaking its rules. Those violating the laws of war will thus be viewed as war criminals even when their conduct was intended to - and in fact did - prevent much greater harm. This Article argues that this deep-rooted absolutist stance undermines the humanitarian drive of the laws of war, and offers, instead, a lesser-evil defense. The argument begins with the obvious analogy to the necessity defense in domestic criminal law, emphasizing the adaptations that are necessary in order to transpose the domestic concept onto the international plane. It then proceeds to test possible first-order accounts – deontological, consequentialist, and institutional – for why IHL might nonetheless prefer a more absolutist stance than domestic law. It finds that none of these accounts offers a compelling explanation for the exclusion of any lesser-evil justification from IHL. The Article then proceeds to develop a blueprint for the concept of a humanitarian necessity justification that would exculpate an actor who violated the laws of war in the name of a greater humanitarian good under certain conditions. A central component of the justification, which is required given the special nature of IHL, is a condition that the greater humanitarian good would benefit the enemy, rather than the actor’s own people.
Monetary policy and bank lending in the Euro area: Is there a stock market channel or an interest rate channel?☆

Abstract In this paper I compare a traditional demand oriented model of bank lending with its focus on short-term interest rates in the money market, to a non-traditional capital budgeting model of bank lending based on movements in share valuations for the Euro area. Using non-nested hypothesis tests, omitted variables tests, and Granger Causality tests, I reject the traditional demand oriented model of bank lending and fail to reject the capital budgeting model of bank lending for Monetary Financial Institutions (MFI's) in the Euro area. Even though Europe is a bank-based financial system, it appears the stock market plays a key role in the lending decisions and allocation of resources in Europe. One possible policy implication of this research is that the central bank should try and stabilize stock prices in order to achieve their goal of stabilizing bank lending and the economy.
Modeling a Paradigm Shift: From Producer Innovation to User and Open Collaborative Innovation

In this paper, we assess the economic viability of innovation by producers relative to two increasingly important alternative models: innovations by single-user individuals or firms and open collaborative innovation. We analyze the design costs and architectures and communication costs associated with each model. We conclude that both innovation by individual users and open collaborative innovation increasingly compete with and may displace producer innovation in many parts of the economy. We explain why this represents a paradigm shift with respect to innovation research, policy making, and practice. We discuss important implications and offer suggestions for further research.
The Effects of Tort Reform on Medical Malpractice Insurers' Ultimate Losses

Whereas the literature evaluating the effect of tort reforms has focused on the impact of reforms on insurers' reported incurred losses, this article examines the ultimate effects of reforms using the developed losses from a comprehensive sample of insurers writing medical malpractice insurance from 1984 to 2003. Noneconomic damages caps are particularly influential in reducing medical malpractice losses and increasing insurer profitability. The long-run effects of these reforms are greater than insurers' expected effects; for example, 5- and 7-year developed loss ratios are below the initially reported incurred loss ratios for those years following the enactment of noneconomic damages caps. Analyses of reported losses consequently understate the ultimate effects of tort reforms. The quantile regressions show that reforms have the greatest effects for the firms that are at the high end of the loss distribution.
The co-movement of couples' incomes

While there is a large literature on how individual incomes move over time, we know much less about couples’ joint income dynamics. Current research on individual income dynamics has increasingly considered heterogeneity—do all individuals’ incomes evolve in the same way, or does a particular individual’s income evolve in the same way throughout their life? This paper considers the analogous questions for couples—do all couples’ incomes move together in the same way, or does a particular couple’s incomes move together in the same way throughout their marriage? In particular, I find evidence of correlated volatility; husbands with volatile incomes tend to have wives with volatile ones. I find weaker evidence for heterogeneity in the correlation of husbands’ and wives’ income changes, with some couples incomes moving together while others moving in opposite directions. Couples’ income changes are negatively correlated early in marriage, particularly when young children are present, and become more positively correlated over time.