cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Conservation and development: Evidence from Thai protected areas

Abstract Protected areas are a key tool for conservation policy but their economic impacts are not well understood. This paper presents new evidence about the local effects of strictly protected areas in Thailand, combining data on socioeconomic outcomes from a poverty mapping study with satellite-based estimates of forest cover. The selective placement of protected areas is addressed by controlling for characteristics which drove both protection and development and by instrumenting for protection with priority watershed status. The estimates indicate that protected areas increased average consumption and lowered poverty rates, despite imposing binding constraints on agricultural land availability. Socioeconomic gains are likely explained by increased tourism in and around protected areas. However, net impacts are largest at intermediate distances from major cities, highlighting that the spatial patterns of both costs and benefits are important for efforts to minimize conservation-development tradeoffs.
Using the Residual‐Income Stock Price Valuation Model to Teach and Learn Ratio Analysis

This article provides an overview of the residual‐income stock price valuation model and demonstrates its use in interpreting the DuPont return on equity (ROE) decomposition. The model provides theoretical support for the DuPont model's focus on ROE and aids in understanding the implications of the price‐to‐book and price‐earnings ratios. I conclude with an application of the model in the valuation of Nordstrom, Inc.
Why do REIT Returns Poorly Reflect Property Returns? Unrealizable Appreciation Gains due to Trading Constraints as the Solution to the Short-Term Disparity

This study addresses the short-term disparity between REIT returns and direct property returns, and argues that this phenomenon is due to the trading constraints in the direct property market imposed on REITs (the dealer rule), which render them unable to time markets in order to realize short-term property appreciation profits. This makes REITs primarily a property income investment rather than a full property investment, and explains the observed disparity. Specifically, a REIT investor is consistently exposed to rental cash flows, but is not exposed to property appreciation returns that are not contained in income, that is, cyclical price changes caused by a change in the capitalization rate. I test this hypothesis over a 1978-2009 data sample and find strongly that REIT returns consistently reflect property income returns, but not property appreciation returns. This result makes this study, to my knowledge, the first in the literature to find a consistent link between REIT returns and any portion of direct property returns, even at short time horizons, in the context of a linear factor model. I then set up a natural laboratory to test the trading-constraints explanation by examining the appreciation dependence of different types of REITs, which should be differently affected by the trading constraints. I find that returns to UPREITs, which are less affected by the constraints, have a stronger appreciation dependence than returns to regular REITs. As a robustness check, I also perform a size test and find that large REITs, which are less affected by the constraints, have a stronger appreciation dependence than small REITs. When testing the effects of UPREIT and size characteristics simultaneously, I find a consistent UPREIT effect. I further find that Real Estate Operating Companies (REOCs), which are not subject to trading constraints, show shortterm property appreciation dependence. These findings offer strong support for the trading-restrictions explanation.
Facilitating Patient Access to Patent-Protected Genetic Testing

In March 2010, a New York federal district court granted summary judgment invalidating a number of biotechnology patents directed to the BRCA1 and BRCA2 human breast cancer genes. One of the most highly publicized patent disputes in recent memory, Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) v. United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and Myriad Genetics, Inc. pits patient care advocates against the patent-owning biotechnology industry. The Myriad decision is now under review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Neither the Federal Circuit (nor the U.S. Supreme Court, if it were to grant review) should prohibit the patenting of genetic material through judicial decision; such a drastic change in patent law requires due deliberation by Congress. Despite the critical importance to society of facilitating patient access to genetic testing, dismantling patent protection for this important technology is not the right approach; instead, modifying approaches to licensing gene patents is. This essay concludes that the district court’s decision in Myriad should not stand. The essay also evaluates the recommendations of a Department of Health and Human Services Advisory Committee for facilitating access to patented genetic testing and offers a modification of the committee’s proposed framework.
Nonlinear asymmetric models of the short‐term interest rate

This study introduces a generalized discrete time framework to evaluate the empirical performance of a wide variety of well-known models in capturing the dynamic behavior of short-term interest rates. A new class of models that displays nonlinearity and asymmetry in the drift, and incorporates the level effect and stochastic volatility in the diffusion function is introduced in discrete time and tested against the popular diffusion, GARCH, and level-GARCH models. Based on the statistical test results, the existing models are strongly rejected in favor of the newly proposed models because of the nonlinear asymmetric drift of the short rate, and the presence of nonlinearity, GARCH, and level effects in its volatility. The empirical results indicate that the nonlinear asymmetric models are better than the existing models in forecasting the future level and volatility of interest rate changes. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Jrl Fut Mark 26:869–894, 2006
Smooth volatility shifts and spillovers in U.S. crude oil and corn futures markets

Abstract Recent developments in biofuel technologies have resulted in heightened linkages between the petroleum and agricultural sectors. As such, a large price and/or volatility shift experienced in one sector is now more likely to spill-over into the other. In trying to capture the interrelations present in the two markets, we take seriously the importance of properly modeling smooth structural shifts. We incorporate trigonometric functions into a multivariate GARCH model of crude and corn futures prices in order to obtain the empirical volatility response functions and the time-varying correlation coefficient. Although both short-term and long-term futures exhibit shifts in the mean and volatility, volatility shifts do not manifest themselves in the same manner for different maturities. This indicates that the term structure of futures volatility changes over time.
The Magnetic Telegraph, Price and Quantity Data, and the New Management of Capital

The contribution to growth of telegraphic- as opposed to rail-speed transmission of financial asset and commodity price data remains unclear. With more certainty we can identify savings in the holdings of real capital—savings made possible by the use of the telegraph at the firm level to implement tight systems of logistical control.
SEC Comment Letters and Insider Sales

ABSTRACT We document that insider trading is significantly higher than normal levels prior to the public disclosure of SEC comment letters relating to revenue recognition. Furthermore, insider trading is triple its normal level for firms with high short positions. We find a small negative return at the comment letter release date and a negative drift in returns of 1 to 5 percent over the next 50 days following the release. We also find that greater pre-disclosure sales are associated with a stronger negative drift. This evidence suggests that insiders appear to benefit from trading prior to revenue recognition comment letters. We investigate whether the delayed price reaction to comment letter releases is due to investor inattention. Consistent with this explanation, we document that comment letters are downloaded infrequently from EDGAR in the days following their public disclosure. JEL Classifications: M41; M48; K42
Variation-based tests for volatility misspecification

Abstract We provide a simple and easy to use goodness-of-fit test for the misspecification of the volatility function in diffusion models. The test uses power variations constructed as functionals of discretely observed diffusion processes. We introduce an orthogonality condition which stabilizes the limit law in the presence of parameter estimation and avoids the necessity for a bootstrap procedure that reduces performance and leads to complications associated with the structure of the diffusion process. The test has good finite sample performance as we demonstrate in numerical simulations.
Threshold concepts and modalities for teaching leadership practice

Can the teaching of leadership transform practice? What concepts and modalities are best suited to do so? This article builds on Meyer and Land’s (2003) theory of threshold concepts to examine how ...
Financial Liberalization, International Monetary Dis/Order, and the Neoliberal State

This article started as a plenary paper that was presented to the annual International Economic Law conference of the American Society of International Law. The conference itself posed the question of whether the new international economic order was leading to greater peace, stability, fairness and justice. At a time when American post-Cold War triumphalism was perhaps at its zenith, Canova answered with an unequivocal indictment of the global order for failing to deliver peace or justice. The first part of the article critiques the international monetary system, and argues that the primary negative consequence of capital liberalization is the undermining of the public sector. Free portfolio capital flows constitute an undemocratic check on once-sovereign nation-states to pursue progressive social and economic policies. Neoliberal capital goes hand in hand with a neoliberal state with declining capabilities to provide for the public safety and general welfare. Part two of the article analyzes the relationship between central bank autonomy, another institutional pillar of the new world order, and questionable economic assumptions, dubious constitutional foundations, and flawed historical narratives that constrain discussion of alternative models. The final part of the article considers alternative futures and paths of globalization.
Discrimination and Disidentification: The Fair-Start Defense of Affirmative Action

The Fair-Start Defense justifies affirmative action preferences as a response to harms caused by race- and sex-based discrimination. Rather than base a justification for preferences on the traditional appeal to self-esteem, I argue they are justified in virtue of the effects institutional discrimination has on the goals and aspirations of its victims. In particular, I argue that institutional discrimination puts women and blacks at an unfair competitive disadvantage by causing academic disidentification. Affirmative action is justified as a means of negating this unfair disadvantage.
Protecting Financial Markets: Lessons from the Subprime Mortgage Meltdown

Congress has been holding hearings on threats to the financial system in response to the recent subprime1 mortgage meltdown and its impact on the mortgage-backed and other asset-backed securities markets and on credit markets generally.2 Central banks and governments worldwide have likewise expressed concern about this crisis and its potential systemic effects. Initial remedial steps were focused on banks. The United States Federal Reserve Bank, for example, attempted to reduce the likelihood that this crisis might affect other financial markets and the economy by cutting both the discount rate, which is the interest rate the Federal Reserve charges a bank to borrow funds when a bank is temporarily short of funds,3 and the
The Politics of Pay: The Unintended Consequences of Regulating Executive Compensation

The persistent outrage over CEO pay expressed by politicians, the press, media, labor unions, and the general public (but not shareholders) have prompted the imposition of a wide range of disclosure requirements, tax policies, accounting rules, governance reforms, direct legislation, and other rules constraining executive compensation stretching back nearly a century. We analyze the regulations that have substantially damaged the efficacy of CEO pay practices, ranging from the first disclosure rules in the 1930s to the 2018 Trump tax rules. We discuss the political forces behind the regulatory interventions, and assess the continuing unintended consequences of these interventions. Our emerging conclusion is that the best way the government can fix executive compensation is to stop trying to fix it, and by undoing the damage already caused through existing regulations that have, in aggregate, imposed enormous costs on organizations, their shareholders, and social welfare.
Should moral sentiments be incorporated into benefit-cost analysis? An example of long-term discounting

There are currently debates both about the ability to measure the value of moral sentiments and the nature of benefit-cost analysis. Moral sentiments can be reasonably measured in many situations and their consideration can improve benefit-cost analysis in any case. This argument is presented by briefly considering measurement issues and the example of discount rates for long-term projects in the context of a benefit-cost analysis. The suggestion has been made that it is immoral and unethical to undervalue future generations by discounting, and recently the federal government has recognized these moral concerns about discounting. Yet, the logic of wealth maximization requires discounting. This dilemma may be resolved by realizing that the problem is one of larger concern over missing values that arise from the general tendency of benefit-cost analyses to ignore ethical values. This deficiency is overcome by a modification to benefit-cost analysis (called KHM, for Kaldor-Hicks-Moral) that incorporates moral values directly into the benefit-cost analysis and, inter alia, recognizes all values for which there is a willingness to pay. Insofar as the current generation is willing to pay to avoid future moral harm, this is incorporated into the KHM approach. This article illustrates how KHM incorporates missing values and shows how compensation and mitigation can eliminate or reduce the concern over moral harm to future generations. Thus it is not necessary to use lower discount rates to recognize moral harm.
CAPITAL STRUCTURE, SHAREHOLDER RIGHTS, AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

We show how capital structure is influenced by the strength of shareholder rights. Our empirical evidence shows an inverse relation between leverage and shareholder rights, suggesting that firms adopt higher debt ratios where shareholder rights are more restricted. This is consistent with agency theory, which predicts that leverage helps alleviate agency problems. This negative relation, however, is not found in regulated firms (i.e., utilities). We contend that this is because regulation already helps alleviate agency conflicts and, hence, mitigates the role of leverage in controlling agency costs.
The Multistate Bar Exam as a Theory of Law

What is the most widely read work of jurisprudence by those in the legal system? Is it H.L.A. Hart’s The Concept of Law? Ronald Dworkin’s Law’s Empire? No. It is actually the Multistate Bar Exam (“Bar Exam”). Perhaps no other work on law has been so widely read by those in the legal profession. Although the precise text of the Bar Exam is different every year, it presents a jurisprudence that transcends the specific language of its text. Each year, thousands of lawyers-to-be ponder over it, learning its profound teachings on the meaning of the law. They study it for months, devoting more time to it than practically any other jurisprudential text. It therefore comes as a great surprise that such a widely read and studied work has barely received scholarly attention. In fact, legal scholars readily dismiss the Bar Exam. Despite the fact that the Bar Exam purports to present the valid law in the United States, scholars do not cite to it as legal authority. Nor do judges. The Bar Exam gets little mention in treatises either. It is time to rectify this situation and put the Bar Exam in its place as the great work of jurisprudence that it is. But what is its theory of law? I got my hands on the July 1998 Multistate Bar Exam, which is made available to Bar Exam takers as a sample practice test. To truly understand the Bar Exam, one must read through all its physical manifestations, but reading through more than one Bar Exam was more than this author could bear, notwithstanding the great insights that it would have clearly produced. I therefore leave further work on other Bar Exams for future scholars in this young, yet hopefully growing, new field of study. The first thing to note is that this Bar Exam comes on beautiful, thick, acid-free paper designed for indelibility. This, I believe, is a testament to its
Making Appearances Matter: Recusal and the Appearance of Bias

In the United States, judges are required to recuse themselves-that is, remove themselves from participating in a case-not only when they are biased, but even when they may appear biased to a neutral observer. This nominally strict, appearance-based recusal standard is intended to ensure the judge's impartiality in resolving disputes, to protect the judiciary's reputation, and to instill public confidence in the fairness of the courts. It has long been assumed that so long as the judge makes the correct recusal decision, the appearance of impartiality is restored and the reputation of the judiciary is protected. This Article challenges that long-standing assumption and argues that the focus on appearances only at the time of the recusal decision, when the public has already formed its impressions of judicial impartiality, may not fully restore public confidence and protect the reputation of the judiciary. In other words, a judge's recusal decision may be too little and come too late. Moreover, when appearances are considered on a case-by-case basis, often by the very judge whose impartiality has been challenged, even the correct nonrecusal decision does not always foster an appearance of impartiality. Most of the literature on recusal focuses on the recusal standard and the reasons why judges might, intentionally or unintentionally, reach the incorrect recusal decision, and seeks solutions to that problem. In this Article, I propose a new role that appearances should play in American recusal jurisprudence, and a new approach to judicial recusal. I argue that rather than allowing individual judges to consider appearances ex post (i.e., in the context of individual cases), legislators must consider appearances ex ante to prevent the damage to the judiciary from arising in the first instance. This means that legislators must regulate judicial selection (including judicial elections) and judicial conduct, as well as extrajudicial conduct, with an eye towards potential future recusal. To that end, legislatures should create ethical rules and regulations designed to eliminate any appearance of impartiality from arising. And, to the extent that recusal cannot be avoided by such ex ante regulation, legislatures must also consider appearances ex ante in creating and implementing new recusal procedures. I. INTRODUCTION 945 II. JUDICIAL RECUSAL: PAST AND PRESENT 950 A. Roots 951 B. Judicial Disqualification in die United States 952 1. Federal recusal statutes 953 2. ABA Codes of Judicial Conduct 957 C. Recusal Under the Due Process Clause 958 1. Financial interest 959 2. Criminal contempt 961 3. Caperton v. Massey 962 D. Recent Incidents 964 III. IS GETTING IT RIGHT ENOUGH? 966 A. "Getting to Recusal" 969 B. Why Recusal May Not Be the Solution 973 1. Too little, too late 973 2. One case at a time 977 IV. EX ANTE REGULATION AND RECUSAL PROCEDURE 982 A. Ex Ante Regulation of Judicial Conduct and Judicial Elections 982 1. Judicial elections …
Composable Probabilistic Inference Networks Using MRAM-based Stochastic Neurons

Magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) technologies with thermally unstable nanomagnets are leveraged to develop an intrinsic stochastic neuron as a building block for restricted Boltzmann machines (RBMs) to form deep belief networks (DBNs). The embedded MRAM-based neuron is modeled using precise physics equations. The simulation results exhibit the desired sigmoidal relation between the input voltages and probability of the output state. A probabilistic inference network simulator (PIN-Sim) is developed to realize a circuit-level model of an RBM utilizing resistive crossbar arrays along with differential amplifiers to implement the positive and negative weight values. The PIN-Sim is composed of five main blocks to train a DBN, evaluate its accuracy, and measure its power consumption. The MNIST dataset is leveraged to investigate the energy and accuracy tradeoffs of seven distinct network topologies in SPICE using the 14nm HP-FinFET technology library with the nominal voltage of 0.8V, in which an MRAM-based neuron is used as the activation function. The software and hardware level simulations indicate that a 784× 200× 10 topology can achieve less than 5% error rates with ∼400pJ energy consumption. The error rates can be reduced to 2.5% by using a 784× 500× 500× 500× 10 DBN at the cost of ∼10× higher energy consumption and significant area overhead. Finally, the effects of specific hardware-level parameters on power dissipation and accuracy tradeoffs are identified via the developed PIN-Sim framework.
Exchange rate flexibility and credit during capital inflow reversals: Purgatory … not paradise

Abstract We identify periods of capital inflows reversals—looking at both gross and net capital flows—and document the behavior of macro and credit variables in economies with different degrees of exchange rate flexibility. We find that more exchange rate flexibility moderates credit swings during capital flow cycles, mainly because it is associated with milder credit growth during the boom. Flexibility, however, cannot completely shield the economy from a credit reversal. We observe what we dub as a recovery puzzle: credit growth in economies with more flexible exchange rate regimes remains tepid well after the capital flow reversal takes place. This results stress potential complementarity of macro-prudential policies with the exchange rate regime. More flexible regimes could help smoothing the credit cycle through capital surcharges and dynamic provisioning that build buffers to counteract the credit recovery puzzle. In contrast, more rigid exchange rate regimes would benefit the most from measures to contain excessive credit growth during booms, such as reserve requirements, loan-to-income ratios, and debt-to-income and debt-service-to-income limits.
The "Hard" SDR; An Exploratory Analysis

There has been considerable interest in recent years in the possibility of hardening the SDR, motivated by the desire for an international yardstick of monetary stability. This paper explores various ideas aimed at hardening the SDR in the light of the previous debate on the valuation of the SDR. The paper shows that the construction and implementation of a “hard” SDR which would preserve its purchasing power over goods and services is technically feasible and illustrates this by monthly computations covering the period from July 1974 to July 1993.
The Ignored Performance Measure

This paper studies a setting in which a risk-averse agent must be motivated to work on two tasks: evaluating a potential project and, if the project is adopted, implementing it. Although a performance measure that is informative of an agent's action is typically valuable because it can be used to improve the risk sharing of the contract, this is not necessarily the case in this two-task setting. I provide a sufficient condition under which a performance measure that is informative of the agent's implementation effort is worthless for contracting despite the agent being risk averse. This shows that information content is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for a performance measure to be valuable.
Religious Group Autonomy: Further Reflections about What is at Stake

Does the First Amendment afford religious organizations special protection when government regulation interferes with their internal activities or affairs? Nearly all scholars would agree that relief is appropriate where government regulation is designed to impede a group's religious mission or otherwise unfairly discriminate against religion, but such cases are rare. The more difficult cases involve neutral, generally applicable laws that are not intended to burden the internal operations of religious groups but, nevertheless, have that effect. Does the First Amendment provide any relief in such situations and, if so, what is the justification for this protection?In Employment Division v. Smith, the Supreme Court held that the First Amendment does not excuse individuals from compliance with neutral, generally applicable laws that burden religious practice. Legislatures may choose to grant relief in such situations, but if they choose not to do so, the First Amendment does not require any special accommodations or exemptions. However, Smith did not address protections for religious groups, and, indeed, the Court has never directly addressed the scope of First Amendment protections where neutral government regulation interferes with the internal operations of religious organizations. Scholars who have debated this question have advocated a variety of positions.
Patents and Innovation: Evidence from Economic History

Abstract What is the optimal system of intellectual property rights to encourage innovation? Empirical evidence from economic history can help to inform important policy questions that have been di...
The logic of legitimacy: Bootstrapping paradoxes of constitutional democracy

Many have claimed that legitimate constitutional democracy is either conceptually or practically impossible, given infinite regress paradoxes deriving from the requirement of simultaneously democratic and constitutional origins for legitimate government. This paper first critically investigates prominent conceptual and practical bootstrapping objections advanced by Barnett and Michelman. It then argues that the real conceptual root of such bootstrapping objections is not any specific substantive account of legitimacy makers, such as consent or democratic endorsement, but a particular conception of the logic of normative standards—the determinate threshold conception—that the critic attributes to the putatively undermined account of legitimacy. The paper further claims that when we abandon threshold conceptions of the logic of legitimacy in favor of regulative-ideal conceptions, then the objections, from bootstrapping paradoxes to the very idea of constitutional democracy, disappear. It concludes with considerations in favor of adopting a more demanding conception of the regulative ideal of constitutional democracy, advanced by Habermas, focusing on potentials for developmental learning.
Dynamics and equilibria of ecological predator–prey networks as nature’s supply chains

Abstract In this paper, we develop a dynamic network model of ecological food webs and prove that the set of stationary points of the projected dynamical system coincides with the set of solutions of a variational inequality governing the equilibrium of predator–prey networks. We also establish the equivalence between the ecological models and supply chain network equilibrium models and highlight the connections to spatial price equilibrium problems. We propose an algorithmic scheme, provide convergence results, and apply it to a food web drawn from a fisheries application. This paper is a contribution to the interdisciplinary supply chain network literature.
When is enough, enough? Market reaction to highly dilutive stock option plans and the subsequent impact on CEO compensation

Abstract Using data from the 1998 proxy season, we find that higher levels of potential dilution from management-sponsored, executive-only stock option plans result in significantly negative cumulative abnormal returns in the 3-day period surrounding the proxy date. We also present evidence of a significantly negative relationship between the percentage vote against the option proposal and the percentage change in executive pay from the 1998 to 1999 compensation years. We interpret this finding to support the idea that boards of directors are responsive to shareholder concerns about CEO option awards following a high level of shareholder opposition.
Offshore schemes and tax evasion: The role of banks

Abstract We use mandatory Russian banks’ reports to the Central Bank to construct a novel measure of offshore-banking. Individual bank involvement in offshore operations is calculated as a fraction of total transactions with foreign countries that go through offshore financial centers. We find that offshore-active banks perform less financial intermediation and focus more on international wire transfers. We show a positive relation between banks’ offshore activities and tax evasion of companies doing business through these banks. Finally, we show that the Central Bank eventually responds to this behavior: offshore-active banks have higher likelihood of license revocation and criminal investigation against top-management.
A Trip through the Maze of "Corporate Democracy": Shareholder Voice and Management Composition

This paper describes and analyzes the role of shareholders in determining the composition of corporate management. Prepared for a symposium on race and corporate law, the paper explores shareholder voice using the example of shareholder activists seeking to increase the racial diversity of boards and officers. Board composition must balance the collegiality and trust that accompanies homogeneity with the creative spark offered by heterogeneity. The paper examines the use of shareholder proposals, voting in board elections, and litigation as methods of diversifying management. The paper pays particular attention to the recent flurry of post-Enron corporate governance reforms, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and proposed changes in SEC proxy rules and NYSE listing requirements. A recurring theme of post-Enron reform is director independence, which may require substantial turnover on boards in coming years. Although shareholders nominally elect directors, in fact they have very limited ability to determine board composition directly through the exercise of voting power. While shareholders can theoretically nominate alternative candidates, this option is severely limited by the daunting logistics and costs of running a proxy campaign. The SEC's recent proposal to give shareholder-nominated board candidates access to the corporate proxy is meant to address this problem. Proxy access under the proposed rule change is subject to significant limitations, however, and thus will affect board composition in only the most extreme circumstances. The paper concludes that the current wave of corporate governance reform has produced only marginal increases in shareholders' opportunity to influence the composition of corporate management.
Caperton: Correct Today, Compelling Tomorrow

This symposium article asserts that Caperton v. A.T. Massey Coal Co. is correct in result; correct in its narrowness; and correct in calling on courts to be more rigorous in recusal than due process requires. The article argues that Caperton is a model of judicial restraint and that, paradoxically for a decision overturning a state justice's non-recusal, the majority's approach is a model of cooperative federalism. These characteristics are particularly exemplified by the degree to which the opinion tracks the counsel offered by the Conference of Chief Justices, both as to what the opinion decides, and as to what it does not decide. Second, the article asserts that the breadth of support for the petitioners in Caperton, combined with state-level developments in the decision's aftermath, support the proposition that the decision's greatest impact will be not as dispositive precedent in itself, but in spurring greater vigilance in recusal, both systemically and among individual jurists.
A Seemingly Unrelated Poisson Regression Model

This article introduces a new estimator for the analysis of two contemporaneously correlated endogenous event count variables. This seemingly unrelated Poisson regression model (SUPREME) estimator combines the efficiencies created by single equation Poisson regression model estimators and insights from “seemingly unrelated” linear regression models.
Contracting with asymmetric demand information in supply chains

Abstract We solve a buyback contract design problem for a supplier who is working with a retailer who possesses private information about the demand distribution. We model the retailer’s private information as a space of either discrete or continuous demand states so that only the retailer knows its demand state and the demand for the product is stochastically increasing in the state. We focus on contracts that are viable in practice, where the buyback price being strictly less than the wholesale price, which is itself strictly less than the retail price. We derive the optimal (for the supplier) buyback contract that allows for arbitrary allocation of profits to the retailer (subject to the retailer’s reservation profit requirements) and show that in the limit this contract leads to the first-best solution with the supplier keeping the entire channel’s profit (after the retailer’s reservation profit).
Managing Dangerous Populations: Colonial Legacies of Security and Surveillance

We tend to associate practices of population surveillance with Western modernity and the intensification of security routines with the last decade defined by the “Global War on Terror.” I suggest, however, that proliferation of methods to monitor and control populations are legacies of the practices that were developed in the colonies to manage civilian populations. Here, I outline those institutional colonial legacies.
Agenda Power in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, 1988–2000

We find strong evidence that governing coalitions in Italy exercise s ignificant negative agenda powers. First, governing parties have a roll rate that is nearly zer o, and their roll rate is lower than opposition parties' roll rates, which average about 20% on all final passag e votes. Second, we find that, controlling for distance from the floor median, opposition parties have higher roll rates than government parties. These results strongly suggest that governing parties in Italy are able to control the legislative agenda to their benefit. We also doc ument significantly higher opposition roll rates on decree-conversion bills and budget bills that on ordinary bill s - consistent with our theoretical analysis of the differing procedures used in each case.
Aggregate Implications of Occupational Inheritance in China and India

This paper documents occupational inheritance‐interpreted as children inheriting their parents’ occupations‐in China, India, and other countries. We categorize potential reasons of the prevalence of occupational inheritance in China and India into two main groups: (1) labor market frictions, e.g., household registration system (“hukou”), which ties rural families to agriculture in China, and the caste system, which restricts young workers’ occupation choices in India, and (2) barriers to acquiring human capital, e.g., low availability of school education and workplace training. Based on a tractable occupation choice model, counterfactual experiments suggest that if the impediments mentioned above could be reduced to the US level, labor productivity would grow by 62 to 78% in China and over fourfold in India. In addition, China has realized 56 to 68% of this growth potential from the 1980s to 2009.
The Rise and Fall of Article 2

On August 13, 2001 the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws voted 89 to 53 to reject the 2001 Amendments to Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code that had just been approved in May by the American Law Institute. While negotiations continue, this public split between the two bodies that have together shepherded the UCC project for over fifty years represents the likely end of the fourteen year effort to revise the law of sales as embodied in Article 2. In this Essay, I examine the political economy of the Article 2 project from its origins to the present. I begin by analyzing the drafting and enactment process of the original Article 2 and evaluate the success of the new sales law it introduced, a success attributable in no small measure to the replacement of archaic vestiges of property law with efficient contract default rules. I then I consider the effects of the compromises Karl Llewellyn made to secure the enactment of the Code. Of particular significance is how the vague terms that invoke the commercial context (originally intended by Llewellyn as a means of incorporating ex ante default rules) have been used to challenge the objective meaning of disputed contracts. For many commercial contractors, exit may have been a cheaper option than lobbying for clearer and more predictable default rules. But the parties to mass-market sales transactions remain subject to Article 2, and their representatives have sought to influence the revision process. Thus, the focus has shifted from Llewellyn's original goal of prescribing optimal default rules for commercial contracts to the current debate over proscribing freedom of contract in mass-market transactions. The resulting divergence between the interests of producers and those of consumer buyers, computer information licensees and their representatives has produced deadlock. I conclude that the flaws in the Article 2 project were present from its inception. Given the limits of legal regulation, it is unlikely that any set of "uniform" rules that are promulgated for adoption in every state can both efficiently complete the gaps in commercial contracts as well as optimally police consumer transactions. In sum, the uniform laws process works when there is distributional symmetry (when today's buyer might be tomorrow's seller). On the other hand, the process deadlocks when it seeks to produce uniform rules for transaction-types in which the distributional effects are asymmetric and prices do not adjust efficiently to compensate for the victory of one group in the legislative process.
Parents’ Communication Work in the Management of Food Allergies

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) has identified food allergies as a critical public health issue that significantly affects quality of life for patients and the...
Limiting behaviors of high dimensional stochastic spin ensembles

Lattice spin models in statistical physics are used to understand magnetism. Their Hamiltonians are a discrete form of a version of a Dirichlet energy, signifying a relationship to the Harmonic map heat flow equation. The Gibbs distribution, defined with this Hamiltonian, is used in the Metropolis-Hastings (M-H) algorithm to generate dynamics tending towards an equilibrium state. In the limiting situation when the inverse temperature is large, we establish the relationship between the discrete M-H dynamics and the continuous Harmonic map heat flow associated with the Hamiltonian. We show the convergence of the M-H dynamics to the Harmonic map heat flow equation in two steps: First, with fixed lattice size and proper choice of proposal size in one M-H step, the M-H dynamics acts as gradient descent and will be shown to converge to a system of Langevin stochastic differential equations (SDE). Second, with proper scaling of the inverse temperature in the Gibbs distribution and taking the lattice size to infinity, it will be shown that this SDE system converges to the deterministic Harmonic map heat flow equation. Our results are not unexpected, but show remarkable connections between the M-H steps and the SDE Stratonovich formulation, as well as reveal trajectory-wise out of equilibrium dynamics to be related to a canonical PDE system with geometric constraints.
ASYMPTOTICALLY INDEPENDENT U-STATISTICS IN HIGH-DIMENSIONAL TESTING.

Many high-dimensional hypothesis tests aim to globally examine marginal or low-dimensional features of a high-dimensional joint distribution, such as testing of mean vectors, covariance matrices and regression coefficients. This paper constructs a family of U-statistics as unbiased estimators of the $\ell_{p}$-norms of those features. We show that under the null hypothesis, the U-statistics of different finite orders are asymptotically independent and normally distributed. Moreover, they are also asymptotically independent with the maximum-type test statistic, whose limiting distribution is an extreme value distribution. Based on the asymptotic independence property, we propose an adaptive testing procedure which combines $p$-values computed from the U-statistics of different orders. We further establish power analysis results and show that the proposed adaptive procedure maintains high power against various alternatives.
RLScheduler: An Automated HPC Batch Job Scheduler Using Reinforcement Learning

Today’s high-performance computing (HPC) platforms are still dominated by batch jobs. Accordingly, effective batch job scheduling is crucial to obtain high system efficiency. Existing HPC batch job schedulers typically leverage heuristic priority functions to prioritize and schedule jobs. But, once configured and deployed by the experts, such priority functions can hardly adapt to the changes of job loads, optimization goals, or system settings, potentially leading to degraded system efficiency when changes occur. To address this fundamental issue, we present RLScheduler, an automated HPC batch job scheduler built on reinforcement learning. RLScheduler relies on minimal manual interventions or expert knowledge, but can learn high-quality scheduling policies via its own continuous ‘trial and error’. We introduce a new kernel-based neural network structure and trajectory filtering mechanism in RLScheduler to improve and stabilize the learning process. Through extensive evaluations, we confirm that RLScheduler can learn high-quality scheduling policies towards various workloads and various optimization goals with relatively low computation cost. Moreover, we show that the learned models perform stably even when applied to unseen workloads, making them practical for production use.
Condensed groups in product varieties

A finitely generated group $G$ is called condensed if its isomorphism class in the space of finitely generated marked groups has no isolated points. We prove that every product variety $\mathcal{UV}$, where $\mathcal{U}$ (respectively, $\mathcal{V}$) is a non-abelian (respectively, a non-locally-finite) variety, contains a condensed group. In particular, there exist condensed groups of finite exponent. As an application, we obtain some results on the structure of the isomorphism relation and elementary equivalence on the set of finitely generated groups in $\mathcal{UV}$.
Revisiting Point Cloud Shape Classification with a Simple and Effective Baseline

Processing point cloud data is an important component of many real-world systems. As such, a wide variety of point-based approaches have been proposed, reporting steady benchmark improvements over time. We study the key ingredients of this progress and uncover two critical results. First, we find that auxiliary factors like different evaluation schemes, data augmentation strategies, and loss functions, which are independent of the model architecture, make a large difference in performance. The differences are large enough that they obscure the effect of architecture. When these factors are controlled for, PointNet++, a relatively older network, performs competitively with recent methods. Second, a very simple projection-based method, which we refer to as SimpleView, performs surprisingly well. It achieves on par or better results than sophisticated state-of-the-art methods on ModelNet40, while being half the size of PointNet++. It also outperforms state-of-the-art methods on ScanObjectNN, a real-world point cloud benchmark, and demonstrates better cross-dataset generalization.
Ectopic expression of pericentric HSATII RNA results in nuclear RNA accumulation, MeCP2 recruitment, and cell division defects

Within the pericentric regions of human chromosomes reside large arrays of tandemly repeated satellite sequences. Expression of the human pericentric satellite HSATII is prevented by extensive heterochromatin silencing in normal cells, yet in many cancer cells, HSATII RNA is aberrantly expressed and accumulates in large nuclear foci in cis. Expression and aggregation of HSATII RNA in cancer cells is concomitant with recruitment of key chromatin regulatory proteins including methyl-CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2). While HSATII expression has been observed in a wide variety of cancer cell lines and tissues, the effect of its expression is unknown. We tested the effect of stable expression of HSATII RNA within cells that do not normally express HSATII. Ectopic HSATII expression in HeLa and primary fibroblast cells leads to focal accumulation of HSATII RNA in cis and triggers the accumulation of MeCP2 onto nuclear HSATII RNA bodies. Further, long-term expression of HSATII RNA leads to cell division defects including lagging chromosomes, chromatin bridges, and other chromatin defects. Thus, expression of HSATII RNA in normal cells phenocopies its nuclear accumulation in cancer cells and allows for the characterization of the cellular events triggered by aberrant expression of pericentric satellite RNA.
Manifold Reconstruction of Differences: A Model-Based Iterative Statistical Estimation Algorithm With a Data-Driven Prior.

Manifold learning using deep neural networks been shown to be an effective tool for noise reduction in low-dose CT. We propose a new iterative CT reconstruction algorithm, called Manifold Reconstruction of Differences (MRoD), which combines physical models with a data-driven prior. The MRoD algorithm involves estimating a manifold component, approximating common features among all patients, and the difference component which has the freedom to fit the measured data. While the manifold captures typical patient features (e.g. healthy anatomy), the difference image highlights patient-specific elements (e.g. pathology). We present a framework which combines trained manifold-based modules with physical modules. We present a simulation study using anthropomorphic lung data showing that the MRoD algorithm can both isolate differences between a particular patient and the typical distribution, but also provide significant noise reduction with relatively low bias.
Search and credit frictions in the housing market

Abstract This paper develops a model of the housing market with search and credit frictions. The interaction between the two sources of friction gives rise to a novel channel through which the financial sector affects prices and liquidity in the housing market and leads to multiple equilibria. In a numerical exercise, we gauge the relative contribution of credit market shocks to the observed patterns in housing prices, time-to-sell, and mortgage debt-to-price ratio in the U.S. data prior to the 2007 housing market crash. Our results suggest that shocks associated with the credit frictions channel had a relatively larger impact on the observed build-up in mortgage debt and lack of change in time-to-sell than on the increase in prices.