cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Law, technology, and shifting power relations

In unequal power relations, the law controls the power of strong parties by providing weak parties with inequality-compensating rights. This classic account of inequality compensation in criminal law, labor law, and consumer law is challenged with the advent of information-related technologies: power relations start to change. Both strong and weak parties can improve their information position, causing power relations to shift in various ways. This article aims to map technology-related changes in power relations in law enforcement, labor, and commerce, and to assess the consequences of these changes for the legal protection of citizens, employees, and consumers. The analysis is illustrated by reference to American and Dutch law, comparing common-law and civil-law approaches to inequality compensation. Three power relations - law enforcement-citizen, employer-employee, and business-consumer - are analyzed on the basis of case descriptions and a general discussion. The analysis shows that with mushrooming databases and profiling technologies, power relations are changing in character and scope. Overarching trends are using digital personae as a basis for decision-making and creating panoptic risk-governing architectures that have a potentially self-disciplining effect on observed parties. Existing legal mechanisms are not sufficient to protect weak parties against errors in decision-making and the subtle and indirect uses of architectural power. Legal protection in criminal and administrative law, labor law, and consumer law should therefore be updated. This, however, is only part of the story. The different roles of individuals as citizens, employees, and consumers are becoming intertwined in the information society. Decisions are made about digital personae living in interconnected, context-crossing databases that are fed by pervasively monitoring architectures. On top of sector-specific legal protection, we therefore also need a comprehensive approach, which is most likely to be found in data protection: enforceable rules about who processes which data for which purposes. However, the jury is out on the question how data subjects can realistically be protected in the networked database age. The dominant, orthodox view favors the European approach of data limitation and user control, facilitated by privacy-enhancing technologies. A subsidiary, radical view favors user-generated data maximization and ubiquitous transparency. While proliferating databases and panoptic architectures play into the hands of strong parties, we will have to decide today upon a consistent approach to achieve effective data protection for tomorrow’s individuals. If the orthodox view does not prove successful soon, then we should perhaps collectively adopt the radical view. On that note, a postscript ends the article quoting Umberto Eco’s Anopticon as a welcome addition to the literature on panopticism and how to resist it.
BETWEEN BLASPHEMY AND CRITIQUE: FREEDOM OF RELIGION AND FREEDOM OF SPEECH

On Valentine's Day, 1989, novelist Salman Rushdie was driven into hiding in England by a fatwa issued by the Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran decrying his 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses, as “blasphemy against Islam” and demanding Rushdie's execution. Twenty years later, Yale University Press refused to publish cartoon representations of the Prophet Muhammad in political scientist Jytte Klausen's book, The Cartoons That Shook the World. That book analyzed the controversy spawned by a Danish newspaper's publication of the cartoons in 2005 and the republication of the cartoons in several European newspapers in 2008, which led to protests by Muslims around the world. In 2010, Terry Jones, a Christian pastor in Florida, announced plans to publicly burn a Qur'an on the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States. Under protest, he cancelled his book-burning plans for the 9/11 anniversary, but he made good on his promise six months later in March 2011, in an incident whose online video dissemination around the world is said to have motivated riots in Afghanistan that resulted in the deaths of twelve people. Throughout this period, with the regularity of a drumbeat, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) (formerly the Organization of the Islamic Conference), a coalition of majority Muslim nations at the United Nations, introduced resolutions each year—first in the Human Rights Council (HRC) from 1999 forward and then in the General Assembly from 2005 forward—on “combating defamation of religions” at the UN and in wider global discourse.
Country Risk, Foreign Borrowing and the Social Discount Rate in an Open Developing Economy

Abstract This paper analyses the determination of the social rate of discount in a small open developing economy. It is shown that under general conditions, the social discount rate will be a weighted average of the marginal return to capital in the private sector, the rate of time preference, and the marginal cost of foreign indebtedness. It is then argued that, for a small country, the existence of a country risk premium is an essential component of the discussion on the social discount rate. Some numerical examples are used to show that ignoring the open economy aspects can result in a substantial overstatement of the social rate of discount.
Urban Residents’ Prejudice and Integration of Rural Migrants into Urban China

AbstractUsing data from a 2011 national household survey, this study examines the factors shaping urban residents’ prejudice toward rural-to-urban migrants and the impacts of prejudice on rural migrants’ integration into urban communities. The author addresses the endogeneity of the prejudice variable by employing an instrumental variable method. The results show that urban residents with higher education and household income report stronger prejudice. Also, urban residents with urban hukou at birth are more prejudiced toward rural migrants. Given that hukou status at birth is tied to parental hukou status, this result implies that prejudice can be transferred across generations. With regards to rural migrants’ integration into urban communities, high levels of prejudice in one’s current county of residence reduces perceived social standing of rural migrants and increases the number of livelihood problems they encounter. The author also conducts a falsification test, which provides support that the effect...
Will the U.S. bank recapitalization succeed? Eight lessons from Japan.

Abstract During the financial crisis that started in 2007, the U.S. government has used a variety of tools to try to rehabilitate the U.S. banking industry. Many of those strategies were also used in Japan to combat its banking problems in the 1990s. There are also a surprising number of other similarities between the current U.S. crisis and the recent Japanese crisis. The Japanese policies were only partially successful in recapitalizing the banks until the economy finally started to recover in 2003. From these unsuccessful attempts, we derive eight lessons. In light of these eight lessons, we assess the policies the U.S. has pursued. The U.S. has ignored three of the lessons and it is too early to evaluate the U.S. policies with respect to four of the others. So far, the U.S. has avoided Japan's problem of having impaired banks prop up zombie firms.
Private Information, Earnings Manipulations, and Executive Stock‐Option Exercises

This paper investigates the decision by top‐level executives of more than 1,200 public corporations to exercise a large number of stock option awards in the period 1992–2001. We hypothesize and find that abnormally large option exercises predict stock return future performance. We then hypothesize that this predictive ability represents private information about disappointing earnings in the post‐exercise period. Consistent with this hypothesis we find that abnormally positive earnings performance in the pre‐exercise period turns to disappointing earnings performance in the post‐exercise period, and that this pattern comes as a surprise to even sophisticated market participants (financial analysts). We also hypothesize and find that the disappointing earnings in the post‐exercise period represent a reversal of inflated earnings in the pre‐exercise period. Collectively, these findings suggest that the private information used by top‐level executives to time abnormally large exercises follows from earnings ...
Economic Inequality and U.S. Public Policy Mood Across Space and Time

While classic theories suggest that growing inequality will generate mass support for redistribution, recent research suggests the opposite: increases in inequality in the United States are associa...
Signaling Alliance Commitments: Hand-Tying and Sunk Costs in Extended Nuclear Deterrence

How can states signal their alliance commitments? Although scholars have developed sophisticated theoretical models of costly signaling in international relations, we know little about which specific policies leaders can implement to signal their commitments. This article addresses this question with respect to the extended deterrent effects of nuclear weapons. Can nuclear states deter attacks against their friends by simply announcing their defense commitments? Or must they deploy nuclear weapons on a protege's territory before an alliance is seen as credible? Using a new dataset on foreign nuclear deployments from 1950 to 2000, our analysis reveals two main findings. First, formal alliances with nuclear states appear to carry significant deterrence benefits. Second, however, stationing nuclear weapons on a protege's territory does not bolster these effects. The analysis yields new insights about the dynamics of �hand-tying� and �sunk cost� signals in international politics.
Tourism and glocalization “Local” Tour Guiding

In tourism studies globalization and localization are often conceived of as a binary opposition. The ethnography of an Indonesian group of tour guides presented here illus- trates how the global and the local are intimately intertwined through what has been described as the process of ''glocalization''. The guides studied are remarkable front-runners of glocalization. They fully participate in global popular culture and use new technologies in their private lives. While guiding, however, they skillfully represent the glocalized life around them as a distinctive ''local'', adapted to the tastes of different groups of international tour- ists. It is concluded that tourism offers excellent opportunities to study glocalization, but that more grounded research is needed. Keywords: globalization, glocalization, tour guides, anthropology, ethnography. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Resume´: Tourisme et glocalisation: Guides « locales ». Beaucoup d'etudes sur le tourisme, sont axees sur l' opposition entre globalisation et localisation. L'ethnographie d'un groupe de guides indonesiens complete notre comprehension de l' interrelation qui s' etablit entre le global et le local, a travers de ce qui est decrit comme ''glocalisation''. Les guides partic- ipent a la culture populaire globale et utilisent les nouvelles technologies dans leur vie privee. Cependant, en effectuant leur travail de guide, elles representent habilement la vie glocalisee autour d' eux comme quelque chose authentiquement ''locale'', adaptee aux gouts de diffe ´- rents groupes de touristes. Le travail debouche sur la conclusion que l' activitetouristique represente un excellent support pour etudier les processus de glocalisation, mais que des recherches complementaires sont necessaires. Mots-cles: Mondialisation, glocalisation, guides touristiques, anthropologie, ethnographie. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Challenging the Registration of Scandalous and Disparaging Marks Under the Lanham Act: Who has Standing to Sue?

Federal trademark law allows a third party to oppose the registration of markes that would be scandalous to the general public or that would disparage particular groups or individuals, as well to petition to cancel such a registration after it has been issued. There have been a handful of high-profile challenges to federal registrations of allegedly scandalous or disparaging marks in recent years, including the 1999 decision of the TTAB in Harjo v. Pro-Football, Inc. and the 1999 decision of the Federal Circuit in Ritchie v. Simpson. This paper examines the question of who has standing to challenge the federal registration of a mark as being scandalous or disparaging, and argues that well-crafted and clearly-articulated standing rules would allow the courts and Congress to strike the delicate balance between permitting appropriate challenges to the registration of allegedly scandalous or disparaging marks, and preventing inappropriate challenges from being brought by disaffected groups or individuals.
A Simplified Approach to Tying Arrangements: A Legal and Economic Analysis

Few types of antitrust conduct have received as much treatment from the Supreme Court as tying arrangements. This practice, which is unlawful per se when certain prerequisites are met, "may be defined as an agreement by a party to sell one product [the tying product] but only on the condition that the buyer also purchases different (or tied) product, or at least agrees that he will not purchase that product from any other supplier." Notwithstanding this extensive Supreme Court attention, there is as much heat as light in this area. The doctrine that has developed is often unpredictable and frequently irrational, and the applicable rules make the analysis far more complicated than necessary. A simpler and more direct approach is long overdue. Present analysis consists of three steps. First, a court must determine whether there indeed is a tying arrangement-the "existence" question. One variation of this determination is whether there really is a tie at all, or whether the two (or more) things sold are merely parts of one "package." Alternatively, the seller may require the buyer-usually a retailer-simply to stock the entire line of the seller's goods, but will impose no requirement of buying certain fixed quantities of each item in the seller's line. Or, the seller may not coerce the buyer or expressly require the purchase of the tied product; the existence of the tying arrangement will have to be inferred from the conduct of the parties. Next, the court will have to determine whether this is the particular type of tying arrangement which should be held unlawful - the "liability" question. Although it will be rare to find tie-ins which have procompetitive effects, there nonetheless are three categories of tying arrangements - those which are always unlawful (those unreasonable per se), those which are unlawful only after a rule of reason inquiry, and those which are not unlawful under either approach. Then the crazy quilt continues. Tying arrangements are analyzed under two different antitrust statutes-section 1 of the Sherman Act and section 3 of the Clayton Act. For unexplained reasons, the Supreme Court created different standards for applying the per se rule, depending on the statute used; today, however, there is serious doubt whether there still are two or only one test. Even when one knows the appropriate statute and standard to apply, recent cases have displayed a remarkable level of diversity and confusion in the application of the standard to the facts under consideration. Finally, the Court has recognized occasional defenses even to those tie-ins which would fall under the so-called per se rule. Although the existence of such defenses would appear to be an obvious contradiction in terms, it is nonetheless expressly sanctioned by the cases. It is certainly time to clarify some of these inconsistencies.
The uncertain relationship between transparency and accountability

The concepts of transparency and accountability are closely linked: transparency is supposed to generate accountability. This article questions this widely held assumption. Transparency mobilises the power of shame, yet the shameless may not be vulnerable to public exposure. Truth often fails to lead to justice. After exploring different definitions and dimensions of the two ideas, the more relevant question turns out to be: what kinds of transparency lead to what kinds of accountability, and under what conditions? The article concludes by proposing that the concept can be unpacked in terms of two distinct variants. Transparency can be either ‘clear’ or ‘opaque’, while accountability can be either ‘soft’ or ‘hard’.
Personal belief exemptions for school-entry vaccinations, vaccination rates, and academic achievement

Nonmedical exemptions from school-entry vaccine mandates are receiving increased policy and public health scrutiny. This paper examines how expanding the availability of exemptions influences vaccination rates in early childhood and academic achievement in middle school. We leverage 2003 legislation that granted personal belief exemptions (PBE) in Texas and Arkansas, two states that previously allowed exemptions only for medical or religious regions. We find that PBE decreased vaccination coverage among Black and low-income preschoolers by 16.1% and 8.3%, respectively. Furthermore, we find that those cohorts affected by the policy change in early childhood performed less well on standardized tests of academic achievement in middle school. Estimated effects on test scores were largest for Black students and economically disadvantaged students.
How Important Is Human Capital for Development? Evidence from Immigrant Earnings

This paper offers new evidence on the sources of cross-country income differences. It exploits the idea that observing immigrant workers from different countries in the same labor market provides an opportunity to estimate their human-capital endowments. These estimates suggest that human and physical capital account for only a fraction of cross-country income differences. For countries below 40% of the US output per worker, less than half of the output gap relative to the US is attributed to human and physical capital.
FINANCING INNOVATIONS AND CAPITAL STRUCTURE CHOICES

The last two decades have seen a stream of innovation in financial markets, especially in corporate bonds. Some of these innovations—notably, hybrid debt—have provided firms with more flexibility in designing cash flows on borrowings, allowing them to match cash flows on financing more closely to cash flows on assets. In so doing, the use of such innovative securities has increased corporate debt capacity and hence firm value. But if such changes have been mostly good news for corporate treasurers, the relentless torrent of innovation has sometimes resulted in firms issuing these new securities for the wrong reasons. Some have done so to take advantage of loopholes in the way ratings agencies and regulatory agencies define debt and equity—and others to exploit perceived pricing anomalies—without considering the effect of such securities on the firm's overall risk profile. In this context, it is worth noting that as corporate bonds have become more complex, investment bankers have made themselves indispensable to the process by providing pricing as well as selling support. This article aims to help managers distinguish when financing with complex securities serves their company's interests, and when it can end up hurting them.
Playing Favorites with Shareholders

Many legal scholars agree that a robust market for corporate control is critical for deterring managerial opportunism within public corporations. Even prior to a tender offer, the threat of a takeover provides a powerful deterrent aligning the incentives of managers and shareholders. Conventional wisdom, therefore, views with suspicion any practice that appears to reduce the takeover threat looming over managers that perform poorly. One practice that has garnered particular attention in this regard is managerial “favoritism” towards block shareholders. Favoritism can take many forms, ranging from preferential stock subscriptions, to selective information disclosure, to outright cash payments. Regardless of form, the argument goes, such patronage is potentially harmful to firm value, because it co-opts one of the most plausible monitors of management. Thus, it is generally thought that law should proscribe (or at least discourage) all forms of favoritism towards block shareholders.
Vulnerability Theory and the Role of Government

In a political climate in which the role of government is actively being questioned, Martha Fineman's "vulnerability theory" is rapidly gaining momentum as a justification for expansive social welfare laws. Despite the growing body of literature applying vulnerability theory to a broad range of legal problems, scholars have yet to critically explore the theory's limitations. This article fills that void by analyzing the theory's utility and scope. It shows how examining vulnerability theory through the lens of old-age policy reveals the theory's limited prescriptive value and its tendency-as currently articulated-to promote unduly paternalistic policies. It then describes how vulnerability theory could be refined to provide greater respect for individual liberty and to enhance its value as a tool for defining the appropriate role of government. Finally, it argues that, although Fineman's theory of vulnerability does not indicate how to allocate resources among vulnerable individuals, vulnerability may nevertheless be a useful construct around which to design social policy. t David M. Levy Professor of Law, Syracuse University College of Law; J.D., Harvard Law School; A.B., Princeton University. The author thanks Jamie Abrams, Rakesh Anand, Ann Bartow, Keith Bybee, Angela Campbell, Evan Criddle, David Driesen, Rashmi Dyal-Chand, Cora True-Frost, Samantha Godwin, Lauryn Gouldin, Margaret Hall, Jeffrey Milder, Linda McClain, Mary Helen McNeal, Robin P. Malloy, Alexandra Natapoff, Mariela Olivares, Dave Owen, and Sarah Schindler for their helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this article, and Jill Cramer, Marissa Nossick, and Edward Thater for their research assistance. Previous versions of this article were presented as part of the University of California Los Angeles School of Law faculty colloquium series, the Loyola Law School faculty colloquium series, the Northeastern School of Law faculty colloquium series, the Gender, Law, & Policy Colloquium at Boston University, the American Association of Law Schools 2013 Annual Conference, and the Law and Society Association 2013 Annual Conference; the author also extends thanks to those who provided feedback as part of these events. Finally, the author also thanks Martha Fineman for meeting with the author to discuss vulnerability theory and many of the arguments raised herein. Copyright © 2014 by the Yale Journal of Law and Feminism Yale Journal of Law and Feminism I. INTRO DUCTION 2 II. FINEMAN'S THEORY OF VULNERABILITY 5 1II. THE INSTRUMENTAL VALUE OF VULNERABILITY THEORY 9 IV. THE LIMITATIONS OF VULNERABILITY THEORY 11 A . Lim ited Prescriptive V alue 11 B . U ndue Paternalism 14 V. A PROPOSAL TO REFINE VULNERABILITY THEORY 21 VI. TOWARD VULNERABILITY-BASED POLICY 23 V II. C ONCLUSION 26
How Does the Use of Trademarks by Third-Party Sellers Affect Online Search?

Firms that sell via a direct channel and via indirect channels have to decide whether to allow third-party sellers to use trademarked brand names of products in their advertising. This question has been particularly controversial for advertising on search engines. In June 2009, Google started allowing any third-party reseller of a product to use a trademark such as “DoubleTree” in the text of its ad, even if the reseller did not have the trademark holder's permission. We study the effects of this change empirically within the hotel industry. We find some evidence that allowing third-party sellers to use a trademark in their online search advertising weakly reduced the likelihood of a consumer clicking on a trademark holder's paid search ads. However, the decrease in paid clicks was outweighed by a large increase in consumers clicking on the unpaid links to the hotelier's website within the main search results. Our evidence shows that when a third-party seller focuses on a trademarked brand in its ads, the ads become less distinct, and customers are more likely to ignore the advertised offers and buy from the direct channel.
Home Health Care After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: A Report From the Field:

On August 30, 2005, displaced New Orleanians first learned that the levees of their city had been overtopped and then breached by the storm surge from Hurricane Katrina. New Orleans would soon be 80% flooded. Within a month, Hurricane Rita arrived in New Orleans, making cleanup and recovery an even more difficult process. This article discusses the preparation and follow-up still going on today and the role of health care providers, particularly home care providers, in the aftermath of Katrina and Rita.
Better than brainstorming? Potential contextual boundary conditions to brainwriting for idea generation in organizations

Organizations and societies all need good, useful ideas to survive and prosper. People often enjoy brainstorming, though it is not as productive as they tend to believe. Groups can potentially generate more and better ideas when ‘brainwriting’; that is, silently sharing written ideas in a time- and sequence-structured group format. This conceptual paper identifies likely boundary conditions to the promising findings from brainwriting laboratory research generalizing to real-world organizational contexts. Important dimensions of organizational context may be revealed by drawing on the journalistic principle to examine what, who, when, where, and why certain outcomes result from particular organizational practices (Johns, 2006). Multiple potential contextual moderators are suggested in each of these five areas. Subsequent field research will inform the idea-generation literature as well as those concerned with eliciting high-quality, useful ideas to address particular organizational and societal challenges.
Caring for COVID's Most Vulnerable Victims: a Safety-Net Hospital Responds.

Background: As COVID-19 surged in people experiencing homelessness, leaders at Boston Medical Center (BMC), New England's largest safety-net hospital, developed a program to care for them. Aim: Provide an opportunity for COVID-infected people experiencing homelessness to isolate and receive care until no longer contagious Setting: A decommissioned hospital building. Participants: COVID-infected people experiencing homelessness Program Description: Care was provided by physician volunteers and furloughed staff. Care focused on allowing isolation, managing COVID-19 symptoms, harm-reduction interventions, and addressing problems related to substance use and mental illness. Program evaluation: Among 226 patients who received care, 65% were referred from BMC. Five percent were transferred to the hospital for a complication that appeared COVID-related. There were no deaths, but 7 patients had non-fatal overdoses. Seventy-nine % had at least one diagnosis of mental illness, and 42% reported actively using at least one substance at the time of admission. Thirty % had at least one mental health diagnosis plus active substance use. Discussion: This hospital-based COVID Recuperation Unit was rapidly deployed, provided safe isolation for 226 patients over 8 weeks, treated frequent SUD and mental illness, and helped prevent the hospital's acute-care bed capacity from being overwhelmed during the peak of the COVID-19 epidemic.
Sculptre: A New Methodology for Deriving and Analyzing Hierarchical Product-Market Structures from Panel Data:

The authors propose a new methodology for deriving hierarchical product-market structures from disaggregate purchase data. A hierarchical product-market tree is estimated from scanner panel purchas...
Use of Comforting to Enhance Social Marketing Success: A Case Study

Successful behavioral change is the Holy Grail for social marketers. Meta-analysis demonstrates that effect sizes of behavioral change in social marketing campaigns is typically low. The present case study uses 4 years of survey data from an Alabama weight loss and behavioral change campaign to develop an explanation for why some people are more successful in lifestyle change efforts than others. Comforting, a communicative form of prosocial behavior, produced the greatest magnitude of change when tested as an independent variable on dependent variables, including pounds lost, amount of dairy products and water consumed, and physical activities undertaken. The case study concludes by discussing implications for social marketing academics and practitioners.
Sorting Out Sorts

In this paper we analyze the theoretical implications of sorting data into groups and then running asset pricing tests within each group. We show that the way this procedure is implemented introduces a bias in favor of rejecting the model under consideration. By simply picking enough groups to sort into, the true asset pricing model can be shown to have no explanatory power within each group. THE COMMON PRACTICE OF SORTING STOCKS into groups to test asset pricing inferences began with the earliest tests of the CAPM (see Black, Jensen, and Scholes (1972)). Although the information loss from the sorting procedure has long been recognized (see Litzenberger and Ramaswamy (1979)), only recently have researchers begun to formally analyze the theoretical basis for doing such sorts. Lo and MacKinlay (1990) point out that if the sort is based on either a variable that is only known to be empirically correlated with returns or a variable measured within the sample, the test will contain a data-snooping bias. Liang (2000) argues that even when the sort is based on a variable estimated using prior data, measurement error in this variable can lead to false conclusions. In this paper we will focus on a different variation of the sorting technique analyzed in those papers. The empirical procedure that is the subject of this paper closely resembles the Black et al. (1972) grouping procedure. There is, however, one crucial distinction. Like the standard procedure, assets are sorted into groups using some criterion related to asset returns. However, rather than forming portfolios out of the groups, the tests are run within the groups. It is shown that this empirical procedure biases the results in favor of rejecting whatever asset pricing model is being tested. In particular, we show the following: 1. The explanatory power of the model will always be smaller within a
Concussion and Football: Failures to Respond by the NFL and the Medical Profession

While medical experts have come to a better understanding of concussion in recent years, there still is much more to learn. We know that some football players develop a form of dementia (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) that appears to result from the repeated and mild head injuries that are a routine part of the sport.1 However, we do not know the likelihood that a player will suffer from footballrelated dementia, nor do we know the extent to which genetic or other factors place some players at a greater risk than other players of developing dementia. In reviewing the response of the National Football League (“NFL”) to concussion, one can easily think that the league was too slow to worry about the medical consequences of head trauma. Despite concerns being raised for many years about the risk to player health, it took until December 2009 for the NFL to advise its teams that players should not return to play or practice on the same day that they suffer a concussion.2
YOUNG PLANETARY NEBULAE: HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE IMAGING AND A NEW MORPHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM

Using Hubble Space Telescope images of 119 young planetary nebulae (PNs), most of which have not previously been published, we have devised a comprehensive morphological classification system for these objects. This system generalizes a recently devised system for pre-planetary nebulae, which are the immediate progenitors of PNs. Unlike previous classification studies, we have focused primarily on young PNs rather than all PNs, because the former best show the influences or symmetries imposed on them by the dominant physical processes operating at the first and primary stage of the shaping process. Older PNs develop instabilities, interact with the ambient interstellar medium, and are subject to the passage of photoionization fronts, all of which obscure the underlying symmetries and geometries imposed early on. Our classification system is designed to suffer minimal prejudice regarding the underlying physical causes of the different shapes and structures seen in our PN sample, however, in many cases, physical causes are readily suggested by the geometry, along with the kinematics that have been measured in some systems. Secondary characteristics in our system, such as ansae, indicate the impact of a jet upon a slower-moving, prior wind; a waist is the signature of a strong equatorial concentration of matter, whether it be outflowing or in a bound Keplerian disk, and point symmetry indicates a secular trend, presumably precession, in the orientation of the central driver of a rapid, collimated outflow.
Investment busts, reputation, and the temptation to blend in with the crowd ☆

Abstract We provide a real-options model of an industry in which agents time abandonment of their projects in an effort to protect their reputations. Agents delay abandonment attempting to signal quality. When a public common shock forces abandonment of a small fraction of projects irrespective of agents' quality, many agents abandon their projects strategically even if they are unaffected by the shock. Such “blending in with the crowd” effect creates an additional incentive to delay abandonment ahead of the shock, leading to accumulation of “living dead” projects, which further amplifies the shock. The potential for moderate public common shocks often improves agents' values.
Fiscal Imbalances and Borrowing Costs: Evidence from State Investment Losses*

This paper examines the effects of losses in U.S. state pension funds on state borrowing costs. Since public‐employee pension obligations are generally senior to state general obligation bonds, increases in unfunded pension liabilities are a serious concern for municipal bond investors. During the 3 months ending December 2008, losses in state pension funds amounted to between 1% and 6% of annual gross state product, and between 9% and 48% of annual state revenue, depending on the state. Using this cross‐sectional variation, we find that over this period tax‐adjusted municipal bond spreads rose by 10‐20 basis points for each 1% of annual gross state product lost in pension funds by states in the lower half of the credit quality spectrum. A similar result holds for each 10% of annual state revenues lost. The effect is approximately constant over the yield curve, suggesting a constant upward shift in annual risk‐neutral default probabilities. These results are robust to controls for credit ratings and other measures of the state’s fiscal strength. They hold within credit rating categories and are strongest among states with the weakest ratings. We conclude that U.S. state borrowing costs will likely increase if unfunded state liabilities continue to grow, making state debt more expensive to finance.
The Scope for Collusive Behavior Among Debtor Countries

Abstract We examine the possibility for collusive behavior to originate among debtor countries negotiating their debts with the same bank. The bank punishes a country in each period in which the latter fails to repay its renegotiated debt. Punishing a country is costly for the bank. We show that if countries are able to commit to a cartel they can each do better than if they were the sole country negotiating with the bank. In the absence of precommitment mechanisms, however, we show that no collusive behavior is able to arise. Instead, in the unique subgame-perfect equilibrium the bank effectively exploits each country's fear that the other country will betray it and reach an earlier agreement with the bank. In equilibrium the bank extracts from each country the same payment as it would in the absence of the other country or as it would if its cost of punishment function were linear.
A Model of the Political Economy of the United States

We develop and test a model of joint determination of economic growth and national election results in the United States. The formal model, which combines developments in the rational choice analysis of the behavior of economic agents and voters, leads to a system of equations in which the dependent variables are the growth rate and the vote shares in presidential and congressional elections. Our estimates support the theoretical claims that growth responds to unanticipated policy shifts and that voters use both on-year and midterm elections to balance the two parties. On the other hand, we find no support for “rational” retrospective voting. We do reconfirm, in a fully simultaneous framework, the “naive” retrospective voting literature's finding that the economy has a strong effect on presidential voting. We find congressional elections unaffected by the economy, except as transmitted by presidential coattails.
Regulating Pot to Save the Polar Bear: Energy and Climate Impacts of the Marijuana Industry

It goes by many names: cannabis, marijuana, pot, chronic, grass, reefer, shwag, Mary Jane.[1] Whatever the name, the trend is clear: the weed is legal but the herb ain't green. Nearly half of all U.S. states have enacted-or have pending-legislation to legalize, decriminalize, or in some way permit the use and cultivation of marijuana. As a result, marijuana has become a significant topic of conversation in the U.S.-especially in the areas of social policy and criminal law. One conversation yet to reach fruition, however, is the industry's projected impacts on energy demand and the climate. As the industry grows, so will its negative externalities. Indoor cannabis cultivation is one of the most energy-intensive industries in the U.S., requiring electricity to power lamps, to maintain consistent temperature and humidity levels, and to power fans for ventilation, among other things. This energy consumption, unless otherwise mitigated, results in significant greenhouse gas emissions. This article explores the opportunities that legalization brings in addressing the negative impacts on energy usage and the climate. It concludes that simply incorporating the marijuana industry into the existing energy regulatory framework will do little to address its negative impacts. It recommends that state and local policymakers take advantage of the opportunity to consider climate risks and energy usage before issuing business licenses for indoor marijuana cultivators.
A Closer Look at the Employment Impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act

This paper replicates recent findings that employment among disabled people has declined since the ADA. A closer look indicates that this decline results from a drop in the labor force participation rate among those classified as disabled. Further analysis indicates that this labor force participation rate decline, however, was not the result of disabled individuals fleeing the labor market, but, rather, more likely a result of the reclassification of nondisabled, nonparticipants, as disabled. The unconditional employment probability among disabled people (taking selection into the labor market into account) has not declined, and may have actually improved for certain disability classifications.
Improving Digital Publishing of Legal Scholarship

Legal scholarship's main mode of formal communication, the law journal article, is mostly stuck in the print publishing model. By adopting some tools and practices made possible by digital communications, legal scholarship can become more accessible, flexible, and interdisciplinary. Instructive examples can be found in the science, technology, engineering, and medicine (STEM) journals. These practices are publishing in HTML and e-book formats and adopting persistent identifiers for scholarly works.
Aggregation, Dividend Irrelevancy, and Earnings‐Value Relations*

In this paper I show that the aggregation of operating and financial income imposes three conditions on earnings-based value functions. These three conditions provide a shortcut way to identify dividend irrelevant value functions. For example, consider any value function Vt of book value bt, earnings xt, and dividends dt. The aggregation conditions imply that Vt must be of the form Vt = (1 − k)bt + k [f xt − dt]. f is the permanent earnings capitalization factor and undetermined weight k may be any function of Δt ≡[φxt − dt] − bt. The Ohlson 1995 model is the special case when k is constant. But generally k does not have to be constant to maintain dividend irrelevancy. Whenk varies with Δt, Vt is nonlinear in earnings. Hence, this result specifies how Vt may be nonlinear in earnings in settings with limited liability or production or abandonment options and still be dividend-irrelevant. An even more remarkable feature of this result is that it holds whether accounting is clean surplus or not. One must conclude that accounting-based valuation properly builds from accounting aggregation and Δt, and not from the clean surplus relation and abnormal earnings as many now believe.
Cartesian Skepticism and the Epistemic Priority Thesis

In Unnatural Doubts, Michael Williams argues that Cartesian skepticism is not truly an “intuitive” problem (that is, one which we can state with little or no appeal to contentious theories) at all. According to Williams, the skeptic has rich theoretical commitments all his own, prominent among which is the epistemic priority thesis. I argue, however, that Williams’s diagnostic critique of the epistemic priority thesis fails on his own conception of what is required for success. Furthermore, in a brief “Afterword” I argue that the later Wittgenstein (to whom Williams sometimes appeals) would concur with my critique of Williams’s antiskeptical efforts.
Enforcement and Control of Piracy, Copying, and Sharing in the Movie Industry

We review strategies that movie distributors have used to cope with piracy, copying, and sharing of movies in the United States in four categories: “hard goods” commercial piracy, consumer theft of pay TV signals, consumer copying and sharing of videos and pay TV, and (mostly in prospect) Internet file sharing. In the past, distributors have mainly sought to raise costs of engaging in these activities by increasing legal jeopardy, advantaging anti-copy technology, and reducing original sources of supply. They appear to have effectively reduced or contained most piracy, copying, and sharing of movies in the U.S., at least with analog media. Movie distributors are following similar strategies with digital media, including Internet file sharing. Digital media raise the stakes because of lower costs of copying or sharing and higher quality of outputs. Digital outputs are not always as high quality as source originals, however, and digital rights management (DRM) technologies potentially improve distributor control. The movie studios now face technological, demand, and political uncertainties in the U.S., notably in maintaining or achieving technically compatible DRM systems to control file sharing and PPV/VOD copying. Implications for foreign markets and directions for research are discussed.
Occupational licensing in Alabama

ABSTRACTWhile often advanced as a means to protect consumers, occupational licensing is increasingly being recognized as a barrier to entry that benefits the licensed industry to the detriment of consumers. Furthermore, it often restricts economic mobility, especially among minority groups. Given that occupational licensing is primarily carried out at the state level, state-specific analyses are required to understand the extent and impact of occupational licensing, as well as to inform national and state reform discussions. This paper provides an in-depth analyses of occupational licensing in Alabama and offers recommendations for reform.
Aggregation of expert opinions

Conflicts of interest arise between a decision maker and agents who have information pertinent to the problem because of differences in their preferences over outcomes. We investigate how the decision maker can extract the information by distorting the decisions that will be taken. We show that only slight distortions will be necessary when agents’ signals are sufficiently accurate or when the number of informed agents becomes large. We argue that the particular mechanisms analyzed are substantially less demanding informationally than those typically employed in implementation and virtual implementation. Further, the mechanisms are immune to manipulation by small groups of agents.
Behavioral Efficiency I : Definition, Methodology and Demonstration

Economic experiments conducted in laboratories employing an induced-values methodology can report on allocative efficiencies observed. This methodology is limited by requiring the experimenter to know subjects' motivations, an impossibility in field experiments. Allocative efficiency implies a hypothetical costless aftermarket would be inactive. An outcome of an allocation mechanism is herein defined to be behaviorally efficient if an appropriate aftermarket is actually appended to the allocation mechanism and at most a negligible aggregate size of mutually beneficial gains is observed on the aftermarket. Methodological requirements for observation of behavioral efficiency or inefficiency are put forward. A simple field demonstration indicates when an increase in public good output can cover marginal cost in a mutually beneficial decentralization, without knowing valuations. Several empirical issues that arise with the methodology are noted.
Oil price, overleveraging and shakeout in the shale energy sector — Game changers in the oil industry

Abstract In recent years, we have observed significant growth in unconventional energy, shale energy, in particular in the United States. There was a boom, followed by a bust. The plunge in oil price triggered a prolonged bust in the energy sector. Which firms will benefit, and which will be squeezed out due to this persistent oil price decline? A new equilibrium is about to evolve under these conditions. In this paper, we develop a theoretical model that accounts for recent features in the energy sector. In particular, we focus on the shale energy companies and illustrate a trend toward a boom in external borrowing, overleveraging, and, now, a high risk of insolvency. With the use of a new method, called nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC), we show dynamic paths toward two equilibria: either a tight oligopoly or extensive competition, with the shakeout of some firms. This is also tracked by studying leveraging and overleveraging by groups of firms. We further undertake an empirical analysis using a vector error correction model (VECM), which helps identify the short- and long-term effects of those new challenges on the stock performance of the energy companies. The main finding is that large-cap companies are less dependent on the fluctuation in oil price than are mid- and small-cap firms and are more likely to survive the shakeout.
How to read Bonhoeffer’s peace statements: Or, Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran and not an Anabaptist

Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s strong statements in support of peace have encouraged Stanley Hauerwas and other interpreters to read him, explicitly or implicitly, as participating in the theological tradit...