cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Work‐Conditioned Transfers on Marriage and Child Well‐Being: A Review

Transfer payments to poor families are increasingly conditioned on work. Although the effects of such programmes on employment are fairly well understood, relatively little is known about their effects on marriage or child well-being. We review a few studies that provide such information here. We sketch a theoretical model that draws from the efficient-household literature. The model is consistent with the wide range of effects that we observe and suggests an explanation for some of the observed differences. Our theoretical framework likewise explains the observed variation in the effects of such programmes on children. Social insurance payments increasingly take the form of conditional cash transfers, requiring certain types of behaviour from recipients in order to qualify for aid. In developed countries, the conditions generally take the form of work requirements. The American Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF) programme requires most recipients to work at least part-time; benefits from the American Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) are available only to consumers who work; the British Working Tax Credit (WTC) is available only to consumers who work at least 16 hours per week; and the Canadian Self-Sufficiency Programme (SSP), which ran during the 1990s, provided an earnings supplement to welfare recipients who were willing to leave the dole and take a full-time job.
Standing as an Article II Nondelegation Doctrine

In this Article, I consider the following puzzle in standing doctrine: the dichotomy between Executive Branch and private party standing. Although the Executive Branch has standing to assert the interest in “seeing that the law is obeyed,” private parties may not allege such an abstract grievance. I argue that this apparent contradiction offers a new explanation for Article III standing doctrine: standing enforces an Article II nondelegation principle by curtailing private prosecutorial discretion. The Executive Branch has an Article II duty to take care that the laws are faithfully executed and, for that reason, has standing to “see that federal law is obeyed.” Notably, in carrying out this responsibility, the Executive Branch may pursue any violation of federal law. The Executive Branch thus has the prosecutorial discretion to sue any person, anywhere in the country, for any violation. The Executive Branch has a duty to exercise this discretion in accordance with constitutional requirements and other legal and political constraints. But such discretion does create a serious potential for abuse. Accordingly, I assert that the Executive Branch’s Article II duties to enforce federal law, and to exercise the accompanying prosecutorial discretion, are nondelegable. Given the potential for abuse, such discretion may not be transferred to private parties, who are not subject to the legal and political checks that, to some degree, constrain the Executive Branch. This Article II nondelegation principle provides a constitutional explanation for much of Article III standing doctrine. Standing enforces the Article II nondelegation doctrine by curtailing private prosecutorial discretion. A private party may not assert an abstract grievance (such as the interest in “seeing that the law is obeyed”) that would allow her to sue any person for any legal violation. A private party retains the discretion to bring suit only if she has suffered a more concrete injury-in-fact. That injury further curtails her prosecutorial discretion, because she may sue only the person that caused the injury and may seek redress only for that harm. In this Article, I argue that this Article II nondelegation rationale offers both a new normative foundation, and a new scope, for the constitutional dimension of standing doctrine.
The Bridge to the ‘Real World’: Applied Science or a ‘Schizophrenic Tour de Force’?*

abstract This article concerns those publications which have received considerable attention in an academic as well as in a practical context. In these rare cases, it seems that it was possible to transfer scientific findings more or less directly into managerial implications. This widely shared view is contrasted with a socials systems perspective. From this point of view there cannot be a direct application of scientific knowledge. This also holds true for the classic examples of applied science. It is argued that even in these cases there is no evidence of linear knowledge transfer but rather ‘Applied Science Fiction’ (ASF). ASF comprises all techniques with which the scientific system reacts to external application pressure without having to relinquish its own self-referential logic. Different forms of ASF are introduced. These are retrofitting, reputation, symbolic labels and undisciplined eclecticism. The ASF-concept will be illustrated by Michael Porter's Competitive Strategy. Paradoxically, however, the conventional concept of application and ASF are a barrier for the sustainable relevance of management studies.
Institutional Formalism and Realism in Constitutional and Public Law

Constitutional and public law often entail judicial review of the actions of public institutions. In engaging in this review, courts can adopt a stance of either "institutional formalism" or "institutional realism" regarding how the institution in question functions. After defining those terms, this article argues that the tension between institutionally formalist and realist approaches is a pervasive one, even if obscured or latent, throughout the constitutional and public law of institutions. We cannot understand these bodies of law fully without recognizing this fact. Many scholars in discrete areas of law can be understood as grappling with this tension in some form. But we have not appreciated how profound this institutional issue is, nor how it transcends specific areas of law to stand as one of public law’s general, defining problems. This formalist/realist institutional tension structures public-law doctrine and debates regarding judicial oversight of virtually all the institutions of governance. As this article demonstrates, that is so for judicial review of the actions of Congress, the President, federal administrative agencies, state legislatures, and state courts. After developing this framework, the article applies it to the Supreme Court's Shelby County decision, in which the Court struck down part of the Voting Rights Act, and shows that the case hinges on how formalist or realist the Court ought to be regarding Congress.The general struggle in how the law should conceive public institutions can be seen as the modern successor to the early 20th century tension between formalist and realist approaches to the substantive content of legal concepts, categories, and doctrines. Now, the tension between institutional formalism and realism re-raises the question of how much pragmatism – this time, at the level of institutions and processes – is compatible with certain conceptions of the rule of law. Focusing more directly on this tension illuminates public law and its controversies but cannot suggest that any final resolution is available. Yet to understand public law fully requires appreciating the powerful role this tension quietly plays.
Donaldson–Thomas theory of $$[\mathbb {C}^2/\mathbb {Z}_{n+1}]\times \mathbb {P}^1$$

We study the relative orbifold Donaldson–Thomas theory of $$[\mathbb {C}^2/\mathbb {Z}_{n+1}]\times \mathbb {P}^1$$ . A correspondence is established between the DT theory relative to disjoint union of vertical fibers to quantum multiplication by divisors for the Hilbert scheme of points on $$[\mathbb {C}^2/\mathbb {Z}_{n+1}]$$ . This determines a correspondence between the whole theories if a further nondegeneracy condition is assumed. The result can also be viewed as a crepant resolution correspondence to the DT theory of $$\mathcal {A}_n\times \mathbb {P}^1$$ .
Economic Growth and Decline with Endogenous Property Rights

This article introduces endogenous institutional changeinto a neoclassical growth model. For some parameter values,all Markov perfect equilibria involve a shift from common propertyto private property followed by a shift back to common property.Even in the presence of a linear production technology, thissequence of switches generates growth rates that are increasingat low levels of capital and decreasing at high levels of capital.This result rationalizes the hump-shaped growth path followedby some countries through history, as well as the conditionalconvergence observed in postwar data. For other parameter values,there are also equilibria in which common property prevails forever.This result rationalizes the low-growth traps in which many poorcountries find themselves.
Tort Law in the Era of Climate Change, Katrina, and 9/11: Exploring Liability for Extraordinary Risks

Tort cases generally deal with routine risks - the kind of risk that a person encounters as a result of driving a car or buying a product. These risks are also staples of the insurance industry. Today, however, society faces risks that threaten massive harms to large segments of the public. Such risks materialized with 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, and may confront us with climate change. The first part of this article is comprised of case studies of how the tort system has responded to catastrophic risks such as large-scale flooding, terrorist acts, and climate change. Liability approaches vary depending on the problem and jurisdiction, but there is at least no consistent pattern of immunity for those who have created catastrophic risks or failed to take reasonable precautions against them. Part II examines how compensation for catastrophic risks could contribute to societal goals such as deterring undesirable risks and social risk-spreading. The risk-spreading goal is particularly important because of the reluctance of private insurers to cover such risks. Compensation, whether administrative or judicial, might also contribute to stronger risk prevention or mitigation, and under some circumstances would advance corrective justice.
UNMARRIED PARENTHOOD AND REDISTRIBUTIVE POLITICS

Political survey data for nine West European countries show that women have become increasingly left-wing compared to men, and that this trend is positively correlated with the rise of nonmarriage in these countries. This pattern is mirrored in German longitudinal data (GSOEP), where transitions out of marriage make women, but not men, significantly more left-leaning. Analysis of public spending data for high-income OECD countries (1980–1998) suggests that the political impact of nonmarriage extends to the allocation of State resources with increases in nonmarriage first reducing, and then increasing, State redistribution towards children. (JEL: H31, H42, J12, J13)
AN INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATION TO REDUCE THE AGENCY COSTS OF PUBLIC CORPORATE BONDS

This paper proposes an institutional innovation in the structure of public bonds that is intended to provide some of the advantages of private loans- active monitoring, tight covenants, and ease of reorganization-while retaining the benefits of liquidity and ease of diversification provided by publicly traded securities. The authors propose that a publicly registered corporate bond provide for a “supertrustee” who will act on behalf of bondholders. The supertrustee will be charged with responsibility to monitor the compliance of the borrower with the terms of the bond covenants and given exclusive authority to negotiate amendments to the covenants and decide what action to take in the event of a breach of a covenant.
Trust and Household Debt

Using a large sample of U.S. individuals, we show that individuals with higher levels of trust have lower likelihoods of default in household debt and higher net worth. The effect is driven by trust values inherited from cultural and family backgrounds more than by trust beliefs about others. We demonstrate a causal impact of trust on financial outcomes by extracting the component of trust correlated with early-life experiences. The effect of trust is more pronounced among females, those with lower education, lower income, lower financial literacy, and higher debt-to-income ratio. Further evidence suggests that enhancing individuals' trust, to the right amount, can improve household financial well-being.
Do SNAP Recipients Get the Best Prices

We developed an expensiveness index and used the Food Acquisition and Purchase Survey data set to examine empirically whether Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) participants pay higher prices compared with nonqualifying and qualifying, but nonparticipating, households. Purchasers’ ability to minimize food expenditures has significant effects on the program’s effectiveness and on participants’ food security. Using ordinary least squares and two techniques that control for the endogeneity of SNAP participation, we found no significant effect of SNAP participation on food prices. Moreover, we found that SNAP participants pay, on average, lower prices than do nonparticipants. We conclude by providing suggestions for policy improvements and implications for future research.
Patriotic name bias and stock returns

Abstract Companies whose names contain the words “America(n)” or “USA” earn positive abnormal returns of about 6% per annum during World War II, the Korean War, and the War on Terrorism. These abnormal returns are not realized immediately upon the outbreak of each of the wars but are accumulated gradually during wartime. Given that no such effect is observed for the Vietnam War, we hypothesize that major, victorious wars arouse investors' patriotic feelings and cause them to gradually and perhaps subconsciously gravitate toward stocks whose name has a patriotic flavor.
The Interaction Between Knowledge Codification and Knowledge-Sharing Networks

Current knowledge management (KM) technologies and strategies advocate two different approaches: knowledge codification and knowledge-sharing networks. However, the extant literature has paid limited attention to the interaction between them. This research draws on the literature on formal modeling of networks to examine the interaction between knowledge codification and knowledge-sharing networks. The analysis suggests that an increase in codification may damage existing network-sharing ties. Anticipating that, individuals may hoard their knowledge to protect their network ties, even when there are nontrivial rewards for codification. We find that despite the aforementioned tension between the codification and the network approach, a firm may still benefit from combining the two approaches. Specifically, when the future sharing potential between knowledge workers is high, a combination of the two approaches may outperform a codification-only or a network-only approach because the codification reward causes fewer network ties to break down, and the benefit from increased codification can offset the loss of some network ties. However, when the future sharing potential is low, an increase in codification reward can quickly break down the whole network. Thus, firms may be better off by pursuing a codification-only or a network-only strategy.
A Framework to Analyze Cash Supply Chains

The Federal Reserve System of the United States is making changes to its cash recirculation policy to reduce depository institutions' (banks') overuse of its cash processing services. These changes will affect operating policies and costs at many institutions having large cash businesses and, in turn, impact cash transportation and logistics providers. This study provides the framework to study the cash supply chain structure and analyzes it as a closed-loop supply chain. Additionally, it describes the cash flow management system used by banks in the U.S.
"There Must Be a Means" - The Backward Jurisprudence of Baze v. Rees

The Supreme Court’s plurality opinion in Baze v. Rees begins with a seemingly simple assertion of constitutional law. “We begin with the principle, settled by Gregg, that capital punishment is constitutional.” It continues, “It necessarily follows that there must be a means of carrying it out.” This second pronouncement provides the foundation for the Supreme Court’s holding in Baze that Kentucky’s refusal to modify its lethal injection procedure does not violate the Eighth Amendment. However, in taking the position that the constitutionality of an existing method of capital punishment is dependent on the availability of alternative execution procedures, the Supreme Court has turned Eighth Amendment jurisprudence on its head, establishing a dangerous loophole that could imperil our most important constitutional protections. This essay highlights the error in the Court’s reasoning in Baze, and describes the potential consequences of applying this reasoning to other areas of constitutional law. [SSRN posted version is a pre-publication draft]
Informality over the life-cycle

Abstract In developing countries, informality is mainly concentrated among younger and older workers and low-skilled workers. In this study, we propose a dual labor market theory that highlights how frictions and taxation in the formal sector and educational choices interact to shape the informality rate over the life-cycle. We develop a life-cycle model with search frictions, skill heterogeneities, and endogenous educational choices. We carry out a numerical analysis and show that our model reproduces remarkably well the life-cycle patterns of informality, non-employment, and formal employment in Argentina. We analyze several public policies and show that an educational grant reduces both informality and non-employment and may be fully financed by the extra tax revenues generated by the increase in formal employment and wages. Lowering taxes may achieve similar results but is detrimental to the government budget, despite increasing the base on which they are levied.
A Model Rule for Excluding Improperly or Unconstitutionally Obtained Evidence

This Article considers several different theoretical bases for exclusionary rules within domestic criminal justice systems, and many associated countervailing considerations against exclusion, in order to identify a principled basis upon which a model exclusionary rule could be built. The Article then describes various application doctrines that form part of different existing exclusionary rules, and assesses how effectively each of these doctrines can be justified in terms of one or more of the accepted bases for exclusion. Finally, building on the theoretical and comparative study within the first two portions of this Article, it concludes by proposing a principle-based model exclusionary test that could be adopted in almost any domestic jurisdiction, and explains how each of the previously discussed exclusionary doctrines either would or would not integrate into this proposed model exclusionary rule.
Libertarian Paternalism, Externalities, and the “Spirit of Liberty”: How Thaler and Sunstein Are Nudging Us toward an “Overlapping Consensus”

In their 2008 book Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein use research from psychology and behavioral economics to argue that people suffer from systematic cognitive biases. They propose that policy makers mitigate these biases by framing people's choices in ways that help people act in their own self‐interest. Thaler and Sunstein call this approach “libertarian paternalism,” and they market it as “the Real Third Way.” In this essay, I argue that the book is a brilliant contribution to thinking about policy making but that “choice architecture” is not just a solution to the problem of cognitive biases. Rather, it is a means of approaching any kind of policy making. I further argue that policy makers must take externalities into account, even when using choice architecture. Finally, I argue that libertarian paternalism can best be seen as motivated by what Sunstein has celebrated in his work on constitutional theory: a humility about the possibility of policy‐maker error embodied in Learned Hand's famous aphorism about the “spirit of liberty” and an attempt to reduce social conflicts by searching for what John Rawls called an “overlapping consensus.”
Internal control reporting regulation: a law and economics perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze the efficiency of the internal control reporting (ICR) requirements imposed by Sections 302 and 404 of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). The lessons learned are then applied to the current financial crisis.Design/methodology/approach – The Coase Theorem is applied to the events leading up to the collapse of Enron and the enactment of SOX. The paper then analyzes the efficacy of the various examples of ICR regulation, both pre‐ and post‐SOX, noting the ways in which they effectively mitigate transaction costs and the ways in which they over‐regulate.Findings – US investors continue to invest in foreign markets despite the fact that those markets maintain less demanding ICR requirements than those required by Section 404. Moreover, investors do not respond negatively to Section 404 disclosures. The research demonstrates that Section 404 does not provide useful information in the minds of investors. Considering Section 404's ineffectiveness and the burden...
The Effects of Quantitative Easing on Bank Lending Behavior

Banks’ exposure to large-scale asset purchases, as measured by the relative prevalence of mortgage-backed securities on their books, affects lending following unconventional monetary policy shocks. Using a difference-in-differences identification strategy, this paper finds strong effects of the first and third round of quantitative easing (QE1 and QE3) on credit. Highly affected commercial banks increase lending by 2% to 3% relative to their counterparts. QE2 had no significant impact, consistent with its exclusive focus on Treasuries sparsely held by banks. Overall, banks respond heterogeneously, and the type of asset being targeted is central to QE. Received January 13, 2016; editorial decision January 18, 2017 by Editor Philip Strahan.
The Modern Movement of Vindicating Violations of Criminal Defendants’ Rights Through Judicial Discipline

Instead of the increasingly prosecution-oriented judicial aspirants who ascend to the bench, we need more judges who care about protecting the rights of the accused, who will put the government to the test, and who have some compassion for those who come before them.The truth is these so-called defense-oriented judges are not defense oriented at all, but Bill of Rights-oriented.These judges understand the importance of their role as keepers of the Constitution and models of honor, decency, and integrity. They are willing to risk public disfavor to do the right thing.
Employee Reactions to Electronic Control Systems: The Role of Procedural Fairness

This field study considered proposed relationships between perceived procedural fairness and employee reactions to a relatively novel organizational phenomenon, electronic control systems (ECSs). I...
Ubiquitous human computing.

Ubiquitous computing means network connectivity everywhere, linking devices and systems as small as a drawing pin and as large as a worldwide product distribution chain. What could happen when peop...
Strategic Responses to Parallel Trade

High prices for patented pharmaceuticals have prompted many governments to consider allowing competition from parallel imports, or products first sold at lower prices in other countries. This paper examines how pharmaceutical firms have responded to changes in intellectual property rights and trade barriers that legalized parallel imports within the European Union (EU). The threat of arbitrage by parallel traders reduces the ability of firms to price discriminate across countries. Due to regulations on price and antitrust law on rationing supply, pharmaceutical firms may rely on non-price responses. Such responses include differentiation of products across countries and selective culling of product lines to reduce arbitrage opportunities, as well as raising arbitrageurs costs through choice of packaging. Using a dataset of drug prices and sales from 1993-2004 covering 30 countries, I find evidence that the behavior of pharmaceutical firms in the EU with respect to their product portfolios is consistent with attempts to reduce parallel trade. This may at least partially explain why parallel trade has not yet resulted in significant price convergence across EU countries. Accounting for non-price strategic responses may therefore be important in assessing the welfare effects of competition from parallel imports.
The Diagnosis and Prediction of Bank Failures in Zambia, 1990-98

∗ ∗ ∗ This article presents a non-econometric, yet practical approach for regulators in developing countries. With limited financial resources to determine the ‘safety and soundness’ of a large number of financial institutuions, regulatory authorities are appreciative of any kind of mechanism that can identify banks that are in financial difficulties. The Zambian case is interesting, in that the bank failures of 1995 and 1997/8 brought into question the ability of the central bank to diagnose the financial condition of banks. This article evaluates the Bank of Zambia’s experience over the period 1990 to March 1998 and makes recommendations on how to improve diagnosis and prediction of bank failures by incorporating non-financial factors into the analysis of bank performance.
Limited Stock Market Participation and Asset Prices in a Dynamic Economy

This paper presents a consumption-based model that explains the equity premium puzzle through two channels. First, because of borrowing constraints, the shareholder cannot completely diversify his income risk and requires a sizable risk premium on stocks. Second, because of limited stock market participation, the precautionary saving demand lowers the risk-free rate but not stock return and generates a substantial liquidity premium. This model also replicates many other salient features of the data, including the first two moments of the risk-free rate, excess stock volatility, stock return predictability, and the unstable relation between stock volatility and the dividend yield.
Hope Springs Eternal: Reforming Inheritance Law in Islamic Societies

Soon after Lajnat al-Hurriyāt al-Fardiyya wa-l-Musāwāt (“Committee on Individual Rights and Equality”) submitted its report in June 2018 to the president of Tunisia, Beji Caid Essebsi, the latter ordered the legislature to amend the 1956 family law to achieve equality between men and women in inheritance and property rights. Although the authors of the report had written forcefully about how Islamic texts (the Qurʾan and sunna) are compatible with modern law, some of their recommendations suggested a broad inclination to reform the law outside religious tradition and as part of the exigencies of the civil state. These events and ideas brought to the fore questions such as whether classical Islamic law is reformable or obsolete. This paper aims to show that interpretations of Islamic texts that result in radically different inheritance laws have existed since at least the third Islamic century. Inequality has persisted always for political and institutional reasons, not substantive ones.
Price experimentation with strategic buyers

A two-period model in which a monopolist endeavors to learn about the permanent demand parameter of a specific repeat buyer is investigated. The buyer may strategically reject the seller’s first-period offer for one of two reasons. First, in order to conceal information (i.e., to pool), a high-valuation buyer may reject high prices that would never be accepted by a low-valuation buyer. Second, in order to reveal information (i.e., to signal), a low-valuation buyer may reject low prices that would always be accepted by a high-valuation buyer. Given this, the seller often finds it optimal to post prices that reveal no useful information. Indeed, in the equilibrium where there is no signaling, the seller never charges an informative first-period price. Learning may occur in the equilibrium where there is maximal signaling, but the scope for learning is quite limited even in this case. Indeed, in order to preempt information transmission through signaling, the seller may be induced to set a first-period price strictly below the buyer’s lowest possible valuation.
'China Casts a Giant Shadow': The Developing World Confronts Trade Liberalization and the End of Quotas in the Garment Industry

This article examines the implications for developing nations of the termination of the thirty-year system of quotas in the global trade in garments and textiles. The quotas fostered the spread of manufacturing throughout the developing world by permitting importing nations to cap imports from specific countries. Developing nations became attractive manufacturing locations thanks to their access to the restricted U.S. and EU markets. The garment industry permitted even the poorest nations to participate in the global economy in an environment largely protected from the harsh realities of unfettered international competition. However, the structure of globalization in the garment industry, with its characteristic distribution of manufacturing around the world, now appears extremely fragile. The ending of the quota system on January 1, 2005, seems likely to result in a massive concentration of manufacturing capacity in China. The geographic diversification of manufacturing encouraged by the quota system may simply evaporate. The economic, political and social fall-out of this rapid shift to China is likely to be profound, particularly for those developing countries in which the garment industry is the prime - or even sole - point of contact with the global economy. In those countries, not only is the garment industry the cornerstone of the national economy, but the garment factories frequently provide the only viable employment for millions of women who are the sole wage earners for their families.
Ranking Journals Using Social Science Research Network Downloads

I use a new approach to rank journals, namely the number and percent frequency of articles a journal publishes that are heavily downloaded from the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). I rank 18 accounting and finance journals, and I identify five journals not considered by the two most recent major published ranking studies of publications by accounting faculty, namely (in rank order): Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Accounting Studies, Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Journal of Corporate Finance, and Journal of International Financial Management and Accounting. I show that financial accounting faculties are more likely to post their working papers to SSRN, and papers posted by financial faculties generate more downloads. I mitigate this bias in favor of the financial area by providing separate rankings based on authors in the financial versus non-financial areas.
Irrigation Districts in a Changing West–An Overview

This essay reviews the history and evolution of special governmental districts organized to manage water, especially water for agricultural irrigation, in the American West. It shows how they have a curious mix of public and private attributes, and are changing their focus as the demographics and politics of the west change.
Political climate, optimism, and investment decisions

Abstract We show that people's optimism towards financial markets and the macroeconomy is dynamically influenced by their political affiliation and the current political climate. Individuals become more optimistic and perceive markets to be less risky and more undervalued when their preferred party is in power. Accordingly, investors increase allocations to risky assets and exhibit a stronger preference for high market beta, small-cap, and value stocks, and a weaker preference for local stocks. The differences in optimism and portfolio choice across political regimes are not explained by shifts in economic conditions or differential response to economic conditions by Democrat and Republican investors.
Implications of tax policy for innovation and aggregate productivity growth

Abstract We examine the quantitative implications of income taxation for innovation and aggregate productivity growth within the context of a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model of innovation-led growth. In the model, innovation comes from entrants creating new products and incumbents improving own existing products. The model embodies key features of the U.S. government sector: (i) an individual income tax with differential treatment of labor income, dividends, and capital gains; (ii) a corporate tax; (iii) a consumption tax; (iv) government purchases. The model is restricted to fit observations for the post-war U.S. economy. Our results suggest that endogenous movements in aggregate productivity and endogenous market structure play a quantitatively important role in the propagation of tax shocks.
Applying panel vector autoregression to institutions, human capital, and output

We bridge two areas of study by applying panel vector autoregression (PVAR) to human capital, political institutions, economic institutions, and economic output per capita. Institutions and human capital have competed within the scholarly literature as hypotheses explaining the origins of economic growth. Elsewhere, our measure of economic institutions, the Economic Freedom of the World index, has recently been explored extensively as a dependent variable, whereas previously it had been used as an explanatory variable. We wish to measure the interrelationships between political and economic institutions, as well as their interrelationships with economic output and human capital, in contrast to the literature which emphasizes the importance of political institutions alone. We explore these interrelationships in a PVAR model, finding that, descriptively at least, higher-quality economic institutions are associated with more output. We also find weak evidence that higher-quality political institutions are associated with less output and less education. We also find a robust positive effect of education on the quality of economic institutions. In performing this analysis, we contribute to the literature on the institutions and human capital debate, as well as to the literature on the causes of free economic institutions.
Are Corporations “Subjects” of International Law?

Courts and scholars often attempt to draw legal conclusions from the status of entities, whether states, international organizations or corporations. Debates concerning whether corporations are “subjects” of international law and the legal conclusions that supposedly follow from this are particularly vociferous within Alien Tort Claims litigation in U.S. courts. Using the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Citizens United as a cautionary tale, the author argues that drawing legal conclusions from the fact of “subject-hood” is fraught with peril, particularly in the case of corporations. He argues that such top-down approaches are likely to lead to unintended consequences and that corporations, like international organizations, should more properly be seen as “participants” than “subjects.”
Gender Quotas for Corporate Boards: Options for Legal Design in the United States

Recently, U.S. activists, scholars, and policy makers have turned their attention to a notable effort to address the large gender gap in top business management: gender quotas for corporate boards of directors. Gender quotas for corporate boards represent an intriguing option, even if the empirical case for quotas is not airtight. Still, gender quotas may seem a cultural and legal oddity in the United States, a European transplant unlikely to take root here. Even if a quota could survive constitutional scrutiny, gender quotas for corporate boards seem to represent the kind of intrusive state regulation of business that our nation’s laissez faire ideology seems to reject. American ideals of free markets, investor choice, and employment at will sit uneasily, to put it mildly, with the notion that the state should dictate to investors the gender of the decisionmakers entrusted with the management of their money.But a closer look at U.S. institutions reveals that the cultural and legal mismatch is not as severe as it may first appear. Gender quotas designed with sensitivity to exceptional U.S. institutions could fit comfortably with U.S. legal institutions. For instance, the federal tax code and securities law may offer stronger vehicles for implementation of a mandatory or voluntary effort than state corporate law. To take another example, the prominence of nonprofits in health care and education should prompt us to consider carefully whether some (or all) nonprofits should be subject to quotas as well and how nonprofits might be integrated into tax-based initiatives. Finally, thoughtful transition policies could address concerns about the scarcity of women in the pool of qualified director candidates.
An axiomatic approach to choice under uncertainty with catastrophic risks

Abstract This paper analyses decision under uncertainty with catastrophic risks, and is motivated by problems emerging from global environmental risks. These are typically low-probability events with major irreversible consequences. For such risks, the Von Neumann–Morgenstern (NM) axioms for decision making under uncertainty are not appropriate, since they are shown here to be insensitive to low-probability events. The paper introduces an alternative set of axioms requiring sensitivity to both low- and large-probability events. Through a new representation theorem in functional analysis, the results characterize all the operators whose maximization leads to the fulfillment of these axioms. They involve a convex combination of expected utility and a criterion based on the desire to avoid low probability and potentially catastrophic events. It is shown that the new axioms help resolve the Allais paradox. Open questions about risk aversion, games under uncertainty and calculus of variations are discussed.
Seeing Tort Law From the Internal Point of View: Holmes and Hart on Legal Duties

It is common for law professors to divide scholarship on a given subject into opposing methodological camps. In tort, the most familiar divide today is that between the law-and-economics camp that focuses on efficient deterrence, and the philosophical camp that tends to focus on corrective justice. There is another divide, however, that is at least as fundamental and that cuts across this distinction. It is between duty-skeptical and dutyaccepting theories of tort.1 A familiar instantiation of this cleavage is the long-standing debate concerning the independence and intelligibility of the duty element of the negligence cause of action.2 But this debate is part of a broader dispute as to whether tort law is best conceptualized as a scheme of liability rules or guidance rules.3 On the liability-rule view, tort law sets standards for when one person or entity can be ordered by a judge to bear the losses of another. The justifications identified for this loss reallocation vary: Efficiency, fairness, and other considerations might be invoked. Yet in all its variants, liabilityrule tort theory embraces the notion that tort is about allocating losses and concomitantly rejects the idea that the payment of damages in a tort case is an instance of an injurer being held to account for having breached an obligation to conduct herself in certain ways toward the victim. The latter idea, by contrast, is at the core of guidance-rule conceptions of tort. On this
Viral economics: an epidemiological model of knowledge diffusion in economics

We model the diffusion of economic knowledge using an epidemiological model of susceptible, exposed, infected/inspired, and recovered populations (SEIR). Treating peer-reviewed journal publications as evidence of a scholar’s infection/inspiration with energy for an idea or theme, we estimate the coefficients of a four-equation simultaneous system for each of 759 sub-fields of economics. Results show that some sub-fields of economics (or viruses, here) grow endogenously much faster than others, and just over half have basic reproduction properties sufficient to ensure survival without the annual addition of new protege scholars.
Corporate Amazons or Empowerment Spice Girls?: Elite Black Businesswomen and Transformation in South Africa

This study attempts to map the consequences of elite black women’s mobilization for capitalism in South Africa in the context of the literature dealing with the role of women in post-revolutionary ...
An Empirical Study of Sample-Selection Bias in Indices of Commercial Real Estate

Real estate price indices based solely on samples of sold properties may not accurately represent the population of properties due to potential sample-selection bias. This study addresses this potential for sample-selection bias in the construction of commercial price indices within the context of the Phoenix area office market. The empirical analysis confirms the presence of sample-selection bias in the estimation of the total price equation. However, within this sample, the price indices generated after correcting for sample-selection bias do not appear significantly different from those that do not consider selectivity bias.
The impact of accounting restatements on CFO turnover and bonus compensation: Does securities litigation matter?

Abstract This paper examines the association between accounting restatements, class-action securities litigation and chief financial officer (CFO) turnover and bonus compensation. We identify income-decreasing earnings restatements that were the result of aggressive accounting policies, and hypothesize that these restatements will result in higher CFO turnover rates, and lower bonus compensation, especially when the firm is the target of a restatement-related class-action securities lawsuit. Our results indicate that CFO turnover and bonus compensation are affected by restatements, but only when the restatement firm is the target of a class-action suit. When we expand the analyses to consider other types of executives (e.g., CEOs and COOs), we continue to find that turnover only occurs in the presence of a class-action suit. However, bonus compensation penalties to other types of executives are not limited to litigation-related restatements.
Venture capital reputation and investment performance

Abstract I propose a new measure of venture capital (VC) firm reputation and analyze its performance implications on private companies. Controlling for portfolio company quality and other VC-specific factors including experience, connectedness, syndication, industry competition, exit conditions, and investment environment, I find companies backed by more reputable VCs by initial public offering (IPO) capitalization share (based on cumulative market capitalization of IPOs backed by the VC), are more likely to exit successfully, access public markets faster, and have higher asset productivity at IPOs. Further tests suggest VCs’ IPO Capitalization share effectively captures both VC screening and monitoring expertise. My findings have financial implications for limited partners and entrepreneurs regarding their VC-sorting activities.
The Siskel and Ebert of Financial Markets?: Two Thumbs Down for the Credit Rating Agencies

This paper critiques the role of credit ratings and credit rating agencies in providing information about bonds. The dominant "reputational capital" view of credit rating agencies is that the agencies have survived and prospered since the early 1900s based on their ability to accumulate and retain reputational capital (i.e., good reputations) by providing valuable information about the bonds they rate. The paper argues that this view fails to explain, and is inconsistent with, certain types of market behavior including: the estimation of credit spreads, the number of credit ratings-driven transactions, and the explosion in use of credit derivatives. In place of the reputational capital view, the paper offers a "regulatory license" view of rating agencies as generating value, not by providing valuable information, but by enabling issuers and investors to satisfy certain regulatory requirements. The paper concludes that regulators should eliminate regulatory dependence on credit ratings by substituting a regime based on market-determined bond credit spreads (i.e., the difference between the yield on a bond and the yield on a risk-free bond of comparable maturity). Such credit spreads reflect all available information, including credit ratings, and therefore are more accurate and reliable than credit ratings.
Addressing Public Risks: Extreme Events and Critical Infrastructures

This article considers means for harnessing efforts of the private sector in partnership with public authorities in order to address potential harm from widely dispersed risks. The authors focus on the public and private sector approach to protecting the critical infrastructure of the United States. They consider how two key elements, mobilization of attention and planning partnerships, work to foster "communities of interest" which pursue common sets of solutions for reduction of risk. The depiction of the varied communities of interest underscores differences in starting points in creating such communities, in the ability to mobilize and focus attention within them, and in the likelihood of sustaining efforts to address threats to critical infrastructures. The fundamental issue raised by this research is striking an appropriate balance between governmental and private sector roles in addressing risks for which it is hard to create and sustain protective actions.
No Paradise to Regain: Comments on Russell G. Pearce and Eli Wald, the Obligation of Lawyers to Heal Civic Culture: Confronting the Ordeal of Incivility in the Practice of Law

This piece responds to Russell G. Pearce and Eli Wald, The Obligation of Lawyers to Heal Civic Culture: Confronting the Ordeal of Incivility in the Practice of Law (presented at the 2011 Altheimer Symposium, UALR-Bowen School of Law). It agrees with their view that arguments from "relational self-interest" (viewing self interest as necessarily connected to the interests of others) can address issues of incivility in the American politics and the practice of law in ways that other arguments cannot. It disagrees with them on a few specific points: 1. The so-called Ordeal of Incivility in American politics, culture and law practice is not particularly a new thing; 2. Claims that society as a whole used to be more civil ignore that the state of society at these earlier times excluded large segments of society from civic participation; 3.Claims that the practice of law has recently become less civil ignore the fact that most of the tools of incivility (except discovery abuse) are old--but this piece admits that the fragmentation of specialties such as torts and criminal law into plaintiff (or prosecution) and defense bars does make seeing both sides of issues much more difficult, and 4.any definition of civility in the practice of law must allow for vigorous cross-examination and closing argument (which would be uncivil if done outside of the courtroom context, and even in that context appear uncivil to non-lawyers) and must allow litigators to argue for legal positions that many people in society might consider uncivil and disruptive.