cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Iraqi High Criminal Court: controversy and contributions

The Iraqi High Criminal Court established to prosecute Saddam Hussein and other leading Ba'athists is one of the most visible of the current efforts to establish criminal accountability for violations of international norms. Juxtaposed against other tribunals, the High Criminal Court has provoked worldwide debate over its processes and its prospects for returning societal stability founded on respect for human rights and the rule of law to Iraq. This article explores in detail the legal basis for the formation of the High Criminal Court under the law of occupation. It addresses the relationship between the Iraqi model of prosecuting crimes in domestic fora incorporating international law and the alternative model of transferring jurisdiction to an international forum. The controversial aspects of the Iraqi model are considered, such as the legitimacy of its creation, the revocation of official immunity, the procedural fairness of the Statute in the light of international norms, and the substantive coverage of what some have termed an internationalized domestic process. The author concludes that accountability for international crimes is one of the unifying themes that should bind humanity in common purpose with the Iraqi jurists as they pursue justice in accordance with international norms.
Earnings Growth Among Young Less‐Educated Business Owners

Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY), I examine the earnings patterns of young less-educated business owners and make comparisons with young less-educated wage/salary workers. Estimates from fixed-effects earnings regressions indicate that the self-employed experience faster earnings growth on average than wage/salary workers after a few initial years of slower growth. I also find some evidence suggesting that a relatively high percentage of less-educated business owners, especially men, experience either rapid earnings growth or large annual losses.
The Dictionary Is Not a Fortress: Definitional Fallacies and a Corpus-Based Approach to Plain Meaning

"Plain meaning," said Judge Frank Easterbrook, "as a way to understand language is silly. In interesting cases, meaning is not 'plain'; it must be imputed; and the choice among meanings must have a footing more solid than a dictionary."This paper proposes an empirical method for determining the "ordinary meaning" of statutory terms; an approach grounded in a linguistic methodology known as Corpus Linguistics. I begin by addressing a number of commonly held, but ultimately erroneous assumptions about the content and structure of dictionaries – assumptions that find their way into judicial reasoning with alarming frequency.I then outline an approach to the resolution of lexical ambiguity in statutory interpretation – an approach based on Corpus Linguistics methods. Corpus Linguistics is an empirical methodology that analyzes language function and use by means of large electronic databases called corpora. A corpus is a principled collection of naturally occurring language data, typically tagged with grammatical content and searchable in such a way that the ordinary use of a given term in a given context may be ascertained.Though Corpus Linguistics is not a panacea, the methodology has the potential to remove the determination of ordinary meaning from the black box of the judge's mental impression and render the discussion of the ordinary meaning of statutory terms one of tangible and quantifiable reality.
A Simpler Verifiable Gift Tax

The purpose of this article is to propose a simpler verifiable gift tax, to reassert basic principles of transfer taxes, to encourage simple, outright gifts, and to eliminate some of the major abuses in the current gift tax regime. To accomplish these goals, the proposed tax would simplify gift completion rules, adopt a hard-to-complete rule of transfer taxation, reduce the annual exclusion while expanding the consumption exclusion, and employ loss of preference inducements to increase gift tax compliance.
Inequality-seeking punishment

Abstract We report data from a laboratory experiment using dictator games to inform individual preferences over punishment outcomes. We find that many people punish after receiving disadvantageous outcomes, and those who do systematically prefer to use punishment to create self-advantageous inequality.
Behavioral Economics: Past, Present, and Future

In recent years there has been growing interest in the mixture of psychology and economics that has come to be known as “behavioral economics.” As is true with many seemingly overnight success stories, this one has been brewing for quite a while. My first paper on the subject was published in 1980, hot on the heels of Kahneman and Tversky’s (1979) blockbuster on prospect theory, and there were earlier forerunners, most notably Simon (1955, 1957) and Katona (1951, 1953). The rise of behavioral economics is sometimes characterized as a kind of paradigm-shifting revolution within economics, but I think that is a misreading of the history of economic thought. It would be more accurate to say that the methodology of behavioral economics returns economic thinking to the way it began, with Adam Smith, and continued through the time of Irving Fisher and John Maynard Keynes in the 1930s. In spite of this early tradition within the field, the behavioral approach to economics met with considerable resistance within the profession until relatively recently. In this essay I begin by documenting some of the historical precedents for utilizing a psychologically realistic depiction of the representative agent. I then turn to a discussion of the many arguments that have been put forward in favor of retaining the idealized model of Homo economicus even in the face of apparently contradictory evidence. I argue that such arguments have been refuted, both theoretically and empirically, including in the realm where we might expect rationality to abound: the financial markets. As such, it is time to move on to a more constructive approach. On the theory side, the basic problem is that we are relying on one theory to accomplish two rather different goals, namely to characterize optimal behavior and to predict actual behavior. We should not abandon the first type of theories as they are essential building blocks for any kind of economic analysis, but we must augment them with additional descriptive theories that are derived from data rather than axioms. As for empirical work, the behavioral approach offers the opportunity to develop better models of economic behavior by incorporating insights from other social science disciplines. To illustrate this more constructive approach, I focus on one strong
Imitators and Optimizers in Cournot Oligopoly

We analyze a symmetric n-firm Cournot oligopoly with a heterogeneous popu- lation of optimizers and imitators. Imitators mimic the output decision of the most successful firms of the previous round a la Vega-Redondo (1997). Optimizers play a myopic best response to the opponents' previous output. Firms are allowed to make mistakes and deviate from the decision rules with a small probability. Apply- ing stochastic stability analysis, we find that the long run distribution converges to a recurrent set of states in which imitators are better o than are optimizers. This finding appears to be robust even when optimizers are more sophisticated. It suggests that imitators drive optimizers out of the market contradicting a funda- mental conjecture by Friedman (1953).
What do firms do when dividend tax rates change? An examination of alternative payout responses

Abstract This paper investigates whether investor-level taxes affect corporate payout policy decisions. We predict and find a surge of special dividends in the final months of 2010 and 2012, immediately before individual-level dividend tax rates were expected to increase. We also find evidence that immediately before the expected tax increases, firms altered the timing of their regular dividend payments by shifting what would normally be January regular dividend payments into the preceding December. To our knowledge this is the first evidence in the literature about changes in the timing of regular dividend payments in response to tax law changes. For both actions (specials and shifting), we find that it was more likely for a firm to respond to individual-level tax rates if insiders owned a relatively large amount of the firm. Overall, our paper provides evidence that managers consider individual-level taxes in making corporate payout decisions.
Measuring Mutual Dependence between State Repressive Actions

This study explores the relationships between state violations of different human rights. Though most quantitative studies in international relations treat different types of repressive behaviors as either independent or arising from the same underlying process, significant insights are gained by conceptualizing different human rights violations as separate but dependent processes. We present a theoretical framework for conceptualizing the mechanisms relating human rights practices and produce a novel measurement strategy based on network analysis for exploring these relationships. We illustrate high levels of complementarity between most human rights practices. Substitution effects, in contrast, are occasionally substantial but relatively rare. Finally, using empirically informed Monte Carlo analyses, we present predictions regarding likely sequences of rights violations resulting in extreme violations of different physical integrity rights.
Distribution of a Particle’s Position in the ASEP with the Alternating Initial Condition

In this paper we give the distribution of the position of a particle in the asymmet- ric simple exclusion process (ASEP) with the alternating initial condition. That is, we find P(Xm(t) ≤ x) where Xm(t) is the position of the particle at time t which was at m = 2k − 1, k ∈ Z at t = 0. As in the ASEP with step initial condition, there arises a new combinator- ial identity for the alternating initial condition, and this identity relates the integrand of the integral formula for P(Xm(t) ≤ x) to a determinantal form together with an extra product.
Rita v. United States Leaves More Open Than it Answers

This essay surveys the sentencing issues left open by Rita v. United States and considers how the presumption of reasonableness is likely to operate in practice and how rebuttable it is, the roles of safe harbors and individual judges' policy disagreements, and the importance of Justices Stevens and Ginsburg as the swing Justices in this area. This line of cases has drifted far from its roots in a Sixth Amendment concern for juries. Though the resulting sentencing policies may be substantively desirable, the Court cannot articulate how they are rooted in the Sixth Amendment's concern for juries.
Character Strengths are Prominent as Mate Preferences of Turkish Students

This study addressed the traits and characteristics that Turkish students deem most important in a long-term romantic partner. We collected quantitative and qualitative data on characteristics desired in romantic partners from students attending Bahcesehir Universitesi in Istanbul, Turkey. Like our previous cross-cultural studies conducted in Japan, Russia and the United States, results supported dependability and love as the most important traits. Overall, positive internal attributes were rated as highly important and we recommend the traits associated with the positive psychology movement be more fully considered in future studies on mate preferences.
Environmental regulation with technology adoption, learning and strategic behavior

We analyze a model of environmental regulation with learning about environmental damages and endogenous choice of emissions abatement technology by a polluting firm. We compare environmental policy under discretion, in which policy is updated upon learning new information, versus under rules, in which policy is not updated. When investment in abatement technology is made prior to the resolution of uncertainty, neither discretion nor rules with either taxes or standards achieve an efficient solution except in special cases. When there is little uncertainty, rules are superior to discretion because discretionary policy gives the firm an incentive to distort investment in order to influence future regulation. However, when uncertainty is large, discretion is superior to rules because it allows regulation to incorporate new information. Taxes are superior to standards under discretion regardless of the relative slopes of marginal costs and marginal damages for the case of quadratic abatement costs and damages.
Information asymmetry, corporate disclosure, and the capital markets: A review of the empirical disclosure literature $

Financial reporting and disclosure are potentially important means for management to communicate firm performance and governance to outside investors. We provide a framework for analyzing managers’ reporting and disclosure decisions in a capital markets setting, and identify key researchquestions. We th en review current empirical researchon disclosure regulation, information intermediaries, and the determinants and economic consequences of corporate disclosure. Our survey concludes that current research has generated a number of useful insights. We identify many fundamental questions that remain unanswered, and changes in the economic environment that raise new questions for research. r 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.
Asian Participation and Performance at the Olympic Games

This paper examines Asian exceptionalism at the Olympics. Northeast Asian countries conform to the statistical norm while the rest of Asia lags, but this result obscures underlying distinctions. Asian women do better than men. Non-Northeast Asia’s relative underperformance is due to the men. Asian performance is uneven across events, finding more success in weight-stratified contests, perhaps due to the fact that competition is more “fair” physiologically. The models imply that China, Japan, and South Korea will place among the top ten medaling countries at the 2016 Games, while China will continue to close the medal gap with the United States.
Addressing Economic Violence in Times of Transition: Toward a Positive-Peace Paradigm for Transitional Justice

INTRODUCTION 781 I. THE ORIGINS AND PREOCCUPATIONS OF TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE 786 II. TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE AND ECONOMIC VIOLENCE 791 A. Economic Violence in Transitional Justice Practice 792 B. Understanding the Marginalization of Economic Violence in Transition 796 C. Potential Objections to Greater Focus on Economic Violence in Transition 801 III. TRANSITIONAL JUSTICE, PEACE, AND PEACEBUILDING 805 A. International Peacebuilding 808 B. Using a Positive-Peace Paradigm 810 C. The Critique of Liberal International Peacebuilding 812 CONCLUSION 813
Estimating continuous-time stochastic volatility models of the short-term interest rate: a comparison of the generalized method of moments and the Kalman filter

This paper examines a model of short-term interest rates that incorporates stochastic volatility as an independent latent factor into the popular continuous-time mean-reverting model of Chan et al. (J Financ 47:1209–1227, 1992). I demonstrate that this two-factor specification can be efficiently estimated within a generalized method of moments (GMM) framework using a judicious choice of moment conditions. The GMM procedure is compared to a Kalman filter estimation approach. Empirical estimation is implemented on US Treasury bill yields using both techniques. A Monte Carlo study of the finite sample performance of the estimators shows that GMM produces more heavily biased estimates than does the Kalman filter, and with generally larger mean squared errors.
James Madison's Principle of Religious Liberty

Although James Madison has been invoked by justices and judicial scholars for over 100 years, Madison's principle of religious liberty has never been fully grasped or adopted by the Supreme Court. Judges and scholars have failed to understand Madison's radical but simple teaching that religion is not part of the social compact and, therefore, that the state may not take religion within its cognizance. In this article I set forth Madison's principle of “noncognizance” in light of the social compact theory he articulates in the “Memorial and Remonstrance.” I then attempt to show how it consistently explains Madison's political actions and writings on religious liberty. I conclude by explaining how a “Madisonian” approach, properly understood, would adjudicate the First Amendment's religion clauses.The author would like to thank Mark Blitz, Charles R. Kesler, Nicholas May, Ralph A. Rossum, and Michael Uhlmann for their comments on drafts of this article.
Mostly prior-free asset allocation

This paper develops a prior-free version of Markowitz (1952)â€™s efficient portfolio theory that allows the decision maker to express preferences over risk and reward, even though she is unable to express a prior over potentially non-stationary returns. The corresponding optimal allocation strategies are admissible, interior, and exhibit a form of momentum. Empirically, prior-free efficient allocation strategies successfully exploit time-varying risk premium present in historical returns.
An Economic Analysis of Anti‐Tax‐Avoidance Doctrines

This article analyzes the effect of tax law doctrines designed to reduce tax shelters, such as the business-purpose doctrine, and the economic-substance doctrine. The article analyzes these doctrines as changes to the marginal elasticity of taxable income. As these doctrines are strengthened, the elasticity of taxable income goes down (in absolute value). By reducing the marginal elasticity of taxable income, the doctrines increase the efficiency of the tax system. Because the doctrines cannot perfectly identify tax avoidance, however, they induce a distortionary response by taxpayers, who may structure shelters to avoid the doctrines. This distortionary effect reduces their efficiency. The net benefit should be set equal on the margin to the marginal administrative cost of the doctrines. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.
Visualizing uncertainty: On Soyer’s and Hogarth’s “The illusion of predictability: How regression statistics mislead experts”

Abstract This comment was prepared for the International Journal of Forecasting mini-symposium on the Soyer–Hogarth experiment. The experiment evaluates the ability of expert econometricians to make predictions based on commonly provided regression outputs. Visual displays of quantitative information, including simple plots of data, outperformed predictions based on R-squared values, t-statistics, and other common diagnostics. Reliance on graphing—on the visualization of uncertainty—was suggested more than a century ago by Karl Pearson, a founding father of statistics in the English language. The results of the Soyer and Hogarth experiment, when combined with evidence produced by Ziliak and McCloskey (2008) and others, suggests that graphing and visualization should receive more attention and tests of statistical significance, less.
Rethinking Disclosure in a World of Risk-Based Pricing

In response to subprime loan abuses, it is common for policymakers to exhort consumers to comparison-shop for residential mortgages. This policy prescription ignores the fact that price revelation works differently in the prime and subprime markets, impeding search in subprime. In the prime market, lenders reveal firm prices for free, without requiring consumers to first submit loan applications. This dynamic, combined with Truth-in-Lending Act (TILA) disclosures that standardize prices, make it easy to comparison-shop for prime mortgages. In contrast, in the subprime market featuring risk-based pricing, consumers must reveal their creditworthiness before lenders can determine loan prices, which allows lenders to delay price revelation until after taking loan applications. In numerous cases, subprime borrowers do not learn firm prices until closing, due to a lack of lock-in commitments and behind-the-scenes negotiations over broker compensation. As a result, the subprime market is a pay-to-play market where customers must often pay several hundred dollars in application and appraisal fees (and wait until closing) to discover actual prices. This process makes meaningful comparison-shopping prohibitively expensive and promotes oligopolistic pricing in the subprime market. The same price revelation dynamics cause Truth-in-Lending Act disclosures to break down for subprime loans. TILA allows subprime lenders to advertise their best rates alone, misleading customers with weaker credit. In addition, TILA does not require lenders to reveal binding prices until closing (except for high-cost refinance home mortgages). Finally, TILA disclosures for traditional adjustable-rate mortgages, interest-only mortgages, and option ARMs are hopelessly complex. The article concludes by proposing reforms to federal disclosure laws to permit meaningful comparison-shopping and promote price competition in the subprime mortgage market.
The Role of Network Resources in Market Entry: Commercial Banks' Entry into Investment Banking, 1991–1997:

This study focuses on the roles of interfirm ties and network status in firms gaining access to customers in newly entered markets, examining whether these network resources are transferable and therefore can be deployed outside the market in which they originated. The role of market ties and network status is examined in a comprehensive longitudinal sample of commercial banks' entry into investment banking from 1991 to 1997. Results show that though market ties and network status facilitate market entry, the importance of network status decreases in the presence of market ties, and the value of network status, unlike market ties, decreases over time after market entry and is less important to customers with more market experience.
Retail Rebellion and the Second Amendment

When, if ever, is there a Second Amendment right to kill a cop? This piece seeks to answer that question. In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment codifies a natural right to keep and bear arms for self-defense. That right to self-defense extends to both private and public threats, including self-defense against agents of a tyrannical government. Moreover, the right is individual. Individuals -- not just communities -- have the right to protect themselves from public violence. Individuals -- not just militias -- have the right to defend themselves against tyranny. In McDonald v. City of Chicago, the Court went further, explaining that the right extends to state actors in large part due to the necessity that freedmen be able to defend themselves from tyrannical local law enforcement. But how is this right administered? If the Second Amendment protects an individual right to defend against tyranny, what does such a right look like? What does the Second Amendment say about retail forms of rebellion: threatening police officers, resisting an illegal arrest, cop killing? And how does it square with originalism, which rejects case-by-case balancing of government interests, and instead looks to history -- a history that for centuries protected a right to violently resist unlawful arrest and which placed guns in the hands of freedmen specifically to challenge unreconstructed Southern law enforcement? These questions are especially pertinent now, as individuals bring handguns to town hall meetings and assault rifles to presidential addresses, and as the Court held in McDonald that the right extends to all levels of government and to all levels of law enforcement. As Justice Breyer remarked in his Heller dissent, “to raise a self-defense question is not to answer it.” This piece attempts to formulate answers to the questions that the Second Amendment raises and will continue to raise in the area of self-defense against the police. And it concludes that for the problem of retail rebellion there is a solution: retail justice.
Race-Specific Patents, Commercialization, and Intellectual Property Policy

This Article examines the phenomenon of “race-specific patents,” defined as patented inventions for which the claims or the disclosure is written using racial categories. Inspired by the grant of a patent in 2002 for a hypertension drug whose claims limited use to “black patients,” the study begins by documenting race-specific patents in several areas, including patents for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, toys, and devices for determining personal identity. After cataloguing the nearly seven hundred patents that were discovered, the author presents an analysis of the use of racial categories in patent law that focuses on both the normative bases for intellectual property and normative treatment of racial categories. Specifically, the Article juxtaposes an incentive theory, market theory, and cultural theory of intellectual property with liberal and critical theories of race to delineate six normative positions to guide the policy treatment of racial categories in patent law. The author advocates a critical cultural theory of patent law that would justify the use of racial categories if patent law is used to affirmatively empower subordinated groups. The paper concludes with three suggested reforms for the treatment of racial categories in patent law: (1) the categorical exclusion of racial categories from patent claims; (2) the exclusion of race as a factor in the nonobviousness analysis; and (3) the affirmative use of race as a factor in the beneficial utility analysis. ∗ Professor of Law, The University of Wisconsin Law School, starting Fall, 2008; currently, Professor of Law, Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law. J.D., Stanford; Ph.D., The University of Michigan; B.A., Amherst College. The author would like to thank the following for encouragement in the writing of this Article: Keith Aoki, Al Brophy, Dan Burk, K. J. Greene, Timothy Holbrook, Jonathan Kahn, Thomas Mitchell, Pilar Ossario, Joshua Sarnoff, Elke Suber and participants at the faculty workshop series of The University of Wisconsin Law School and of INSITE at The University of Wisconsin School of Business, at the Seventh Annual Intellectual Property Scholars conference in DePaul, at the faculty workshop series at the University of Oklahoma Law Center, and at the Institute for Intellectual Property and Social Justice at Howard University School of Law. G. Ross Allen, SMU Dedman School of Law Class of 2008, Michele Oswald, my faculty assistant, provided incredible support in preparation of the tables in a separate appendix, available from the author.
Taming the Doctrine of Equivalents in Light of Patent Failure

In their book "Patent Failure", Jim Bessen and Michael Meurer show that patents outside the fields of chemistry and pharmaceuticals discourage innovation. One reason is that, outside these two fields, patents provide poor notice of what technology is owned and who owns it. Poor notice is due in part to the doctrine of equivalents (DOE). This essay argues against abolishing the DOE, and instead proposes two reforms to mitigate the DOE's interference with notice. First, courts should always stay permanent injunctions against DOE infringement for a modest period of time, e.g., for one year from the date of final judgment. Second, courts should treat equivalents under 35 USC 112(6) the same as DOE equivalents. This essay also briefly reevaluates the doctrine of prosecution history estoppel in light of "Patent Failure".
Financial Integration: A New Methodology and an Illustration

This paper develops a simple methodology to test for asset integration, and applies it within and between American stock markets. Our technique relies on estimating and comparing expected risk-free rates across assets. Expected risk-free rates are allowed to vary freely over time, constrained only by the fact that they must be equal across (risk-adjusted) assets in well-integrated markets. Assets are allowed to have standard risk characteristics, and are constrained by the Fama and French factor model of covariances over short time periods. We find that internal integration in the S&P 500 market is never rejected and is not generally rejected in the NASDAQ. Integration between the NASDAQ and the S&P, however, is always rejected dramatically. (JEL: G14)
A Name I Call Myself: Creativity and Naming

Various disputes involving the use of creative works in recent years have demonstrated how trademark-related concerns lurk at the heart of what are ostensibly copyright-related claims. When a recording artist objects to the unauthorized use of his song in connection with a political campaign, he is most likely not troubled about the loss of revenue resulting from the use; rather, he is likely concerned that the public will wrongly assume that the use of the song indicates that he has endorsed the political candidate. But because it is easier for him to bring a successful copyright claim than a false endorsement claim, we risk an overbroad result: an injunction against the use of the work altogether, despite its expressive benefits, rather than a narrower injunction requiring a disclaimer or similar information-correcting device.
Sex, Videos, and Insurance: How Gawker Could Have Avoided Financial Responsibility for the $140 Million Hulk Hogan Sex Tape Verdict

On March 18, 2016, and March 22, 2016, a jury awarded Terry Bollea (a.k.a Hulk Hogan) a total of $140 million in compensatory and punitive damages against Gawker Media for posting less than two minutes of a video of Hulk Hogan having sex with his best friend’s wife. The award was based upon a finding that Gawker intentionally had invaded Hulk Hogan’s privacy by posting the video online. The case has been receiving extensive media coverage because it is a tawdry tale involving a celebrity, betrayal, adultery, sex, and the First Amendment. The case likely will be remembered by most people for: 1) the shockingly high verdict amount of $140 million awarded to a celebrity adulterer who was filmed having sex with his best friend’s wife, and 2) the battle between what constitutes the outer boundaries of what is considered “news” under the First Amendment and a celebrity’s right to privacy. The case also should be remembered, however, for the lesson it provides business owners: instead of facing a damage award that forced Gawker to file for bankruptcy and to now seek relief on appeal, Gawker actually could have avoided paying any portion of the damage award. How could Gawker have obtained that result? Insurance. This article debunks the conventional wisdom that insurance does not cover intentional torts such as invasion of privacy or punitive damage awards and that it is against public policy to allow insurance to cover intentional torts and punitive damages. Consequently, if Gawker had purchased appropriate insurance, then it may have been able to avoid paying any portion of the ultimate damage award.
Entrepreneurial Finance and the Effects of Restrictions on Government R&D Subsidies

Entrepreneurial ventures often face liquidity constraints. While governments have intervened with programs subsidizing research and development (R&D) projects, these programs may have their effectiveness undermined by the restrictions they impose on subsidy recipients. We study the impact on venture outcomes of one important restriction, namely, the prohibition on transferring know-how away from a given geographic area. Using novel data on Israeli start-ups and evaluating a policy change that relaxed this restriction, we find that the policy change increased the likelihood of applying for a subsidy for start-ups most likely to have been affected by the restriction. We also show that R&D subsidies had a significant positive effect on start-up survival, the ability to attract external investment, and innovation, but only for recipients applying for subsidies after the restriction was relaxed. The e-companion is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2017.1168.
Are small firms less vulnerable to overpriced stock offers

We show an inverted-U relation between targetiveness (probability of being targeted) and firm size. However, this pattern describes stock offers and is more pronounced during hot markets characterized by higher stock valuations. For cash offers we find a negative and monotonic relation. These contrasting patterns suggest that small firms (in the bottom NYSE size quartile) are less vulnerable to overpriced stock offers. In addition, we find that the stock acquirers of small targets are less overvalued than those of large targets, and that the announcement returns are less negative for stock acquirers of small targets than for those of large targets.
Isolating the disaster risk premium with equity options

Abstract The US equity risk premium is approximated with a mean unhedged equity return. I utilize out-of-the-money put options to obtain a hedged equity return, which allows me to quantify the disaster risk premium as the difference between the means of unhedged and hedged equity returns. I demonstrate that a substantial fraction of the U.S. equity risk premium over the period from 1996 to 2016 is attributed to disasters defined as stock price depreciations below a pre-specified strike price. Employing alternative hedging schemes increases the contribution of disasters to the equity risk premium.
Dual ownership, returns, and voting in mergers

In Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As) a significant proportion of targets’ equity is owned by financial institutions that simultaneously own targets’ bonds (“dual holders”). Targets with larger equity ownership by dual holders have lower M&A equity premia and larger abnormal bond returns, particularly when dual holders stand to benefit more from appreciation of their bond stakes, e.g., when their bond ownership in the target is large and the target credit rating is non-investment grade. Dual holders are more likely to vote in favor of the merger proposal. Our results suggest the presence of coordination of decisions within dual holding financial conglomerates in M&A targets.
Headline Salience, Managerial Opportunism, and Over- and Underreactions to Earnings

ABSTRACT Limited attention theory predicts that higher salience of earnings news implies a stronger immediate market reaction to earnings news and a weaker post-earnings announcement drift (PEAD) o...
Medical malpractice : an empirical examination of the litigation process

New data on medical malpractice claims against a single hospital in which a direct measure of the quality of medical care is available are used to investigate the roles of the negligence rule and incomplete information in the dispute settlement process in medical malpractice. We find that the quality of medical care (negligence) is an extremely important determinant of defendants' medical malpractice liability. More generally, we find that the data are consistent with a model in which plaintiffs are poorly informed ex ante about whether there has been negligence, file suit to gather information, and either drop the case if they find that negligence was unlikely or settle for a positive payoff if they find that negligence was likely. We also find that the cases are resolved earlier in the litigation process when the parties are more certain, one way or the other, about the likelihood of negligence.
Corruption and optimal law enforcement

Abstract We analyze corruption in law enforcement: the payment of bribes to enforcement agents, threats to frame innocent individuals in order to extort money from them, and the actual framing of innocent individuals. Bribery, extortion, and framing reduce deterrence and are thus worth discouraging. Optimal penalties for bribery and framing are maximal, but, surprisingly, extortion should not be sanctioned. The state may also combat corruption by paying rewards to enforcement agents for reporting violations. Such rewards can partially or completely mitigate the problem of bribery, but they encourage framing. The optimal reward may be relatively low to discourage extortion and framing, or relatively high to discourage bribery.
Exclusionary Eminent Domain

This article explores the phenomenon of “exclusionary eminent domain”—the exercise of eminent domain that has the effect of excluding low-income households from an otherwise predominantly or entirely middle-class or wealthy neighborhood or locality—and assesses the case for a new state constitutional law doctrine limiting exclusionary eminent domain. An exclusionary eminent domain doctrine would be rooted in the public use clauses of state constitutions, and would result in the application of heightened review to the condemnations of low-income housing in a locality or neighborhood that otherwise has less than its fair share of such housing. An exclusionary eminent domain doctrine would promote full cost internalization by condemning localities, and hence deter excessive condemnations of low-income households and tend to reduce social costs from concentrated poverty.
Mutual fund styles

Abstract Mutual funds are typically grouped by their investment objectives or the ‘style’ of their managers. We propose a new empirical to the determination of manager ‘style’. This approach is simple to apply, yet it captures nonlinear patterns of returns that result from virtually all active portfolio management styles. Our classifications are superior to common industry classifications in predicting cross-sectional future performance, as well as past performance, and they also outperform classifications based on risk measures and analogue portfolios. Interestingly, ‘growth’ funds typically break down into several categories that differ in composition and strategy.
Learning and monetary policy shifts

Abstract This paper estimates a dynamic stochastic equilibrium model in which monetary policy follows a nominal interest rate rule that is subject to regime switches in the target inflation rate. Two specifications are considered: agents know the current state of monetary policy (full information) and agents use Bayesian updating to infer the policy regime (learning). First, our policy regime estimates are consistent with the view that policy was marked by a shift to a high-inflation regime in the early 1970s which ended with Volcker's stabilization policy. Second, while Bayesian posterior odds favor the full-information version of the model, the fall of interest rates, actual and expected inflation in the early 1980s is better captured by the delayed response of the learning specification. Third, monetary policy shocks of up to two standard deviations essentially do not trigger the Bayesian learning mechanism. Yet due to nonlinearities, interventions that lead to small initial interest rate changes may be associated with much larger effects on output and inflation than under full information.
Pensions, Taxes, and the Budgetary Process

This lecture was delivered on the occasion of the John R. Commons Award presentation at the Allied Social Science Association meetings in Chicago, January 2012. Omicron Delta Epsilon presents the award biennially to an outstanding economist in recognition of achievements and service to both the economics profession and Omicron Delta Epsilon. The lecture represents part of the author's continuing exploration of the analysis and development of policies for Social Security and income taxation of earnings.
A Faster Interior Point Method for Semidefinite Programming

Semidefinite programs (SDPs) are a fundamental class of optimization problems with important recent applications in approximation algorithms, quantum complexity, robust learning, algorithmic rounding, and adversarial deep learning. This paper presents a faster interior point method to solve generic SDPs with variable size $n \times n$ and m constraints in time \begin{equation*} \tilde{O}(\sqrt{n}(mn^{2}+m^{\omega}+n^{\omega})\log(1/\epsilon)), \end{equation*} where $\omega$ is the exponent of matrix multiplication and $\epsilon$ is the relative accuracy. In the predominant case of $m\geq n$ , our runtime outperforms that of the previous fastest SDP solver, which is based on the cutting plane method [JLSW20]. Our algorithm's runtime can be naturally interpreted as follows: $O(\sqrt{n}\log(1/\epsilon))$ is the number of iterations needed for our interior point method, $mn^{2}$ is the input size, and $m^{\omega}+n^{\omega}$ is the time to invert the Hessian and slack matrix in each iteration. These constitute natural barriers to further improving the runtime of interior point methods for solving generic SDPs.
Async-RED: A Provably Convergent Asynchronous Block Parallel Stochastic Method using Deep Denoising Priors

Regularization by denoising (RED) is a recently developed framework for solving inverse problems by integrating advanced denoisers as image priors. Recent work has shown its state-of-the-art performance when combined with pre-trained deep denoisers. However, current RED algorithms are inadequate for parallel processing on multicore systems. We address this issue by proposing a new{asynchronous RED (Async-RED) algorithm that enables asynchronous parallel processing of data, making it significantly faster than its serial counterparts for large-scale inverse problems. The computational complexity of Async-RED is further reduced by using a random subset of measurements at every iteration. We present a complete theoretical analysis of the algorithm by establishing its convergence under explicit assumptions on the data-fidelity and the denoiser. We validate Async-RED on image recovery using pre-trained deep denoisers as priors.
The Polarity-Specific Nature of Single-Session High-definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation to the Cerebellum and Prefrontal Cortex on Motor and Non-motor Task Performance

The cerebellum has an increasingly recognized role in higher order cognition. Advancements in noninvasive neuromodulation techniques allow one to focally create functional alterations in the cerebellum to investigate its role in cognitive functions. To this point, work in this area has been mixed, in part due to varying methodologies for stimulation, and it is unclear whether or not transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) effects on the cerebellum are task or load dependent. Here, we employed a between-subjects design using a high definition tDCS system to apply anodal, cathodal, or sham stimulation to the cerebellum or prefrontal cortex (PFC) to examine the role the cerebellum plays in verbal working memory, inhibition, motor learning, and balance performance, and how this interaction might interact with the cortex (i.e., PFC). We predicted performance decrements following anodal stimulation and performance increases following cathodal stimulation, compared with sham. Broadly, our work provides evidence for cerebellar contributions to cognitive processing, particularly in verbal working memory and sequence learning. Additionally, we found the effect of stimulation might be load specific, particularly when applied to the cerebellum. Critically, anodal stimulation negatively impacted performance during effortful processing, but was helpful during less effortful processing. Cathodal stimulation hindered task performance, regardless of simulation region. The current results suggest an effect of stimulation on cognition, perhaps suggesting that the cerebellum is more critical when processing is less effortful but becomes less involved under higher load when processing is more prefrontally dependent.
Rapid mixing of path integral Monte Carlo for 1D stoquastic Hamiltonians

Path integral quantum Monte Carlo (PIMC) is a method for estimating thermal equilibrium properties of stoquastic quantum spin systems by sampling from a classical Gibbs distribution using Markov chain Monte Carlo. The PIMC method has been widely used to study the physics of materials and for simulated quantum annealing, but these successful applications are rarely accompanied by formal proofs that the Markov chains underlying PIMC rapidly converge to the desired equilibrium distribution. In this work we analyze the mixing time of PIMC for 1D stoquastic Hamiltonians, including disordered transverse Ising models (TIM) with long-range algebraically decaying interactions as well as disordered XY spin chains with nearest-neighbor interactions. By bounding the convergence time to the equilibrium distribution we rigorously justify the use of PIMC to approximate partition functions and expectations of observables for these models at inverse temperatures that scale at most logarithmically with the number of qubits. The mixing time analysis is based on the canonical paths method applied to the single-site Metropolis Markov chain for the Gibbs distribution of 2D classical spin models with couplings related to the interactions in the quantum Hamiltonian. Since the system has strongly nonisotropic couplings that grow with system size, it does not fall into the known cases where 2D classical spin models are known to mix rapidly.
Clarifying the definition of ‘transonic’ screw dislocations

A number of recent Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations have demonstrated that screw dislocations in face centred cubic (fcc) metals can achieve stable steady state motion above the lowest shear wav...
Design and Control of Roller Grasper V2 for In-Hand Manipulation

The ability to perform in-hand manipulation still remains an unsolved problem; having this capability would allow robots to perform sophisticated tasks requiring repositioning and reorienting of grasped objects. In this work, we present a novel non-anthropomorphic robot grasper with the ability to manipulate objects by means of active surfaces at the fingertips. Active surfaces are achieved by spherical rolling fingertips with two degrees of freedom (DoF) - a pivoting motion for surface reorientation - and a continuous rolling motion for moving the object. A further DoF is in the base of each finger, allowing the fingers to grasp objects over a range of size and shapes. Instantaneous kinematics was derived and objects were successfully manipulated both with a custom handcrafted control scheme as well as one learned through imitation learning, in simulation and experimentally on the hardware.
Lifelong update of semantic maps in dynamic environments

A robot understands its world through the raw information it senses from its surroundings. This raw information is not suitable as a shared representation between the robot and its user. A semantic map, containing high-level information that both the robot and user understand, is better suited to be a shared representation. We use the semantic map as the user-facing interface on our fleet of floor-cleaning robots. Jitter in the robot's sensed raw map, dynamic objects in the environment, and exploration of new space by the robot are common challenges for robots. Solving these challenges effectively in the context of semantic maps is key to enabling semantic maps for lifelong mapping. First, as a robot senses new changes and alters its raw map in successive runs, the semantics must be updated appropriately. We update the map using a spatial transfer of semantics. Second, it is important to keep semantics and their relative constraints consistent even in the presence of dynamic objects. Inconsistencies are automatically determined and resolved through the introduction of a map layer of meta-semantics. Finally, a discovery phase allows the semantic map to be updated with new semantics whenever the robot uncovers new information. Deployed commercially on thousands of floor-cleaning robots in real homes, our user-facing semantic maps provide a intuitive user experience through a lifelong mapping robot.