cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Old Imperial Dilemmas and the New Nation-Building: Constitutive Constitutional Politics in Multinational Polities

Contemporary defenders of "nation-building" draw a sharp distinction between the "new" and "old" versions of that political practice. The old nation-building, in which a foreign power would design the institutional and legal architecture of another political community without its consent, is widely viewed as an imperialist enterprise motivated by a mixture of self-interest and patronizing nobless oblige, which paid lip-service to the right of self-determination. The new nation-building, as propounded by Noah Feldman, Michael Ignatieff, and Simon Chesterman, aims to further liberal democracy rather than undermine it, and structures the obligations of the occupying (not imperial) power such that they must take the right to self-determination seriously. However, a fundamental conceptual challenge to this view of the new nation-building may undermine its sharp distinction between new and old: the new version presupposes that who the people are who possess the right to self-determination and wish to exercise it is an uncontroversial question. Using case studies from Iraq, Sri Lanka, Yugoslavia, and Canada, the author argues that certain old imperial dilemmas inhere in the very project of nation-building, because even the procedural task of establishing durable democratic institutions presupposes a substantive judgement regarding what the boundaries of the relevant political community are. This task proves problematic in multinational states such as those considered by the author.
ARE THERE MACH CONES IN HEAVY ION COLLISIONS?: THREE-PARTICLE CORRELATIONS FROM STAR

We present results from STAR on 3-particle azimuthal correlations for a 3 < pT < 4 GeV/c trigger particle with two softer 1 ≤ pT ≤ 2 GeV/c particles. Results are shown for pp, d+Au and high statistics Au+Au collisions at . We observe a 3-particle correlation in central Au+Au collisions which may indicate the presence of conical emission. In addition, the dependence of the observed signal angular position on the pT of the associated particles can be used to distinguish conical flow from simple QCD-Cerenkov radiation. An important aspect of the analysis is the subtraction of combinatorial backgrounds. Systematic uncertainties due to this subtraction and the flow harmonics v2 and v4 are investigated in detail.
Mortgaging the American Dream: The Misplaced Role of Accreditation in the Federal Student Loan System

In 2013, outstanding student loan balances in the United States exceeded $994 billion. This growing volume of student debt has had far-reaching consequences for both individual borrowers and society as a whole. In many ways, the federal student loan program, available to students under the Higher Education Act (HEA), has achieved its goal of making higher education more accessible. Undergraduate college enrollment increased from 10.5 million students in 1980 to 17.6 million students in 2009. Despite the benefit of increased enrollment, however, the federal loan program has been criticized for increasing student loan debt and contributing to the “student loan crisis.” This student loan crisis threatens to undermine the purpose of the HEA by making higher education less accessible to Americans. Higher education institutions must be accredited to be eligible for Title IV federal funding under the HEA. The federal government relies on accreditation to assess the academic quality of the institutions and programs to which it provides federal funding. This federal fundingaccreditation relationship, riddled with conflicts of interest, has been ineffective in regulating student loans, contributing to the mounting student loan debt. This Note examines the relationship between the federal student loan system and accrediting bodies through economic theory, ultimately arguing that the HEA be amended to decouple accreditation and federal student loans.
Race, Gender, and Work/Family Policy

Family leave is not an end in itself, but rather is part of a much bigger picture: work/family policy. The goal of work/family policy is to achieve a good society by supporting families. Ideally, families enable children to develop to their fullest capacity and to contribute to their communities and society. Public rhetoric in the United States has always strongly supported families. Our policies, however, have not. In the area of work/family policy, the United States continues to lag behind every other advanced industrialized country, as well as many developing countries, in the degree to which we provide affirmative support for families. Limited family leave and child-care support are halting steps toward a policy that affirmatively supports families.In this Article, Professor Dowd argues that our work/family policy must be race and gender conscious in order to affirmatively structure law and policy to achieve egalitarian goals. Professor Dowd contends that in structuring work/family policy, we must address whether any suggested policy promotes the equality and well-being of all children and families. Race is the central issue that must be addressed within the presumed gender focus of work/family issues. In the context of ongoing racial inequality, advocates for work/family policy must commit to real equality among children by fostering and supporting all families. In the context of ongoing gender inequality in wage work and caregiving roles, advocates must envision deracialized gender equality and design policies to achieve it.The Article proceeds in the following manner: Part I briefly outlines the nature of work/family conflicts and describes the core components of a comprehensive work/family policy. Part II contends that putting race at the center of gender analysis exposes critical issues for work/family policy. Part III argues that the primary gender issue of work/family policy is envisioning an egalitarian model of families as the basis for structuring policy. Finally, Professor Dowd concludes that a comprehensive work/family policy framed around principles of race and gender equality, understood as interdependent with other equality efforts, is essential in order to make real our promise to our children that they are equal.
The First of the Month Effect: Consumer Behavior and Store Responses

Previous research has demonstrated that benefit recipients decrease expenditures on, and consumption of, food throughout the benefit month. Using detailed grocery store scanner data, we ask two ques tions: whether cycling is due to a desire for variety that leads to within-month substitution across product quality, and whether cycling is driven by countercyclical retail pricing. We find that the decrease in food expenditures is largely driven by reductions in quantity, not quality, and that prices for foods purchased by benefit households vary pro-cyclically with demand, implying that house holds could save money by delaying their food purchases until later in the month. (JEL D12,138)
Job Displacement and the Duration of Joblessness: The Role of Spatial Mismatch

This paper presents a new approach to the measurement of the effects of spatial mismatch that takes advantage of matched employer-employee administrative data integrated with a person-specific job accessibility measure, as well as demographic and neighborhood characteristics. We focus on a group who are job searchers for plausibly exogenous reasons: lower-income workers with strong labor force attachment separated during a mass layoff. Our results support the spatial mismatch hypothesis. We find that better job accessibility significantly decreases the duration of joblessness among lower-income displaced workers and especially for Blacks, females, and older workers. JEL Codes: J64, R23, R41.
Promises of Rewards in a Comparative Perspective

The article deals with the different aspects of the promise of rewards, comparing the unilateral solution, inspired by the tradition in civil law countries, with the solution in the common law jurisdictions.
The Effect of De-Hubbing on Airfares

Abstract This paper studies the price effect of de-hubbing, which occurs when an airline ceases hub operations at an airport. We develop a simple theoretical model to study the impact of de-hubbing on prices and quantities of direct flights at the hub airport. Using an event study of seven cases of de-hubbing between 1993 and 2009, we analyze how average airfares change following de-hubbing. Consistent with the theoretical implications, the empirical results suggest that airfares decrease when there is a low-cost carrier presence at the de-hubbed airport, whereas airfares increase when the de-hubbed airport is not serviced by a low-cost carrier.
EQUILIBRIUM ASSET PRICES AND SAVINGS OF HETEROGENEOUS AGENTS IN THE PRESENCE OF INCOMPLETE MARKETS AND PORTFOLIO CONSTRAINTS

We study the quantitative properties of a dynamic general equilibrium model. Agents face both idiosyncratic and aggregate income risk, state-dependent borrowing constraints that bind occasionally, and markets that are incomplete. Equilibrium consumption-savings plans and asset prices are computed under various assumptions about income uncertainty. Then, we investigate whether the model replicates two empirical observations: the high correlation between individual consumption and individual income, and the equity premium puzzle. We find that, when the driving processes are calibrated according to the data from wage income in different sectors of the U.S. economy, the results move in the direction of explaining these observations, but we fall short of explaining the observations quantitatively. If the incomes of agents are assumed to be independent of each other, the observations can be explained quantitatively.
Penal change as penal layering: A case study of proto-prison adoption and capital punishment reduction, 1785–1822

Recently, scholars have increasingly criticized descriptions of significant penal change as “ruptures”—sudden breaks with past practices, often replacing old technologies with new. This article pro...
The Market Structure of Securitisation and the US Housing Bubble

Housing finance and, specifically, the subprime private label securitisation market in the US, was at the epicentre of the global financial crisis. Excessive debt expansion in the run-up to the crisis resulted in credit risk, under-identified and mispriced ex ante, and in systemic risk. This paper considers the role of financial innovation in debt markets and the changing market structure of securitisation in the evolution of the US housing price bubble. New financing vehicles contributed to growing risk, but the more salient factor was the change in the structure of securitisation, which led to unsustainable levels of debt.
Turbulent firms, turbulent wages?☆

Abstract Has greater turbulence among firms fueled rising wage instability in the U.S.? We find strong support for the hypothesis that rising turbulence in the sales of large publicly-traded U.S. firms over the past three decades has raised their workers’ high-frequency wage volatility. Through controls and instrumental variable probes, we rule out straightforward compositional churning as an explanation for the link between firm sales and wage volatility. We also observe that the relationship between sales and wage volatility at the firm level is stronger since 1980, is present only in large companies and is stronger in services than in manufacturing companies.
Corporate Social Responsibility and Social Entrepreneurship

Milton Friedman argued that the social responsibility of firms is to maximize profits. This paper examines this argument for the economic environment envisioned by Friedman in which citizens can personally give to social causes and can invest in profit-maximizing firms and firms that give a portion of their profits to social causes. Citizens obtain social satisfaction from corporate social giving, but corporate giving may not be a perfect substitute for personal giving. The paper presents a theory of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and shows that CSR is costly when it is an imperfect substitute. When investors anticipate the CSR, shareholders do not bear its cost. Instead, the entrepreneurs who form the CSR firms bear the cost. Shareholders bear the cost of CSR only when it is a surprise, and it is to such surprises that Friedman objects. A social entrepreneur is willing to form a CSR firm at a financial loss because either doing so expands the opportunity sets of citizens in consumption-social giving space or there is an entrepreneurial warm glow from forming the firm. Firms can also undertake strategic CSR activities that increase profits, and a social entrepreneur carries strategic CSR beyond profit maximization and market value maximization. The paper also examines the implications of taxes and the effect of the market for control for the sustainability of CSR.
Montana v. Wyoming: Sprinklers, Irrigation Water Use Efficiency and the Doctrine of Recapture

This paper examines the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Montana v. Wyoming; it discusses the doctrine of recapture; it argues that efficiency improvements in use of water for irrigation are within the scope of the water right.
Probing Isospin-Violating Dark Matter

We discuss experimental probes of isospin-violating dark matter (IVDM), including direct and indirect detection strategies. We point out the important role which IVDM plays in understanding recent data regarding low-mass dark matter, and describe strategies for finding evidence of IVDM at current and upcoming experiments.
Buffer-Stock Saving and the Life Cycle/Permanent Income Hypothesis

This paper argues that the typical household’s saving is better described by a “bufferstock” version than by the traditional version of the Life Cycle/Permanent Income Hypothesis (LC/PIH) model. Buffer-stock behavior emerges if consumers with important income uncertainty are sufficiently impatient. In the traditional model, consumption growth is determined solely by tastes; in contrast, buffer-stock consumers set average consumption growth equal to average labor income growth, regardless of tastes. The model can explain three empirical puzzles: the “consumption/income parallel” of Carroll and Summers [1991]; the “consumption/income divergence” first documented in the 1930's; and the temporal stability of the household age/wealth profile despite the unpredictability of idiosyncratic wealth changes.
On the constitutionality of health care reform.

The lawsuits might be considered the most recent chapter in the post-1965 health reform saga, in which intense political battles have stymied efforts to address the nation’s growing health care crisis. As this recent battle leaves Congress and heads to the courts, we are reminded of that famous quote: “The law is what the judge says it is.”
The IKEA effect: When labor leads to love

Abstract In four studies in which consumers assembled IKEA boxes, folded origami, and built sets of Legos, we demonstrate and investigate boundary conditions for the IKEA effect—the increase in valuation of self-made products. Participants saw their amateurish creations as similar in value to experts' creations, and expected others to share their opinions. We show that labor leads to love only when labor results in successful completion of tasks; when participants built and then destroyed their creations, or failed to complete them, the IKEA effect dissipated. Finally, we show that labor increases valuation for both “do-it-yourselfers” and novices.
Fiscal effects of budget referendums: evidence from New York school districts

This paper provides empirical evidence on how budget referendums affect school inputs by taking advantage of an exogenous enactment of budget referendums for small city school districts (SCSDs) in New York State in 1998. The paper shows that SCSDs reduce instructional spending and increase student-teacher ratios while preserving administrative spending in response to budget referendums. These empirical findings are obtained by difference-in-differences estimations on data processed with propensity score matching, and the results are robust to sensitivity analysis.
Commercial Bank Underwriting of Credit-Enhanced Bonds: Are there Certification Benefits to the Issuer?

Abstract Recent studies have expanded the commercial bank certification hypothesis to include banks acting in an underwriting capacity. This paper further develops that research by focusing on the industrial revenue bond market in which banks have the unique opportunity to simultaneously act as both credit guarantor and underwriter. When explicitly allowing for bank-issued standby letters of credit (guarantees), we find significantly greater yield spreads for those bonds underwritten by commercial banks compared to bonds underwritten by investment banks. Overall, no net benefit appears to accrue to the bond issuer when attempting to achieve joint (or double) certification benefits by employing commercial banks as both credit guarantor and underwriters except in the special case where the same bank acts as both guarantor and underwriter. This limited certification effect is further validated when the credit quality of participating banks is accounted for. This result is consistent with an “economy of scope” in monitoring and reusing information.
The changing implications of research and development expenditures for future profitability

We document strong evidence of a declining relation between R&D and future profitability, which coincides with a number of important economic changes, including a significant increase in R&D spending. We identify several contributors to this decline, including changes in the nature and riskiness of R&D projects and a shift in the types of firms undertaking R&D in our sample. We also demonstrate variation in the implications of R&D for future profitability, consistent with diminishing marginal returns to R&D investments. Overall, our evidence suggests that, in earlier periods, investments in R&D offered high returns in U.S. public firms but that in more recent times these returns have stabilized at lower levels. Our study offers important insights for financial statement users, managers, and researchers.
Modernizing Patent Law's Inequitable Conduct Doctrine

Author(s): Cotropia, Christopher | Abstract: Since its inception, the inequitable conduct doctrine, which requires the inventor to disclose to the Patent Office all information relevant to the patentability of the invention at issue, has received tremendous attention from the judiciary, the Patent Office, the bar, and scholars. Many scholars have also written on the Patent Office's failure to properly exam patent applications and the resulting negative impact on society from the Office's issuance of "bad patents." Surprisingly, however, no one has fully linked these two discussions and, in turn, performed a fundamental, theoretical analysis of the inequitable conduct doctrine in light of the utilitarian theory that underlies American patent law. This Article fills this gap by developing such a conceptual framework with which to evaluate the inequitable conduct doctrine and identify its capacity to reform the patent system. The Article then applies this framework to suggest reforms that enhance the doctrine's ability to improve patent quality, while restraining the inherent tendency to overcomply by overloading the Patent Office with information.This new conceptual framework is important in two ways. First, it has immediate use in both evaluating proposed changes to the doctrine, such as those in the pending Patent Reform Act, and suggesting others. Second, the framework is a building block to be used in future scholarship on the inequitable conduct doctrine and, more generally, the ever-present movement to reform the patent system.
Credit Rating Agency and Equity Analysts’ Adjustments to GAAP Earnings

Moody's analysts and sell-side equity analysts adjust GAAP earnings as part of their research. We show that adjusted earnings definitions of Moody's analysts are significantly lower than those of equity analysts when companies exhibit higher downside risk, as measured by volatility in idiosyncratic stock returns, volatility in negative market returns, poor earnings, and loss status. Relative to the adjusted earnings definitions of equity analysts, adjusted earnings definitions of Moody's analysts better predict future bankruptcies, yet they fare significantly worse in predicting future earnings and operating cash flows. These findings persist after controlling for optimism incentives of analysts, reporting incentives of companies, credit rating levels, and industry and year effects. Our findings suggest that credit rating agencies cater to their clients’ demand for a more conservative interpretation of company-reported performance than what is offered by equity analysts. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Polycentric structure and informal norms: competition and coordination within the scientific community

The success of the scientific community challenges in many ways our theories of social cooperation and public goods production. It is a very large-scale, decentralized, international organization lacking any central management or a formalized legislative or rule-enforcement body. Even the entry/exclusion rules are lax and unclear. By many standards it should not work. But, instead, it is one of the most successful human endeavors of all time. This paper provides an updated institutionalist theory of how this community works, with an extended discussion of its informal norms, prestige mechanisms, decentralized resource allocation, and interactions with states and civil society. Second, the paper discusses the ways in which the scientific community can fail at its truth-seeking task as a result of distortions created by outside political pressure and interactions with self-interested funding sources arguing that, as long as the polycentric structure is kept in place and the informal norms are preserved, the...
The formation of galaxies hosting z ̃ 6 quasars

We investigate the formation and properties of galaxies hosting z∼ 6 quasars in the gigaparsec scale cosmological hydrodynamical simulation MassiveBlack, which includes a self-consistent model for star formation, black hole accretion and associated feedback. We select the host galaxies based on the sample of quasars in MassiveBlack brighter than the Sloan Digital Sky Survey magnitude limit in the redshift range 5.5 ≲z≲ 6.5. We find that quasar hosts in the simulation are compact gas-rich systems with high star formation rates (SFRs) of SFR ∼102–103 M⊙ yr−1 consistent with observed properties. We show that the star-forming gas in these galaxies predominantly originates from high-density cold streams which efficiently penetrate the halo and grow the galaxy at the centre. The ratio of molecular to total cold gas mass in these galaxies is Mmol/Mcold∼ 0.1, much larger than local galaxies of similar masses, indicating that star formation in high-redshift quasar host galaxies is more efficient than their local counterparts. We show that MassiveBlack predicts a deviation from the local MBH–σ and MBH–M* relations, implying that black holes are relatively more massive for a given stellar host at these redshifts.
A Wearable Optical Microfibrous Biomaterial with Encapsulated Nanosensors Enables Wireless Monitoring of Oxidative Stress

Abstract In an effort to facilitate personalized medical approaches, the continuous and noninvasive monitoring of biochemical information using wearable technologies can enable a detailed understanding of an individual’s physiology. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are a class of oxygen-containing free radicals which function in a wide range of biological processes. In wound healing applications, the continuous monitoring of ROS through a wearable diagnostics platform is essential for the prevention of chronicity and pathogenic infection. Here, a versatile one-step procedure is utilized to fabricate optical core-shell microfibrous textiles incorporating single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) for the real-time optical monitoring of hydrogen peroxide concentrations in wounds. The environmentally sensitive and non-photobleachable fluorescence of SWCNTs enables continuous analyte monitoring without a decay in signal over time. The existence of multiple chiralities of SWCNTs emitting near-infrared fluorescence with narrow bandwidths allows a ratiometric signal readout invariant to the excitation source distance and exposure time. The individual fibers encapsulate the SWCNT nanosensors for at least 21 days without apparent loss in structural integrity. Moreover, the microfibrous textiles can be utilized to spatially resolve peroxide concentrations on a wound surface using a camera and can be integrated into commercial wound bandages without being altered or losing their optical properties.
Eternal Law: The Underpinnings of Dharma and Karma in the Justice System

This article discusses a philosophical view of criminal law from the perspective of two Eastern concepts, Dharma and Karma, instead of the traditional notions of utilitarianism and retributivism; analyzing the Hindu philosophy of Eternal Law to show the underpinnings of Dharma and Karma in the justice system. Although many have adapted these concepts as expressions of spirituality, they are not religious or spiritual canons but conceptualizations of interpreting and comprehending the world around us while enabling us to embrace every expression of human existence. The article further seeks to examine these universal principles as inherent principles within our social system. The hope is to bring about a better understanding of their influences and impact on our justice system. In to elucidate this, the article also focuses a discussion on the utilization of these concepts by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. in their struggles for justice and equality in two distinct social realities.
Economic Foundations of Valuation Discounts

This paper develops and analyzes two models of asset valuation from which the appropriate discounts for lack of marketability, blockage, and minority ownership are derived. The analysis of the first model shows that a lack of prospective buyers is a necessary but not sufficient condition for a discount for lack of marketability. Heterogeneous beliefs among prospective buyers regarding the value of the asset are also required. A consequence of this result is that the proper marketability discount for an interest in a partnership that holds easily valued investment assets is zero. Analysis of the second model shows that a discount for owning a minority interest reflects the ability of a majority owner to indirectly transfer wealth to himself at the expense of the minority owner. If a discount exists, it is decreasing in the cost of the transfer to the corporation and decreasing in the ownership interest of the majority shareholder.
IFRS Adoption and Accounting Quality: A Review

In 2002, the European Union (EU) Parliament passed a regulation that requires consolidated and simple accounts for all companies listed in the EU to use International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for fiscal years starting after 1 January 2005. This change in accounting systems will have a large impact on the information environment for EU companies. This paper provides a review of the literature on adoption of different Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). We thus provide background and guidance for researchers studying the change in accounting quality following widespread IFRS adoption in the EU. We argue that cross-country differences in accounting quality are likely to remain following IFRS adoption because accounting quality is a function of the firm's overall institutional setting, including the legal and political system of the country in which the firm resides.
Using the Bass Model to Analyze the Diffusion of Innovations at the Base of the Pyramid

This research note proposes the Bass Model as an empirical tool for analyzing the diffusion of new product and service innovations in Base of the Pyramid (BoP) markets. This approach allows researc...
Accounting transparency and the term structure of credit spreads

Abstract Theory predicts that the quality of a firm's information disclosure can affect the term structure of its corporate bond yield spreads. Using cross-sectional regression and Nelson-Siegel yield curve estimation, I find that firms with higher Association for Investment Management and Research disclosure rankings tend to have lower credit spreads. Moreover, this transparency spread is especially large among short-term bonds. These findings are consistent with the theory of discretionary disclosure as well as the incomplete accounting information model of Duffie and Lando (Econometrica 69 (2001) 633). The presence of a sizable short-term transparency spread can attenuate some of the empirical problems associated with structural credit risk models.
Devil's Advocate: The Most Incorrect Beliefs of Accounting Experts

The article presents the views of six experts who were asked to write an essay on the incorrect beliefs of accounting experts. Some of the experts are of the opinion that U.S. accounting academics focus much on prevailing orthodoxies, and this rigid conformity can adversely affect innovative scholarship.
Property Rights and the Control of Strategy: Foreign Ownership Rules and Domestic Firm Globalization in Indian Industry

This study examines the influence of foreign ownership levels on domestic firms’ exporting behavior in India. Foreign ownership is categorized according to the control exercisable at different levels of ownership by foreign shareholders. The degree of strategic control a foreign shareholder can possess is determined by the institutional structure of the Indian environment that firms operate in. The results show that, after controlling for a variety of firm and environment-specific factors, only when property rights devolve unequivocally to foreign owners do domestic firms display the higher export orientation that is consonant with the process of globalization of their operations.
Do Institutions Receive Favorable Allocations in IPOs with Better Long-Run Returns?

We analyze allocations to institutional and retail investors in 441 initial public offerings (IPOs). In addition to the well-known favorable first-day returns, we show that institutions also obtain more allocations in IPOs with better long-term performance. We find that initial institutional flips help predict future returns, suggesting that at least some institutions retain valuable private information about IPO firms. Collectively, these findings illustrate the importance of aftermarket relations between underwriters and investors and that underwriters have discretionary means to compensate IPO investors beyond first-day returns and price stabilization.
The Unbundling of Legal Services and its Implications for Law Librarianship

This article examines the role of law libraries with respect to free Web-based legal information sites and the lack of access to low-cost legal advice. The legal profession's reaction to these sites and suggestions on how to address professional and ethical concerns are discussed.
Teaching Asian Americans and the Law: Struggling with History, Identity, and Politics

This brief essay explores the goals and challenges in constructing a course on Asian Americans and the Law. In published form, this essay will be accompanied by a course syllabus.
How Early Stage Entrepreneurs Evaluate Venture Capitalists

This study examines the process and criteria by which entrepreneurs evaluate venture capitalists—the flip side of VCs9 due diligence efforts. The selection process involves such issues as the time invested to gather information, the sources of information, and the number of venture capitalists considered. Selection criteria are divided into four groups: 1) Valuation; 2) Value-Added Services; 3) Reputational Factors; and 4) Venture Capitalist Attributes. The article presents results for all respondents and compares results when the respondents are sorted by geographic region, industry, experience, and age. The article also examines satisfaction, sorting respondents by the factors listed as well as by time devoted to the search and criteria ranking.
Stockpiling Points in Linear Loyalty Programs

Customers often stockpile reward points in linear loyalty programs (i.e., programs that do not explicitly reward stockpiling) despite several economic incentives against it (e.g., the time value of money). The authors develop a mathematical model of redemption choice that unites three explanations for why customers seem to be motivated to stockpile on their own, even though the retailer does not reward them for doing so. These motivations are economic (the value of forgone points), cognitive (nonmonetary transaction costs), and psychological (customers value points differently than cash). The authors capture the psychological motivation by allowing customers to book cash and point transactions in separate mental accounts. They estimate the model on data from an international retailer using Markov chain Monte Carlo methods and accurately forecast redemptions during an 11-month out-of-sample period. The results indicate substantial heterogeneity in how customers are motivated to redeem and suggest that the ...
African Traditional Healers and Outcome: Contingent Contracts in Health Care

Abstract Even with the expansion of modern medicine, African traditional healers remain popular. This paper advances an economic perspective of healers to contribute to an explanation of this phenomenon. An important element of their practice has previously been ignored: healers use and are able to enforce outcome-contingent contracts. This, in turn, allows them to credibly deliver high quality care. Data on patient choice of health facility from Cameroun shows that patients choose healers over modern facilities for reasons that can be directly traced to the advantages inherent in the use of outcome-contingent contracts.
Executive Pay, Innovation, and Risk-Taking

This paper analyzes the optimal equity pay mix in a setting in which executives face career concerns and must be motivated to search for innovative investment ideas and to make appropriate decisions regarding whether to pursue the uncovered idea. I show that, depending on the value of the firm's potential growth opportunities and the CEO's concern about being fired, the CEO is either tempted to overinvest in risky ideas (excessive risk-taking) or underinvest in risky ideas (excessive conservatism). The optimal pay package consists of stock options, to encourage the discovery of innovative ideas, and either restricted stock, to combat excessive risk-taking, or severance pay, to combat excessive conservatism. The model provides new empirical predictions relating executive pay arrangements to the importance of innovation and career concerns and analyzes how the change in the economic environment caused by the current financial crisis might change the optimal mix of stock options, restricted stock, and severance pay.
A theory on the discontinuity in earnings distributions

This paper presents a model of financial reporting in which investors infer both pre-managed earnings and the precision of earnings from reported earnings. Over-reporting earnings has two opposing pricing effects: investors infer higher pre-managed earnings from an inflated positive earnings surprise (i.e., positive effect); however, investors also infer a lower earnings precision at the same time, leading to a lower pricing weight placed on the higher surprise (i.e., negative effect). For firms with (relatively) strongly positively autocorrelated earnings, in equilibrium, the trade-off between the two opposing effects creates a pooled report right above the prior mean of the earnings distribution and a no-reporting "hole" right below the prior mean (i.e., an earnings discontinuity consistent with empirical findings). Further, the model predicts cross-sectional variation in the earnings discontinuity phenomenon yet to be explored. In particular, the model shows and predicts: (1) no earnings discontinuity exists for firms with negatively or (relatively) weakly positively autocorrelated earnings, and (2) the earnings discontinuity is more pronounced for firms with more positively autocorrelated earnings.
Why the Occupy Movement Failed

The Occupy movement that began in New York City in September 2011 has been celebrated as one that "changed America." Early assessments about the movement's impact are overstated. The movement was limited by an organizing philosophy that impaired its ability to articulate demands, build alliances and control militant elements. These problems were not unique to the Occupy movement. This experience is illustrative of larger difficulties in organizing protest against the long-term consequences of neoliberal economic reforms.
Self-regulatory strength and dynamic optimal purchase

Abstract I study a single-agent dynamic purchase problem by using a Gul and Pesendorfer’s [Gul, F., Pesendorfer, W., 2007. Harmful addiction. Review of Economic Studies 74 (1), 147–172] dynamic preference: extreme self-control cannot be sustained and leads to addiction. This type of agent exhibits a behavioral pattern of self-regulatory depletion.
The Market Pricing of Implicit Options in Merger Collars

Almost 20% of stock‐swap merger bids contain collars that affect the payment received by target shareholders. I argue that a collar bid offers two sources of value to target shareholders: the basic offer premium and the value of the implicit collar options. Hypothesizing that the market should price both sources of value implicit in a collar merger bid, I value the implicit collar options and find the market prices both the offer premium and option value equally. This suggests that market participants are cognizant of the “fine print” of merger agreements and, in particular, implies that the two offer components are substitutable.
Pricing and hedging interest rate options: Evidence from cap-floor markets

We examine the pricing and hedging performance of interest rate option pricing models using dailydata on US dollar cap and floor prices across both strike rates and maturities. Our results show that fitting the skew of the underlying interest rate probability distribution provides accurate pricing results within a one-factor framework. However, for hedging performance, introducing a second stochastic factor is more important than fitting the skew of the underlying distribution. This constitutes evidence against claims in the literature that correctly specified and calibrated one-factor models could replace multi-factor models for consistent pricing and hedging of interest rate contingent claims. � 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Effect of Corruption on Tax Revenues in the Middle East

This study estimates the impact of corruption on the revenue-generating capacity of different tax categories in the Middle East. This is done over a period preceding the Global Crisis and the Arab Spring, to avoid any biases brought about by these two far reaching events. We find that the low revenue collection as a share of GDP in the Middle East, compared to other middle-income regions is due in part to corruption, with certain taxes more affected than others. Taxes that require frequent interaction between the tax authority and individuals, such as taxes on international trade, seem to be more affected by corruption than most other types of taxation. This suggests that once political stability returns to the region, if governments need to raise more tax revenues in a way that minimizes distortions and maximizes social welfare, they should implement reforms that either reduce corruption or raise revenues from tax categories that are less susceptible to corruption. Possible reforms of the revenue system and administration are examined.
The Central Role of Noise in Evaluating Interventions that Use Test Scores to Rank Schools

Many programs reward or penalize schools based on students’ average performance. Mean reversion is a potentially serious hindrance to the evaluation of such interventions. Chile’s 900 Schools Program (P-900) allocated resources based on cutoffs in schools’ mean test scores. This paper shows that transitory noise in average scores and mean reversion lead conventional estimation approaches to overstate the impacts of such programs. It further shows how a regressiondiscontinuity design can be used to control for reversion biases. It concludes that P-900 had significant effects on test score gains, albeit much smaller than is widely believed.
Examining an Underdeveloped Constitutional Standard: Trial In Absentia and the Relinquishment of a Criminal Defendant's Right to be Present

The right of a criminal defendant to be present at trial has been characterized by the Supreme Court as “one of the most basic rights” guaranteed by the Constitution, and yet the Court has only intermittently discussed the constitutional standard for assessing its relinquishment. Both federal and state courts now perceive that the constitutional standard only requires a voluntary, knowing and intelligent waiver, and they frequently focus upon the issue of the voluntariness of a defendant’s absence. A large number of the federal circuits have supplemented this constitutional standard with a non-constitutional, supervisory requirement that a trial court balance the individual and governmental interests involved before proceeding with trial in absentia. This approach has not commended itself to a majority of the state courts which have considered it.This article discusses the evolution of relinquishment analysis in the Supreme Court and the development in the federal courts of this non-constitutional, prudential methodology. It then concludes that there is a need to refine the constitutional standard for assessing a potential relinquishment of the right to be present, so that both the individual and societal interests involved are more adequately accommodated.
The Higgs Sector and CoGeNT/DAMA-Like Dark Matter in Supersymmetric Models

Recent data from CoGeNT and DAMA are roughly consistent with a very light dark matter particle with m ~ 4 − 10 GeV and spin-independent cross section of order σSI ~ (1 − 3) × 10−4 pb. An important question is whether these observations are compatible with supersymmetric models obeying Ωh2 ~ 0.11 without violating existing collider constraints and precision measurements. In this talk, I review the fact the the Minimal Supersymmetric Model allows insufficient flexibility to achieve such compatibility, basically because of the highly constrained nature of the MSSM Higgs sector in relation to LEP limits on Higgs bosons. I then outline the manner in which the more flexible Higgs sectors of the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Model and an Extended Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Model allow large σSI and Ωh2 ~ 0.11 at low LSP mass without violating LEP, Tevatron, BaBar and other experimental limits. The relationship of the required Higgs sectors to the NMSSM "ideal-Higgs" scenarios is discussed.
Suing for Peanuts

For as many as five million Americans who are allergic to peanuts or other nuts, exposure to these allergens is often life-threatening. Cross-contamination and/or omission of ingredient information may subject food manufacturers and restaurants to liability under manufacturing defect or failure to warn theories. Statutes protecting individuals with disabilities from discrimination provide another source of potential liability. You can reach the author at jbridges@susmangodfrey.com or see his firm's website at www.susmangodfrey.com.
Some Important Statistical Issues Courts Should Consider in Their Assessment of Statistical Analyses Submitted in Class Certification Motions: Implications for Dukes v. Wal-mart

When many individual plaintiffs have similar claims against the same defendant, often it is more efficient for them to be combined into a single class action. Due to their increased complexity and larger stakes, in the USA there are special criteria a party seeking to proceed as a class action needs to satisfy. Statistical evidence is often submitted to establish that the members of the proposed class were affected by a common event or policy. In equal employment cases involving an employer with a number of locations or subunits, defendants may argue that the data should be examined separately for each unit, while plaintiffs may pool the data into one or several large samples or focus on a few units in which statistical significance was observed. After describing the statistical issues involved, it will be seen that requiring plaintiffs to demonstrate a statistically significant disparity in a pre-set fraction, e.g. majority of the subunits is too stringent as the power of the statistical test to detect a meaningful disparity in most subunits is too small. On the other hand, when many statistical tests are calculated on data from a fair system, a small percentage of significant disparities will be obtained. Thus, allowing a class action to proceed if the plaintiffs can demonstrate a statistically significant difference in a few subunits is too lax. The use of established methods for combining statistical tests for data organized by appropriate subgroups will be illustrated on data from two recent cases. Using the concept of power, the expected number, E, of subunits in which a statistically significant result would occur if there were a legally meaningful disparity can be determined. Then the observed number, O, of units with a significant disparity can be compared to E, to see whether data are consistent with a pattern, O close to E, indicating unfairness or O clearly less than E, reflecting fairness. Without such a comparison, the number of units with a statistically significant disparity is not meaningful. Both parties in Dukes v. Wal-mart introduced summaries of the p-values of many individual statistical tests that grouped them into a small number of categories. An appropriate overall procedure combines them into a single summary statistic. This analysis shows that the promotion data for the 40 or 41 regions in the Wal-mart case are consistent with an overall system in which the odds an eligible female being promoted were about 70-80% of those of a male. A similar analysis of the p-values of Wal-mart's subunit regressions also is consistent with a general pattern of a degree of underpayment of female employees relative to that of similarly qualified males. Language: en
First-Order Methods for Constrained Convex Programming Based on Linearized Augmented Lagrangian Function

First-order methods (FOMs) have been popularly used for solving large-scale problems. However, many existing works only consider unconstrained problems or those with simple constraint. In this pape...
Informational externalities of initial public offerings: Does venture capital backing matter?

We examine the role of venture capital backing on informational externalities generated by IPO firms. Theoretical models predict that going public firms generate positive externalities creating a spillover effect for other firms to go public. In this paper, we posit that venture backed IPOs convey positive information about industry and this information is transferred to rival firms. We also hypothesize that intra-industry information transfer varies with rivals’ characteristics and IPO price revisions generate additional information that affects rivals’ valuation. The results show that rivals have positive valuation effects in response to venture backed IPOs and no significant reaction in response to non-venture backed IPOs. We find evidence that the effect on rival firms is stronger if they operate in less concentrated industries and have high growth opportunities. The larger the IPO proceeds, the higher the magnitude of rivals ‘valuation effects. Positive (negative) information revealed in the form of upward (downward) price revisions significantly impacts rivals’ reaction in response to venture backed IPOs.