cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Inclusion of variants discovered from diverse populations improves polygenic risk score transferability

The majority of polygenic risk scores (PRSs) have been developed and optimized in individuals of European ancestry and may have limited generalizability across other ancestral populations. Understanding aspects of PRSs that contribute to this issue and determining solutions is complicated by disease-specific genetic architecture and limited knowledge of sharing of causal variants and effect sizes across populations. Motivated by these challenges, we undertook a simulation study to assess the relationship between ancestry and the potential bias in PRSs developed in European ancestry populations. Our simulations show that the magnitude of this bias increases with increasing divergence from European ancestry, and this is attributed to population differences in linkage disequilibrium and allele frequencies of European-discovered variants, likely as a result of genetic drift. Importantly, we find that including into the PRS variants discovered in African ancestry individuals has the potential to achieve unbiased estimates of genetic risk across global populations and admixed individuals. We confirm our simulation findings in an analysis of hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), asthma, and prostate cancer in the UK Biobank. Given the demonstrated improvement in PRS prediction accuracy, recruiting larger diverse cohorts will be crucial-and potentially even necessary-for enabling accurate and equitable genetic risk prediction across populations.
Motivic random variables and representation stability, I: Configuration spaces

We prove a motivic stabilization result for the cohomology of the local systems on configuration spaces of varieties over $\mathbb{C}$ attached to character polynomials. Our approach interprets the stabilization as a probabilistic phenomenon based on the asymptotic independence of certain *motivic random variables*, and gives explicit universal formulas for the limits in terms of the exponents of a motivic Euler product for the Kapranov zeta function. The result can be thought of as a weak but explicit version of representation stability for the cohomology of ordered configuration spaces. In the sequel we find similar stability results in spaces of smooth hypersurface sections, providing new examples to be investigated through the lens of representation stability for symmetric, symplectic and orthogonal groups.
Prediction of autism spectrum disorder diagnosis using nonlinear measures of language-related EEG at 6 and 12 months.

BACKGROUND Early identification of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) provides an opportunity for early intervention and improved developmental outcomes. The use of electroencephalography (EEG) in infancy has shown promise in predicting later ASD diagnoses and in identifying neural mechanisms underlying the disorder. Given the high co-morbidity with language impairment, we and others have speculated that infants who are later diagnosed with ASD have altered language learning, including phoneme discrimination. Phoneme learning occurs rapidly in infancy, so altered neural substrates during the first year of life may serve as early, accurate indicators of later autism diagnosis. METHODS Using EEG data collected at two different ages during a passive phoneme task in infants with high familial risk for ASD, we compared the predictive accuracy of a combination of feature selection and machine learning models at 6 months (during native phoneme learning) and 12 months (after native phoneme learning), and we identified a single model with strong predictive accuracy (100%) for both ages. Samples at both ages were matched in size and diagnoses (n = 14 with later ASD; n = 40 without ASD). Features included a combination of power and nonlinear measures across the 10‑20 montage electrodes and 6 frequency bands. Predictive features at each age were compared both by feature characteristics and EEG scalp location. Additional prediction analyses were performed on all EEGs collected at 12 months; this larger sample included 67 HR infants (27 HR-ASD, 40 HR-noASD). RESULTS Using a combination of Pearson correlation feature selection and support vector machine classifier, 100% predictive diagnostic accuracy was observed at both 6 and 12 months. Predictive features differed between the models trained on 6- versus 12-month data. At 6 months, predictive features were biased to measures from central electrodes, power measures, and frequencies in the alpha range. At 12 months, predictive features were more distributed between power and nonlinear measures, and biased toward frequencies in the beta range. However, diagnosis prediction accuracy substantially decreased in the larger, more behaviorally heterogeneous 12-month sample. CONCLUSIONS These results demonstrate that speech processing EEG measures can facilitate earlier identification of ASD but emphasize the need for age-specific predictive models with large sample sizes to develop clinically relevant classification algorithms.
SEDRo: A Simulated Environment for Developmental Robotics

Even with impressive advances in application specific models, we still lack knowledge about how to build a model that can learn in a human-like way and do multiple tasks. To learn in a human-like way, we need to provide a diverse experience that is comparable to human's. In this paper, we introduce our ongoing effort to build a simulated environment for developmental robotics (SEDRo). SEDRo provides diverse human experiences ranging from those of a fetus to a 12th month old. A series of simulated tests based on developmental psychology will be used to evaluate the progress of a learning model. We anticipate SEDRo to lower the cost of entry and facilitate research in the developmental robotics community.
Toward AGT for Parabolic Sheaves

We construct explicit elements $W_{ij}^k$ in (a completion of) the shifted quantum toroidal algebra of type $A$, and show that these elements act by 0 on the $K$-theory of moduli spaces of parabolic sheaves. We expect that the quotient of the shifted quantum toroidal algebra by the ideal generated by the elements $W_{ij}^k$ will be related to $q$-deformed $W$-algebras of type $A$ for arbitrary nilpotent, which would imply a $q$-deformed version of the AGT correspondence between gauge theory with surface operators and conformal field theory.
Health-Behaviors Associated With the Growing Risk of Adolescent Suicide Attempts: A Data-Driven Cross-Sectional Study:

Purpose:Identify and examine the associations between health behaviors and increased risk of adolescent suicide attempts, while controlling for socio-economic and demographic differences.Design:A d...
On the Colijn-Plazzotta numbering scheme for unlabeled binary rooted trees.

Abstract Colijn and Plazzotta (2018) introduced a scheme for bijectively associating the unlabeled binary rooted trees with the positive integers. First, the rank 1 is associated with the 1-leaf tree. Proceeding recursively, ordered pair ( k 1 , k 2 ) , k 1 ⩾ k 2 ⩾ 1 , is then associated with the tree whose left subtree has rank k 1 and whose right subtree has rank k 2 . Following dictionary order on ordered pairs, the tree whose left and right subtrees have the ordered pair of ranks ( k 1 , k 2 ) is assigned rank k 1 ( k 1 − 1 ) ∕ 2 + 1 + k 2 . With this ranking, given a number of leaves n , we determine recursions for a n , the smallest rank assigned to some tree with n leaves, and b n , the largest rank assigned to some tree with n leaves. The smallest rank a n is assigned to the maximally balanced tree, and the largest rank b n is assigned to the caterpillar. For n equal to a power of 2, the value of a n is seen to increase exponentially with 2 α n for a constant α ≈ 1 . 24602 ; more generally, we show it is bounded a n 1 . 5 n . The value of b n is seen to increase with 2 β ( 2 n ) for a constant β ≈ 1 . 05653 . The great difference in the rates of increase for a n and b n indicates that as the index v is incremented, the number of leaves for the tree associated with rank v quickly traverses a wide range of values. We interpret the results in relation to applications in evolutionary biology.
A Multiple-Input Multiple-Output Extension of the Mueller and Müller Timing Error Detector

We present a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) extension of the timing error detector that was originally developed by Mueller and Muller for synchronization on pulse amplitude modulation over 1-D channels. This MIMO extension applies to joint detection of multiple signals with different timing offsets received over MIMO channels. We provide accurate theoretical expressions of the performance of the proposed scheme, and verify its applicability on a modern Two-Dimensional Magnetic Recording channel. Performance results show that the proposed timing error detector outperforms the conventional 1-D timing error detector that completely ignores the presence of crosstalk interference in MIMO channels.
A Private Right of Action for Informed Consent in Research

INTRODUCTION 174 I. A PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION FOR TREATMENT BUT NOT RESEARCH 177 A. Informed Consent to Treatment 177 B. Informed Consent to Research 183 II. THE EVOLVING RESEARCH MODEL AND THE SHIFTING INVESTIGATOR-PARTICIPANT RELATIONSHIP 193 III. AN OBLIGATION TO DISCLOSE RESEARCH FINDINGS MAY FURTHER TRANSFORM THE INVESTIGATOR-PARTICIPANT RELATIONSHIP 197 IV. A CALL FOR A PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION FOR INFORMED CONSENT IN RESEARCH, BASED ON THE EVOLVING INVESTIGATOR-PARTICIPANT RELATIONSHIP 202 A. Autonomy as the Underlying Principle 203 B. The Standard of Care for a Private Right of Action for Informed Consent in Research 206 C. Some Final Thoughts and Caveats 210
Institutional trading, information production, and the choice between spin-offs, carve-outs, and tracking stock issues

Abstract We analyze a firm's choice between spin-offs, equity carve-outs, and tracking stock issues and the role of institutional investors in corporate restructuring. We model a firm with two divisions. Insiders have private information about firm value and face an equity market with retail and institutional investors. We show that restructuring increases information production by institutional investors (relative to that about the consolidated firm): the highest increase in information production arises from spin-offs, the next highest from carve-outs, and the lowest from tracking stock issues. Insiders with the most favorable private information implement spin-offs; those with less favorable private information implement carve-outs; those with even less favorable private information implement tracking stock issues; and those with unfavorable private information remain consolidated. We explain the positive announcement effect and increase in analyst coverage associated with all three forms of restructuring. Our model also generates a number of novel testable predictions for firms' choice between spin-offs, carve-outs, and tracking stock issues, and for institutional trading around these three forms of restructuring.
Person-Environment Fit and Transfer of Training.

Results support the hypothesis that individuals transfer their training to the job when their ‘real’ environment matches or fits the preferred ‘ideal’ environment. Five aspects of environment were assessed: supervisory encouragement, sufficient resources, worker’s perceived freedom, workload pressures, and perceived worker creativity. In addition to the traditional criteria of hiring people whose skills match the job, organizations might consider creating environments to match employees’ needs.
The Lexington-Fayette Urban County Board of Adjustment: Fifty Years Later

Fifty years ago, Jesse Dukeminier, Jr. and Clyde Stapleton published a case study of the practice of law before the Lexington-Fayette Urban County (LFUC) Board of Adjustment. This Article presents a new empirical study of the LFUC Board of Adjustment. Specifically, the study covers the eighteen month period from the Board’s July 2007 meeting through its December 2008 meeting. This Article discusses how the practice has changed and improved in the years since the Dukeminier-Stapleton study and the problems and difficulties that still remain.The Article begins by describing the current procedure before the LFUC Board of Adjustment and how it has changed since the Dukeminier-Stapleton study. It then addresses the three basic types of appeals the Board considers: (1) variances, (2) conditional use permits, and (3) administrative appeals from the zoning administrator. With respect to each type of appeal, the Article first describes the governing law and how it has changed since the Dukeminier-Stapleton study. It then provides an empirical study of the Board’s voting behavior. The Article concludes with an overview of the ways in which the law and practice have changed since the Dukeminier-Stapleton study and the problems that remain.
A renewal theoretic approach to environmental standard setting

Abstract The process of environmental regulation is usually a two step one. In the first step, a standard for environmental quality is set. Then, in the second step, a regulatory mechanism is put in place to achieve this standard. In this paper, we show how renewal theory can be used to set the quality standard optimally in a dynamic and stochastic setting.
Retail prices during a change in monetary regimes: evidence from Sears, Roebuck catalogs, 1938–1951

We present microeconomic evidence on US pricing dynamics pre and post-establishment of the Bretton Woods (BW) monetary regime. We track prices of 49 goods (1172 observations) in 1938–1951 Sears, Roebuck catalogs. The average length between (nominal) price changes was over 2 years. The average was higher (2.05 years) in the pre-BW period than in the later (2.01 years). We find that prices of brand name goods were relatively rigid; three never changed price. Price changes were larger during the 1945–1951 period than pre-BW by between 0.60 and 1.83%. Price changes displayed a higher correlation with inflation pre-BW. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
International adjustment with wage rigidity

Two of the puzzling macroeconomic phenomena of the 1970s have been the persistent stagnation in Europe, and the disagreement between the U.S. and Europe on the feasibility of recovery by demand expansion. This paper develops the hypothesis that the source of both the stagnation and the policy differences is money-wage stickiness in the U.S. and real-wage stickiness in Europe and Japan. A real wage which is sticky above its equilibrium level in Europe and Japan would account for stagnation and infeasibility of recovery by demand expansion. The theoretical models are developed in both the one-commodity and two-commodity-bundle cases. The empirical results confirm that in the U.S. the nominal wage adjusts slowly toward equilibrium, while in Germany, Italy, Japan, and the U.K. the real wage adjusts slowly.
A Twitter-Based Prediction Market: Social Network Approach

Information aggregation mechanisms are designed explicitly for collecting and aggregating dispersed information. An excellent example of the use of this "wisdom of crowds" is a prediction market. The purpose of our Twitter$based prediction market is to suggest that carefully designed market mechanisms can elicit and gather dispersed information that can improve our predictions. We develop an information system that combines the power of prediction markets with the popularity of Twitter. Simulation results show that our network$embedded prediction m arket can produce better predictions as a result of the information exchange in social networks and can outperform other non$networked prediction markets. We also demonstrate that forecasting errors decrease with the cost of acquiring information in a network$ embedded prediction market.
Constraining subglacial processes from surface velocity observations using surrogate-based Bayesian inference

Basal motion is the primary mechanism for ice flux in Greenland, yet a widely applicable model for predicting it remains elusive. This is due to the difficulty in both observing small-scale bed properties and predicting a time-varying water pressure on which basal motion putatively depends. We take a Bayesian approach to these problems by coupling models of ice dynamics and subglacial hydrology and conditioning on observations of surface velocity in southwestern Greenland to infer the posterior probability distributions for eight spatially and temporally constant parameters governing the behavior of both the sliding law and hydrologic model. Because the model is computationally expensive, characterization of these distributions using classical Markov Chain Monte Carlo sampling is intractable. We skirt this issue by training a neural network as a surrogate that approximates the model at a sliver of the computational cost. We find that surface velocity observations establish strong constraints on model parameters relative to a prior distribution and also elucidate correlations, while the model explains 60% of observed variance. However, we also find that several distinct configurations of the hydrologic system and stress regime are consistent with observations, underscoring the need for continued data collection and model development.
A LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR UNCOVERING IMPLICIT BIAS

Actors’ implicit biases impact the law in many areas, ranging from employment discrimination to criminal law. Legal scholars are rightly concerned with the effects of implicit bias, and have suggested myriad ways of counteracting it. However, many employment discrimination scholars are pessimistic about the current law’s potential to curtail the effect of implicit bias. There has been very little written about how the actual framework of an employment discrimination suit can mitigate such bias. This paper fills that gap by suggesting such a framework and exploring the importance of the framework at the summary judgment stage of litigation. This paper will examine the way in which the framework used by courts in individual disparate treatment employment discrimination cases can work indirectly to force employers to reflect upon their motives for a particular decision. I advocate for the use of the motivating factor framework at the summary judgment phase; using this analysis, as opposed to the single factor analysis encapsulated in McDonnell Douglas, will ultimately change employers’ decision-making behavior. Through a review of social psychology literature on decision-making and implicit bias, as well as a comparative case analysis of the differing frameworks used to analyze individual disparate treatment cases, I demonstrate the power that the motivating factor framework holds to indirectly mitigate the effects of implicit bias in workplace decisions.
Let Us Drink Our Fill: The History of Water and Its Impact on Resource and Environmental Management

In Thirst: A Short History of Drinking Water, Jim Salzman examines the history of water management in trying to illuminate whether and how we can provide drinking water to humanity. This commentary on his paper, written for a symposium on the scholarship of Carol Rose, looks at his historical analysis and concludes that the real key to managing water has been to manage it differently depending on its ultimate use. From this insight, the paper proposes that this management of resources by focusing on the resource's use can provide a strong guiding principle for management of many natural resources and for environmental law in general. This focus also helps illuminate how certain natural resources can be and should be treated as a right or entitlement for certain uses, while still guarding against overuse by allowing that same resource to be treated as a commodity when destined for other uses.
The Economics of Presidential Pardons and Commutations

Abstract This paper develops an economic model of presidential pardons (including commutations and other clemency grants). The model assumes that the number of pardons depends both on the expected benefits and costs of applying for a pardon and the president’s calculation of his net political benefits from granting a pardon. We test the model using data on presidential pardons over the 1900–2005 period. Consistent with the predictions of the model, we find that increases in the likelihood of being pardoned and in the number of federal prisoners (and persons released from prison) have a positive effect on applications and that increases in the number of persons paroled (a substitute for a pardon) and in the time from conviction to pardon (which lowers the benefits of a pardon) reduce the number of applications. We also find that Democratic presidents (who we expect to be less tough on crime) are more likely than Republican presidents to grant pardons, that the crime rate has a negative impact on pardons an...
Club Good Influence on Residential Transaction Prices

We examine residential real estate transactions in a market where an additional property right to a club good may have an influence on prices. We find that for single-family property, the market ca...
Monetary Policy Estimation in Real Time: Forward-Looking Taylor Rules without Forward-Looking Data

There is widespread agreement that monetary policy should be evaluated by using forward-looking Taylor rules estimated with real-time data. For the case of the U.S., this analysis can be performed using Greenbook data, but only through 2002. In countries outside the U.S., central banks do not regularly release their forecasts to the public. I propose a methodology for conducting monetary policy evaluation in real-time when forward-looking real-time data is unavailable. I then implement this methodology and estimate the resultant Taylor rules for the U.S., Canada, the U.K., and Germany. The methodology consists of calibrating models to closely replicate Greenbook forecasts, and then applying them to international real-time datasets. The results show that the U.S. output gap series is well described by quadratic detrending, while Greenbook inflation forecasts can be closely replicated using Bayesian model averaging over Autoregressive Distributed Lag models in inflation and the GDP growth rate. German and U.S. Taylor rules are characterized by inflation coefficients increasing with the forecast horizon and a positive output gap response. The U.K. and Canada interest rate reaction functions achieve maximum inflation response at middle-term horizons of about 1/2 year and the output gap coefficient enters the reaction functions insignificantly. Estimating the U.K. and Canadian Taylor rules as forward-looking is crucial, as backward-looking specifications produce nonsensical estimates. This is not the case for the U.S. and Germany.
Beyond Publication Bias

Abstract. This review considers several meta-regression and graphical methods that can differentiate genuine empirical effect from publication bias. Publication selection exists when editors, reviewers, or researchers have a preference for statistically significant results. Because all areas of empirical research are susceptible to publication selection, any average or tally of significant/insignificant studies is likely to be biased and potentially misleading. Meta-regression analysis can see through the murk of random sampling error and selected misspecification bias to identify the underlying statistical structures that characterize genuine empirical effect. Meta-significance testing and precision-effect testing (PET) are offered as a means to identify empirical effect beyond publication bias and are applied to four areas of empirical economics research – minimum wage effects, union-productivity effects, price elasticities, and tests of the natural rate hypothesis.
Profit-seeking punishment corrupts norm obedience

Abstract Punishment typically involves depriving violators of resources they own such as money or labor. These resources can become revenue for authorities and thus motivate profit-seeking punishment. In this paper, we design a novel experiment to provide direct evidence on the role punishment plays in communicating norms. Importantly, this allows us to provide experimental evidence indicating that if people know that enforcers can benefit monetarily by punishing, they no longer view punishment as signaling a norm violation. The result is a substantial degradation of punishmentʼs ability to influence behavior. Our findings draw attention to the detrimental effect of profit-seeking enforcement on the efficacy of punishment.
Contagious Bank Runs: Evidence from the 1929–1933 Period

Abstract This paper empirically examines contagion effects of bank failures by analyzing the behavior of deposit flows in a sample of failed and healthy banks over the 1929–1933 period. We find evidence of contagion for 1930–1932, while none seems to have existed in 1929 or 1933. In addition, the pace of contagion accelerated over 1930–1932. We find that even during 1930–1932, failing-bank deposit outflows exceeded those at a matched control sample of nonfailing banks. This finding is consistent with the presence of a significant number of informed depositors who distinguished among ex ante failing and nonfailing banks.Journal of Economic LiteratureClassification Number: G21.
The Capability Approach and Disability

The definition of disability is of interest to disability policymakers and analysts because it has fundamental implications for eligibility for public programs, for the scope of legislation, and fo...
Justice and Elegance for Hedgehogs - In Life, Law, and Literature

At a time when value pluralism and even value polarization seem to be undeniable facts of contemporary life, Ronald Dworkin unrepentantly defends the unity of value. His point of departure is the Greek poet Archilochus’s saying, “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing,” made famous in liberal philosopher Isaiah Berlin’s essay, The Hedgehog and the Fox. In his forthcoming book, Justice for Hedgehogs, Dworkin argues for the integration of ethics, personal morality, and political morality and contends that law is a branch of political morality that in turn is a branch of morality, broadly understood. My article compares Dworkin’s book with the best-selling novel, The Elegance of the Hedgehog, by Muriel Barbery (described as a philosophical fable). I argue that certain features of these two works Dworkin’s book make it fruitful to read them in tandem and that the comparison may be serendipitous, but is not arbitrary. Dworkin’s frequent turn to literature and to literary interpretation as germane to his project might warrant description of Justice for Hedgehogs as a work in “law and literature.” By this, I refer to two aspects of the law and literature methodology: (1) a focus on interpretation as a common task in law and literature; and (2) a focus on narrative. In contrast to Dworkin’s previous concentration on developing an account of interpretation in law and political morality, Justice for Hedgehogs has greater ambitions: it theorizes about common features of the interpretive process across many different fields, and also puts interpretation at the heart of how people answer fundamental questions about what it means to live well and how we should treat each other. The broad scope and ambition of Dworkin’s book push it beyond the category of a conventional work of jurisprudence and invite assessments that step outside the four corners of conventional legal scholarship. This comparison of Dworkin’s book with Barbery’s novel is in that spirit.
Consequences of Executive Focus on Support Activities: Evidence from Executive Influence on Firm Tax Strategy

Should executives solely focus on core activities of the firm? Or is it beneficial to focus on both core and support activities? It could be the case that executives focused on support activities are attempting to multitask which will limit their accuracy and productivity. Alternatively, these executives focused on support activities could be obtaining synergies and knowledge spillover. Or it could be the case that multitasking limits and synergies both occur and vary according to situation or executive. Using executive influence on firm tax strategy as a proxy for executive focus on support activities, I find that executive focus on support activities is associated with poorer firm performance and negative executive labor market consequences. These results are partially moderated by executive ability, background, position, and year. Overall the results suggest that top executives perform best when focused solely on core activities. The results also suggest that executives should hire or contract competent individuals to focus on support activities.
The impact of risk modeling on the market perception of banks’ estimated fair value gains and losses for financial instruments

We examine whether and how measures of market and credit risk modeling identified from banks’ financial reports enhance the returns-relevance of their estimated annual unrealized fair value gains and losses for financial instruments. To capture differences in market liquidity and fair valuation difficulties across types of financial instruments, we distinguish unrealized gains and losses that are recorded in net income versus recorded in other comprehensive income versus calculable using financial statement note disclosures. We predict and generally find that banks’ market (credit) risk modeling enhances the returns-relevance of their unrealized fair value gains and losses, more so for less liquid instruments subject to greater market-risk-related (credit-risk-related) valuation difficulties and during periods for which market (credit) risk is higher. We obtain these findings both for banks’ unadjusted risk modeling measures and for the portions of these measures that we model as attributable to banks’ risk modeling activities, but not for the portions we model as attributable to banks’ disclosure of these activities.
Collusion in Second-Price Auctions under Minimax Regret Criterion

Collusion in auctions, with different assumptions on distributions of bidders' private valuation, has been studied extensively over the years. With the recent development of on-line markets, auctions are becoming an increasingly popular procurement method. The emergence of Internet marketplaces makes auction participation much easier and more convenient, since no physical presence of bidders is required. In addition, bidders in on-line auctions can easily switch their identities. Thus, it may very well happen that the bidders in an auction have very little, if any, prior knowledge about the distributions of other bidders' valuations. We are proposing an efficient distribution of collusive profit for second-price sealed bid auctions in such an environment. Unlike some known mechanism, which balance the budget only in expectation, our approach (which we call Random k) balances the budget ex-post. While truth-telling is not a dominant strategy for Random k, it is a minimax regret equilibrium.
Prestigious stock exchanges: A network analysis of international financial centers.

Abstract In this paper, we use methods from social network analysis to assess the relative importance of financial centers around the world. Using data from virtually the entire universe of global equity activity, we present complete rankings for 45 separate locations for the period 1990–2006. Our analysis constructs a network measure of prestige based on their ability to attract global IPOs. U.S. exchanges are effectively the unique hosts for cross-border equity activity from many other locations. Moreover, they are the destination of choice for most companies coming from locations with highly prestigious exchanges. We also document the emergence of several competing stock exchanges from developed and emerging market economies. The ascent of these stock markets, however, might reflect improved conditions in a growing global market rather than a decline in the competitiveness of U.S. exchanges.
Agenda Control, the Median Justice, and the Majority Opinion on the U.S. Supreme Court

Some scholars argue that the author of the majority opinion exercises the most influence over the Court’s opinion-writing process and so can determine what becomes Court policy, at least within the limits of what some Court majority finds acceptable. Other students of the Court have suggested that the Court’s median justice effectively dictates the content of the majority opinion: whatever policy the median justice most wants, she can get. We test these competing models with data on Supreme Court decision making during the Burger Court (1969‐86). While we find substantial evidence for both models, the agenda control model gains greater support. This suggests that opinions on the Court on each case are driven, in general, by the interaction of three key variables: the policy preferences of the majority opinion author, the policy preferences of the median justice, and the location of the legal status quo. A fter a half century of research on decision making by the Supreme Court, a key question remains unanswered: what policy will be prescribed by the Court’s majority opinion in each case? To understand the development of the majority opinion, and thus of the resulting law, we need to know which justice or justices most influence the Court’s opinions. Answering this question depends upon knowing the relative power of each justice to shape the opinion. The failure by empirically oriented legal scholars to address this question stems from a widespread belief that the justices’ policy preferences alone determine the decisions they make and that a majority of the Court must join an opinion before it has the force of law. As a result, it is argued that decision making is driven simply by the median justice’s policy preferences. This view is reflected
Enhancing the Television-Viewing Experience through Commercial Interruptions

Consumers prefer to watch television programs without commercials. Yet, in spite of most consumers’ extensive experience with watching television, we propose that commercial interruptions can actually improve the television-viewing experience. Although consumers do not foresee it, their enjoyment diminishes over time. Commercial interruptions can disrupt this adaptation process and restore the intensity of consumers’ enjoyment. Six studies demonstrate that, although people preferred to avoid commercial interruptions, these interruptions actually made programs more enjoyable (study 1), regardless of the quality of the commercial (study 2), even when controlling for the mere presence of the ads (study 3), and regardless of the nature of the interruption (study 4). However, this effect was eliminated for people who are less likely to adapt (study 5) and for programs that do not lead to adaptation (study 6), confirming the disruption of adaptation account and identifying crucial boundaries of the effect.
Aging Subsidized Housing Residents: A Growing Problem in U.S. Cities

Many low-income elderly live in subsidized housing in central cities. These aging tenants need adaptive physical structures and supportive services in order to age in place, but lack the resources ...
Symbolic Politics and the Regulation of Executive Compensation A Comparison of the Great Depression and the Great Recession

When politicians feel popular pressure to act, but are unwilling or unable to address the root cause of the problem, they resort to symbolic policymaking. In this paper, I examine excessive executi...
TO SPIN OR NOT TO SPIN? NATURAL AND LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS FROM THE PRICE IS RIGHT

The Wheel is a sequential game of perfect information played twice during each taping of the television game show The Price is Right. This game has simple rules and the stakes are high. We derive the unique subgame perfect Nash equilibrium (USPNE) for The Wheel and test its predictive ability using data from both the television show and laboratory plays of this game. We find that contestants frequently deviate from the USPNE when the decisions are difficult. The pattern of these deviations is (a) largely independent of the stakes of the game, and (b) consistent with a psychological bias of the omission-commission type.
Is There Such a Thing as Virtual Crime

This article explores the legal issues created by using computer technology to commit crimes of various types. The title refers to "virtual crime," but in the years since it was published that phrase has come to be used to refer to crime committed in or associated with virtual worlds. The topic of this article is really cybercrime, i.e., using computer technology to commit traditional crimes and the new crimes that emerged as computer technology became more common. It argues for taking a parsimonious approach to adopting new law to deal with this type of criminal activity. More precisely, it argues for applying or adapting existing law whenever possible, rather than adopting cybercrime-specific laws.
Do Perceptions of Ballot Secrecy Influence Turnout? Results from a Field Experiment

Although the secret ballot has been secured as a legal matter in the United States, formal secrecy protections are not equivalent to convincing citizens that they may vote privately and without fear of reprisal. We present survey evidence that those who have not previously voted are particularly likely to voice doubts about the secrecy of the voting process. We then report results from a field experiment where we mailed information about protections of ballot secrecy to registered voters prior to the 2010 general election. Consistent with our survey data, we find that these letters increased turnout for registered citizens without records of previous turnout, but they did not appear to influence the behavior of citizens who had previously voted. The increase in turnout of more than three percentage points (20%) for those without previous records of voting is notably larger than the effect of a standard get-out-the-vote mailing for this group. Overall, these results suggest that although the secret ballot is a long-standing institution in the United States, beliefs about this institution may not match the legal reality.
Revamping Liquidity Measures: Improving Investability in Emerging and Frontier Market Indices and Their Related ETFs

This article presents a new way of measuring stock liquidity. Recent research has demonstrated that measures based on volume, transaction, and turnover do not on their own measure liquidity, so the author introduces a method that uses price and bid–ask spread (not dollar volume, transactions, or turnover) as the primary inputs and extreme value theory to build the measure. The author demonstrates the method’s value by its ability to successfully identify liquid stocks in emerging and frontier markets better than measures of liquidity based on volume, transaction, or turnover.
The wealth of private firm owners following reverse mergers

I compare the wealth of private firm owners that exit their firms through reverse mergers (RMs) to the wealth that could have been obtained in initial public offerings (IPOs), sellouts, or by remaining private. Private firm owners that use the RM exit mechanism have significantly less post-exit wealth than the wealth that could have been obtained in an IPO. This result is driven by differences in the pre-exit characteristics of firms that choose a RM compared to an IPO (a selection effect), not by use of the RM exit mechanism itself (a treatment effect). The gap between post-exit wealth and the wealth that could have been obtained in an IPO disappears for owners of RM firms whose pre-exit characteristics are sufficiently similar to propensity-score matched IPO firms. The post-exit wealth of RM firm owners is approximately the same as the wealth that could have been obtained in a sellout. The median change in private firm owner wealth as a result of the RM is positive when pre-exit private firm values are inferred from valuations in private–private takeovers. However, the median change in wealth is negative when pre-exit private firm values are obtained from valuations provided in fairness opinions. These conflicting findings appear to be driven by upwardly biased fairness opinion valuations.
International equity market comovements: Economic fundamentals or contagion?

We investigate the return comovement in international equity markets with a focus on the distinction between economic fundamentals and contagion. We examine the potential macro news effect based on a comprehensive data set of macroeconomic news announcements made in the U.S., U.K., and Japan. Our results show that the bulk of the observed comovement in the intraday and overnight returns of the international equity markets cannot be attributed to public information about economic fundamentals. In contrast, foreign market returns exert a dominant influence on the subsequent domestic market returns. Overall, our findings suggest that future inquiry on market comovement may focus on the distinction between contagion and trading on private information, rather than public information. D 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Clouds of Mystery: Dispelling the Realist Rhetoric of the Uniform Commercial Code

It is routinely taught in American law schools that the Uniform Commercial Code is a product of the Legal Realist movement. Karl Llewellyn, the principal author of Article 2 (Sales of Goods), was, after all, one of the leading Legal Realists. The conventional wisdom is that Article 2 was a direct result of Llewellyn's attempt to create a statute that would reflect the realities of the marketplace and be a useful and understandable tool for business people.Yet there is remarkably little Realism in Article 2. To a much larger extent than is usually recognized, Article 2 is a simple recodification of earlier law, particularly the widely reviled Uniform Sales Act written by Samuel Williston. Those portions of it which are major innovations do not, when examined, show evidence of any Legal Realist spirit, but reflect much more Llewellyn's normative vision of a collectivist mercantile world purged of aggressive competition. His goal was not to make the law responsive to merchant practices, but rather to mold merchant practices into his own vision of good business.This paper, part of an AALS Symposium on Commercial Calamities, argues that those of us who teach Article 2 to students should abandon the fiction that we are dealing with the product of actual marketplace analysis by disinterested experts, and confront directly the normative (and often controversial) choices made by the drafters.
Managing innovative R&D teams

Successful R&D groups not only generate innovative ideas, but also transfers these newly created concepts through the organizational system for economic gain. While innovation is not a random process, managers often argue that R&D performance is hard to measure and even more difficult to manage. An exploratory field study into technology-oriented R&D environments determines the principle factors that influence innovation-based performance of R&D teams. The results identify specific barriers and drivers to innovative team performance and provide insight into the type of an organizational environment and managerial leadership that is conducive to innovative R&D team performance. The data further suggest that many of the performance variables have their locus outside the R&D organization. Yet, managerial leadership style, both at the R&D team level and at senior management, has significant impact on creativity that ultimately affects R&D performance.
The political determinants of judicial dissent: evidence from the Chilean Constitutional Tribunal

Many judicial scholars argue that judicial dissent stems from partisanship or political differences among judges on courts. These arguments are evaluated using the variation in political backgrounds on a constitutional court, Chile’s Constitutional Tribunal, using case-level and vote-level data from 1990 until 2010. The analysis shows that the rate of dissent rises after major reforms to the powers and judicial selection mechanism of the Tribunal in 2005 and that the dissent rate corresponds to periods of greater partisanship on the court. Further, decisions regarding the unconstitutionality of laws intensify the propensity to dissent at both the case and judge level. In further examination of variation across judges’ voting records, judges who have identifiable partisan associations of any kind are generally more likely to dissent than those with limited political backgrounds.
Do People Mean What They Say? Implications for Subjective Survey Data

Four main messages emerge from the study of subjective survey data. First, a large experimental literature by and large supports economists' skepticism of subjective questions. Second, put in an econometric framework, these findings cast serious doubts on attempts to use subjective data as dependent variables, because the measurement error appears to correlate with a large set of characteristics in behaviors. Third, these data may be useful as explanatory variables. Finally, the empirical work suggests that subjective variables are useful in practice for explaining differences in behavior across individuals. Changes in answers to these questions, however, do not appear useful in explaining changes in behavior.
Perinatal fentanyl exposure leads to long-lasting impairments in somatosensory circuit function and behavior.

One consequence of the opioid epidemic are lasting neurodevelopmental sequelae afflicting adolescents exposed to opioids in the womb. A translationally relevant and developmentally accurate preclinical model is needed to understand the behavioral, circuit, network, and molecular abnormalities resulting from this exposure. By employing a novel preclinical model of perinatal fentanyl exposure, our data reveal that fentanyl has several dose-dependent, developmental consequences to somatosensory function and behavior. Newborn male and female mice exhibit signs of withdrawal and sensory-related deficits that extend at least to adolescence. As fentanyl exposure does not affect dams' health or maternal behavior, these effects result from the direct actions of perinatal fentanyl on the pups' developing brain. At adolescence, exposed mice exhibit reduced adaptation to sensory stimuli, and a corresponding impairment in primary somatosensory (S1) function. In vitro electrophysiology demonstrates a long-lasting reduction in S1 synaptic excitation, evidenced by decreases in release probability, NMDA receptor-mediated postsynaptic currents, and frequency of miniature excitatory postsynaptic currents (mEPSCs), as well as increased frequency of miniature inhibitory postsynaptic currents (mIPSCs). In contrast, anterior cingulate cortical neurons exhibit an opposite phenotype, with increased synaptic excitation. Consistent with these changes, electrocorticograms (ECoGs) reveal suppressed ketamine-evoked γ oscillations. Morphologic analysis of S1 pyramidal neurons indicate reduced dendritic complexity, dendritic length, and soma size. Further, exposed mice exhibited abnormal cortical mRNA expression of key receptors involved in synaptic transmission and neuronal growth and development, changes that were consistent with the electrophysiological and morphologic changes. These findings demonstrate the lasting sequelae of perinatal fentanyl exposure on sensory processing and function.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT This is the first study to show that exposure to fentanyl in the womb results in behavioral, circuitry, and synaptic effects that last at least to adolescence. We also show, for the first time, that this exposure has different, lasting effects on synapses in different cortical areas.