cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Home Computer Use and the Development of Human Capital

This paper uses a regression discontinuity design to estimate the effect of home computers on child and adolescent outcomes by exploiting a voucher program in Romania. Our main results indicate that home computers have both positive and negative effects on the development of human capital. Children who won a voucher to purchase a computer had significantly lower school grades but show improved computer skills. There is also some evidence that winning a voucher increased cognitive skills, as measured by Raven's Progressive Matrices. We do not find much evidence for an effect on non-cognitive outcomes. Parental rules regarding homework and computer use attenuate the effects of computer ownership, suggesting that parental monitoring and supervision may be important mediating factors.
Heterogeneity distributions of willingness-to-pay in choice models

We investigate direct and indirect specification of the distribution of consumer willingness-to-pay (WTP) for changes in product attributes in a choice setting. Typically, choice models identify WTP for an attribute as a ratio of the estimated attribute and price coefficients. Previous research in marketing and economics has discussed the problems with allowing for random coefficients on both attribute and price, especially when the distribution of the price coefficient has mass near zero. These problems can be avoided by combining a parameterization of the likelihood function that directly identifies WTP with a normal prior for WTP. We show that the typical likelihood parameterization in combination with what are regarded as standard heterogeneity distributions for attribute and price coefficients results in poorly behaved posterior WTP distributions, especially in small sample settings. The implied prior for WTP readily allows for substantial mass in the tails of the distribution and extreme individual-level estimates of WTP. We also demonstrate the sensitivity of profit maximizing prices to parameterization and priors for WTP.
The Microsoft Antitrust Case

This paper analyzes the law and economics of United States v. Microsoft, a landmark case of antitrust intervention in network industries. The United States Department of Justice and 19 States sued Microsoft alleging (i) that it monopolized the market for operating systems of personal computers and took anti-competitive actions to illegally maintain its monopoly; (ii) that it attempted to monopolize the market for Internet browsers because such browsers would create competition for operating systems; (iii) that it bundled its browser (Internet Explorer) with Windows; and that it engaged in a number of other anti-competitive exclusionary arrangements with computer manufacturers, Internet service providers, and content providers attempting to thwart the distribution of Netscape’s browser. The District Court Judge found in most points for the plaintiffs and ordered the breakup of Microsoft into two companies, one with all the operating systems software, and one with all other products of the company. The District Court also imposed a number of severe restrictions on the business conduct of Microsoft. We analyze the economic issues related to liability. We also analyze the applicability and effectiveness of the remedies imposed by the District Court and contrast them with other potential remedies.
Effects of the World Bank’s maternal and child health intervention on Indonesia’s poor: Evaluating the safe motherhood project

Abstract This article examines the impact of the World Bank’s Safe Motherhood Project (SMP) on health outcomes for Indonesia’s poor. Provincial data from 1990 to 2005 was analyzed combining a difference-in-differences approach in multivariate regression analysis with matching of intervention (SMP) and control group provinces and adjusting for possible confounders. Our results indicated that, after taking into account the impact of two other concurrent development projects, SMP was statistically significantly associated with a net beneficial change in under-five mortality, but not with infant mortality, total fertility rate, teenage pregnancy, unmet contraceptive need or percentage of deliveries overseen by trained health personnel. Unemployment and the pupil–teacher ratio were statistically significantly associated with infant mortality and percentage deliveries overseen by trained personnel, while pupil–teacher ratio and female education level were statistically significantly associated with under-five mortality. Clinically relevant changes (52–68% increase in the percentage of deliveries overseen by trained personnel, 25–33% decrease in infant mortality rate, and 8–14% decrease in under-five mortality rate) were found in both the intervention (SMP) and control groups.
Aftermath of banking crises: Effects on real and monetary variables

Abstract This paper models the effects of a banking crisis, and in particular distinguishes between a short-term crisis, such as a banking panic, and a longer-term crisis, such as a banking insolvency. Using an optimizing framework, it shows that depositors shift from deposits into cash in both types of crises, which results in an increase in the interest rates on deposits and loans, and a contraction in output and consumption. However, when the crisis is resolved in a finite time period, there is an intertemporal substitution of consumption, and consumption is postponed until the crisis is resolved. This in turn results in a further decline in the demand for money, availability of credit and output.
Holmes, Langdell and Formalism

Both Holmes and Langdell believed that science was the model for all human inquiry and the source of all human progress. Langdell was influenced by an unsophisticated scientism, which led him to attempt to identify the true meaning of legal doctrines. Holmes was influenced by the sophisticated positivism of John Stuart Mill, which led him to attempt to reduce legal rules and doctrines to scientific laws of antecedence and consequence, justified only by their social consequences. Both Holmes and Langdell concluded that judges ought to decide a case by applying the rules established by precedent, without appeal to any special claims of justice and without appeal to any higher-order normative principle.
Reclaim This! Getting Credit Seller Rights in Bankruptcy Right

This article exams the impact of amendments to the Bankruptcy Code occasioned by the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention & Consumer Protection Act of 2005 concerning the reclamation remedy in § 546(c) and a new administrative expense priority in § 503(b)(9) for sellers of goods delivered to the debtor with 20 days preceding the commencement of the bankruptcy case. After tracing the history of seller reclamation claims from their early common law origins through the 2005 amendments to the Bankruptcy Code, the article examines the efforts of courts to ameliorate the disruption to bankruptcy equality and rehabilitation policies that a strict application of these new provisions would engender. It is submitted, however, that this salutary undertaking has been accomplished by relying on questionable techniques of statutory interpretation and stale bromides about the relationship between state and federal law in bankruptcy cases. I conclude that, in large measure, these efforts are not only unsupportable under the accepted constitutional structures of our government, but have also unintentionally done more harm than good by taking the pressure off of the real solution, which would be reform of the Code to align credit seller claims more closely with the purposive object for favored treatment in the first instance. In this connection, I offer, as an illustration, one such approach, but urge ultimately that any special remedy for credit sellers be tailored narrowly so as not to interfere unduly with fundamental system values.
The Interest Cost Implications of the Financial Advisor Turned Underwriter

The Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) does not prohibit municipal financial advisors from participating in the bidding process to serve as underwriter on issues for which they provided advisory services. Some municipalities prohibit the practice, viewing such an arrangement as a conflict of interest. Using data from nearly one thousand competitively sold municipal debt issues in the state of Texas from 1991 to 1995, I test whether or not competition alone in the bidding process is sufficient to protect the interests of the issuer. For general obligation debt and state-backed school district debt these data indicate that there are no interest cost implications for the practice. For municipal and special district revenue debt I find weak evidence of some additional interest (about six basis points) when the advisor serves as underwriter, but the effect is not consistent enough throughout the data to reach statistical significance at the p<0.001 level (see note 10). What I do find is that unrated issues are much more likely to be bid on and won by the advisor, indicating that cities should be concerned about the guidance of their advisor when that advice is to take an unrated issue to market.
Do hedge funds have enough capital? A value-at-risk approach

Abstract We examine the risk characteristics and capital adequacy of hedge funds through the Value-at-Risk approach. Using extensive data on nearly 1,500 hedge funds, we find only 3.7% live and 10.9% dead funds are undercapitalized as of March 2003. Moreover, the undercapitalized funds are relatively small and constitute a tiny fraction of total fund assets in our sample. Cross-sectionally, the variability in fund capitalization is related to size, investment style, age, and management fee. Hedge fund risk and capitalization also display significant time variation. Traditional risk measures like standard deviation or leverage ratios fail to detect these trends.
Measurement error in residential property valuation: An application of forecast combination

Abstract In this study we use a large database of real estate transactions to assess the magnitude of measurement error associated with using popular house price indices (HPIs) to value individual properties. In the 4 large U.S. counties that we analyze, we find that the bias associated with using these HPIs to value individual homes increased from near zero in 2005 to between 26% and 113% in 2010. In the second part of the analysis, we use data from Florida to demonstrate that forecast combination methods can be used to improve the accuracy of property-level valuations, in some cases reducing the estimated bias by more than a factor of 3. We find that even the simplest forecast combination method – a simple average – has the potential to significantly improve value estimates.
The Public Control of Corporate Power: Revisiting the 1909 U.S. Corporate Tax from a Comparative Perspective

The origins of U.S. corporate taxation are often associated with the 1909 corporate excise tax. Scholars who have investigated the beginnings of this levy have mainly focused on the legislative history of the 1909 corporate tax to argue that it was either an expression of the Progressive Era impulse to regulate large-scale corporations or an attempt to use corporations as remittance devices to collect taxes aimed at wealthy shareholders. This Article broadens the conventional historical accounts of the emergence of American corporate taxation by revisiting the 1909 U.S. corporate tax from a comparative perspective. The aim is to look both below and beyond the American nation-state to determine how and why U.S. state governments and other Western industrialized nations tried to tax corporations at the turn of the twentieth century. This Article investigates a small slice of subnational and transnational comparative examples: corporate tax laws and policies in a few representative nineteenth-century industrializing American states, and in turn-of-the-century England and Germany. Building on the well-known insights of comparative business history, this Article contends that historically-determined political interests, social ideas, and cultural beliefs help explain the American obsession with disciplining large-scale business corporations through the use of nominally punitive tax laws and policies. Comparative-historical analysis shows how differences in the organizational structures of big businesses across place and time have led to variations in political economy that were ultimately expressed in the legal ideas and cultural attitudes toward corporate capitalism. These variations, in turn, shaped the transnational distinctions in corporate tax law and policies. Greater attention to the comparative-historical development of law and political economy may help us understand the stubborn persistence of American corporate taxation, particularly in the face of recent global changes and the relentless economic critiques of the double taxation of corporate income.
Determinants of Hedge Fund Internal Controls and Fees

ABSTRACT: We investigate the determinants of hedge fund internal controls and their association with the fees that funds charge investors. Hedge funds are subject to minimal regulation. Hence, hedge fund managers voluntarily implement internal controls, and managers and investors freely contract on fees. We find that internal controls are stronger in funds with higher potential agency costs. Further, internal controls are stronger in funds domiciled in jurisdictions that provide investors with limited legal redress for fraud and financial misstatements. Short selling funds, however, are more likely to protect information about their investment positions by implementing weaker internal controls. With respect to fees, we find that the percentage of positive profits that the manager receives increases in the strength of the fund’s internal controls. Finally, removing the manager from setting and reporting the fund’s official net asset value, along with reputational incentives and monitoring by leverage provi...
Is Monetary Policy Overburdened

Following the experience of the global nancial crisis, central banks have been asked to undertake unprecedented responsibilities. Governments and the public appear to have high expectations that monetary policy can provide solutions to problems that do not necessarily t in the realm of traditional monetary policy. This paper examines three broad public policy goals that may overburden monetary policy: full employment; scal sustainability; and nancial stability. While central banks have a crucial position in public policy, the appropriate policy mix also involves other institutions, and overreliance on monetary policy to achieve these goals is bound to disappoint. Central Bank policies that facilitate postponement of needed policy actions by governments may also have longer-term adverse consequences that could outweigh more immediate benets. Overburdening monetary policy may eventually diminish and compromise the independence and credibility of the central bank, thereby reducing its eectiveness to preserve price stability and contribute to crisis management.
What Inventory Behavior Tells Us about Business Cycles

Manufacturers’ finished goods inventories are less cyclical than shipments. This requires marginal cost to be more procyclical than is conventionally measured. In this paper, alternative marginal cost measures for six manufacturing industries are constructed. These measures, which attribute high-frequency productivity shocks to procyclical work effort, are more successful in accounting for inventory behavior. Evidence is also provided that the short-run slope of marginal cost arising from convexity of the production function is close to zero for five of the six industries. The paper concludes that countercyclical markups arising from a procyclical shadow price of labor are chiefly responsible for the sluggishness of inventories. JEL
Contract as Procedural Justice

The premise of contract law is that the redistribution of entitlements that results from contract is justified by the process of agreement. But theories of contract differ importantly on how and when voluntary exchange justifies a resorting of entitlements. Pure theories regard the principles of contract as essentially derivative from some aspect of the principle of autonomy; contracting parties’ intent to assume legal obligation is in principle necessary and sufficient for its enforcement. Perfect theories do not view contract as self-justifying but regard the process of agreement as reliable evidence that contracts are welfare-improving. This article demonstrates the limitations of pure and perfect views. It favours instead imperfect theories of contract, which would have judges self-consciously pursue the normative ends of contract law as they apply context-sensitive rules.
A SAMPLE OF INTERMEDIATE-MASS STAR-FORMING REGIONS: MAKING STARS AT MASS COLUMN DENSITIES <1 g cm–2

In an effort to understand the factors that govern the transition from low- to high-mass star formation, for the first time we identify a sample of intermediate-mass star-forming regions (IM SFRs) where stars up to (but not exceeding) ~8 M ? are being produced. We use IRAS colors and Spitzer Space Telescope mid-IR images, in conjunction with millimeter continuum and 13CO maps, to compile a sample of 50 IM SFRs in the inner Galaxy. These are likely to be precursors to Herbig AeBe stars and their associated clusters of low-mass stars. IM SFRs constitute embedded clusters at an early evolutionary stage akin to compact H II regions, but they lack the massive ionizing central star(s). The photodissociation regions that demarcate IM SFRs have typical diameters of ~1 pc and luminosities of ~104 L ?, making them an order of magnitude less luminous than (ultra-)compact H II regions. IM SFRs coincide with molecular clumps of mass ~103 M ? which, in turn, lie within larger molecular clouds spanning the lower end of the giant molecular cloud mass range, 104-105 M ?. The IR luminosity and associated molecular mass of IM SFRs are correlated, consistent with the known luminosity-mass relationship of compact H II regions. Peak mass column densities within IM SFRs are ~0.1-0.5?g?cm?2, a factor of several lower than ultra-compact H II regions, supporting the proposition that there is a threshold for massive star formation at ~1?g?cm?2.
The First Amendment . . . United

This article defends the Supreme Court’s famous and controversial decision in the Citizens United case. In that case, the Court reaffirmed that the protections of the First Amendment are available to entities like corporations, labor union and non-profit groups and recognized that this protection extended to speech relating to the election or defeat of political candidates. In so holding, the Court invalidated provisions of key federal campaign finance statute which had made it a crime for those entities to engage in various kinds of election-related speech, and overruled certain prior rulings which had sustained such restrictions. The immediate consequence was that a non-profit conservative advocacy group, organized as a corporation, was free to produce and disseminate a movie sharply critical of then-Senator Hillary Clinton’s in connection with her 2008 campaign for the Presidency. The broader consequence, as the article argues, is to return the Court’s campaign finance doctrines back to the safe harbor of classic First Amendment principles. The article surveys the several arguments made to justify restricting the political speech of corporations, unions and other entities, and demonstrates how each of them is flawed when matched against these classic First Amendment principles. The article concludes that the Court’s handiwork will clear away many of the encrusted and unjustifiable features of a speech-chilling and association-dampening campaign finance regime.
Slipping Through the Cracks: Why Can't We Stop Drugged Driving?

Part I of this Article briefly explains the history of impaired driving laws, with respect to both alcohol and drugs. It then sets forth the various frameworks currently in place to establish that an individual is OUI drugs and evaluates the effectiveness of each standard. Part II discusses the impediments to detecting and prosecuting OUI drug cases. This section details the difficulties associated with the science behind drugged driving, including determining the effect a drug may have on an individual as well as the validity of tests used to determine if one has a drug in their system. Part II highlights the issues pertaining to laws that regulate OUI licit (prescription or over-the-counter) drugs. This section also discusses the impact that lack of funding and inadequate training for law enforcement officers and prosecutors has on combating this crime. Finally, Part III recognizes that targeting drugged driving is more complicated than fighting OUI alcohol and suggests what is needed to combat this problem.
PRICING COUPON-BOND OPTIONS AND SWAPTIONS IN AFFINE TERM STRUCTURE MODELS

This paper provides a numerically accurate and computationally fast approximation to the prices of European options on coupon-bearing instruments that is applicable to the entire family of affine term structure models. Exploiting the typical shapes of the conditional distributions of the risk factors in affine diffusions, we show that one can reliably compute the relevant probabilities needed for pricing options on coupon-bearing instruments by the same Fourier inversion methods used in the pricing of options on zero-coupon bonds. We apply our theoretical results to the pricing of options on coupon bonds and swaptions, and the calculation of “expected exposures” on swap books. As an empirical illustration, we compute the expected exposures implied by several affine term structure models fit to historical swap yields.
Financial Stability Analysis: What are the Data Needs?

The growing incidences of financial crises and their damage to the economy has led policy makers to sharpen the focus on financial stability analysis (FSA), crisis prevention and management over the past 10-15 years. The statistical world has reacted with a number of initiatives, but does more need to be done? Taking a holistic view, based on a review of experiences of policy makers and analysts, this paper identifies common international threads in the data needed for FSA and suggests ways to address these. While there has been an encouragingly constructive response by statisticians, not least through the G-20 Data Gaps Initiative, more work is needed, including with regard to shadow banking, capital flows, corporate borrowing, and granular data. Further, to support FSA, the paper identifies potential enhancements to the conceptual advice in statistical manuals including with regard to foreign currency and remaining maturity.
Explaining the American Norm Against Litigation

In the United States, a social norm discourages people from vindicating at least some of their rights in court. However, if courts are an instrument of justice and of sound public policy-for instance, if they provide fair compensation for injured parties and efficient incentives for potential injurers-then a norm against using courts is puzzling. This Comment explores and evaluates explanations for the norm against litigation; the Comment's goal is to provide a plausible account of the norm. As such, the Comment is largely descriptive. However, normative implications may follow from my exploration; for instance, to the extent that an explanation of the norm is plausible, the explanation may help to frame the debate about tort reform in the United States.1 By referring to a "norm against litigation," I do not mean to suggest that there is a norm against all lawsuits under all circumstances. The norm against litigation is clearly stronger in some cases and weaker-or nonexistent-in others. For instance, there appears to be a particularly strong norm against "litigiousness"-against filing lawsuits too readily.2 Similarly, there are salient norms against "nuisance lawsuits"3 and against suits that
Discretionary disclosure and manager horizon: evidence from patenting

We examine the relation between manager horizon and discretionary disclosure, using patenting as a measure of disclosure. Patenting reflects, in part, a manager’s decision to disclose the successful outcome of research and development (R&D). When a firm invests in R&D but does not patent, investors are unsure whether this reflects a failed R&D project or the manager choosing not to patent. We suggest that investors’ beliefs about a manager’s horizon—whether the manager seeks to maximize short-term stock price or long-term profits—moderates their reactions. When investors believe a manager’s horizon is short, they expect the manager to disclose successful outcomes and therefore discount nondisclosure more. We predict that managers will patent more per dollar of R&D spending when their horizons are short and that investors will discount the value of nondisclosing firms more when they believe the manager’s horizon is short. We find evidence consistent with these predictions.
Patent Licensing: The Inside Story

In this paper we compare and contrast the most profitable modes of licensing a cost-reducing invention by an inventor who is an industry incumbent with one who is not. We find that an industry incumbent favors licensing by means of a royalty per unit of output to which the new technology is applied while an outsider prefers to auction off a fixed number of licences outright. Our analysis also suggests that an outside inventor finds it most profitable to target greater cost-reducing inventions to monopolistic industries while an incumbent inventor favors competitive industries.
Ten Common Questions About Intellectual Property and Human Rights

With the continuous expansion of intellectual property rights, there is a growing need for the development of a human rights framework for intellectual property rights. Such a framework is not only socially beneficial, but will enable the development of a balanced intellectual property system that takes human rights obligations into consideration. Developing such a framework, however, is not easy and has raised many difficult questions. Some of these questions are foundational, some of them conceptual, and the remainder merely implementational. This article tackles in turn ten questions the author has frequently encountered when he discusses the development of a human rights framework for intellectual property rights. It is his hope that a better understanding of the answers to these questions will help promote a constructive and fruitful dialogue concerning of the interplay of intellectual property and human rights. The ten questions explored in this article are: (1) Are intellectual property rights human rights? (2) Besides access to medicines, are there other intellectual property issues that implicate the protection of human rights? (3) Should the human rights debate separate patents from copyrights? (4) Are all forms of intellectual property rights human rights? (5) Can corporations claim protection of the right to the protection of interests in intellectual creations? (6) Does the right to private property already protect interests in intellectual creations? (7) Can human rights interests be built into the intellectual property system? (8) Will the human rights framework ratchet up existing intellectual property protection? (9) Will the human rights framework benefit indigenous peoples and traditional communities? (10) Will the human rights framework benefit less developed countries?
Estimation of stochastic volatility models with diagnostics

Abstract Efficient method of moments (EMM) is used to fit the standard stochastic volatility model of various extensions to several daily financial time series. EMM matches to the score of the model determined by data analysis called the score generator. Discrepancies reveal characteristics of data that stochastic volatility models cannot approximate. The two score generators employed here are ‘semiparametric ARCH’ and ‘nonlinear nonparametric’. With the first, the standard model is rejected, although some extensions are accepted. With the second, all versions are rejected. The extensions required for an adequate fit are so elaborate that nonparametric specifications are probably more convenient.
Does an Advanced Degree Reduce the Gender Wage Gap? Evidence from MBAs

This article uses a longitudinal survey of registrants for the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) to compare the gender wage gap among MBA recipients with the gap among nonrecipients. We find evidence that the gender wage gap is lower among GMAT takers who obtained the MBA than among those who did not. This suggests that women with advanced degrees may face less discrimination in labor markets.
The Horne Dilemma: Protecting Property’s Richness and Frontiers

In a 2015 decision, the Supreme Court concluded that real and personal property should not be treated differently under the Takings Clause and that a government condition requiring raisin growers, in certain years, to reserve a percentage of their crop for the government to manage in noncompetitive venues was a per se physical taking. The decision to treat both real and personal property as equally worthy of protection under the Takings Clause has merit given the weak historical evidence suggesting stronger protection for land and the importance of personal property to income generation and capital development in a modern society. What does not make sense is the Court’s continued expansion of its per se physical takings concept to govern many types of property and regulatory settings. Both real and personal property come in many sizes, shapes, and colors. Takings analysis should not ignore differences in the types of property, nor in the complexities of the various property settings. Under a per se approach, those differences do not matter. Under a per se approach, the Court’s physical takings analysis is simplistic and one-dimensional: did the government physically appropriate, seize, or invade private property without payment of just compensation? Generally left out of the equation is any consideration of the public interest or third-party concerns, regardless of their importance or their role in shaping the property interest. Nor does a physical appropriation actually have to occur. The per se physical taking may instead be more conceptual than actual or may involve one right in a bundle of rights, still leaving the property owner with other rights. In its © 2016 Lynda L. Butler. * Chancellor Professor of Law and Director, Property Rights Project, College of William & Mary Law School. B.S. College of William & Mary; J.D. University of Virginia. I would like to thank William & Mary Law School for financially supporting my research and John Echeverria for inviting me to address this topic at the 18th Takings Conference on September 25, 2015. Much appreciation also to Andy Monthey and William Fletcher for their superb research assistance, and Felicia Burton for her dedicated word processing support. 788 MARYLAND LAW REVIEW [VOL. 75:787 drive for clarity and simplicity, the Court thus has posed a serious dilemma for takings jurisprudence: the difficult task of solidifying constitutional protection for all types of property with an all-encompassing, absolute rule that can provide sufficient predictive value for the complex contexts of modern-day property. What the Court’s approach overlooks is property’s ability to evolve and provide order for emerging resources and new forms of property. What the Court’s approach overlooks is the need to develop constitutional principles that reflect property’s richness and frontiers.
What determines individual trade-policy preferences?

Abstract This article provides new evidence on the determinants of individual trade-policy preferences using individual-level survey data for the United States. There are two main empirical results. First, we find that factor type dominates industry of employment in explaining support for trade barriers. Second, we find that home ownership also matters for individuals’ trade-policy preferences. Independent of factor type, home ownership in counties with a manufacturing mix concentrated in comparative-disadvantage industries is correlated with support for trade barriers. This finding suggests that, in addition to current factor incomes driving preferences as in standard trade models, preferences also depend on asset values.
Sovereign illiquidity and recessions.

Abstract This paper examines the importance of sovereign debt market liquidity in a New Keynesian environment with wage rigidities and financial frictions a la Kiyotaki and Moore (2012). The analysis implies that, independently of credit risk, a decrease in the liquidity of government bonds has significant detrimental effects on output, employment and investment. A shut down of sovereign debt market for one quarter generates a 7 % drop in output and investment as well as a 2 % increase in unemployment. Also, in a framework where the only sources of variation are private and public liquidity shocks, sovereign bond market illiquidity can account for most of the output drop in Italy between 2011q2 and 2013q1. These results suggest that European Central Bank’s (ECB) temporary policies taken in 2012 aimed at rising liquidity seem to have prevented a more prolonged and deeper economic downturn.
LIQUIDITY TRAPS: AN INTEREST-RATE-BASED EXIT STRATEGY

This paper proposes a strategy for escaping liquidity traps based on an augmented Taylor-type interest-rate feedback rule that differs from usual specifications in that when inflation falls below a threshold, the central bank temporarily deviates from the traditional Taylor rule by following a deterministic path for the nominal interest rate that reaches the intended target for this policy instrument in finite time. The proposed policy is designed to set a floor on inflationary expectations. Importantly, the effectiveness of the proposed exiting strategy does not rely on the existence of an accompanying fiscalist (or non-Ricardian) fiscal stance.
Wage misalignment in CFA countries: are labor market policies to blame?

It seems natural to attribute to wage rigidity (stemming from highly distortionary labor policies) the over-valuation of the CFA (Communaute Financiere Africaine) franc after the negative external shocks of the 1980s. Using a variety of data sources, the author assesses the actual rigidity of wages in CFA countries and the relationship of wage rigidity to labor policies. He shows that: a) Workers' wages are higher in CFA countries than in similar countries outside the CFA zone and higher than the earnings of similar self-employed workers within the same countries. b) Real wages are rigid (in the sense of closely following fluctuations in governmental wages and consumer prices) but there is no evidence of nominal wage rigidity. c) Labor policies may not be the source of wage misalignment and real rigidity. When compared internationally, minimum wages in CFA countries are not high enough to account for the observed wage misalignment, and their adjustment over time has been responsive to real shocks. d) Unions in the private sector seem to have been more instrumental in creating wage moderation than in creating wage drift in CFA countries. Their members usually get lower wages than similar nonunionized workers, probably because of the subordinate nature of the labor movement in CFA countries. e) Government pay policies and (possibly) limited competition in product markets are the most probable causes of wage misalignment and real wage rigidity in CFA countries.
A Reexamination of the Tradeoff between the Future Benefit and Riskiness of R&D Increases

Many previous studies document a positive relation between research and development (R&D) and equity value. Though R&D can increase equity value by increasing firm value, it can also increase equity value at the expense of bondholder wealth through an increase in firm risk because equity is analogous to a call option on the underlying firm value. Shi [2003] tests this hypothesis by examining the relation between a firm’s R&D intensity and its bond ratings and risk premiums at issuance. His results show that the net effect of R&D is negative for bondholders. We reexamine Shi’s [2003] findings and in so doing make three contributions to the literature. First, we find that Shi’s [2003] results are sensitive to the method of measuring R&D intensity. When we use what we argue is a better measure of R&D intensity, we find that the net effect of R&D is positive for bondholders. Second, when we use tests that Shi [2003] recognizes are even better than the ones that he uses, we find even stronger evidence of the positive effect of R&D on bondholders. Third, we examine cross-sectional differences in the effect of R&D on debtholders.
The Effect of Means-Tested Income Support for the Elderly on Pre-Retirement Saving: Evidence from the SSI Program in the U.S.

Abstract We attempt to draw inferences about behavioral responses to means-tested income support for the elderly by examining the effects on saving of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program for the aged in the U.S. Part of this program provides payments to the poor elderly, operating as a means-tested public retirement program. We exploit state-level variation in SSI benefits to estimate the effects of SSI on saving, using data from the 1984 Survey of Income Program Participation. We find evidence that high SSI benefits reduce saving among households with heads who are approaching the SSI eligibility age and are likely participants in the program.
Alternatives to the U.S. Antitrust Agency approach to market definition

Shortcomings of the U.S. Antitrust Agency Guidelines method of market definition include failure to focus on competition, the need for cost data, and discontinuities. Two alternative approaches are presented which avoid these problems and the Guidelines' inclusion of substitutes on an all-or-nothing basis. One alternative focuses on the size of a change in capacity of a substitute that would be needed to have the same effects as a unit change in capacity of an initial item. The second proposed alternative offers a simple operational method of giving practical content to the “reasonable interchangeability” concept which is a prominent feature of U.S. Supreme Court decisions. The alternative approaches are evaluated in comparison to that of the Guidelines and some modified versions of the latter.
The Combatant Status of the “Little Green Men” and Other Participants in the Ukraine Conflict

As an occupation and a civil war are simultaneously taking place in Ukraine a particularly vexing international law question is presented: what is the legal status of those involved in the hostilities? This article is designed to answer that question and to identify the associated rights, duties and responsibilities of the participants in the conflict.
Weinstein on Sentencing

Judge Jack Weinstein's sentencing jurisprudence is like the rest of his jurisprudence: powerful, creative, academically thorough, and often subject to reversal! His persistence is partially responsible for today's advisory sentencing guidelines. We can say of Judge Weinstein what he said of Learned Hand's description of Judge Cardozo: [He] never disguised the difficulties, as lazy judges do, who win the game by sweeping all the chessmen off the table."
Integrating Equal Marriage

This Symposium on the Defense of Marriage Act1 (DOMA)—though prompted by President Obama’s February 2011 announcement that the federal government would no longer defend that statute2—raises important questions about the terms on which the fight for equal marriage rights for LGBT couples should be waged. In essence, equal marriage advocates— even as the fight for relationship recognition continues in states across the country—face a choice about how best to frame the claim for equal marriage rights. To date, the primary strategy has been to emphasize the extent to which gay and lesbian couples are no different than straight couples in their desire for a loving relationship and appreciation of the norms and values reflected in traditional marriage.3 This approach, importantly, has sometimes meant emphasizing the extent to which LGBT couples, because of their asserted willingness to embrace traditional marriage norms, might even be better for marriage than some of the straight people now legally entitled to enter into it. On the one hand, advocates can choose to stick with the status quo and continue to deploy this strategy. On the other hand, though, they can explore a new strategy, one that, rather than emphasizing sameness, celebrates difference and the full spectrum of familial arrangements and choices for structuring intimate relationships evident in our society. The former approach, which I call the “gays and lesbians are good stewards of marriage” argument, carries rhetorical punch and has the benefit of having been successful, as the slow, but progressive expansion of marriage rights in jurisdictions across the country attests. At the same time,
The impact of social norms on entrepreneurial action: Evidence from the environmental entrepreneurship context

Abstract Using insights from institutional theory, sociology, and entrepreneurship we develop and test a model of the relationship between centralized and decentralized institutions on entrepreneurial activity. We suggest that both decentralized institutions that are socially determined as well as centralized institutions that are designed by governmental authorities are important in promoting firm foundings in the environmental context. In a sample of the U.S. solar energy sector we find that state-sponsored incentives, environmental consumption norms, and norms of family interdependence are related to new firm entry in this sector. Our findings also suggest that the efficacy of state-level policies in the sponsoring of entrepreneurial growth is dependent upon the social norms that prevail in the entrepreneur's environment. We expand entrepreneurship theory and the study of institutions and the natural environment by demonstrating the integral role that social norms play in influencing the creation of new firms and by illustrating the potential effect social norms have on the effect of policy that seeks to encourage environmentally responsible economic activity.
Investor Protection and Capital Fragility: Evidence from Hedge Funds around the World

We find that capital flows to hedge funds in different countries are influenced by the strength and the enforcement of investor protection laws in these countries. Hedge funds that are located in weak investor protection countries exhibit a greater sensitivity of investor outflow to poor performance, relative to funds in countries with strong protection. Furthermore, weak investor protection is associated with fund managers engaging in greater returns management. Our findings suggest that in countries with weak investor protection, poor fund performance exposes investors to a greater risk of fraud and legal jeopardy, thus triggering a larger outflow of capital.
Land security and the challenges of realizing the human right to water and sanitation in the slums of Mumbai, India.

Addressing the human right to water and sanitation in the slums of Mumbai, India requires disentangling the provision of basic services from a more complicated set of questions around land security and land ownership. Millions of slum-dwellers in Mumbai lack adequate access to safe drinking water and sanitation, which places them at risk for waterborne diseases. Many slums are located in hazardous areas such as flood plains, increasing their susceptibility to climate change-related weather pat terns. Access to water and sanitation in slums generally hinges on whether a dwelling was created prior to January 1, 1995, because those constructed created prior to that date have greater land security. Although the so-called “1995 cut-off rule” looms large in Mumbai slum policy, a closer reading of the relevant laws and regulations suggests that access to water and sanitation could be expanded to slums created after January 1, 1995. State and municipal governments already have the authority to expand access to water services; they just need to exercise their discretion. However, slums located on central government land are in a more difficult position. Central government agencies in Mumbai have often refused to allow the state and municipal governments to rehabilitate or improve access to services for slums located on their land. As a result, an argument could be made that by interfering with the efforts of subnational actors to extend water and sanitation to services to slum-dwellers, the central government of India is violating its obligations to respect the human right to water and sanitation under international and national jurisprudence.
Federal Lands in the Twenty-First Century

This paper explores the effects of a destabilizing climate on federal lands and policies for their management. It looks at both the mitigation side - using federal lands for renewable energy production to reduce greenhouse gas emissions - and the adaptation side, and advocates that policymakers link the two. In the long run, it predicts that measures to deal with a changing climate will blur many traditional boundaries, including the one between public and private land.
Notes From a Climate Change Pressure-Cooker: Sub-Federal Attempts at Transformation Meet National Resistance in the USA

Global climate change poses one of the most pressing environmental, economic, and social problems of the 21st Century. The United States of America bears a disproportionate burden for contributing to global climate change and has the capacity - if not the will - to be a world leader in combating climate change. Local, state and civil society efforts to transform climate change policy-making in America, however, have met with persistent resistance at the federal level, spurring a new era in American environmental policy. While the federal government was once the leader in environmental policy-making, it is now - at times - the laggard. Meanwhile, sub-federal actors find increasingly inspired ways to push for more progressive climate change policies. Much has been written about sub-federal efforts to adopt climate change policies, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. From adopting local policies, to employing common law and tort-based litigation, to using existing federal environmental laws, to invoking the jurisdiction of international institutions, civil society is utilizing every possible mechanism to overcome stagnation and resistance at the national level and thereby drive a progressive climate change policy agenda from the bottom up. This Article examines new and creative uses of local, national and international law to overcome federal resistance and to force legal transformations in climate change policy-making in America.
The confounding effect of cost stickiness on conservatism estimates

Abstract Sales decreases affect earnings more than sales increases because of cost stickiness. We hypothesize that this correlated omitted variable constitutes a confounding effect in standard asymmetric timeliness models. Controlling for a piecewise linear effect of sales changes in these models decreases the measured asymmetric timeliness significantly and changes inferences about the average level of conservatism and the extent of cross-sectional variation in conservatism. Validation tests confirm that the asymmetry for sales changes is consistent with sticky costs and is distinct from conditional conservatism. Future empirical research on conditional conservatism should recognize the potential confounding effect of sticky costs.
Allocation rules for network games

Previous allocation rules for network games, such as the Myerson Value, implicitly or explicitly take the network structure as fixed. In many situations, however, the network structure can be altered by players. This means that the value of alternative network structures (not just sub-networks) can and should influence the allocation of value among players on any given network structure. I present a family of allocation rules that incorporate information about alternative network structures when allocating value.