cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Bounded-Size Rules: The Barely Subcritical Regime

Bounded-size rules (BSRs) are dynamic random graph processes which incorporate limited choice along with randomness in the evolution of the system. Typically one starts with the empty graph and at each stage two edges are chosen uniformly at random. One of the two edges is then placed into the system according to a decision rule based on the sizes of the components containing the four vertices. For bounded-size rules, all components of size greater than some fixed K ≥ 1 are accorded the same treatment. Writing BSR(t) for the state of the system with ⌊nt/2⌋ edges, Spencer and Wormald [26] proved that for such rules, there exists a (rule-dependent) critical time tc such that when t tc, the size of the largest component is of order n. In this work we obtain upper bounds (that hold with high probability) of order n2γ log4n, on the size of the largest component, at time instants tn = tc−n−γ, where γ ∈ (0,1/4). This result for the barely subcritical regime forms a key ingredient in the study undertaken in [4], of the asymptotic dynamic behaviour of the process describing the vector of component sizes and associated complexity of the components for such random graph models in the critical scaling window. The proof uses a coupling of BSR processes with a certain family of inhomogeneous random graphs with vertices in the type space , equipped with the usual Skorokhod topology. The coupling construction also gives an alternative characterization (from the usual explosion time of the susceptibility function) of the critical time tc for the emergence of the giant component in terms of the operator norm of integral operators on certain L2 spaces.
ZOMBIE VORTEX INSTABILITY. I. A PURELY HYDRODYNAMIC INSTABILITY TO RESURRECT THE DEAD ZONES OF PROTOPLANETARY DISKS

There is considerable interest in hydrodynamic instabilities in dead zones of protoplanetary disks as a mechanism for driving angular momentum transport and as a source of particle-trapping vortices to mix chondrules and incubate planetesimal formation. We present simulations with a pseudo-spectral anelastic code and with the compressible code Athena, showing that stably stratified flows in a shearing, rotating box are violently unstable and produce space-filling, sustained turbulence dominated by large vortices with Rossby numbers of order ~0.2–0.3. This Zombie Vortex Instability (ZVI) is observed in both codes and is triggered by Kolmogorov turbulence with Mach numbers less than ~0.01. It is a common view that if a given constant density flow is stable, then stable vertical stratification should make the flow even more stable. Yet, we show that sufficient vertical stratification can be unstable to ZVI. ZVI is robust and requires no special tuning of boundary conditions, or initial radial entropy or vortensity gradients (though we have studied ZVI only in the limit of infinite cooling time). The resolution of this paradox is that stable stratification allows for a new avenue to instability: baroclinic critical layers. ZVI has not been seen in previous studies of flows in rotating, shearing boxes because those calculations frequently lacked vertical density stratification and/or sufficient numerical resolution. Although we do not expect appreciable angular momentum transport from ZVI in the small domains in this study, we hypothesize that ZVI in larger domains with compressible equations may lead to angular transport via spiral density waves.
Linear dielectric thermodynamics: A new universal law for optical, dielectric constants

Linear dielectric thermodynamics are formally developed to explore the isothermal and adiabatic temperature - pressure dependence of dielectric constants. The refractive index of optical materials is widely measured in the literature: it is both temperature and pressure dependent. The argument to establish the dielectric constant's isentropic temperature dependence is a thermodynamic one and is thus applicable to all physical models that describe electron clouds and electronic resonances within materials. The isentropic slope of the displacement field versus the electric field at all temperatures is described by an adiabatic dielectric constant in an energy-per-unit mass system. This slope is shown through the electronic part of the entropy to be unstable at high temperatures due to the change in the curvature of the temperature dependence of the dielectric constant. The electronic entropy contribution for optical, thermo-electro materials has negative heat capacities which are unacceptable. The dielectric constant's temperature and pressure dependence is predicted to be only dependent on the specific volume so isentropes are always positive. A new universal form for the dielectric constant follows from this hypothesis: the dielectric constant is proportional to the square root of the specific volume.
Quantifying the Effects of COVID-19 on Mental Health Support Forums

The COVID-19 pandemic, like many of the disease outbreaks that have preceded it, is likely to have a profound effect on mental health. Understanding its impact can inform strategies for mitigating negative consequences. In this work, we seek to better understand the effects of COVID-19 on mental health by examining discussions within mental health support communities on Reddit. First, we quantify the rate at which COVID-19 is discussed in each community, or subreddit, in order to understand levels of preoccupation with the pandemic. Next, we examine the volume of activity in order to determine whether the quantity of people seeking online mental health support has risen. Finally, we analyze how COVID-19 has influenced language use and topics of discussion within each subreddit.
Can I Pour Into It? Robot Imagining Open Containability Affordance of Previously Unseen Objects via Physical Simulations

Open containers, i.e. , containers without covers, are an important and ubiquitous class of objects in human life. In this letter, we propose a novel method for robots to “imagine” the open containability affordance of a previously unseen object via physical simulations. The robot autonomously scans the object with an RGB-D camera. The scanned 3D model is used for open containability imagination which quantifies the open containability affordance by physically simulating dropping particles onto the object and counting how many particles are retained in it. This quantification is used for open-container vs. non-open-container binary classification (hereafter referred to as open container classification). If the object is classified as an open container, the robot further imagines pouring into the object, again using physical simulations, to obtain the pouring position and orientation for real robot autonomous pouring. We evaluate our method on open container classification and autonomous pouring of granular material on a dataset containing 130 previously unseen objects with 57 object categories. Although our proposed method uses only 11 objects for simulation calibration, its open container classification aligns well with human judgements. In addition, our method endows the robot with the capability to autonomously pour into the 55 containers in the dataset with a very high success rate. We also compare to a deep learning method. Results show that our method achieves the same performance as the deep learning method on open container classification and outperforms it on autonomous pouring. Moreover, our method is fully explainable.
The DESI sky continuum monitor system

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) is an ongoing spectroscopic survey to measure the dark energy equation of state to unprecedented precision. We describe the DESI Sky Continuum Monitor System, which tracks the night sky brightness as part of a system that dynamically adjusts the spectroscopic exposure time to produce more uniform data quality and to maximize observing efficiency. The DESI dynamic exposure time calculator (ETC) will combine sky brightness measurements from the Sky Monitor with data from the guider system to calculate the exposure time to achieve uniform signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the spectra under various observing conditions. The DESI design includes 20 sky fibers, and these are split between two identical Sky Monitor units to provide redundancy. Each Sky Monitor unit uses an SBIG STXL-6303e CCD camera and supports an eight-position filter wheel. Both units have been completed and delivered to the Mayall Telescope at the Kitt Peak National Observatory. Commissioning results show that the Sky Monitor delivers the required performance necessary for the ETC.
Quantum Graphs as Quantum Relations

The “noncommutative graphs” which arise in quantum error correction are a special case of the quantum relations introduced in Weaver (Quantum relations. Mem Am Math Soc 215(v–vi):81–140, 2012). We use this perspective to interpret the Knill–Laflamme error-correction conditions (Knill and Laflamme in Theory of quantum error-correcting codes. Phys Rev A 55:900-911, 1997) in terms of graph-theoretic independence, to give intrinsic characterizations of Stahlke’s noncommutative graph homomorphisms (Stahlke in Quantum zero-error source-channel coding and non-commutative graph theory. IEEE Trans Inf Theory 62:554–577, 2016) and Duan, Severini, and Winter’s noncommutative bipartite graphs (Duan et al., op. cit. in Zero-error communication via quantum channels, noncommutative graphs, and a quantum Lovasz number. IEEE Trans Inf Theory 59:1164–1174, 2013), and to realize the noncommutative confusability graph associated to a quantum channel (Duan et al., op. cit. in Zero-error communication via quantum channels, noncommutative graphs, and a quantum Lovasz number. IEEE Trans Inf Theory 59:1164–1174, 2013) as the pullback of a diagonal relation. Our framework includes as special cases not only purely classical and purely quantum information theory, but also the “mixed” setting which arises in quantum systems obeying superselection rules. Thus we are able to define noncommutative confusability graphs, give error correction conditions, and so on, for such systems. This could have practical value, as superselection constraints on information encoding can be physically realistic.
Verifying the Correctness of Analytic Query Results

Data outsourcing is a cost-effective solution for data owners to tackle issues such as large volumes of data, huge number of users, and intensive computation needed for data analysis. They can simply upload their databases to a cloud and let it perform all management works, including query processing. A significant problem of this service model is how query issuers can verify the query results they receive are indeed correct. This concern is legitimate because, as a third party, clouds may not be fully trustworthy, and as a large data center, clouds are ideal targets for hackers. There has been significant work on query result verification; still most consider only simple queries where query results can be attained by checking the raw data against the query conditions directly. In this paper, we consider the problem of enabling users to verify the correctness of the results of analytic queries. Unlike simple queries, analytic queries involve ranking functions to score a database, which makes it difficult to build data structures for verification purposes. We propose two approaches, namely one-signature and multi-signature, and show that they work well on three representative types of analytic queries, including top-k, range, and KNN queries. The practicality of our approaches in run time is confirmed through extensive experiments.
De Jure Versus De Facto Exchange Rate Regimes in Sub-Saharan Africa

There are 22 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with floating exchange rate regimes, de jure. Statistical analysis on monthly data for the past decade reveals that in most cases these exchange rate regimes can be approximated surprisingly well by a soft peg to a basket dominated by the US dollar. The weight on the dollar appears to have fallen somewhat across the continent in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Replicating the model with weekly data suggests that the focus on the dollar might be even more pronounced at higher data frequencies. While there might be strong arguments in favour of limiting exchange rate volatility in SSA countries, soft-pegging to the dollar does not appear to be the best fit for them, given the currency structure of their external trade and finance. Copyright 2013 , Oxford University Press.
Statutory Genres: Substance, Procedure, Jurisdiction

To decide many cases, courts need to characterize some of the legal rules involved, placing each one in a specific doctrinal category to identify the rule’s effect on the litigation. The consequences of characterization decisions can be profound, but the grounds for making and justifying them are often left unstated. This Article offers the first systematic comparison of two important types of legal characterization: the distinction between substantive and procedural rules or statutes, a distinction federal courts make in several contexts; and the distinction between jurisdictional and nonjurisdictional rules, especially those relating to litigation filing requirements. The Article explains the reasons for the differences between the doctrines governing each type of characterization by contextualizing each as an example of the same activity: the identification of the “genre,” or kind, to which particular legal texts belong. Showing that decisions in both areas do in fact involve genre classification, the Article explains how it follows that legal characterization is an aspect of legal interpretation, although courts have seldom recognized as much. This analysis further suggests new lines of development for both Erie doctrine and jurisdictional characterization. Judges making Erie decisions should characterize both the state and federal laws at issue according to their sources, as well as under the substantive-procedural rubric, and should recognize that the question of conflict, if reached, is akin to other questions of federal preemption. Judges making jurisdictional-characterization decisions should extend the existing doctrinal framework to take into account other consequences of characterization and to allow the analogous handling of federal rules. The U.S. Supreme Court already has most of the resources it needs to move down these paths. Still,
Bilepton Resonance in Electron-Electron Scattering

Theoretical background for bileptonic gauge bosons is reviewed — both the SU(15) GUT model and the 3-3-1 model. Mass limits on bileptons are discussed coming from e+e- scattering, polarized muon decay and muonium–antimuonium conversion. Discovery in e-e- at a linear collider at low energy (100 GeV) and high luminosity (1033/cm2/s) is emphasized.
Partisanship, Voting, and the Dopamine D2 Receptor Gene

Previous studies have found that both political orientations (Alford, Funk, and Hibbing 2005) and voting behavior (Fowler, Baker, and Dawes 2008; Fowler and Dawes 2008) are significantly heritable. In this article we study genetic variation in another important political behavior: partisan attachment. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, we show that individuals with the A2 allele of the D2 dopamine receptor gene are significantly more likely to identify as a partisan than those with the A1 allele. Further, we find that this gene's association with partisanship also mediates an indirect association between the A2 allele and voter turnout. These results are the first to identify a specific gene that may be partly responsible for the tendency to join political groups, and they may help to explain correlation in parent and child partisanship and the persistence of partisan behavior over time.
Are the gains from international portfolio diversification exaggerated? The influence of downside risk in bear markets

The fundamental rationale for international portfolio diversification is that it expands the opportunities for gains from portfolio diversification beyond those that are available through domestic securities. However, if international stock market correlations are higher than normal in bear markets, then international diversification will fail to yield the promised gains just when they are needed most. We evaluate the extent to which observed correlations to monthly returns in bear, calm and bull markets are captured by three popular bivariate distributions: (1) the normal, (2) the restricted GARCH(1,1) of J. P. Morgan’s RiskMetrics, and (3) the Student-t with four degrees of freedom. Observed correlations during calm and bull markets are unexceptional compared to these models. In contrast, observed correlations during bear markets are significantly higher than predicted. Higher-than-normal correlations during extreme market downturns result in monthly returns to equal-weighted portfolios of domestic and international stocks that are, on average, more than two percent lower than those predicted by the normal distribution. If the extent of non-normality during bear markets persists over time, then a US investor allocating assets into foreign markets might want to allocate more assets into foreign markets with near-normal correlation profiles and avoid markets with higher-than-normal bear market co-movements.  2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.
The prospects for cost competitive solar PV power

New solar Photovoltaic (PV) installations have grown globally at a rapid pace in recent years. We provide a comprehensive assessment of the cost competitiveness of this electric power source. Based on data available for the second half of 2011, we conclude that utility-scale PV installations are not yet cost competitive with fossil fuel power plants. In contrast, commercial-scale installations have already attained cost parity in the sense that the generating cost of power from solar PV is comparable to the retail electricity prices that commercial users pay, at least in certain parts of the U.S. This conclusion is shown to depend crucially on both the current federal tax subsidies for solar power and an ideal geographic location for the solar installation. Projecting recent industry trends into the future, we estimate that utility-scale solar PV facilities are on track to become cost competitive by the end of this decade. Furthermore, commercial-scale installations could reach “grid parity” in about ten years, if the current federal tax incentives for solar power were to expire at that point.
Switching the Default Rule

There is a standard analysis of default rules in contract law, including those forms of contract law that fall under the label of employment law. But behavioral economics raises many complications. The default rule can create an endowment effect, making employees value certain rights more simply because they have been granted such rights in the first instance. Similarly, the default rule for savings plans, set by employers or law, seems to have a large effect on employee behavior. When the default rule affects preferences and behavior, conventional economic analysis seems indeterminate; either default rule can be efficient. In employment law, analysis of distributive consequences also suggests the difficulty of deciding which default rule to favor, because any switch in the rule is unlikely to have significant redistributive effects. Nonetheless, switching the default rule can, in certain circumstances, have desirable effects on workers’ welfare. A central question is whether the stickiness of the default rule reflects a genuine change in values, or instead employee confusion or bargaining strategy.
Something to Prove: Reputation in teams and hiring to introduce uncertainty

Agents work for their own reputations when young but for their rmswhen old. An individual with an established reputation cannot credibly commit to exerting e¤ort when working alone. However, by hiring and working with juniors of uncertain reputation, seniors will have incentives to exert e¤ort. Incentives for young agents arise from a concern for their own reputation (and the opportunity to take over the rm) but older agents work for the reputation of their rms (and the opportunity to sell out to juniors). An important theoretical contribution is an example of a mechanism that endogenously introduces type uncertainty. Key words: Reputation incentive, teams, overlapping generations, up-or-out JEL: C73 (Stochastic and Dynamic Games), D82 (Asymmetric and Private Information), L14 (Transactional Relationships: Contracts and Reputation), M12 (Personnel Economics) This paper is based on Chapter 3 of my PhD thesis. I have had the immense good fortune to have had the opportunity to work on this paper (under a number of varying titles) in a number of stimulating research environments as a research assistant at the Financial Markets Group at the LSE, while visiting the Eitan Berglas School of Economics at Tel Aviv University and the Department of Economics at Harvard University and at Northwestern University and nally at the Department of Economics at the Stern School of Business, NYU. I am grateful to them all and to seminar participants at these institutions, whose comments have signi cantly improved and re ned my initial intuition. I have also been privileged to have had the opportunity to discuss this work and present it at a number of other institutions. Among the many people from whose insight I have bene tted, I particularly thank Mariagiovanna Bacarra, Matthew Bidwell, Oliver Hart, Christian Hellwig, Bengt Holmstrom, Susan Lee, George Mailath, Niko Matouschek, Gerd Muehlheusser, Felix Muennich, Carlo Rosa, Larry Samuelson, Yossi Spiegel, Ran Spiegler, Steve Tadelis and Leeat Yariv; I am especially grateful to Margaret Bray, Eddie Dekel and Leonardo Felli. I gratefully acknowledge nancial support from the ESRC (R42200034040). yhbar-isa@stern.nyu.edu; Economics Department, Stern School of Business, New York University, 44 West 4th Street, Room 7-73, New York, NY 10012, USA.
Rethinking the Study of Miscarriages of Justice: Developing a Criminology of Wrongful Conviction

This article provides a brief history of the study of miscarriages of justice in America. It analyzes the field of wrongful conviction scholarship as three distinct genres: the big-picture studies, the specialized-causes literature, and the true-crime genre. It also analyzes what these literatures have contributed to knowledge about miscarriages as well as their limitations. This article attempts to rethink the study of miscarriages of justice to systematically develop a more sophisticated, insightful, and generalizable criminology of wrongful conviction.
Auditor Conservatism and Investment Efficiency

ABSTRACT: We develop a theoretical framework to investigate (1) both the determinants and the consequences of auditor conservatism in a capital market setting and (2) the implications of Section 201 of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act for auditor conservatism and investment efficiency. We derive three primary results. First, by adjusting the mix of audit and nonaudit fees, companies with high business risk induce auditor conservatism, while companies with low business risk induce auditor aggressiveness. Second, if auditor conservatism is in force, a greater client pressure on auditors improves audit quality; but if auditor aggressiveness is in force, a greater client pressure on auditors impairs audit quality. Third, the nature of a firm's investment inefficiency (overinvestment or underinvestment) depends on its auditor's attestation (conservative or aggressive). Our analysis also implies that a mandatory restriction of nonaudit services imposed by Section 201 may decrease audit quality and damage investment effic...
Assessing Fourth Amendment challenges to DNA extraction statutes after Samson v. California.

DNA plays an indispensable role in modern law enforcement, and courts uniformly find that DNA extraction statutes targeting criminals satisfy the Fourth Amendment. Courts differ on which Fourth Amendment test— totality of the circumstances or special needs—ought to be employed in this context. This Note concludes that courts should apply Samson v. California’s less stringent totality of the circumstances test to analyze DNA extraction statutes in order to maintain the integrity of the special needs test.
Local democracy in a hybrid state: pluralism and protest in Volzhskiy, Russia

The standard narrative of Russia's “authoritarian backsliding” fails to grapple with the tremendous variation in subnational politics that emerged over the past two decades. This article offers a case study of the industrial city of Volzhskiy, which, although once a stalwart supporter of the Communist Party (KPRF), has evolved into a highly pluralistic system with democratic municipal institutions. Drawing upon analysis of local publications, protest data, and interviews with local politicians, this article traces the interplay of formal institutions and informal political processes in Volzhskiy's local-level transition to democracy. Volzhskiy's pluralism and local democratic outcome can largely be explained by (1) the emergence of a more diverse set of economic and political interests and constituencies, and (2) a KPRF organization that was strong and provided robust competition that created the conditions for cooperation among the competitors to form fair and open local political institutions, which fos...
Employment and the creation of an active citizenry

This study examines the link between employment and political participation, using US household survey data. It finds that being employed increases an individual's political activities by more than one-third, primarily through increased income, civic skills, political efficacy and recruitment at work. Union membership and skill-building tasks are strong positive predictors of political participation. In exploring issue-oriented activism, disability activism is found to be lower among employed people with disabilities, but higher among those who report job discrimination. The likely effects of declining unionization, changes in job structures and other workplace and employment trends on overall political participation are discussed.
The Roots of Law

This Article rests on the macrosociological thesis that (i) the concepts and doctrines used in law are determined by the properties of society and that (ii) these properties are produced by large-scale forces. The thesis thus maintains that the content of law is not shaped by the persons who serve as legislators, judges, and executive-branch policymakers; such individuals are merely the vehicles by which societal conditions mold law. To illustrate, the Article examines shifts in law in the United States on a number of subjects, including law setting the age of majority and law regulating access to abortion, and it links these shifts to changes in specific aspects of U.S. society. Data from the 1960 census on the forty-eight coterminous states are analyzed with logistic regression to identify systemlevel properties distinguishing states that liberalized their law on abortion between 1967 and 1972 (i.e., before Roe v. Wade) from states that did not. The regression analysis, in conjunction with time-series data for the nation as a whole, suggests that the liberalization by states and by Roe of lawimposed restrictions on abortion was associated mainly with increases in school enrollment and educational level among young women. This Article advances the premise that long-term growth in the quantity of knowledge broadly affected the American social system and its law, and ascribes the rising prevalence and longer duration of education among women—as antecedents of the liberalization of law on abortion—primarily to the expansion of knowledge. 1 Barnett: The Roots of Law Published by Digital Commons @ American University Washington College of Law, 2007 614 JOURNAL OF GENDER, SOCIAL POLICY & THE LAW [Vol. 15:4
The Publicity of Law and the Regulatory State

Theorists usually agree that the rule of law requires that the law be public, that is, available so that those whose conduct it governs may discover what it requires of them. In the regulatory state, however, every regulation is likely to be lost in a mountain of other regulations. This would not violate the publicity condition if regulated conduct invariably carries telltale signs that it is likely to be subject to legal requirements ­ but in a technological society even this weaker condition may not be met, because a great deal of seemingly-innocuous conduct may be regulated. The present paper examines the publicity problem raised by regulation in a technological society. It does so by examining the U.S. Supreme Court's mens rea jurisprudence for regulatory crimes, on the question of whether knowledge that one is violating a regulation is an element of the offense. The chief cases are Balint, Freed, United States Minerals, Liparota, Staples, Ratzlaf, and Cheek, along with the 9th Circuit's Weitzenhof decision. As I analyze them, the first four of these cases set out a "signaling theory" of publicity, according to which knowledge that one is violating a regulation need not be proven if the conduct "signals" its own regulability. Selling narcotics, possessing hand grenades, and shipping sulfuric acid are all the sort of thing that one should anticipate are regulable (thus Balint, Freed, and United States Minerals); trafficking in food stamps is not (thus Liparota). However, in Staples the Supreme Court held that possessing a machine gun is not signaling behavior, because so many Americans regard gun ownership as innocent activity. Similarly, Ratzlaf remarks that structuring financial transactions to evade federal reporting requirements can be innocent behavior, apparently because so many Americans regard regulatory dodging as a legitimate pastime. These decisions pose a complication for the signaling theory: Our intuitions about what sort of conduct is intrinsically regulable are affected by the expectations of those around us. Thus, the phenomenon of social cognition creates the possibility of a cultural excuse for regulatory crime. Furthermore, it seems clear that many defendants do not recognize the non-innocence of their behavior because (like the tax resister Cheek) they do not want to recognize it in which case the cultural excuse becomes more like a cultural veto, by which those who dislike a regulation may nullify it (at least once). The paper canvasses several possible solutions to this difficulty, concluding that the needs of legitimate regulation outweigh the requirement of publicity.
An Extension of the Blinder-Oaxaca Decomposition to a Continuum of Comparison Groups

This paper proposes an extension of the Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition from two to a continuum of comparison groups. The proposed decomposition is then estimated for the case of racial wage differences in urban Peru, exploiting a novel data set that allows the capturing of mestizaje (racial mixtures).
Land productivity and economic development: Caloric suitability vs. agricultural suitability

This paper establishes that the Caloric Suitability Index (CSI) dominates the commonly used measure of agricultural suitability in the examination of the effect of land productivity on comparative economic development. The analysis demonstrates that the agricultural suitability index does not capture the large variation in the potential caloric yield across equally suitable land, reflecting the fact that land suitable for agriculture is not necessarily suitable for the most caloric-intensive crops. Hence, in light of the instrumental role played by caloric yield in sustaining and supporting population growth, and given importance of pre-industrial population density for the subsequent course of economic development, the Caloric Suitability Index dominates the conventional measure in capturing the effect of land productivity on pre-colonial population density and the subsequent course of economic development.
School Finance Reform's Impact on New Jersey's State Spending Priorities

The combination of school finance reform, voter opposition to higher taxes, and rising costs forced the state of New Jersey to reorient its spending priorities. This article presents an analysis of budgetary data for the period FY 1990 to FY 1996, which clearly indicates that: 1) state resources were shifted from direct state services to state aid; 2) even though the 1991 sales and income tax hikes were revoked, the state's tax structure was more progressive in 1996 than in 1990; 3) Governor Florio's attempts to level down per pupil expenditures by reducing payments to wealthy school districts were largely stymied; 4) the proportion of state resources allocated to public education was lower in FY 1996 than the year preceding school finance reform; 5) because of education's reduced budget share, efforts to level up per pupil expenditures were severely circumscribed; and 6) state aid was diverted from homestead rebates to municipal aid.
Horizontal Erie and the Presumption of Forum Law

According to Erie Railroad v. Tompkins and its progeny, a federal court interpreting state law must decide as the state’s supreme court would. In this Article, I argue that a state court interpreting the law of a sister state is subject to the same obligation. It must decide as the sister state’s supreme court would.Horizontal Erie is such a plausible idea that one might think it is already established law. But the Supreme Court has in fact given state courts significant freedom to misinterpret sister-state law. And state courts have taken advantage of this freedom, by routinely presuming that the law of a sister state is the same as their own - often in the face of substantial evidence that the sister state’s supreme court would decide differently. This presumption of similarity to forum law is particularly significant in nationwide class actions. A class will be certified, despite the fact that many states’ laws apply to the plaintiffs’ actions, on the ground that the defendant has failed to provide enough evidence to overcome the presumption that sister states’ laws are the same as the forum’s. I argue that this vestige of Swift v. Tyson needs to end.Applying horizontal Erie to state courts is also essential to preserving federal courts’ obligations under vertical Erie. If New York state courts presume that unsettled Pennsylvania law is the same as their own while federal courts in New York do their best to decide as the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would, the result will be the forum shopping and inequitable administration of the laws that are forbidden under Erie and its progeny. As a result, federal courts have often held that they too must employ the presumption of similarity to forum-state law, despite its conflict with their obligations under vertical Erie. Applying horizontal Erie to state courts solves this puzzle.
VWAP Cost Excluding Own Trades

VWAP (Volume-Weighted Average Price) Cost is a widely used measure for execution quality. However, many have criticized the VWAP Cost measure. One of the most frequent criticisms is that VWAP Cost includes the trader or institutional investor9s own trades in the benchmark price. This article clarifies related issues by deriving a simple mathematical relation between VWAP Cost including versus excluding own trades. This result enables computation of VWAP Cost excluding own trades without having to explicitly identify the trader9s own trades in intraday market data. This is useful in practice because it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to identify a particular trader9s trades in intraday market data (e.g., the NYSE TAQ).
Exponential hierarchy from spacetime variable string vacua

It is shown that non-supersymmetric spacetime varying string vacua can lead to an exponential hierarchy between the electroweak and the gravitational scales. The hierarchy is naturally generated by a string coupling of O(1).
WHERE YOU COME FROM OR WHERE YOU GO? DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN SCHOOL QUALITY AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHER PREPARATION PROGRAM GRADUATES

Abstract We consider the challenges and implications of controlling for school contextual bias when modeling teacher preparation program effects. Because teachers are not randomly distributed across schools, failing to account for contextual factors in achievement models could bias preparation program estimates. Including school fixed effects controls for school environment by relying on differences among student outcomes within the same schools to identify the program effects, but this specification may be unidentified. Using statewide data from Florida, we examine whether the inclusion of school fixed effects is feasible, compare the sensitivity of the estimates to assumptions underlying for fixed effects, and determine what their inclusion implies about the precision of the preparation program estimates. We discuss the implications of our results on the feasibility, precision, and ranking of programs using the school fixed effect model for policy makers designing teacher preparation program evaluation ...
Women in Law in Israel: A Study of the Relationship Between Professional Integration and Feminism

In telling the story of women in law in Israel, the preliminary impressions are of integration and success. In this article, I will explore on one hand, the nature and limits of women’s integration into the legal profession and their success, and on the other hand, how women’s integration into the profession has affected the perception of women’s right to equality among members of that profession, including judges.
Environmental Macroeconomics: Extending the IS–LM Model to Include an ‘Environmental Equilibrium’ Curve

A decade has now passed since Daly made a plea for an environmental macroeconomics. Despite an expanding literature on “green” national accounting and the efforts of ecological economists to measure the sustainable net benefits of a growing macroeconomy, it is only recently that Daly's plea has been adequately answered. This has been achieved with the incorporation by Heyes of an “environmental equilibrium” or EE curve into the familiar IS–LM model. However, the IS–LM–EE model proposed by Heyes is incomplete. By extending Heyes’ model to include the role of technological progress and the need to institute policy instruments to ensure operation on the EE curve, this paper sends out a clear message that environmental concerns should be incorporated into macroeconomic models. They should not be solely confined to microeconomics.
Sending mixed messages: Investor interpretations of disclosures of analyst stock ownership.

Sell-side securities analysts who recommend stocks that they own have a conflict of interest. If investors buy the stocks in response to the analysts’ recommendations, the stocks’ prices will rise, increasing the analysts’ personal wealth. Thus, analysts are legally required to disclose financial interests in securities of companies they cover. However, investors might view this disclosure favorably—for example, as a sign of the analyst’s confidence in the stock—rather than unfavorably as the law intends. This article presents the results of an experiment indicating that investors view analyst stock ownership more unfavorably than favorably. In addition, the experiment’s results suggest that disclosures that also briefly explain why analyst stock ownership creates a conflict of interest would lead investors to view it even more unfavorably.
IMPACT OF SCHOOL FINANCE REFORM ON RESOURCE EQUALIZATION AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE: EVIDENCE FROM MICHIGAN

Abstract Michigan radically altered its school finance system in 1994. The new plan, called Proposal A, significantly increased state aid to the lowest-spending school districts and limited future increases in spending in the highest-spending ones, abolishing local discretion over school spending. I investigate the impact of Proposal A on the distribution of resources and educational outcomes. I analyze the differential effects on the lowest-spending and the highest-spending districts, highlighting the role of local discretion, which has so far been neglected in the literature. I also provide important evidence on the effect of spending on academic performance. Proposal A was quite successful in reducing interdistrict spending disparities. There was also a significant positive effect on student performance in the lowest-spending districts as measured in state tests. However, the constraints on future increases in spending may have had a negative effect on student performance in the highest-spending districts.
Prozac for depressed states? Effect of mood on local economic recessions

This paper examines whether people's mood and optimism affects economic activity. We consider two sets of exogenous proxies for optimism that are unrelated to the economic environment: (i) weather (average temperature and cloud cover) and (ii) sports and political optimism. We show that economic recessions are weaker, expansions are stronger, and the economic recovery is faster in U.S. states where local individuals are more optimistic. Further, local optimism has a stronger impact on state-level business cycles of smaller states and regions with low levels of risk sharing. In contrast, the incremental effects of local optimism are weaker in states where people are younger, more educated and sophisticated, and socially more connected. States with larger concentration of minority and urban population also exhibit lower sensitivity to variations in mood and optimism. Alternative explanations based on state's industrial composition, tax environment, migration, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), oil shocks, and direct economic impact of weather cannot explain these findings.
Government Spending and Inflationary Finance: A Public Finance Approach

The dependence of the inflation tax on the level of government spending is analyzed in a public finance context. The key feature of the model is that it recognizes the possibility that conventional taxes, such as the consumption tax, carry increasing marginal collection costs. As a result, the inflation tax becomes an increasing function of government spending. Furthermore, the more inefficient the tax-collection system is, the larger is the rise in the nominal interest rate for a given increase in government spending. A numerical analysis of the model provides additional insights into these relationships.
The timing of pay

Abstract There exists large and persistent variation in not only how, but when employees are paid, a fact unexplained by existing theory. This paper develops a simple model of optimal pay timing for firms. When workers have self-control problems, they under-save and experience volatile consumption between paychecks. Thus, pay whose delivery matches the timing of workers' consumption needs will reduce wage costs. The model also explains why pay timing should be regulated (as it is in practice): although the worker benefits from a timing profile that smoothes her consumption, her lack of self-control induces her to attempt to undo the arrangement, either by renegotiating with her employer or by taking out payday loans. Regulation of pay timing and consumer borrowing is required to counter these efforts, helping the worker help herself.
The impact of Coalition offensive operations on the Iraqi insurgency

Coalition offensive operations in Iraq seek to disrupt insurgents and their networks, but may also act as a recruitment tool for the insurgency. We use data from Coalition press releases and casualty reports to assess the total impact of these operations. We find that two additional offensive operations come at a future cost of an additional Coalition soldier's life. The evidence suggests that rather than diminishing the insurgents’ appetite to wage counterattacks, these operations may act as a recruitment tool for the insurgency. We further find that while the insurgents change their level of operations in response to the Coalition, the Coalition does not react to the insurgents.
Fighting Piracy With Private Security Measures: When Contract Law Should Tell Parties to Walk the Plank

This Article addresses the following question: when should contract law permit parties to discontinue performance under a private security contract aimed to combat piracy? Piracy has been 'on the rise' off Somalia and in East Asia, with serious attacks escalating. Some shipping companies have responded by drafting 'best management practices', hiring security companies to advise on countering the threat and hiring armed or unarmed security protection. After presenting representative factual situations involving pirate attacks, the Article describes the traditional approach to defining the obligations of parties and the performance issues that arise during contractual performance. This approach takes into account interpretation through reasonable expectations, trade usage and public policy and would deny a party the right to excuse the failure of performance in instances where the particular risk might be categorized as foreseeable or is expressly or impliedly allocated to the contracting party. An excuse approach does not necessarily give the parties guidance as to when security forces onboard a ship attacked by pirates should not attempt to fulfill contractual obligations, perhaps because performance may escalate the risk to employees of both parties due to the particular acts of the pirates. This uncertainty of obligation may lead to escalation of the dangers of piracy necessitating increased use of force or depriving a contracting party of a needed contractual out, leaving the non-performing security provider in breach. After describing and critiquing efforts to combat piracy, the Article provides a contractual analysis of the relationship between the private parties, shipper and security company. It then proposes a approach to the problem of performance that anticipates use of force one that would hold parties to the security contracts in most circumstances where the response to piracy is likely to be effective, but would allow and perhaps encourage cessation of performance in situations that require a governmental response such that private ordering for use of force is less appropriate, could result in escalation with the pirates or could increase risk to employees or non-pirate third parties. Employing a comparison to domestic robbery, an interpretative approach that favors non resistance when pirates actually board should be not only permitted but encouraged where the risk associated with combating piracy requires a more governmental response and, therefore, responsibility should remain with the Government or international community as a whole. The Article concludes with a discussion of the specific balancing of contractual obligations and public policy and public interest where civilians contract for the use of force implicating the international community's need to maintain peace.