cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Optimal Contextual Pricing and Extensions

In the contextual pricing problem a seller repeatedly obtains products described by an adversarially chosen feature vector in $\mathbb{R}^d$ and only observes the purchasing decisions of a buyer with a fixed but unknown linear valuation over the products. The regret measures the difference between the revenue the seller could have obtained knowing the buyer valuation and what can be obtained by the learning algorithm. We give a poly-time algorithm for contextual pricing with $O(d \log \log T + d \log d)$ regret which matches the $\Omega(d \log \log T)$ lower bound up to the $d \log d$ additive factor. If we replace pricing loss by the symmetric loss, we obtain an algorithm with nearly optimal regret of $O(d \log d)$ matching the $\Omega(d)$ lower bound up to $\log d$. These algorithms are based on a novel technique of bounding the value of the Steiner polynomial of a convex region at various scales. The Steiner polynomial is a degree $d$ polynomial with intrinsic volumes as the coefficients. We also study a generalized version of contextual search where the hidden linear function over the Euclidean space is replaced by a hidden function $f : \mathcal{X} \rightarrow \mathcal{Y}$ in a certain hypothesis class $\mathcal{H}$. We provide a generic algorithm with $O(d^2)$ regret where $d$ is the covering dimension of this class. This leads in particular to a $\tilde{O}(s^2)$ regret algorithm for linear contextual search if the linear function is guaranteed to be $s$-sparse. Finally we also extend our results to the noisy feedback model, where each round our feedback is flipped with a fixed probability $p < 1/2$.
Exceptional compound plasmon-polariton waves

Ordinarily, a trimaterial structure comprising a sufficiently thin metal film interposed between two homogeneous dielectric materials guides compound plasmon-polariton (CPP) waves, for which the fields on both sides of the metal film decay exponentially with distance from the nearest metal/dielectric interface. However, if one of the dielectric materials is anisotropic, then the trimaterial structure can guide an exceptional CPP wave for a particular propagation direction. On the side of the metal film occupied by the anisotropic dielectric material, the fields of the exceptional CPP wave decay as the product of a linear function and an exponential function of the distance from the nearest metal/dielectric interface. The canonical boundary-value problem for CPP-wave propagation has been analyzed and solved numerically; thereby, the spatial field profiles for exceptional CPP waves for a uniaxial-dielectric/metal/isotropic-dielectric structure have been established.
The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s Recidivism Studies: Myopic, Misleading, and Doubling Down on Imprisonment

Recidivism is now the guiding principle of punishment and has become the new hallmark of criminal justice reform, as reflected in the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s recidivism project. So far, the Commission has issued three reports in 2020 alone, which outline the parameters within which “safe” criminal justice reform can proceed. Yet the overly broad definition of “recidivism” and the focus on easily measurable and static risk factors, such as prior criminal record, create a feedback loop. The Commission’s work should come with a warning label. Its recidivism studies should not be consumed on their own. Instead, they must be read in conjunction with U.S. Probation and Pretrial Services recidivism research, which includes data on the impact of programming, treatment, and services on reentry success. Yet, concerns about undercounting recidivism events drive the entire U.S. approach. Western European studies reflect different philosophies and values that explain some of the underlying reasons for the dramatically different imprisonment rates on the two sides of the Atlantic. These recidivism studies raise also questions about the Commission’s role. Its ongoing preference for imprisonment indicates that it continues to consider itself the guardian of incarceration-driven guidelines. The studies reenforce the status quo and the Commission’s role in it. They threaten to propel us into data-driven selective incapacitation and continuously long prison terms for those with prior criminal records, all in the name of public safety.
Demand-side factors in optimal land conservation choice

Abstract The dominant paradigm of conservation-reserve planning in economics is to optimize the provision of physical conservation benefits given a budget constraint, implicitly assuming the value of biodiversity and ecosystem function is not affected by human proximity to that natural capital. There is evidence, however, that human willingness to pay (WTP) for conservation declines with distance—a phenomenon we call “spatial value decay”. This paper begins a new strand of the conservation planning literature that takes demand-side factors – location of people in the landscape, the degree to which WTP for conservation depends on proximity – into account. We use theoretical models of linear abstract landscapes to explore the impact of demand-side factors on two facets of conservation choices: siting of a single reserve when conservation potential is greatest near a critical site, and siting of multiple reserves when fragmentation reduces physical conservation services produced. Our results show how planners should sometimes employ increased fragmentation to capture value when people's preferences are not very highly localized, and how optimal policy balances proximity to the ecologically critical site with proximity to people. In some scenarios, the payoff to using a reserve design approach that considers demand-side factors is large, but we find that spatial value decay reduces the benefits that can be gained from any conservation-planning approach.
Racism as Subjectification

Nobody likes to feel used. But everyone likes to feel useful. This paradox has long been overlooked by people examining the parameters of racism in the United States. The classic model of racism focuses on the manner in which Black Americans have been objectified — and for good reason. From chattel slavery to Jim Crow, African-Americans have faced a long and sordid history of being regarded as little more than objects — useful tools for White powerbrokers, but not independent subjects with their own desires, perspective, and rights.However, following the Civil Rights revolution, this dynamic has shifted. While racial objectification has by no means disappeared, today the prevailing sentiment in American society is one that, outwardly at least, respects the independence and inherent dignity of its minority members. However, even as they are granted the full rights of citizenship, the idea that racial minorities are objectively valuable, are necessary to the full and complete functioning of society, has faded away. While they admit that they have inherent dignity and human rights, White society nevertheless denies that members of racial minority groups have any objective use — and if their presence is lacking in political, economic, and social institutions, it is not seen as a cause for concern. This is the problem of subjectification — when people who are conceded to possess subject status are nevertheless treated as if they have no objective worth. In this essay, I articulate the concept of subjectification and show how it provides a new and fruitful perspective on the problems of race and racism in American society.
Moral hazard in active asset management

Abstract We consider a model of active asset management in which mutual fund managers exert unobservable effort to earn excess returns. Investors allocate capital to actively managed funds and passively managed products. In equilibrium, investors are indifferent between investing an additional dollar with an active manager or with a passively managed product. As passively managed products become more attractive to investors, active managers’ revenues from portfolio-management services fall, reducing their effort incentives. More-severe decreasing-returns-to-scale are also associated with reduced incentives and increased moral hazard. Performance-based fees and holdings-based data are all unlikely to mitigate moral hazard.
Protean Jus Ad Bellum

The jus ad bellum is generally viewed as a static field of law. The standard account is that when the UN Charter was adopted in 1945, it enshrined a complete prohibition on the use of force in inter-state relations, except when action is being taken in self-defense against an armed attack or under authorization of the UN Security Council. Yet it seems likely that in the years to come, many states and non-state actors will increasingly insist upon a different vision of the jus ad bellum, one that conceives of it as more protean in nature. Protean jus ad bellum acknowledges that, as of 1945, the static view was correct, but that over time-as we approach the 70th anniversary of the United Nations-the jus ad bellum is changing, buffeted in particular by several significant developments: (1) the emergence of weapons of mass destruction of various types potentially controllable by states and non-state actors; (2) the rise of global terrorism as a mechanism for projecting violence against states by non-state actors; (3) the elevation of the person to a central place in the realm of international law, both in terms of being protected and in terms of being accountable for misconduct; (4) the inability of the Security Council to be accepted by all states as a disinterested arbiter willing and capable of acting to address all threats to international peace and security as they arise; and (5) the continuing erosion of the sanctity of the sovereign state, resulting from exposure to myriad effects of globalization, including intrusive transnational rule of law programs, election monitoring, incessant and extensive media coverage, powerful transnational corporations and non-governmental organization, and relatively unrestricted transborder movement of capital, goods, and persons across borders.This essay suggests that the failure to either formally accept or reject the idea of protean jus ad bellum is likely, over time, to diminish the jus ad bellum's effectiveness as a normative regime. Too often transnational uses of military force are occurring in circumstances that are inconsistent with the idea of a static jus ad bellum: states and non-state actors are, at least in some situations, tolerating certain types of force in response to the overarching developments noted above. As the International Criminal Court moves closer to including aggression within its mandate for indicting and prosecuting persons, government leaders may see greater value in clarifying what uses of force are permissible. Things could continue as they are. But in the long-term, if the jus ad bellum is not to break down, then a more formal way should be found either to reject the notion of protean jus ad bellum or to accept it, and if the latter, then to try to identify the contemporary rules in this area, either through formal amendment of the UN Charter, through authoritative interpretations by the principal organs of the United Nations or regional organizations, or through other means.
Discretionary Revenues as a Measure of Earnings Management

ABSTRACT: This study examines the ability of revenue and accrual models to detect simulated and actual earnings management. The results indicate that revenue models are less biased, better specified, and more powerful than commonly used accrual models. Using a simulation procedure, I find that revenue models are more likely than accrual models to detect a combination of revenue and expense manipulation. Using a sample of firms subject to SEC enforcement actions for a mix of revenue‐ and expense‐related misstatements, I find that, although revenue models detect manipulation, accrual models do not. These findings provide support for using measures of discretionary revenues to study earnings management.
Measuring forecast uncertainty by disagreement: The missing link

Using a standard decomposition of forecast errors into common and idiosyncratic shocks, we show that aggregate forecast uncertainty can be expressed as the disagreement among the forecasters plus the perceived variability of future aggregate shocks. Thus the reliability of disagreement as a proxy for uncertainty will be determined by the stability of the forecasting environment and the length of the forecast horizon. Using density forecasts from the Survey of Professional Forecasters, we find direct evidence in support of our hypothesis. Our results support the use of GARCH-type models, rather than the ex post squared errors in consensus forecasts, to estimate the ex ante variability of aggregate shocks as a component of aggregate uncertainty. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
How Do Roles Generate Reasons? A Method of Legal Ethics

Much philosophical work on legal ethics defends a particular substantive theory. These theories explain what the lawyer's professional responsibilities should be and why they are justified (or not). However, in defending their theories, legal ethicists risk talking past each other. To avoid this impasse, we need standards for assessing theories of legal ethics that do not presuppose the superiority of any particular theory.
Is a Higher Calling Enough? Incentive Compensation in the Church

We study the compensation and productivity of more than 2,000 Methodist ministers in a 43‐year panel data set. The church appears to use pay‐for‐performance incentives for its clergy, as their compensation follows a sharing rule by which pastors receive approximately 3% of the incremental revenue from membership increases. Ministers receive the strongest rewards for attracting new parishioners who switch from other congregations within their denomination. Monetary incentives are weaker in settings where ministers have less control over their measured performance.
Justifying Compensation by the International Criminal Court's Victims Trust Fund: Lessons from Domestic Compensation Schemes

The International Criminal Court (ICC) is the first international criminal tribunal that pays significant attention to victims. In particular, the Victims Trust Fund is tasked with both implementing complex Court ordered reparation awards and providing “assistance” to victims. Although this has clear implications for the nature of international criminal justice, which is being pushed in a more restorative direction, less attention has been paid to the normative rationale for setting up a Victims Trust Fund. It is anticipated that most of the condemned will not be in a position to pay the reparations imposed on them, but at the same time that reparations are a “right” of victims. The VTF, in addition, may receive funding through voluntary contributions by states, international organizations or individuals. The article draws on the theory and experience of several decades of domestic victim compensation schemes to try and provide a normative account of what the VTF will effectively be doing. It argues that there is a tension between the Court’s emphasis on reparations and the fact that the VTF has control over its own funds. The proper way to see the VTF is, ultimately, as both a way to supplement reparation awards and to provide assistance. It is suggested, however, that the VTF, like domestic compensation schemes, will evolve away from a rights model to one based on solidarity with and welfare towards victims.
Distributive Justice through Tort (and Why Sociolegal Scholars Should Care)

Drawing on two books central to an emerging sociolegal literature about tort—Fault Lines: Tort Law as Cultural Practice, a collection edited by David M. Engel and Michael McCann, and Torts, Egalitarianism and Distributive Justice, a monograph by Tsachi Keren-Paz—this essay argues that tort law in the United States redistributes wealth in ways that ought to trouble sociolegal scholars and enlist their reformist energy. Read together, the two volumes offer considerable description and critique of a distributive injustice, and lead to important proposals for change.
Operations research/management contributions to emergency department patient flow optimization: Review and research prospects

In recent years, Operations Research/Management (OR/OM) has had a significant impact on improving the performance of hospital Emergency Departments (EDs). This includes improving a wide range of processes involving patient flow from the initial call to the ED through disposition, discharge home, or admission to the hospital. We review approximately 350 related papers to (i) demonstrate the influence of OR/OM in EDs, and (ii) assist both researchers and practitioners with the OR/OM techniques already available to optimize ED patient flow. In addition, we elaborate on some practical challenges yet to be addressed. By shedding light on some less studied aspects that can have significant impacts on ED operations, we also discuss important possibilities for future OR/OM researchers.
Limited arbitrage between equity and credit markets.

Abstract We document that short-horizon pricing discrepancies across firms' equity and credit markets are common and that an economically significant proportion of these are anomalous, indicating a lack of integration between the two markets. Proposing a statistical measure of market integration, we investigate whether equity–credit market integration is related to impediments to arbitrage. We find that time variation in integration across a firm's equity and credit markets is related to firm-specific impediments to arbitrage such as liquidity in equity and credit markets and idiosyncratic risk. Our evidence provides a potential resolution to the puzzle of why Merton model hedge ratios match empirically observed stock-bond elasticities ( Schaefer and Strebulaev, 2008 ) and yet the model is limited in its ability to explain the integration between equity and credit markets ( Collin-Dufresne, Goldstein, and Martin, 2001 ).
Consumer buying behavior on the Internet: Findings from panel data

Online retailing became big business in late 1998, as millions of people placed orders for holiday gifts online and retailers scrambled to upgrade their distribution networks to cope with the growth (Cyberatlas.com, 1999). Companies planning for the growth of online retailing need reliable estimates of the growth of online shopping. Data about online consumer purchasing behavior are also needed to help companies define their online retail strategies for Web site design, online advertising, market segmentation, product variety, inventory holding, and distribution. Forecasts are more likely to be reliable if they are based on the behavior of online consumers, rather than consumers' stated intentions, or worse, the guesses offered by Web marketing "experts".
Lender of last resort: A contemporary perspective

This article re-examines the role of the central bank's lender of last resort (LLR) function in the current economic environment. It argues that the traditional role of protecting the money supply from collapse is no longer valid. LLR intervention is appropriate to offset temporary liquidity strains that are likely to depress asset prices and aggregate real income below their equilibrium levels. However, such support should be provided only rarely and through open market operations rather than the discount window.
Jobless growth: appropriability, factor substitution, and unemployment

Abstract A central determinant of the political economy of capital-labor relations is the appropriability of specific quasi-rents. This paper is concerned with the general-equilibrium interaction of appropriability and characteristics of technology - namely, the embodiment of technology in capital and capital-labor substitutability in the technological menu. Technological embodiment means that the supply of capital is effectively much less elastic in the short than in the long run, and is therefore more exposed to appropriability; technology choice implies that an attempt at appropriating capital will induce a substitution away from labor in the long run, and constitutes a mechanism to thwart appropriation. Shifts in European labor relations in the last three decades offer a good laboratory in which to explore the empirical relevance of those mechanisms. The evolution of the labor share, the profit rate, the capital-output ratio, and unemployment - which we examine more particularly in the case of France - appears highly supportive.
Broadening Low-Wage Workers' Access to Justice: Guaranteeing Unpaid Wages in Targeted Industries

There was a significant period in early American history where unlimited liability coexisted with limited liability and certain industries or creditors received more favorable treatment. Limited liability was originally conceived as an extraordinary privilege granted to a select few. In the Twentieth Century, it has been transformed into the default rule for all corporations and entities. The prevalence of limited liability in modern times has undermined fundamental labor protections guaranteeing workers’ their wages. The tension between the limited liability rule and labor rights is fundamentally about who the law favors. Limited liability is risk allocation – shifting to the creditors and thus the public the costs of risks undertaken by corporations. Low-wage workers are at a fundamental disadvantage in the limited liability regime. Structurally, the individual wage earner – the wage creditor – does not have bargaining rights equal to the employer and cannot negotiate a bargain that takes into account the cost of corporate risks. When corporations fail, as they are increasingly doing today, workers are left without any recourse to recover their unpaid wages from shareholders, officers and/or agents. Current exceptions to the limited liability rule fall far short of providing a meaningful remedy to workers. This article calls for a simpler and more effective mechanism to recover unpaid wages – a guarantor system. It will create a strict liability system, whereby shareholders and corporate actors will be liable for their own workers as well as their contractors’ workers’ wages. A guarantee system will fundamentally alter the inequity between low-wage workers and corporate interests.
Industry dynamics with knowledge-based competition: a computational study of entry and exit patterns

I propose a computational model of industry evolution capable of matching many stylized facts. It views the firm as a myopic but adaptive entity whose survival depends on its ability to perform various activities with greater efficiency than its rivals. In this model, the shakeout pattern arises naturally in the early stage of industrial development. I provide a full comparative dynamics analysis of how various industry-specific factors determine the numbers and the rates of entries and exits over time as well as the ages of the exiting firms.
Who Wins When Exchanges Compete? Evidence from Competition after Euro Conversion

We examine whether euro conversion affected competition among European exchanges with respect to equity trading costs and volume. Results show that average trading costs decreased by almost 20% in Europe, and turnover increased 10%. Trading costs decreased or remained unchanged on all exchanges, but volume deteriorated in some markets and improved in others. These effects occurred on both euro and non-euro European exchanges. Our results suggest that euro conversion boosted competition for order flow among the exchanges. Paris, London and Milan were among the winners, while Madrid and Brussels lost volume. Both firm-specific and country-level factors contribute to these outcomes.
The efficacy of business simulation games in creating Decision Support Systems: An experimental investigation

This study discusses business simulation games as teaching tools in Information Systems (IS). The discipline's traditional teaching methods, while appropriate for the dissemination of foundational knowledge, do not provide the optimal platform for students to implement IS concepts. We suggest that business simulation games are an effective way to engage students in Decision Support Systems (DSS). Specifically, we discuss our experience with a game designed to channel students into a stream of entrepreneurial decision-making. Our findings indicate that business simulation games represent a sufficiently novel approach to teaching and learning.
WHAT MEASURE OF INFLATION SHOULD A CENTRAL BANK TARGET

This paper assumes that a central bank commits itself to maintaining an inflation target and then asks what measure of the inflation rate the central bank should use if it wants to maximize economic stability. The paper first formalizes this problem and examines its microeconomic foundations. It then shows how the weight of a sector in the stability price index depends on the sector's characteristics, including size, cyclical sensitivity, sluggishness of price adjustment, and magnitude of sectoral shocks. When a numerical illustration of the problem is calibrated to U.S. data, one tentative conclusion is that a central bank that wants to achieve maximum stability of economic activity should use a price index that gives
Inciting Genocide With Words

This article calls for a rethinking of the causation element in the prevailing international criminal law on direct and public incitement to commit genocide. After the conviction of Nazi propagandist Julius Streicher at Nuremberg for crimes against humanity, the crime of direct and public incitement to commit genocide was established in the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide in 1948. The first (and thus far, only) convictions for the crime came fifty years later at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). The ICTR’s incitement jurisprudence is widely recognized as problematic, but no legal commentator has thus far offered an adequate solution to one central contradiction, namely the Trial Chamber’s repeated claims of a causal connection between defendants’ speech and subsequent acts of genocide. Such claims imply that the commission of genocide is relevant to determining incitement, despite the fact that incitement is an inchoate crime and therefore only the speaker’s intention matters. Drawing upon J.L. Austin’s ordinary language philosophy, the article disentangles the intention of the speaker from the consequences of speech acts. In determining incitement to commit genocide, international law might differentiate between three aspects of performative utterances, or what Austin terms the "locutionary" (the meaning and content), the "illocutionary" (its force) and the "perlocutionary" (the consequences) qualities of speech acts. Specific intent to commit genocide is found in the content, meaning and force of speech acts, rather than in consequences, which can be an unreliable guide to intention. By using this template, international tribunals might better distinguish modes of liability that require causation (such as instigating) from inchoate crimes such as direct and public incitement to commit genocide, where the meaning and the force of public statements is paramount. Other benefits of this approach include refocusing attention on the prevention of genocide and clarifying and narrowing the range of impermissible speech.
Partial vertical ownership

Abstract A backward ownership interest held by a downstream firm yields a partial rebate of the upstream margin. Input demand increases with backward ownership, and the upstream firm optimally responds by raising price. With symmetric costs, every downstream firm's equilibrium input/output choice is invariant across a class of ownership profiles, including uniform ownership. Moreover, equity trading results in uniform holdings, so partial vertical ownership may have no real effects. With asymmetric costs ex ante, equity trading amplifies the asymmetries and shifts output toward lower-cost firms. With homogeneous goods, this improves producer and total surplus. With differentiated goods, it may harm consumers.
Kermit Gosnell and Uncle Tom's Cabin

Stories persuade and illustrate in a way that pure logic does not. What Kermit Gosnell - the Butcher of Philadelphia - did is, in principle, no different from what any other abortionist does. This repulsive true crime story persuades and it is important for that reason. But the lesson we should draw from it – the logic of the parable, if you will – ought to be one about abortion and abortionists generally. The Kermit Gosnell story has the potential to function, for the anti-abortion movement, in much the same way that Harriet Beecher Stowe’s serialized novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin, functioned for the anti-slavery movement more than 150 years ago. It persuades the mind by first moving the heart and wrenching the soul. Kermit Gosnell is today’s Simon Legree. But Gosnell is no composite fictional character. He is the real-life face and voice of Abortion.
Corporate Cash Shortfalls and Financing Decisions

An influential paper by DeAngelo, DeAngelo, and Stulz (2010) concludes that near-term cash needs are the primary motive for seasoned equity offerings. We find that this is even more true for debt issues. Conditional on external financing, Tobin’s Q and firm size are highly important predictors for the choice between debt and equity, even for firms that are running out of cash. Our findings suggest that a near-term cash need is the primary motive for debt issues, but market timing, precautionary saving, and corporate lifecycle motives are economically important for equity issues and the debt versus equity choice.
Monetary policy under dual exchange rates

Abstract This paper finds that the introduction of dual exchange rates gives the monetary authority greater independence from external constraints than it would otherwise enjoy. The monetary authority is able to influence the level of aggregate demand in the short run and to sterilize the effects of temporary foreign disturbances. In addition, the paper finds that dual rates insulate the domestic economy fully from foreign interest rate changes but do not provide insulation from speculative disturbances.
When Is a Bribe a Bribe? Teaching a Workable Definition of Bribery

This paper presents an outline forteaching about bribery. The outline is based onthe presumption that a payment, once defined asa ``bribe'' is by definition unethical. Inaddition, the paper develops a simple yetworkable definition of bribery based on theprincipal-agent framework. The idea is that anypayment made to a principal, for any purpose,is not by definition a bribe; however, anypayment made to an agent is a bribe if theagent retains the payment.
What's Sovereignty Got to Do with It - Due Process, Personal Jurisdiction, and the Supreme Court

Between 1990 and 2011, the Supreme Court decided four personal jurisdiction cases, and in three of them the Court was unable to muster a majority opinion. At least part of the problem stems from confusion over the sovereignty limitations in personal jurisdiction, and the relationship between sovereignty concerns and due process in personal jurisdiction analysis. This confusion plays out vividly in J. McIntyre Machinery, Ltd. v. Nicastro, 131 S.Ct. 2780 (2011). This paper is part of a symposium on Nicastro and Goodyear Dunlop Tires Op., S.A. v. Brown, 131 S.Ct. 2846 (2011), explores the relationship between sovereignty and due process in personal jurisdiction doctrine. It conclude that although at one time the concept of sovereignty provided an important analytic starting point for personal jurisdiction, this is largely no longer true.
EQUIVALENCE OF THE PATH INTEGRAL FOR FERMIONS IN CARTESIAN AND SPHERICAL COORDINATES

The path integral calculation for the free energy of a spin-1/2 Dirac-fermion gas is performed in spherical polar coordinates for a flat space–time geometry. Its equivalence with the Cartesian-coordinate representation is explicitly established. This evaluation involves a relevant limiting case of the fermionic path integral in a Schwarzschild background, whose near-horizon limit has been shown to be related to black hole thermodynamics.
White Collar Innocence: Irrelevant in the High Stakes Risk Game

When one thinks of “wrongful convictions and reliability in the criminal justice process” one often thinks of street crime convictions of defendants later proven innocent through DNA or other scientific evidence.1 Implanting white collar crime in this ballpark seems misplaced and perhaps offensive to some. After all, could there really be innocent individuals or corporations among the affluent federal criminals who were convicted of deliberately perpetrating frauds that caused the loss of life-savings and pensions of many victims? And if there are innocent defendants in the white collar sphere, do they merit consideration? After all one envisions these individuals and entities with sufficient funds to secure top-notch representation to argue their case through the judicial process. The stories presented in this Article are not intended to demean the importance of more typical innocence cases, or say that street crime cases involving drugs, sex crimes, or others in the federal system are not significantly affected by a judicial system reliant upon a federal sentencing guideline system with high penalties. Nor is this Article meant to place the collateral consequences that can devastate a corporation above the consequences to the typical individual defendant who bears enormous collateral consequences, such as losing a job that serves as the funding source to feed a family. This Article merely shows that innocence is no longer the key determinant in some aspects of the federal criminal justice system, even for those charged with white collar offenses. Rather, our existing legal system places the risk of going to trial, and in some cases even being charged with
Equity Value as a Function of (eps1, eps2, dps1, bvps, beta): Concepts and Realities. Discussion of Ohlson and Johannesson

Ohlson and Johannesson (2016) examine how valuation models and model inputs help explain stock prices. In particular, they develop and test a new valuation model based on abnormal earnings growth (AEG). They also critique residual income valuation (RIV). The issue is important since the two valuation approaches play a central role in research and textbooks.
Equity valuation, production, and financial planning: A stochastic programming approach

Most of the operations management literature assumes that a firm can always finance production decisions at an optimal level or borrow at a constant interest rate; however, operational decisions are constrained by limited capital and often critically depend on external financing. This paper proposes an integrated corporate planning model, which extends the forecasting-based discount dividend pricing method into an optimization-based valuation framework to make production and financial decisions simultaneously for a firm facing marker uncertainty. We also develop an efficient algorithm to solve the resulting integer stochastic programming model with nonlinear constraints. Compared with traditional valuation and planning models, our method yields higher equity valuations, indicating that valuation without considering contingent decisions is inherently inaccurate. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Naval Research Logistics, 2006
Determining Uniformity within the Federal Circuit by Measuring Dissent and En Banc Review

One of the major critiques of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit is a structural one. Since the Federal Circuit is the sole appellate court for a variety of legal areas (particularly patent law), its exclusive jurisdiction causes the court's decision-making to become stagnant, entrenched, and, as a result, the court "retards the pace of common law development in some important ways." This Article seeks to empirically test this premise by comparing the Federal Circuit's decision-making to other courts of appeals. Two metrics that provide insight as to how entrenched current thinking is in a given circuit - the percentage of dissents and en banc reviews - are measured for the Federal Circuit and for five other circuits - the Third, Fifth, Ninth, Tenth, and District of Columbia Circuit - from 1998 to present.From this data, two results are observed. First, the Federal Circuit experiences the second highest percentage of dissents amongst the circuits studied, behind only the Ninth Circuit. Second, the Federal Circuit's percentage of en banc review is relatively low, but statistically indistinguishable amongst three other circuits studied. Many implications of these results are discussed in detail, but one thing is fairly clear - the data suggests that the Federal Circuit is no more lacking in jurisprudential diversity then other circuits and, when looking at dissents, is significantly more internally diverse in viewpoints regarding the outcomes of individual cases.
A frequency-domain alternative to long-horizon regressions with application to return predictability

Abstract This paper aims at improved accuracy in testing for long-run predictability in noisy series, such as stock market returns. Long-horizon regressions have previously been the dominant approach in this area. We suggest an alternative method that yields more accurate results. We find evidence of predictability in S&P 500 returns even when the confidence intervals are constructed using model-free methods based on subsampling.
Interpreting Nonshareholder Constituency Statutes

Nonshareholder constituency statutes permit directors to consider the effects of their decisions on a variety of nonshareholder interests, such as employees, customers, suppliers, and local communities. Although highly controversial within the corporate law academy, such statutes are on the books in well over half the states and are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Because the statutes offer surprisingly little guidance to directors faced with corporate decisions or to courts faced with reviewing those decisions, however, courts urgently need a coherent interpretation of the statutes. But coherence alone is not enough; courts must also be faithful to the legislative intent behind the statutes. Courts cannot ignore the statutes, wish them away, or fairly interpret them as having no meaning or impact. This article therefore proposes an interpretation of nonshareholder constituency statutes that is faithful to the apparent legislative intent while also maintaining continuity with well-established principles of director fiduciary duties. The proposed approach distinguishes between two basic categories of director decisions: (i) operational issues, such as plant closings; and (ii) structural decisions, such as takeovers. The latter pose a much more serious conflict of interest for directors than do the former and therefore demand closer scrutiny. Accordingly, while arguing that director decisions with respect to operational matters should be conducted under the business judgment rule, the article argues that director decisions in the structural setting should be reviewed under a variant of the conditional business judgment rule developed by the Delaware supreme court in Unocal Corp. v. Mesa Petroleum Co.
Moralities are a Sign-Language of the Affects

This essay offers an interpretation and partial defense of Nietzsche's idea that moralities and moral judgments are “sign-languages” or “symptoms” of our affects, that is, of our emotions or feelings. According to Nietzsche, as I reconstruct his view, moral judgments result from the interaction of two kinds of affective responses: first, a “basic affect” of inclination toward or aversion from certain acts, and then a further affective response (the “meta-affect”) to that basic affect (that is, sometimes we can be either inclined towards or averted from our basic affects). I argue that Nietzsche views basic affects as noncognitive, that is, as identifiable solely by how they feel to the subject who experiences the affect. By contrast, I suggest that meta-affects (I focus on guilt and shame) sometimes incorporate a cognitive component like belief. After showing how this account of moral judgment comports with a reading of Nietzsche's moral philosophy that I have offered in previous work, I conclude by adducing philosophical and empirical psychological reasons for thinking that Nietzsche's account of moral judgment is correct.
An Originalist Defense of Substantive Due Process: Magna Carta, Higher-Law Constitutionalism, and the Fifth Amendment

A longstanding scholarly consensus holds that the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment protects only rights to legal process. Both this consensus and the occasional challenges to it have generally overlooked the interpretive significance of the classical natural law tradition that made substantive due process textually coherent, and the emergence of publicmeaning originalism as the dominant approach to constitutional interpretation. This Article fills those gaps. One widely shared understanding of the Due Process Clause in the late eighteenth century encompassed judicial recognition of unenumerated substantive rights as a limit on congressional power. This concept of “substantive” due process originated in Sir Edward Coke’s notion of a “higher-law” constitutionalism that understood natural and customary rights as limits on crown prerogatives and parliamentary lawmaking. The American colonies adopted higher-law constitutionalism in their revolutionary struggle, and carried it with them through independence and constitutional ratification. Natural and customary rights limited the exercise of legislative power in the late eighteenth century through the normative definition of “law” inherited from the classical natural law tradition, which maintained that an unjust law was not really a “law.” American judges and attorneys did not consider legislative acts that violated natural or customary rights to be real “laws,” regardless of their compliance with a positivist rule of recognition. Accordingly, deprivations of life, liberty, or property effected on the authority of such acts did not comply with the “law” of the land or the due process of “law,” because regardless of the process such acts afforded, the deprivations they imposed were not accomplished by a true “law.” The classical understanding of “law” and the substantive understanding of due process that it underwrote are evident in legal dictionaries and in judicial decisions and arguments of counsel during the years immediately before and after ratification of the Bill of Rights in 1791. On balance, these authorities show that one widely held public understanding of Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause in the late eighteenth century included judicial protection of unenumerated substantive rights against congressional encroachment. Given the contemporary dominance of originalist theories of interpretation, an originalist defense of substantive due process under the Fifth Amendment is important for at least three reasons. First, such a defense provides a textual footing for important unenumerated substantive rights against the federal government. Second, because the original meanings of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment Due Process Clauses are widely thought to be identical, the originalist defense dramatically alters the interpretive landscape surrounding Fourteenth Amendment substantive due process, placing on its opponents the burden of explaining how and why the substantive understanding of due process in 1791 was lost by 1868. Finally, an
Did the No Child Left Behind Act Miss the Mark? Assessing the Potential Benefits From an Accountability System for Early Childhood Education:

With growing evidence that human capital investment is more efficiently spent on younger children coupled with wide variation in preschool access across states, this article uses a neoliberal approach to examine the potential social costs and benefits that could accrue should the United States decide to implement a centralized preschool accountability system. Conceptual agency-based arguments that support implementing a preschool accountability system are compared and contrasted with conceptual arguments that oppose centralized accountability. In spite of credible conceptual arguments that local control over preschool access maximizes efficiency, we find the most support for an accountability system that enhances equity through universal access to preschool.
Tacit collusion under interest rate fluctuations

Previous literature has shown that demand fluctuations affect the scope for tacit collusion. I study whether discount factor fluctuations can have similar effects. I find that collusion depends not only on the level of the discount factor but also, and more surprisingly, on its volatility. Collusive prices and profits increase with a higher discount factor level, but decrease with its volatility. These results have important implications for empirical studies of collusive pricing, the role that collusive pricing may play in economic cycles and the study of cooperation in repeated games.
Velocity-space substructure from nearby RAVE and SDSS stars

We extract a sample of disc stars within 200 pc of the Sun from the RAVE and SDSS surveys. Distances are estimated photometrically and proper motions are from ground-based data. We show that the velocity-space substructure first revealed in the Geneva–Copenhagen sample is also present in this completely independent sample. We also evaluate action-angle variables for these stars and show that the Hyades stream stars in these data are again characteristic of having been scattered at a Lindblad resonance. Unfortunately, the analysis of such local samples can determine neither whether it is an inner or an outer Lindblad resonance, nor the multiplicity of the pattern.
Fiduciary Duties and Unincorporated Business Entities: In Defense of the Manifestly Unreasonable Standard

This article wades into the debate between contractarians and anti-contractarians over the extent to which statutes on unincorporated business entities should limit the ability of the participants in those entities to contract around fiduciary duties. Statutes enacted in the past several years provide considerable, but not complete, freedom to limit fiduciary duties. Contractarians argue that statutory limitations are inefficient and unnecessary, while anti-contractarians take the view that the statutes provide too much freedom of contract. This article stakes out a middle ground, arguing that the drafters of the statutes got it right and that in the absence of statutory limitations the courts would likely impose limitations. The middle ground chosen - that limitations cannot be "manifestly unreasonable" - should prove workable over time. By providing statutory guidance, lawyers and others advising unincorporated business entities will be better able to craft enforceable agreements. Finally, this article presents some ideas on how courts might interpret the term "manifestly unreasonable."
Building Diversified Portfolios that Outperform Out of Sample

In this article, the author introduces the Hierarchical Risk Parity (HRP) approach to address three major concerns of quadratic optimizers, in general, and Markowitz’s critical line algorithm (CLA), in particular: instability, concentration, and underperformance. HRP applies modern mathematics (graph theory and machine-learning techniques) to build a diversified portfolio based on the information contained in the covariance matrix. However, unlike quadratic optimizers, HRP does not require the invertibility of the covariance matrix. In fact, HRP can compute a portfolio on an ill-degenerated or even a singular covariance matrix—an impossible feat for quadratic optimizers. Monte Carlo experiments show that HRP delivers lower out-ofsample variance than CLA, even though minimum variance is CLA’s optimization objective. HRP also produces less risky portfolios out of sample compared to traditional risk parity methods.