cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Interventions for an artemisinin-based malaria medicine supply chain

Artemisinin combination therapy, the most effective malaria treatment today, is manufactured from an agriculturally derived starting material Artemisia annua. Artemisinin, the main ingredient in malaria medicines, is extracted from Artemisia leaves and used in the production of medicine for treating malaria. The artemisinin market has witnessed high volatility in the supply and price of artemisinin extract. A large fraction of malaria medicines for endemic countries in sub-Saharan Africa is financed by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria and the US President's Malaria Initiative. These agencies together with the World Health Organization, UNITAID, the United Kingdom Department for International Development and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are exploring ways to increase the level of artemisinin production, reduce volatility of artemisinin prices, and improve overall access to malaria medicines for the population. We develop a model of the supply chain, calibrate the model using field data, and investigate the impact of various interventions. Our model shows that initiatives aimed at improving average yield, creating a support-price for agricultural artemisinin, and a larger and carefully managed supply of semi-synthetic artemisinin have the greatest potential for improving supply and reducing price volatility of artemisinin-based malaria medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Domestic Saving and International Capital Movements in the Long Run and the Short Run

The evidence and analysis in this paper support the earlier findings of Feldstein and Horioka (1980) that sustained increases in domestic savings rates induce approximately equal increases in domestic rates of investment. New estimates for the post-OPEC period 1974-79 imply that each extra dollar of domestic saving increases domestic investment by approximately 85 cents in a sample of 17 OECD countries. An explicit analysis of the problems of identification and simultaneous equations bias suggests that the regression estimates are more relevant as a guide to the long-run response of international capital flows than to their short-run behavior. Coefficient estimates based on annual variations in savings and investment are subject to potentially severe simultaneous equations bias that is not present when annual observations are averaged over a decade or more and the regression is estimated with a cross-country sample of these averages. A portfolio model of international capital allocation that is presented in the paper indicates that the short-run change in the rate of net foreign investment in response to a sustained increase in domestic saving is likely to be substantially greater than the ultimate steady state response.
External Imbalances in the Euro Area

The paper examines the extent to which current account imbalances of euro area countries are related to intra-euro area factors and to external trade shocks. We argue that the traditional explanations for the rising imbalances are correct, but are incomplete. We uncover a large impact of declines in export competitiveness and asymmetric trade developments vis-a-vis the rest of the world –in particular vis-a-vis China, Central and Eastern Europe, and oil exporters— on the external balance of euro area debtor countries. While current account imbalances of euro area deficit countries vis-a-vis the rest of the world increased, they were financed mostly by intra-euro area capital inflows (in particular by the purchase of government and financial institutions’ securities, and cross-border interbank lending) which permitted external imbalances to grow over time. JEL Classification Numbers: E2, F14, F3, F41, F43, O52
All that is Gold Does Not Glitter in Human Clinical Research: A Law– Policy Proposal to Brighten the Global “Gold Standard” for Drug Research and Development

.. 186 Introduction 186 1. The Globalization of Human Clinical Research 189 II. The Gold Science Standard and a Platinum Alternative .... 191 III. A Law-Policy Proposal to Create a Standard Brighter than Gold 196 A. Change at the European Union Level 197 B. Change at the EU Member State Level 198 C. Change at the U.S. Level 200 t Professor Michael Malinowski is the Ernest R. and Iris M. Eldred Professor of Law, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, Louisiana State University. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School, where he was an Articles Editor for The Yale Law journal, and his BA, summa cum laude, from Tufts University. Dr. Gautreaux is an Assistant Professor, Department of Teacher Education, at Nicholls State University in Louisiana. He received his Ph.D. in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) from Columbia University's Teachers College, and he is board-certified by both CABAS@ (Comprehensive Applied Behavior Analysis in Schools) and BACB (the Behavior Analyst Certification Board). Professor Gautreaux is also a CABAS@ Assistant Research Scientist and Senior Behavior Analyst. This Article is the international counterpart to a comprehensive treatment of U.S. Food and Drug Administration law and policy, Michael J. Malinowski & Grant G. Gautreaux, Drug DevelopmentStuck in a State of Puberty? Regulatory Reform of Human Clinical Research to Raise Responsiveness to the Reality of Human Variability, ST. Louis L. REv. (forthcoming 2012). Early versions of these Articles were selected by peer review for presentation at the 9th International Conference on Health Economics, Management and Policy, held in Athens, Greece, in June 2010, and the 5th International Social Science Research Conference, held in New Orleans, Louisiana, in September 2010. The authors would like to thank the event organizers and participants for input that enriched our efforts. The authors would also like to thank Dr. Doug Greer, founder of CABAS@, for engaging discussions about his "platinum standard" for clinical trials and his encouragement to write law-based treatments of this issue, as well as the Jigsaw School in England for the authors' opportunities to observe the application of Single Subject Research Design (SSRD) to educate a group of children with severe learning disabilities over several years of progress. In addition, we appreciate the editorial contribution of Benjamin M. Rhode. Professor Malinowski can be reached at Michael.Malinowski@law. Isu.edu, LSU Law Center, 1 East Campus Drive, Office 336, Baton Rouge, LA 708030001, USA, +1 (225) 578-8716, and Professor Gautreaux can be reached at grant. gautreaux@nicholls.edu, 118 Polk Hall, Nicholls State University, Thibodaux, LA 70301, USA, +1 (225) 571-5706. 45 CORNELL INT'L L.J. 185 (2012) Cornell International Law Journal Conclusion 203
Musings on the Cass trick

Abstract This is a leisurely introduction, in the vein of a personal piece in the history of science, to belated publication of my well-known paper on incomplete markets, Competitive Equilibrium with Incomplete Financial Markets. Those of gossipy persuasion, especially, should savor it!
Bringing the Effects of Occupational Licensing into Focus: Optician Licensing in the United States

The labor market institution of occupational licensing continues to grow in scope in the United States and abroad. In this paper, we estimate the effects of occupational licensing on opticians using data from the US Census and American Community Survey. Our results suggest that optician licensing is associated with opticians receiving as much as 16.9 percent more in annual earnings. In an examination of malpractice insurance premiums in all states and participation rates in optician certification programs in Texas, we find little evidence that optician licensing has enhanced the quality of services delivered to consumers. By and large, optician licensing appears to be reducing consumer welfare by raising the earnings of opticians without enhancing the quality of services delivered to consumers.
A linearized Kuramoto–Sivashinsky PDE via an imaginary-Brownian-time-Brownian-angle process

We introduce a new imaginary-Brownian-time-Brownian-angle process, which we also call the linear-Kuramoto–Sivashinsky process (LKSP). Building on our techniques in two recent articles involving the connection of Brownian-time processes to fourth order PDEs, we give an explicit solution to a linearized Kuramoto–Sivashinsky PDE in d-dimensional space: ut=−18Δ2u−12Δu−12u. The solution is given in terms of a functional of our LKSP. To cite this article: H. Allouba, C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 336 (2003).
Centralized and Decentralized Management of Local Common Pool Resources in the Developing World: Experimental Evidence from Fishing Communities in Colombia

This paper uses experimental data to test for a complementary relationship between formal regulations imposed on a community to conserve a local natural resource and nonbinding verbal agreements to do the same. Our experiments were conducted in the field in three regions of Colombia. Each group of five subjects played 10 rounds of an open access common pool resource game, and 10 additional rounds under one of five institutions— communication alone, two external regulations that differed by the level of enforcement, and communication combined with each of the two regulations. Our results suggest that the hypothesis of a complementary relationship between communication and external regulation is supported for some combinations of regions and regulations, but cannot be supported in general. We therefore conclude that the determination of whether formal regulations and informal communication are complementary must be made on a community-by-community basis.
Is neuroaccounting waiting in the wings? An essay

This paper discusses a recently published handbook on neuroeconomics (Glimcher et al., 2009H) and extends the discussion to reasons why this newly emerging discipline should be of interest to behavioral accounting researchers. We evaluate the achieved and potential contribution of neuroeconomics to the study of human economic behavior, and examine what behavioral accounting researchers can learn from neuroeconomics and whether we should expect to see a similar sub-field emerge within behavioral accounting in the near future. We conclude that a separate sub-field within behavioral accounting is not likely in the near future due mostly to practical reasons. However, the behavioral accounting researcher would do well to follow research in this discipline closely, and behavioral accountants in the near future are likely to collaborate with neuroscientists and neuroeconomists on questions of mutual interest.
Controls as a Sharable Knowledge Commodity: An Architecture for Open Exchange

The world seems to be getting more dangerous: terrorists; fraudulent corporations; money laundering; hurricanes; pandemics. Governments and organizations respond with a flurry of new controls. In some cases these are centrally mandated (e.g. Sarbanes Oxley). In others, organizations struggle to find their own control solutions. Seldom, however, do organizations work together as a community of common interests to share solutions to their control threats. In this paper we consider how an open exchange of control solutions might be supported electronically. We assume a community of similar organizations that wish to exchange detailed knowledge about organizational control techniques. These might be non-competing institutions, such as libraries, customs agencies, and even universities; or, they may in fact be competing organizations, wishing to exchange control solutions in dimensions where they do not compete – e.g. the airlines exchanging best practice about safety and security. The main point is to propose an information technology architecture that permits a view of organizational controls as shareable, exchangeable knowledge commodities.
In-State versus Out-of State Students: The Divergence of Interest between Public Universities and State Governments

Abstract This paper examines the divergence of interest between universities and state governments concerning standards for admitting in-state versus out-of-state students. We find that public universities set lower minimum admission standards for in-state than out-of-state applicants, presumably in response to state pressure, while private universities treat both groups equally. However, we also find that favoring in-state applicants goes against states' long-term financial interest. This is because marginal out-of-state students pay higher tuition than marginal in-state students, pay more in future state taxes, and are equally influenced in whether they locate in the state after graduation by attending public university there.
Accounting Credibility and Liquidity Constraints: Evidence from Reactions of Small Banks to Monetary Tightening

ABSTRACT: This study examines the relationship between accounting credibility and firms' ability to fund their investments. Theory suggests that credible reporting resulting from external audits enables firms to attract external funds needed for their investments. The tests exploit monetary policy tightening that creates a liquidity shortage for banks, which, in turn, either requires banks to raise additional funds to restore liquidity or forces them to restrict their investments in the form of lending. Studying small non-public banks for which external audits are voluntary, I find that audited banks can better access funds during periods of monetary tightening than unaudited banks. As such, adverse liquidity shocks impede the lending of audited banks less. Overall, these findings present new evidence on how accounting credibility affects firms' ability to invest. Data Availability: The data are available from the sources indicated in the text.
The Other Side of Sustainable Aquaculture: Mariculture and Nonpoint Source Pollution

Mariculture is the aquaculture of the sea. Various agencies of the U.S. government are trying to establish mariculture as a sustainable and profitable industry.Sustainable mariculture, however, is intimately tied to ocean water quality. To date, the industries that regulate mariculture operations have focused primarily on preventing or limiting the water pollution that such facilities can cause. However, mariculture facilities location in the coastal zone are also subject to increasing levels of land-based water pollution, most of it from upland non point sources.This Article argues that if the United States wants to establish a viable mariculture industry, it must pay more attention to ocean water quality and the control of land-based ocean pollution, especially non point source pollution.
Does a Central Clearing Counterparty Reduce Counterparty Risk

We show whether central clearing of a particular class of derivatives lowers counterparty risk. For plausible cases, adding a central clearing counterparty (CCP) for a class of derivatives such as credit default swaps reduces netting efficiency, leading to an increase in average exposure to counterparty default. Further, clearing different classes of derivatives in separate CCPs always increases counterparty exposures relative to clearing the combined set of derivatives in a single CCP. We provide theory as well as illustrative numerical examples of these results that are calibrated to notional derivatives position data for major banks. (JEL G01, G14, G18, G28)
Adapt or Die: Aereo, IVI, and the Right of Control in an Evolving Digital Age

The advent of the Internet has had a great effect on the production, distribution, and consumption of television programming. The Supreme Court granted certiorari to ABC, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc. and will now review the issue of unlicensed digital distribution of copyrighted programming in its Spring 2014 term. This Comment will first briefly examine the origins and interconnection between television and digital media, culminating in a discussion of the repercussions of allowing unlicensed over-the-top retransmissions of network broadcast programming to continue to stream over the Internet. It will then examine the decisions in WPIX v. IVI, Inc., ABC, Inc. v. Aereo, Inc., and WNET, Thirteen v. Aereo, Inc. — cases recently decided in the Second Circuit. Each involves the topic of Internet retransmissions of copyrighted programming, but they all result in varying outcomes. Finally, this Comment will examine possible solutions to both maintain the integrity of the copyright holder’s right to control distribution and adapt to the consumer demand for Internet consumption.
Estimating Dynamic Games of Oligopolistic Competition: An Experimental Investigation

We evaluate standard assumptions in the estimation of dynamic oligopoly models with laboratory data. Using an entry/exit game, we estimate structural parameters under the assumption that the data are generated by a Markov‐perfect equilibrium and subsequently predict counterfactual behavior. If behavior was collusive, however, the assumption would be violated and one would mispredict counterfactuals. The laboratory allows us to compare predicted behavior to true counterfactuals implemented as treatments. Our main finding is that prediction errors due to collusion are modest in size. We also document a different deviation from equilibrium behavior (inertia) that can lead to large prediction errors.
Peru : Monetary and Exchange Rate Policies, 1930-1980

This paper reviews monetary and exchange rate policies in Peru in 1930-80. The review covers major transformations to the world economy, including the post-1929 crash and WWII, and changing economic paradigms, such as the collapse of the gold standard and the rise and fall of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates. The analysis emphasizes the lasting partnership between Peruvian policymakers and the Bretton Woods institutions, while stressing the local authorities’ ownership of final policy decisions. The review shows that, in general, during the fifty year period under analysis, the Peruvian authorities sought to deliver nominal exchange rate stability, even at the cost of introducing market distortions and/or incurring heavy losses in international reserves.
The Federal Student Loan Program: Quantitative Implications for College Enrollment and Default Rates

I quantify the effects of alternative student loan policies on college enrollment, borrowing behavior, and default rates in a heterogeneous model of life-cycle earnings and human capital accumulation. I find that the combination of learning ability and initial stock of human capital drives the decision to enroll in college, while parental wealth has minimal effects on enrollment. Repayment flexibility increases enrollment significantly, whereas relaxation of eligibility requirements has little effect on enrollment or default rates. The former policy benefits low-income households, while the latter has negligible effects on these households. JEL classification: D91; E44; J24; I28
Isolating the effect of disclosure on information risk

Abstract This study examines companies with two classes of shares that entitle their holders to identical cash flow and voting rights but that are available to mutually exclusive sets of investors: A shares to domestic investors and B shares to foreign investors. Price differences between A and B shares are higher in firms with a greater disparity in the disclosures that they make to domestic and foreign investors. This association is more pronounced when the cost (benefit) of information transfer is higher (lower). The results suggest that disclosure disparity creates meaningful differences in investors' average information precision across A and B shares and thus influences the cross-sectional variation in price differences.
Power and Presumptions; Rules and Rhetoric; Institutions and Indian Law

This 1994 article explores how unspoken, underlying presumptions shifted in Supreme Court jurisprudence regarding the analysis of tribal sovereignty.
Benefits and Costs of Investments in Preschool Education: Evidence from the Child-Parent Centers and Related Programs.

Abstract We discuss the evidence on the effectiveness of preschool programs using results from three well-known intervention studies: the Chicago Child–Parent Centers, High/Scope Perry Preschool Program, and the Carolina Abecedarian Project. Results from cost–benefit analyses of other programs for younger and older children also are reported. Given that the Child–Parent Center Program is an established, large-scale preschool program for which a cost–benefit analysis has been recently completed, we focus on this program. We examine the longer-term effects in more detail and we investigate the robustness of estimates used in the cost–benefit analysis. Depending on the assumptions made, our results indicate that the benefit–cost ratio for the preschool program offered by the Child–Parent Centers ranges from $5.98–$10.15. We find strong evidence that the consistently positive economic returns of high-quality preschool programs exceed most other educational interventions, especially those that begin during the school-age years such as reduced class sizes in the elementary grades, grade retention, and youth job training.
Analysts and anomalies

Abstract Analysts' price targets and recommendations contradict stock return anomaly variables. Using an index based on 125 anomalies, we find that analysts' annual stock return forecasts are 11% higher for anomaly-shorts than for anomaly-longs. Anomaly-shorts’ return forecasts are excessively optimistic, exceeding realized returns by 34%. Recommendations also tend to be more favorable for anomaly-shorts, although this result varies across anomaly types. Consistent with analysts' slowly incorporating anomaly information, anomalies forecast revisions in both price targets and recommendations. Our findings imply that investors who follow analysts' actionable information contribute to mispricing.
Logical Implications of GASB's Methodology for Valuing Pension Liabilities

The marginal valuation of assets can be negative under the Governmental Accounting Standards Board’s methodology for valuing pension liabilities. In such cases, a plan can improve its GASB funding ...
Bridging Data Gaps through Modeling and Evaluation of Surrogates: Use of the Best Available Science to Protect Biological Diversity Under the National Forest Management Act

The implementation of environmental law and policy often, if not typically, proceeds in the face of scientific uncertainty. Indeed, as Holly Doremus has explained, “[t]he most universally recognized feature of environmental problems is the pervasive uncertainty that surrounds them.” 1 Legislators or administrative agencies crafting programs to minimize the risk that exposure to pollution will cause adverse human health effects often lack information about the pathways of exposure, the levels at which exposure will cause adverse effects, or even about the kinds of adverse effects that may result from exposure. Nearly thirty years ago, Talbot Page described nine characteristics that exemplify the kind of “environmental risk” problems typified by the leakage of hazardous waste or the production of toxic chemicals. Four of those characteristics emphasized scientific uncertainty, and Page listed “ignorance of mechanism” as the first characteristic of an environmental risk problem. 2 Scientific uncertainty is no less endemic to natural resource management regimes, 3 transforming scientific disputes concerning such regimes into judgment calls “about how incomplete data are interpreted
Do Investors See Through Accounting Profitability and Recognize Efficiency? Evidence from Chinese Listed Companies

This paper studies the accounting performance measure, profit efficiency and investor valuation of 1,262 Chinese firms listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges from 2001 to 2010. Profit efficiency is defined as the ratio of actual profit realized to the optimal profit described by stochastic frontier approach. An estimation of robust ordinary least square model for accounting performance measures (ROA) controlling for industry effect results in negative skewness of the residuals, indicating the existence of profit inefficiency. A year-by-year cross-section stochastic frontier analysis documents a declining pattern of accounting performance and a contrastive increasing tendency of profit efficiency. Linking the market valuation ratios to profit efficiency illustrates a significant empirical relationship that Chinese investors reward firms of higher efficiency with higher market valuation. The over-time improvement of efficiency is also associated with increased market valuation. The empirical results are robust to alternative distributional assumptions of the efficiency term, different measures of accounting profitability and market valuation, and various sets of control variables. (JEL: G15, M11, M16, P34, O16, O53)
The Tyranny of Inequality

Abstract When parties are very unequally endowed, agreement may be very difficult to reach, even if the specific transaction is easy to contract on, and fungible resources can be transferred to compensate the losing party. The very fungibility of the resource transferred makes it hard to restrict its use, changing the amount the parties involved spend in trying to grab future rents. This spill-over effect can inhibit otherwise valuable transactions, as well as enable otherwise inefficient transactions. Agreement typically breaks down when the required transfer is large and the proposed recipient of the transfer is relatively unproductive or poorly endowed. We examine the implications of this model for a theory of the optimal allocation of property rights.
Eliminating the Competency Presumption in Juvenile Delinquency Cases

The legal presumption used in virtually all juvenile delinquency cases in the U.S. is that all juveniles are competent to stand trial. This Article calls for the elimination of that legal presumption, which is historically based on the Dusky v. United States decision and in the adult criminal justice system. The recent decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court recognize the developmental and organic brain differences between adults and juveniles. Current research demonstrates a higher frequency rate of incompetence based on intellectual deficiencies among children when compared with adults found to be not legally competent to stand trial. By eliminating the competency presumption for juveniles in both delinquency and adult criminal proceedings, the party seeking an adjudication would be responsible for establishing that the accused juvenile is in fact, competent to stand trial. Foreign jurisdictions in Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America have long required higher thresholds--at least fourteen years of age--for holding juveniles accountable for criminal misconduct, none of them presuming that juveniles are competent to go to trial. In the alternative, by expanding the factors currently in use for determination of juvenile competency by adding developmental immaturity and mental illness, juvenile justice systems could identify the reduction of recidivist offending as the primary systemic objective.
Place and Cyberspace

For cyberlibertarians, the other shoe is rapidly dropping. In a curious inversion, those who argued less than a decade ago that cyberspace was a place all its own-and therefore unregulable by territorial governments'are finding their arguments and assumptions used for a very different end. Instead of concluding that cyberspace is outside of the physical world, courts are increasingly using the CYBERSPACE AS PLACE metaphor to justify application of traditional laws governing real property to this new medium. Dan Hunter's excellent article2 explains how and why this is happening with uncanny accuracy, pointing to the power of metaphor in influencing legal thinking and the particular strength of metaphor in making the new
What Would Satisfy Us? Taking Stock of Critical Approaches to Transitional Justice

In recent years, a distinct critical turn in transitional justice scholarship has emerged, seeking to question the naturalness and inevitability of mainstream transitional justice theory and practice and to envision a broader and more holistic project. While in many ways a positive development, this newfound critical enthusiasm risks producing an unwarranted sense of pessimism and failure. This points to the need to better manage expectations as to what ‘success’ looks like even as we try to re-imagine what transitional justice could become. To these ends, I draw upon and propose revisions to Robert Cox’s famous distinction between problem-solving and critical theory. To better maintain balance and perspective, I argue for the adoption of an ‘integrated’ approach to transitional justice critique that does more to engage with the difficult tradeoffs, policy choices, and contextual realities that would inevitably be associated with efforts to implement an alternative vision of transitional justice.
International strategies of service MNCs in the Asia‐Pacific region

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in services has been growing rapidly in the developing countries of the Asia-Pacific region. In this study we explore the level and distribution of service FDI in the Asia-Pacific region by examining both country-level aggregate data and firm-level data. Using data in 180 large multinational corporations in 10 service industries over the 1980–1986 period, we construct a logistic regression model to examine the effects of client-following strategy, cultural difference, oligopolistic reaction, firm size, and international experience on the international expansion strategies of service MNCs in the region. Differences in the international strategies are analyzed and policy implications are discussed. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Status and distrust: The relevance of inequality and betrayal aversion

Trust involves a willingness to accept vulnerability, comprised of the risk of being worse off than by not trusting, the risk of being worse off than the trusted party (disadvantageous inequality), and the risk of being betrayed by the trusted party. We examine how people’s status, focusing on sex, race, age and religion, affects their willingness to accept these three risks. We experimentally measure people’s willingness to accept risk in a decision problem, a risky dictator game, and a trust game, and compare responses across games. Groups typically considered having lower status in the US – women, minorities, young adults and non-Protestants – are averse to disadvantageous inequality while higher status groups – men, Caucasians, middle-aged people and Protestants – dislike being betrayed.
The Monetary Transmission Mechanism

Abstract Recent literature on structural vector autoregressions has attempted to identify the effects on the economy of an increase in the stock of money. This work has led to a broad consensus. Initially, an increase in money leads to an increase in economic activity. Output and employment go up, the interest rate declines, and prices respond weakly, if at all. Over time, these real effects die out and, in the long run, the only effect of higher money is higher prices. Most writers on the topic have attributed the real effects of money, in the short run, to a barrier of some kind that prevents markets from clearing. We show instead that a competitive market-clearing model in which money enters the production function can reproduce the broad features of data. Our argument exploits the existence of multiple equilibria in a rational-expectations model. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: E00, E4.
Measuring product type with dynamics of online product review variance

The concept of “product type” (experience versus search product) is increasingly important in business research and practice. However, it is not defined or measured precisely in the Internet age due to significantly lower search cost and changes in consumer information search behavior resulting from reliance on information and communications technology.. However, correctly understanding product type has important strategic implications for marketing strategy and digital market design. We take advantage of the greatly available micro level online word-of-mouth data and infer product type (experience versus search product) based on statistical properties of online word of mouth (specifically, online product reviews). We draw on the law of large numbers (L.L.N), and the literature on informational content and online product reviews to analytically propose a mechanism to classify products. Our theoretical analyses indicate that, for a pure search product, when number of reviews (i.e. review sample size) increases as more consumers rate the product, variance of the mean rating will decrease. And for a product with more experience attributes, when number of reviews increases, the variance of the mean rating will not decrease and may instead increase depending on how dominant these experience attributes are. We collect archival data from three different websites (Amazon, Yelp and Ctrip) that collect and publish consumer product reviews to categorize the products and services. Implications of this analytical tool and empirical findings for research, theory and managerial practice are discussed.
Are All Individual Investors Created Equal? Evidence from Individual Investor Trading around Securities Litigation Events

Abstract This study examines the trading behavior of individual (retail) investors around securities litigation disclosure events. We hypothesize and find that less informed investors (low-income investors and investors in non-professional occupations) purchase earlier in the class period relative to more informed investors who tend to sell later in the class period. We also find that more informed investors achieve higher returns, or at least incur fewer losses, than less informed investors during the class period. Less informed investors are, therefore, more likely to suffer greater class action damages than more informed investors from their presumed reliance on allegedly false information.
Sales Force Automation Tools for Small Businesses

The field salesperson is the small businesses' primary contact with customers and must be well-informed and responsive to customer needs. Information technology tools can help the salesperson meet these needs. However, the question of exactly which tools are instrumental in providing the salesperson sufficient levels of responsiveness needs to be answered. Given the investments associated with the various forms of software and hardware, firms need to know which forms will make a difference. Thus, this study compared users to nonusers of various forms of hardware and software. These results suggest investments in some software (such as e-mail faxing and e-catalogs) will be effective. Users of various forms of hardware, however, did not find their information system to be more effective. Future research efforts may find the explanation for this lack of effectiveness may rest with either the task performed (e.g., administrating the sales territory versus serving the customer) or the context (e.g., desk-based versus wireless mobile technology).
U.S.-Japan and U.S.-China trade conflict: Export growth, reciprocity, and the international trading system

First Japan and more recently China have pursued export-oriented growth strategies. While other Asian countries have done likewise, Japan and China are of particular interest because their economies are so large and the size of the associated bilateral trade imbalances with the United States so conspicuous. In this paper the authors focus on U.S. efforts to restore the reciprocal GATT/WTO market-access bargain in the face of such large imbalances and the significant spillovers to the international trading system. The paper highlights similarities and differences in the two cases. The authors describe U.S. attempts to reduce the bilateral imbalances through targeted trade policies intended to slow growth of U.S. imports from these countries or increase growth of U.S. exports to them. They then examine how these trade policy responses, as well as U.S. efforts to address what were perceived as underlying causes of the imbalances, influenced the evolution of the international trading system. Finally, the authors compare the macroeconomic conditions associated with the bilateral trade imbalances and their implications for the conclusions of the two episodes.
Analysis of a Precambrian resonance-stabilized day length

During the Precambrian era, Earth's decelerating rotation would have passed a 21 h period that would have been resonant with the semidiurnal atmospheric thermal tide. Near this point, the atmospheric torque would have been maximized, being comparable in magnitude but opposite in direction to the lunar torque, halting Earth's rotational deceleration, maintaining a constant day length, as detailed by Zahnle and Walker (1987). We develop a computational model to determine necessary conditions for formation and breakage of this resonant effect. Our simulations show the resonance to be resilient to atmospheric thermal noise but suggest a sudden atmospheric temperature increase like the deglaciation period following a possible “snowball Earth” near the end of the Precambrian would break this resonance; the Marinoan and Sturtian glaciations seem the most likely candidates for this event. Our model provides a simulated day length over time that resembles existing paleorotational data, though further data are needed to verify this hypothesis.
Marriage and the Religion Clauses

Both marriage and religion have commonly given rise to differing degrees of conflict and controversy in various settings. Indeed, many conflicts in marriages are sometimes over religion, and many controversies in religions are sometimes about marriage. It should come as no surprise then that the contemporary debate over same-sex marriage and religious liberty has effectually divided households and sanctuaries throughout the nation. While it is not the purpose of this article to stoke the flames of controversy, this Article does attempt to explain and clarify a handful of narrow topics in the modern debate over same-sex marriage which concern the intersection of religion with marriage. Due to the vast array of issues involved in this debate, however, the topics addressed in this Article are only considered in the context of the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. These topics include such things as the historical relationship of marriage and religion, the legality of defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, the propriety of religious leaders solemnizing civil marriages, the possible effects on religious liberty of either legalizing or prohibiting same-sex marriage, and the continuing significance of marriage for families and religions of all stripes.
Whether Alleging "Motive and Opportunity" Can Satisfy the Heightened Pleading Standards of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Much Ado About Nothing

In order to prevent abusive and meritless securities lawsuits, Congress enacted the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 ("PSLRA"). One provision of that legislation requires pleading with particularity the relevant state of mind for each defendant. Plaintiff's failure to so plead leads to dismissal of the lawsuit. The question the article examines is the extent to which pleading "motive and opportunity" satisfies the statutory standard. The article first traces pre-PSLRA law where the Second Circuit enunciated a more stringent pleading standard for securities fraud claims. Initially, it seemed the Second Circuit might be satisfied by plaintiff pleading motive and opportunity. The article then examines the legislative history for the PSLRA. That history is unclear on whether alleging motive and opportunity alone would satisfy the PSLRA's heightened pleading standards. The article examines case law in the Second, Sixth and Ninth Circuits. The article concludes that the tests of the Second and Sixth Circuit are essentially the same. Both restrictively define motive and opportunity to facts that would give rise to an inference of scienter on the part of a particular defendant. The article criticizes the position of the Ninth Circuit. Even though that Court recognized that Congress generally did not intend to change requirements for scienter level stringent. But the Ninth Circuit's evaluation of pleadings required the same particularized assessment of pleadings as the Second Circuit. The consequence is needless confusion.
Asymmetric loan loss provision models

Abstract Large net loan charge-offs are frequently associated with large decreases in nonperforming loans and large increases in loan loss provisions, inducing a V-shaped relation between loan loss provisions and nonperforming loan changes. Failure to model the asymmetry attributable to net loan charge-offs can change inferences about the presence of earnings management and the effects of delayed loan loss recognition in prior papers that assumed linearity. Future researchers should either include net loan charge-offs in linear models of loan loss provisions or explicitly model the asymmetry induced by omitting net loan charge-offs.
Actually We Should Wait: Evaluating the Obama Administration’s Commitment to Unilateral Executive-Branch Action

Although once committed to stemming the tide of presidential power expansion, President Obama has since become a proponent of energetic unilateral executive-branch action. Faced with a relentless and uncompromising opposition in Congress, the President has come to believe that it is only through the exercise of his unilateral powers that he will be able to accomplish his agenda and meet the promises that he made to the American people. At one level, President Obama’s motivations are understandable. Congress has become unduly obstructionist, and because of its obstreperousness, many serious problems facing the country have gone unresolved. Nevertheless, expanding presidential power is a risky business in the long term even if it offers considerable benefits now. Already the balance of power between the executive and the legislative branches in Washington has, through the forces of history and exigency, swung markedly towards the former. When one adds to this equation the inherent and limitless potential for abuse in any government in which power is centered in a single individual, the conclusion that the presidency is now the most dangerous branch is indisputable. The assertion that its powers should be further increased, therefore, requires a far stronger rationale than “we can’t wait.”
The Evolving Economic Structure of Higher Education

As an industry, higher education shows some striking anomalies. It is the only important industry in the United States that has been increasingly socialized in recent decades: the market share of public institutions grew, roughly, from 50 percent to 80 percent over the last half of the twentieth century.1 Now the industry is suddenly heading down a very different path, with the market share of proprietary institutions—which was negligible thirty-five years ago—presently in excess of 10 percent. Such contradictory developments bring into question the future economic organization of higher education and the forms of financing and regulation that might be appropriate to it. I’ll offer here some speculation in that direction, focusing just on several of the main structural features of the industry and, of necessity, addressing them at a very general level. And I’ll compare the evolution of higher education with the evolution of health care, seeking the reasons for both similarities and differences. The general conclusion I offer, perhaps unsurprising in the current political and economic climate, is that market forces are likely to play a much larger role in higher education in the future than they have in the past, and a larger role than they play in health care as well.
Distance decreases with differentiation: Strategic agglomeration by retailers ☆

Abstract Theory predicts intense price competition results when firms cluster with rivals. Yet, strong evidence of clustering is found in previous empirical research. Researchers typically measure clustering by comparing observed location patterns to random assignment. The random assignment benchmark does not, however, account for zoning and geography and therefore might overstate the extent of strategic agglomeration. As evidence, we find that public elementary schools cluster more than random, not because of agglomeration economies, but due to demand density and limited location options. We argue that a better measurement of strategic agglomeration is to compare across product markets with similar zoning and other location restrictions but different benefits from agglomeration. We use L -function analysis of five product markets in five cities. We find that retailers with greater ability to differentiate their products are more likely to strategically cluster.
The supply and demand for Federal Reserve deposits

Abstract This paper argues that the following ingredients are necessary in order to draw causal inference from historical correlations: explication of the real-world mechanism that is supposed to have produced a proposed structural relation; the existence of a natural experiment through which the data were generated; and extensive statistical corroboration of the econometric model. This research strategy is employed in an effort to identify the sources of disturbances to the supply and demand for Federal Reserve deposits. The effect of a shock in the supply of reserves on the federal funds rate depends on the marginal benefits banks perceive to holding excess reserves and the marginal costs of discount window borrowing. We find empirically that a temporary shock to the supply of reserves will only induce banks to borrow at the discount window if it occurs on settlement Wednesday or the last day of the quarter. The structural estimates presented here suggest that a $1 billion loss in reserves will raise the federal funds rate by 6.6 basis points if it occurs on settlement Wednesday or the last day of a quarter and by 2.6 basis points if it occurs on other days. A number of alternative sources of evidence are used to corroborate these structural estimates and to provide independent statistically significant confirmation that a reduction in the supply of reserves clearly raises the overnight interest rate.
An Assessment of Chronic Regulatory Focus Measures

Abstract Prior consumer research has demonstrated the ability of promotion and prevention regulatory orientations to moderate a variety of consumer and marketing phenomena but also has used several different methods to measure chronic regulatory focus. This article assesses five chronic regulatory focus measures using the criteria of theoretical coverage, internal consistency, homogeneity, stability, and predictive ability. The results reveal a lack of convergence among the measures and variation in their performance along these criteria. The authors provide specific guidance for choosing a particular measure in regulatory focus research and suggest a composite measure.
Experiments on Auction Valuation and Endogenous Entry

We present results of several experiments that deal with endogenous entry in auctions and auction valuation. One observation that is constant across all the experiments we report is that laboratory subjects have a difficult time evaluating potential gains from auctions. Even after they are given some experience with particular auctions, the uncertainty inherent in the auctions (the probability of winning as well as the potential gains from winning) makes it difficult for subjects to compare different auction mechanisms. This highlights the need for new experimental procedures to be used for testing theories that involve endogenous auction entry in the laboratory.