cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Surrender and Subordination: Birth Mothers and Adoption Law Reform

For more than 30 years adoption law reform advocates have been seeking to restore for adult adoptees the right to access their original birth certificates, a right that was lost in all but two states between the late 1930s and 1990. The advocates have faced strong opposition and have succeeded only in recent years and only in eight states. Among the most vigorous advocates for access are “birth mothers” who surrendered their children during a time it was believed that adoption would relieve unmarried women of shame and restore them to a respectable life. The birth mother advocates say that when they surrendered their children, their wishes were subordinated and their voices silenced. They say they want to be heard now as they raise their voices in support of adult adoptees’ rights to information in government records about the adoptees' original identities. Opponents of restoring access, in “women-protective rhetoric” reminiscent of recent anti-abortion efforts, argue that access would harm birth mothers, violating their rights and bringing shame anew through unwanted exposure of out-of-wedlock births. Opponents say they must speak for birth mothers who cannot come forward to speak for themselves. Birth mother advocates respond that the impetus historically for closing records was to protect adoptive families from public scrutiny and from interference by birth parents, rather than to protect birth mothers from being identified in the future by their children. They maintain that birth mothers did not choose and were not legally guaranteed lifelong anonymity. They point out that when laws that have restored access have been challenged, courts have found neither statutory guarantees of nor constitutional rights to anonymity. They also offer evidence that an overwhelming majority of birth mothers are open to contact with their now grown children.As a means of assessing these competing claims, this article analyzes the provisions in a collection of birth mother surrender documents assembled by the author — seventy-five mid-twentieth century documents executed in twenty-six different states. In order to establish the significance of the provisions with respect to these claims, the article first relates depictions by birth mothers of a journey from silence to legislative advocacy. The article then examines the conflicting claims about birth mothers that pervade legislative contests over adult adoptee access to original birth certificates. Finally, the article analyzes the provisions of the surrender documents. The analysis of the provisions definitively supports birth mother advocates’ reports that women were neither offered a choice of nor guaranteed lifelong anonymity. Their opponents’ contentions to the contrary, whether motivated by concern for birth mothers or other interests, reinscribe an earlier culture of shame and secrecy, subordinating women’s own wishes and silencing their newly raised voices.
Hospital treatment rates and spillover effects: Does ownership matter?

Abstract This paper studies the effect of hospital ownership on treatment rates allowing for spatial correlation among hospitals. Competition among hospitals and knowledge spillovers generate significant externalities which we try to capture using the spatial Durbin model. Using a panel of 2342 hospitals in the 48 continental states observed over the period 2005 to 2008, we find significant spatial correlation of medical service treatment rates among hospitals. We also get mixed results on the effect of hospital ownership on treatment rates that depends upon the market structure where the hospital is located and which varies by treatment type.
AIDS and the Accumulation and Utilisation of Human Capital in Africa

Education is one ofthe great challenges of development. This paper outlines the likely effects of the AIDS pandemic in Africa on the continents ability to produce education and use it effectively for growth and poverty reduction. Four channels are explored. First a supply effect: the deaths of millions of adults will increase the difficulty of finding and retaining enough teachers. Secondly a demand effect: the foreshortening of time horizons will reduce lifetime private returns to education making investments of time and money in schooling appear less attractive. Thirdly a factor productivity effect: in many countries the loss of a large share of the skilled work force may reduce the social returns to skill among educated people who survive reducing the contribution of education to overall growth. And finally a factor complementarity effect: the loss of physical capital assets may reduce the ability of skilled workers to contribute to overall economic production to the extent that physical and human capital are complementary inputs. The channels described add up to the qualitative conclusion that among the costs of the epidemic is the likelihood that absent offsetting policies and programmes. Africas dearth of human capital will get worse. (authors)
Market‐Making in the Third Market for NYSE‐Listed Securities

This paper empirically examines market making in the third market for common stocks that are listed on the NYSE. Although the same non-NYSE members make a market on both types of stocks, bid-ask spreads are wider on Rule 19c-3 stocks than on Rule 390 stocks. Market-making by NYSE members is minimal and spreads posted by NYSE members are wider than those posted on identical stocks by non-NYSE members. This suggests that NYSE members do not compete on the basis of spread but use methods such as price matching and the internalization of orders to attract order flow to the third market.
The Equity Premium Puzzle: A Review

Introduction Empirical Facts Is the Equity Premium a Premium for Bearing Non-diversifiable Risk? Risk Based Explanations of the Equity Premium Non-risk Based Explanations of the Equity Premium Concluding Comments References
Teenagers’ risky health behaviors and time use during the great recession

This paper uses individual-level data from both the 2003–2011 American Time Use Survey and Youth Risk Behavior Survey along with state-level unemployment rates to examine the effects of a weakening economy during the Great Recession on U.S. teenagers’ activities. Black male teenagers had less sex and spent more time with their parents. Hispanic male teenagers spent less time playing sports and more time watching time TV, and were more likely to be obese. Female teenagers, on the other hand, spent less time working, but made greater investments in their education. However, there were signs that female teenagers were stressed by the weak economic conditions, because they slept less and were more likely to smoke daily. Black females also consumed more alcohol.
Can Uncertainty Improve Promotions

Abstract Many consumer promotions involve uncertainty (e.g., purchase incentives offering the chance to receive one of several rewards). Despite retailers' heavy reliance on such promotions, much academic research on uncertainty has demonstrated examples of consumers avoiding and/or disliking uncertainty, implying that promotions involving uncertainty may not be as effective for retailers as promotions offering certain rewards. In an effort to reconcile the prevalence of uncertain promotions with the existing research, this article explores the conditions under which uncertain promotions may be effective for retailers. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications for these findings.
From ethics washing to ethics bashing: a view on tech ethics from within moral philosophy

The word 'ethics' is under siege in technology policy circles. Weaponized in support of deregulation, self-regulation or handsoff governance, "ethics" is increasingly identified with technology companies' self-regulatory efforts and with shallow appearances of ethical behavior. So-called "ethics washing" by tech companies is on the rise, prompting criticism and scrutiny from scholars and the tech community at large. In parallel to the growth of ethics washing, its condemnation has led to a tendency to engage in "ethics bashing." This consists in the trivialization of ethics and moral philosophy now understood as discrete tools or pre-formed social structures such as ethics boards, self-governance schemes or stakeholder groups. The misunderstandings underlying ethics bashing are at least threefold: (a) philosophy and "ethics" are seen as a communications strategy and as a form of instrumentalized cover-up or facade for unethical behavior, (b) philosophy is understood in opposition and as alternative to political representation and social organizing and (c) the role and importance of moral philosophy is downplayed and portrayed as mere "ivory tower" intellectualization of complex problems that need to be dealt with in practice. This paper argues that the rhetoric of ethics and morality should not be reductively instrumentalized, either by the industry in the form of "ethics washing," or by scholars and policy-makers in the form of "ethics bashing." Grappling with the role of philosophy and ethics requires moving beyond both tendencies and seeing ethics as a mode of inquiry that facilitates the evaluation of competing tech policy strategies. In other words, we must resist narrow reductivism of moral philosophy as instrumentalized performance and renew our faith in its intrinsic moral value as a mode of knowledgeseeking and inquiry. Far from mandating a self-regulatory scheme or a given governance structure, moral philosophy in fact facilitates the questioning and reconsideration of any given practice, situating it within a complex web of legal, political and economic institutions. Moral philosophy indeed can shed new light on human practices by adding needed perspective, explaining the relationship between technology and other worthy goals, situating technology within the human, the social, the political. It has become urgent to start considering technology ethics also from within and not only from outside of ethics.
Why Do NGOs Go Where They Go? Evidence from Kenya

Summary Using Kenya as a case study, this paper provides preliminary evidence of the factors influencing Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to choose their locations within a country. Interpreting the findings from a range of models evaluating 4,210 organizations in 70 districts, and drawing on in-country interviews with NGO leaders and workers, government officials, and politicians, it finds that sub-national NGO location corresponds to an area’s objective level of need, as well as the convenience of the location for accessing beneficiaries, donors, and elite goods. Contrary to dominant theories of African political economy, political factors like patronage appear to have little or no significant influence.
Performance Terms in CEO Compensation Contracts

In December 2006, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued new rules that require enhanced disclosure on how firms tie CEO compensation to performance. We use this new available data to study the terms of performance-based awards in CEO compensation contracts in S&P 500 firms. We observe large variations in the choice of performance measures. Our evidence is consistent with predictions from optimal contracting theories: firms rely on performance measures that are more informative of CEO actions.
From private banking to central banking: ingredients of a welfare analysis ∗

An earlier analysis that compares allocations achievable using inside (private) money to those achievable using outside (government) money is extended. It is shown that outside-money allocations are a subset of inside-money allocations provided that the inside money issued by one issuer can be distinguished from that issued by others. If that recognizability assumption is weakened, then the subset result could conceivably be over-turned. Even so, the analysis suggests that the outside-money arrangement, with its uniform money, should be managed so as to attain some of the benefits of inside money.
Seeds of Innovation in Accounting Scholarship

S everal senior scholars have recently suggested that innovation in modern accounting scholarship is low (Demski 2007; Fellingham 2007; Hopwood 2007; Kaplan 2011; Sunder 2011). These essays lead to three questions about innovation in current accounting scholarship that I consider here. First, what is ‘‘innovation’’ and how do we know that the level of innovation in accounting scholarship is low? Second, if innovation in accounting scholarship is low, how did this state of affairs come to exist? Third, if accounting scholarship is low on innovation, can we actually do anything to change it? For present purposes, I define ‘‘scholarly innovation’’ as material long-run improvement in the state of knowledge within an academic discipline. The (unobservable) construct I have in mind is the change through time in the extent to which thinking about accounting is supported by a body of theory and empirical evidence that explains why accounting exists and takes the form that it does. Stated broadly, scholarly innovation refers to positive long-run change in the body of knowledge present in an academic discipline. I see scholarly innovation as an evolved characteristic that requires both variation in ideas and robust selection among competing ideas. Variation in ideas is present when scholars (1) pursue alternative lines of inquiry using different theoretical and methodological perspectives, and (2) take risks that introduce intellectual ‘‘mutations’’ that open new lines of inquiry. Selection results from
Trade Adjustment and Productivity in Large Crises

We empirically characterize the mechanics of trade adjustment during the Argentine crisis using detailed transaction-level customs data covering the universe of import transactions during 1996-2008. Though imports collapsed by nearly 70 percent from 2000-2002, the entry and exit of rms or products at the country level (the \extensive margin") played a small role in this adjustment. By contrast, the within-rm
Continued Existence of Cows Disproves Central Tenets of Capitalism

We examine the returns from owning cows and buffaloes in rural India. With labor valued at market wages, households earn large, negative median returns from holding cows and buffaloes, at -304% and -75%, respectively. Making the stark assumption of labor valued at zero, median returns are then -5% for cows and +10% for buffaloes (with 52% and 46% of households earning negative returns for cows and buffaloes, respectively). Why do households continue to invest in livestock if economic returns are negative, or are these estimates wrong? We discuss potential explanations, including labor market failures, for why livestock investments may persist.
Standard Setting Committees: Consensus Governance for Shared Technology Platforms

Voluntary Standard Setting Organizations (SSOs) use a consensus process to create new compatibility standards. Practitioners have suggested that SSOs are increasingly politicized and perhaps incapable of producing timely standards. This article develops a simple model of standard setting committees and tests its predictions using data from the Internet Engineering Task Force, an SSO that produces many of the standards used to run the Internet. The results show that an observed slowdown in standards production between 1993 and 2003 can be linked to distributional conflicts created by the rapid commercialization of the Internet. (JEL C78, L15, L86)
The Granular Origins of Aggregate Fluctuations

This paper proposes that idiosyncratic firm-level shocks can explain an important part of aggregate movements and provide a microfoundation for aggregate shocks. Existing research has focused on using aggregate shocks to explain business cycles, arguing that individual firm shocks average out in the aggregate. I show that this argument breaks down if the distribution of firm sizes is fat-tailed, as documented empirically. The idiosyncratic movements of the largest 100 firms in the United States appear to explain about one-third of variations in output growth. This “granular” hypothesis suggests new directions for macroeconomic research, in particular that macroeconomic questions can be clarified by looking at the behavior of large firms. This paper’s ideas and analytical results may also be useful for thinking about the fluctuations of other economic aggregates, such as exports or the trade balance.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in India’s Retail Sector

This article presents an overview of retail trade in India in the wake of the country’s new policy that will allow foreign capital in multi-band retailing. It discusses various potential benefits and costs of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the retail sector, particularly in terms of its effects on traditional retailers, employment, consumers, farmers, and local manufacturers. It argues that given somewhat slower growth projection for the Indian economy during the next decade, various structural issues including inadequate infrastructure and a lack of affordable real estate, and the prevalent structure of the agricultural markets, it is unlikely that all the potential benefits and costs will be realised to their fullest extent, at least in the foreseeable future. The economic dynamics and the political process will play an important role in determining the outcomes of this move to allow FDI in the retail sector and will ultimately determine the effects on various stakeholders.
An experimental investigation of why individuals conform

Abstract Social interdependence is believed to play an important role in individual choice behavior. I first outline a simple model constructed on the premise that people are motivated by their own payoff and by how their action compares to others in their reference group. I show that conformity in actions may arise from learning about the descriptive norm, or from image-related concerns. In order to empirically disentangle the two, I use the fact that image-related concerns can only be present if actions are publicly observable. The model predictions are then tested in a charitable contribution experiment in which the actions and identities of the subjects are unmasked in a controlled and systematic way. Both learning about the descriptive norm (i.e., what others are doing) and image-related concerns play an important role in the choices of the subjects. Individuals indulge in social comparison and change their contributions in the direction of the social norm even when their identities are hidden. Once identities and contribution distributions of group members are revealed, individuals conform to the choice of other group members. Moreover, I find that social ties (defined as subjects knowing each other from outside the lab) affect the role of social influence: Subjects only respond to the choices of group members they are friends with. In particular, a low contribution norm evolves that causes individuals to contribute less in the presence of friends. This suggests that social comparison and image-related concerns may not always lead to higher contributions.
On the ambiguous economic freedom–inequality relationship

Previous research on the relationship between economic freedom and income inequality has produced mixed results. We provide a short survey of this literature, identifying potential causes for this empirical heterogeneity. Next, we replicate the results from two significant studies using six alternative measures of income inequality for an updated dataset of up to 112 countries over the period 1970–2010. Notably, we use the latest release of the Standardized World Income Inequality Dataset, which allows us to account for the uncertainty of the estimated Gini coefficients. We find that the results of previous studies are sensitive to the choice of country sample, time period and/or inequality measure used. We conclude with suggestions for future research in the area.
Cascaded lattice Boltzmann modeling and simulations of three-dimensional non-Newtonian fluid flows

Abstract Non-Newtonian fluid flows, especially in three dimensions (3D), arise in numerous settings of interest to physics. Prior studies using the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) of such flows have so far been limited mainly to two dimensions and used less robust collision models. In this paper, we develop a new 3D cascaded LBM based on central moments and multiple relaxation times (MRT) on a three-dimensional, nineteen velocity (D3Q19) lattice for simulation of generalized Newtonian (power law) fluid flows. The relaxation times of the second order moments are varied locally based on the local shear rate and parameterized by the consistency coefficient and the power law index of the nonlinear constitutive relation of the power law fluid. Numerical validation study of the 3D cascaded LBM for various benchmark problems, including the complex 3D non-Newtonian flow in a cubic cavity at different Reynolds numbers and power law index magnitudes encompassing shear thinning and shear thickening fluids, are presented. Furthermore, in order to demonstrate the advantages of the proposed 3D cascaded LBM based on central moments, numerical stability comparisons against the LBMs based on a single relaxation time model and a MRT model using raw moments are made. Numerical results demonstrate the accuracy, second order grid convergence and significant improvements in numerical stability of the 3D cascaded LBM for simulation of 3D non-Newtonian flows of power law fluids.
Fiscal Illusion from Property Reassessment? An Empirical Test of the Residual View

The textbook view of the real property tax is that the millage rate is simply a residual, determined by dividing the revenue to be raised from property by the taxable base of assessed values. In such a case, changes in assessed values are neutral with respect to property tax revenue as it can be offset or adjusted by changing the millage rate, and reappraisals of property assessments simply serve the purpose of maintaining horizontal equity across individual households. Critics of this view claim that policy makers do not fully revise the millage rate in response to changing assessed values, allowing them to effectively raise revenue without raising tax rates. Using data from Virginia cities and counties between 2000 and 2008, this paper estimates the response of levy growth rates to assessed value growth. Unlike the previous literature testing these competing claims, this paper is able to disentangle assessed value growth from other forms of economic growth, including the market values of property. Our findings suggest that mass reappraisals per se provide some cover for politicians to raise levy growth rates, but the growth in aggregate taxable assessed values is largely irrelevant.
Does teacher testing raise teacher quality? Evidence from state certification requirements

Abstract The education reform movement includes efforts to raise teacher quality through stricter certification and licensing provisions. Most US states now require public school teachers to pass a standardized test such as the Praxis. Although any barrier to entry is likely to raise wages in the affected occupation, the theoretical effects of such requirements on teacher quality are ambiguous. Teacher testing places a floor on whatever skills are measured by the required test, but testing is also costly for applicants. These costs shift teacher supply to the left and may be especially likely to deter high-quality applicants from teaching in public schools. Moreover, test requirements may disqualify some applicants that schools would otherwise want to hire. We use the Schools and Staffing Survey to estimate the effect of state teacher testing requirements on teacher wages and teacher quality as measured by educational background. The results suggest that state-mandated teacher testing is associated with increases in teacher wages, though we find no evidence of a corresponding increase in quality. Consistent with the fact that Hispanics have marked lower licensure scores than non-Hispanic Whites or Blacks, testing appears to reduce the fraction of new teachers who are Hispanic.
Multi-agent systems as a tool for analyzing path-dependent macrodynamics☆

Abstract This paper discusses the concept of path dependence in macrodynamics, and identifies practical difficulties associated with building path-dependent macrodynamic models of the sort that Keynesians and Schumpeterians regard as necessary for the successful study of long-term growth and development. It is suggested that multi-agent systems (MAS) analysis can help address these difficulties, and therefore provides a useful tool for advancing path-dependent macrodynamic analysis. A concrete example is provided in the form of a simple but illustrative MAS model of path-dependent aggregate fluctuations.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room—Using the Enron Film to Examine Student Attitudes towards Business Ethics

Publicity from recent scandals has generated increased discussion of the role of business schools in teaching students about ethical behavior. The business ethics literature reveals that business schools can be effective in changing student attitudes towards business ethics. The approach used i n this research integrates the teaching of business ethics into an undergraduate organizational behavior course. We outline the use of the film Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room as an intervention to engage student discussion about their attitudes towards business ethics. We report an assessment of the effectiveness of the intervention, and provide suggestions for future research.
Commercial Law Collides with Cyberspace: The Trouble with Perfection--Insecurity Interests in the New Corporate Asset

I. Introduction Picture this scenario: As counsel for several venture capital firms in the New Economy, you had been enjoying the ride of the explosive growth of e-commerce in the last few years. You have assisted your venture capital (VC) clients in funding their ventures in e-companies whose primary cyberassets are domain names such as sex.com, business.com, loans.com, jewelry.com, and stock.com. E-companies have bought business.com for $7.5 million,1 jewelry.com for $5 million,2 and loans.com for $3 million3 Others have estimated that sex.com is worth $250 million4 and that stock.com is worth $7.5 million.5 Trademark law does not protect these domain names because they are generic terms. Nevertheless, as indicated by the prices paid, these generic domain names are highly valuable commodities that are sought after in the New Economy.7 Lately, the slowdown of the economy and the continuous adjustment of the stock market are causing your clients some discomfort.8 Your VC clients' investments in e-companies are not performing well, and investors are not pouring currency into incubation projects as they once did.9 Many financing projects that you have started on behalf of your clients are now on the back burner. Your office telephone is ringing, and you quickly glance at the caller ID display. It is a call from one of your VC clients. The client asks: "Will we have a chance to salvage any of the cyberassets? Who will get the domain names? What will happen to the proceeds of the sale of the cyberassets in the event that some of the e-companies are heading toward bankruptcy?" You do not have any answers, but you promise your client that you will look into the matter further. You search your gray cells. You recall that most, if not all, the e-deals were equity-based investments, not secured transactions as in the Old Economy. You are sweating a little bit because you honestly do not know whether your client had a security interest in the domain names and whether such security interest even was perfected. You rush to the library and look up a treatise on secured transactions. Words like "personal property,"10 "attacbment,"11 "perfection,"12 "financing statens,"13 and "collateral"14 leap out at you. You wonder whether domain names are personal property for the purposes of secured transactions under state commercial law statutes. You are sweating a little bit more. The above scenario highlights some of the new problems concerning secured transactions in e-commerce and how the characteristics of e-commerce alter the traditional valuation of corporate assets.15 Indeed, in the New Economy the normative tangible form of assets such as corporate headquarters, branch offices, warehouses, land, equipment, and inventories are not the assets typically owned by Internet companies.16 Instead, due to the cyberspace nature of these companies, most of their value consists of intangible assets that include domain names, trademarks, patents, patent applications, copyrights, and proprietary information. …
Treatment effect heterogeneity in theory and practice

Instrumental Variables (IV) methods identify internally valid causal effects for individuals whose treatment status is manipulable by the instrument at hand. Inference for other populations requires homogeneity assumptions. This paper outlines a theoretical framework that nests causal homogeneity assumptions. These ideas are illustrated using sibling-sex composition to estimate the effect of childbearing on economic and marital outcomes. The application is motivated by American welfare reform. The empirical results generally support the notion of reduced labour supply and increased poverty as a consequence of childbearing but evidence on the impact of childbearing on marital stability and welfare use is more tenuous.
Large Health Savings Accounts: A Step toward Tax Neutrality for Health Care

The creation of tax-free health savings accounts presents a new opportunity to reduce the distortions created by federal tax preferences for health-related expenditures that ultimately could help eliminate those distortions. This paper proposes changes to current law that would allow most workers to receive the full amount that they and their employer spend on their health benefits as a tax-free cash contribution to the worker's health savings account. Restructuring the exclusion for employer-sponsored health benefits in this way would enable more individuals to obtain health insurance that matches their preferences, would increase efficiency in the health care sector, and could reduce inequities created by the exclusion. These changes also offer a means of limiting the currently unlimited tax exclusion for employer-sponsored health benefits that may be more politically feasible than past proposals.
Debt Maturity and the International Financial Architecture

The international financial crises of the 1990s have generated a sense that the global financial system, left to itself, tends to give rise to dangerous forms of finance. Mexico in 1994, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, and Russia in 1997-1998?all these countries had to roll over large amounts of short-term external debt. This made these countries vulnerable to debt roll-over crises, whose resolution was complicated by the fact that debt was held by a large number of uncoordinated creditors. A number of proposals in the debate on reforming the international financial architecture attempt to deal with external debt roll-over crises. It seems difficult, however, to assess the rela tive merits of these reforms without understanding the underlying determinants of debt struc tures. While it is often taken for granted that international capital is "hot," there must be some reasons that investors and borrowers engage in short-term contracts that turn out to be costly for both sides in the event of a crisis. This paper presents an analysis of international financial architecture reform in the context of a model in which the structure of the external debt of nations is endogenous. The structure of the external debt is endogenized as a solution to a commitment problem. A dangerous external liability structure keeps the country on a "short leash" and ensures that the debtor country imple ment investor-friendly policies. But it also makes the country vulnerable to crises caused by bad shocks. There is a tension, thus, between the benefits of dangerous debt in terms of incentives and the risk of unwarranted crises. The short maturity of debt and the coordination failure between creditors are not, in my model, the basic source of inefficiency, but the reflection of the incompleteness of international debt contracts (the impossibility of making these contracts contingent on the quality of the debtor countries' policies). It is not obvious, from that point of view, that solving the coordination fail ures between creditors is optimal. Indeed, I find that some well-intentioned policies may have the effect opposite of the one intended because of the endogeneity of debt structures.1 In my model, the reforms that improve welfare do so by bringing the economy closer to the first best equilibrium with complete contracts. One example is a debt restructuring mechanism that allows the coordination of the creditors of debtor countries with good policies. From this perspec tive, reforming the international financial architecture should be viewed as an effort to expand the set of verifiable states of the world on which international financial contracts can be made contin gent. The desirable degree of contract completeness may not be achieved through a spontaneous process of decentralized financial innovation because of collective action problems (Julian Franks and Oren Sussman 2005). Completing the contracts may require an investment in new institutions and legal regimes specifically designed to deal with international debt restructuring.
Public Interest Law: Facing the Problems of Maturity

This article discusses the history and current status of public interest law. It examines the seminal work of the 1970s that established public interest law and contrasts the early period with the complexities and challenges today. It opens with a discussion of the key aspects of enterprise in the 1970s: creation of a new institutional form, the new role of public interest lawyer, the business plan for financing the firms and the economic, institutional regulatory justification. That the project has succeeded and public interest law has become a permanent part of the U.S. legal system. Looking at where we are today however there are two unfinished projects: inequality in society and the limits of the regulatory process. Lawyers today are redesigning the 1970s concepts to meet the challenges. They are engaging in collaborative practices, utilizing new roles as collaborators and facilitators, locating additional compensation and participating in public interest endeavors around the world.
Are there gender and country of origin differences in immigrant labor market outcomes across European destinations

The paper uses the 1994-2000 waves of the European Community Household Panel to conduct a systematic analysis of the earnings of immigrants as compared to native workers, in particular to test whether there is any systematic variation in the labor market performance of immigrants across gender related to duration in the destination, schooling, age at immigration, country of origin, or country of destination. We find a significant negative effect of immigrant status on individual earnings of around 40% at the time of arrival in the pooled sample, although the difference is somewhat smaller for women. Those differences, however, vary greatly across countries with migrants in Germany and Portugal faring best relative to natives, and those in Sweden, Denmark, Luxembourg or Spain the worst, particularly among non-EU born migrants. Gender differences are more important among those born outside the European Union, with women doing relatively better than men. Among men, those from Asia, Latin-America and Eastern Europe receive the lowest earnings. LatinAmerican and Eastern European women are at the bottom of the women’s distribution. Earnings increase with duration in the destination and the foreign born “catch-up” to the native born, others variables being the same, at around 18 years in the destination among both men and women. Education matters more for women in terms of explaining earnings, whereas language skills are relatively more important for men.
Supporting communities of practice as a strategy to accelerate uptake of environmental science for climate action: TV weathercasters as a case study

Advantageous new ideas and practices have a vexing track record of taking root slowing, if at all. Identifying or creating, and then supporting, communities of practice is a promising approach to enhancing the likelihood that science-based environmental science knowledge will be applied to solve societal problems. A community of practice, simply put, is a group of individuals who have shared interests and problems related to a specific topic. This article provides a brief overview of what communities of practice are, and how they might be embraced as a strategy to accelerate the development of climate change solutions. The approach is illustrated with a brief case study of a highly successful program designed to support TV weathercasters as local climate change educators, called Climate Matters. It concludes with a heuristic to guide future efforts at supporting communities of practice.
Framing Art Vandalism: A Proposal to Address Violence Against Art

The first law journal treatment of art vandalism, this Note considers intentional attacks on art works, primarily in museums and public galleries, and how existing laws fail to address much less control the crime. In light of the near absence of legal analysis of the issue, the Note aims to spark more thought and study about an art crime that, while rare, can lead to devastating and, too often, permanent loss. To serve as a resource, the note also includes an appendix of reported instances of art vandalism in public institutions from 1977 to 2007.
Embracing panarchy, building resilience and integrating adaptive management through a rebirth of the National Environmental Policy Act

Environmental law plays a key role in shaping policy for sustainability of socialeecological systems. In particular, the types of legal instruments, institutions, and the response of law to the inherent variability in socialeecological systems are critical. Sustainability likely must occur via the institutions we have in place, combined with alterations in policy and regulation within the context of these institutions. This ecosystem management arrangement can be characterized as a panarchy, with research on sustainability specific to the scale of interest. In this manuscript we examine an opportunity for integrating these concepts through a regulatory rebirth of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). NEPA currently requires federal agencies to take a “hard look” at the environmental consequences of proposed action. The original intent of NEPA, however, was more substantive and its provisions, while currently equilibrium based, may be reconfigured to embrace new understanding of the dynamics of socialeecological
Human Gains and Losses from Global Warming: Satisfaction with the Climate in the USA, Winter and Summer, North and South

The scientific understanding of the causes of global warming is based on a vast body of rigorous, peer-reviewed research, but there is little systematic empirical evidence on consequences for humans. Using direct questions about satisfaction with winter and with summer weather, I show that warming’s effects on subjective well-being can be reliably estimated from cross-sectional survey data across a broad temperature spectrum and, moreover, that these effects are large. Combining a US national survey (N = 2295) and standard National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data on actual month-by-month temperatures at each location over many years, shows that changes to be expected from the widely discussed, allegedly “dangerous”, 2 °C of global warming are both familiar and small, equivalent to moving from Wisconsin to Michigan, or Virginia to North Carolina, or more generally 180 miles south. Such warming will greatly increase Americans’ satisfaction with winter weather, especially in the north, but somewhat decrease satisfaction with summer weather in both north and south. On balance, the nation benefits slightly. Regional differences are large, with northerners’ gains roughly equivalent to a 1–2 % increase in their GDP, while southerners losses are about the same size. These changes are important, about as large as the combined financial implications of all other aspects of global warming. They have important policy implications, suggesting that prompt action to reduce carbon emissions may not be optimal because that would restrict warming both in the summer and in the south (gains) but also in the winter and in the north (losses).
Questions and Answers: The Logic of Preliminary Fact Investigation

My paper considers the role of questions and answers in the inferential tasks of fact investigators (investigators such as police officers and crime scene examiners) prior to trial and indeed prior to arrest. My contention is that the reasoning processes of these investigators obey an internal, simple, successful, but dangerous, logic.
Trade and asymmetric alliances

Alliances are usually understood as a way for states to aggregate military capabilities in the face of a common threat. From this perspective, the willingness of relatively powerful states to form alliances with much weaker partners is puzzling. The weaker ally often adds little to the stronger state’s security and may increase its chance of military entanglement. This article presents evidence that international trade helps explain these alliances. States that have the power to do so have incentives to protect their trading relationships against interference from either third states or internal conflict. Alliances are one means of providing this protection. This argument differs from most other research on trade and alliances, which reverses the causal arrow and suggests instead that alliances increase trade. Empirical analysis indicates that trade increases the probability of alliance formation in major power—minor power dyads and decreases the chance that alliances will dissolve. These results are robu...
How Parents Are Made: A Response to Discrimination in Baby Making: The Unconstitutional Treatment of Prospective Parents Through Surrogacy

This short paper responds to Andrea B. Carroll's article, 'Discrimination in Baby Making', which seeks to offer arguments to explain why some statutes that regulate access to surrogacy do so in a constitutionally infirm manner. I applaud Professor Carroll for taking on the issue of the ways in which state laws related to surrogacy potentially infringe on constitutional rights, but recognizing that discrimination exists across multiple axes related to reproduction does not tell us whether any or all of that discrimination is unconstitutional. Unfortunately, Carroll’s piece, while focusing on an issue worthy of deep analysis, fails its audience in some critical respects. First, Carroll does not sufficiently explain or contend with the complicated nature of surrogacy as a practice or as a subject of legal regulation. Second, she uses the precedent of Baby M. in contradictory and under-examined ways that weaken her analysis of the case. Third, and finally, she fails to adequately or convincingly make the case that statutes that discriminate on the basis of marital status violate equal protection. As a consequence, the article ultimately provides an inadequate account of how to protect the procreative interests of people who want or need to have babies with the assistance of a surrogate.
Topics and methods in forensic accounting research

Purpose – The purposes of this paper are to highlight those topics of forensic accounting that have received little or no attention in the forensic accounting research that has been published in forensic accounting research journals; discover what research methods have been most commonly used; and identify research methods that have been infrequently used. Design/methodology/approach – This is a descriptive research study that explores the topics and methods used in forensic accounting research published in forensic accounting journals. Findings – Fraud and quantitative methods make up the largest percentage of topics and research methods published in forensic accounting journals. Research limitations/implications – Limited to forensic accounting journals. Results suggest forensic accounting researchers are using mimetic topics and methods of accounting research. The absence of diversity in forensic accounting research topics and methods has the potential to compromise the overall contribution of forensic...
Temporal Dimensions of Opportunistic Change in Technology-Based Ventures:

Opportunity recognition and opportunity-directed behavior are at the core of entrepreneurial efforts in both new and existing ventures. This study examines characteristics and behaviors related to ...
Benchmarking Central American water utilities

Abstract This study provides a comprehensive efficiency analysis of water service providers in six countries in the Central American region. Pressures for sector reform have stimulated interest in identifying and understanding the factors that can contribute to network expansion, improved service quality, and cost containment. The aim is to provide policy-makers and investment funds institutions with quantitative evidence on the effectiveness of the regional water sectors and utilities under different perspectives. In addition to key sector performance indicators, the analysis considers several benchmarking methodologies to assess technical and cost efficiency.
Election Forecasting for Turbulent Times

Election forecasters face increasing turbulence in their relevant environments, making predictions more uncertain, or at least apparently so. For US presidential contests, economic performance and candidate profiles are central variables in most statistical models. These variables have exhibited large swings recently. Before the 2008 US presidential election, the economy fell into a Great Recession, and the candidate of one of the two major parties was, for the first time, a black man. These unprecedented conditions were trumpeted in the media, with heightened frenzy over the “horse race” question of who was going to win the White House. In the press, many forecasts appeared, taking different forms—polls, models, markets, pundits, to name some—offering a broader range of possible outcomes than ever before. Just looking at the predictions of the statistical modelers alone, we find that for 2008 many teams offered estimates of the incumbent (Republican) vote, ranging over an 11 percentage point spread. At one extreme, Lockerbie (2008) forecast 41.8% while at the other extreme Campbell (2008) forecast 52.7%. Of course, other methodologists offered their own, different, forecasts. The media, in its various forms, added to the hyperbole, aggressively reporting different forecasts on an almost daily basis.
A new class of complex ejecta resulting from the interaction of two CMEs and its expected geoeffectiveness

A significant portion of transients measured by spacecraft at 1 AU does not show the well-defined properties of magnetic clouds (MCs). Here we propose a new class of complex, non-MC ejecta resulting from the interaction of two coronal mass ejections (CMEs) with different orientations, which differ from previously studied multiple-MC events. At 1 AU, they are associated with a smooth rotation of the magnetic field vector over an extended duration and do not exhibit clear signs of interaction. We determine the characteristics of such events based on a numerical simulation and identify and analyze a potential case in the long-duration transient event measured in situ on 19–22 March 2001. Such events may result in intense, long-duration geomagnetic storms, with a sequence sawtooth events, and may sometimes be misidentified as isolated CMEs.