cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Media Politicization of the United States Supreme Court

Both media scholars and Justices of the United States Supreme Court have suggested that press coverage of the Court increasingly politicizes the Court as an institution, by characterizing the Court’s Justices as ideological actors and by depicting the outputs of the Court as political decisions driven by personal preference rather than apolitical outcomes driven by constitutional doctrine and legal precedent. This study builds upon earlier efforts to investigate the veracity of this assumption, using a corpus linguistics methodology to track the use of several linguistic signals that are widely regarded as politicizing. A case study investigation of the full corpus of New York Times articles from the 1950s through the 2000s suggests an increase in the use of explicitly ideological descriptors of the Justices; an increase in references to the appointing presidents of the Justices; and an increase in the disparity of coverage of 5-4 decisions and unanimous decisions. Tanto los academicos dedicados a la comunicacion como los magistrados de la Corte Suprema de los Estados Unidos han sugerido que la cobertura de la prensa de la Corte politiza cada vez mas la Corte como institucion, ya que representa a los magistrados como actores ideologicos, y presenta las decisiones del tribunal como decisiones politicas tomadas por preferencias personales en lugar de resultados apoliticos fruto de una doctrina constitucional y un precedente legal. Este estudio se basa en intentos anteriores de investigar la veracidad de esta hipotesis, utilizando una metodologia de corpus linguistico, para rastrear el uso de diversos signos linguisticos comunmente considerados politizadores. Una investigacion de casos practicos del corpus completo de los articulos del New York Times desde la decada de 1950 hasta la decada de 2000 sugiere un aumento en el uso de descriptores de los jueces explicitamente ideologicos; un aumento en las referencias a los nombramientos de los presidentes del Tribunal; y un aumento en la disparidad de la cobertura de 4-5 decisiones y decisiones unanimes. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN : http://ssrn.com/abstract=2499231
Do vouchers lead to sorting under random private school selection? Evidence from the Milwaukee voucher program

Abstract This paper analyzes the impact of voucher design on student sorting in the application and enrollment phases of parental choice. Much of the existing literature investigates the question of sorting where private schools can screen students. However, the publicly funded U.S. voucher programs require private schools to accept all students unless oversubscribed and to pick students randomly if oversubscribed. In the context of a theoretical model, this paper argues that this feature coupled with the absence of topping up of vouchers can preclude sorting by income in the application stage, although there is still sorting by ability. This design can avert sorting by ability in the enrollment stage, but revelation of new monetary costs can lead to sorting by income. Using a logit model and student level data from the Milwaukee voucher program for 1990–1994, this study finds robust evidence that this indeed has been the case in reality.
The Senate Impeachment Trial for President Clinton

This article discusses how the 1999 Senate process of impeaching President Clinton marked a change in the procedures governing impeachment procedures. In previous judicial trials, the Senate played a passive role, leaving the organizing and running of the case to others. Reacting to the high stakes and political pressures of President Clinton's impeachment trials, the Senate created a new procedural model, what the author coins the "specially investigated President." Unlike his previous articles discussing the "specially investigated President," the author analyzes three procedural areas unique to the Clinton impeachment trial. First, because the Senate trial does not follow the rules of ordinary legislating, Senators must make the procedural rules. The tension between Clinton accusers and Clinton defenders in making these rules shaped Clinton's impeachment procedures, which, in turn, framed the Senate's unusually active participation in the proceedings. Then, the author explores the competing arguments proffered by Clinton accusers and defenders concerning trial alternatives, and how the ultimate decision reflected the mood of the public at that time. Finally, the author explores how the debates and conclusion concerning trial length reflected a change in Senate procedures.Although the author does not give concrete answers as to how the Senate should decide trial procedure issues and solve controversy surrounding trial alternatives, the author proposes several changes to streamline the Presidential impeachment process and reduce the drain on Congress and the country. In this way, the Senate can respond to the public impatience surrounding "scandal fatigue", and return to its regular political and legislative processes.
Reframing the (False?) Choice Between Purchaser Welfare and Total Welfare

This Article critiques the role that the partial equilibrium trade-off paradigm plays in the debate over the definition of “consumer welfare” that courts should employ when developing and applying antitrust doctrine. The Article contends that common reliance on the paradigm distorts the debate between those who would equate “consumer welfare” with “total welfare” and those who equate consumer welfare with “purchaser welfare.” In particular, the model excludes, by fiat, the fact that new efficiencies free up resources that flow to other markets, increasing output and thus the welfare of purchasers in those markets. Moreover, the model also assumes that both the positive and negative impacts of a transaction are permanent and occur immediately and simultaneously. As a result, the model excludes the (very real) possibility that subsequent entry will undermine or mitigate any market power, leaving only efficiencies that benefit purchasers in the original market. Removal of these unrealistic assumptions requires the antitrust community to reframe the debate about the appropriate welfare standard for antitrust and could require adjustment of the standards applied to practices that both raise prices and create efficiencies in the relevant market. For instance, recognition that efficiencies generated in one market cause resource flows to other markets and higher output in such markets undermines claims that producers “pocket” efficiencies whenever a practice results in higher prices. Thus, instead of involving a conflict between “producers” and “purchasers” in a single market, transactions that both raise prices and create efficiencies require antitrust policy to resolve a conflict between purchasers in the original market, on the one hand, and those in other markets, on the other. In the same way, the realization that the trade-off model ignores the passage of time requires antitrust policy to resolve a conflict between current and future purchasers in the original market.
Wealth, Financial Liberalization, and the Demand for Money in Japan

Estimates are presented of a demand function for broad money in Japan that explains both secular trends in the income velocity of broad money during the 1970s and 1980s and the acceleration in the decline in velocity during 1986-88. The paper concludes that wealth effects and the opportunity cost of holding broad money can explain the developments in velocity. In the period 1986-88, these variables were strongly influenced by the rapid pace of financial liberalization in Japan.
Capital controls, collection costs and domestic public debt

Abstract The implications of a large public debt for the implementation of capital controls for an economy where tax revenue collection is costly are examined. Conditions are analyzed under which policymakers will resort to capital controls to reduce the cost of recycling domestic public debt. The linkages between a costly tax collection mechanism, capital controls, and domestic government debt are explored in terms of a two-period model of optimal taxation. Numerical simulations are provided to illustrate how capital controls are linked to different domestic public debt levels and to different degrees of efficiency in tax-revenue collection.
Interpreting the Products of Direct Democracy

Twenty-seven states and the District of Columbia provide for some form of initiative procedure, allowing the citizens of a state to draft and pass legislation without assistance from their state legislature. From the first statewide referendum placed on the ballot in Oregon in 1904 through 2006, “there have been 2,231 statewide initiatives, with 909 (41%) of these being approved.” In several states, such as California and Maine, “the initiative has by general agreement become the principal driver of policy.” As these enactments become more prominent vehicles for achieving policy goals, it is important to consider how courts should go about interpreting the products of direct democracy.Many of the tools normally used when interpreting legislatively enacted statutes cannot be employed effectively in the initiative context. As cases like Romer v. Evans illustrate, “the interpretation of ballot measures [like initiatives] is often extremely difficult, in part because they often are worded vaguely and in part because the electorate’s intent concerning their meaning is often quite speculative.” Given the inherent differences between statutes created by conventional legislative efforts and those that are the product of direct popular action, a different set of interpretive tools is necessary when attempting to ascertain the meaning of an initiative. Because of these differences, and the typical relationship between the drafters of initiatives and the body politic, this Comment suggests importing an analytic paradigm from the realm of contract law: contra proferentem. Resolving statutory ambiguities against the interests of the party that drafted the initiative will help to address some of the problems inherent in direct democracy efforts, aid in incentivizing clarity in draftsmanship, and provide a reliable interpretive tool for judges to use when resolving textual ambiguities.The argument in favor of applying the doctrine of contra proferentem to the products of direct democracy proceeds in three parts. First, the implications of the different resources that are available when interpreting initiatives and legislatively enacted statutes are explored. Second, the motivations behind and justifications for importing an interpretive doctrine from the realm of contract law are discussed in detail. Finally, the potential effects of applying contra proferentem to ballot measures are considered, and the theory this Comment promotes is distinguished from other proposals to deal with the interpretive issues presented by initiatives.
Corporate General Counsel and Financial Reporting Quality

We examine the role of general counsel GC in firms' financial reporting quality. GCs have a broad oversight role within the firm, including keeping the firm in compliance with laws and regulations and dealing with potential violations with respect to financial reporting. Several high-profile U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission SEC investigations have resulted in lawsuits or indictments against GCs for perpetrating financial fraud and caused many to ask: where were the gatekeepers? As such, we examine the conditions under which GCs may stray from their primary role as gatekeepers. Mainly, we empirically investigate claims that compensation can impair the independence or compromise the professional judgment of a GC. We measure the level of compensation using the GC's presence or absence in the top five officers of the firm by compensation. Results are consistent with GCs straying from their role as gatekeepers, to some extent, when highly compensated in a manner similar to the CEO and CFO. In particular, firms with highly compensated GCs have lower financial reporting quality and more aggressive accounting practices, including management of the litigation reserve. However, the results also show that highly compensated GCs play an important gatekeeping role in keeping the firm in compliance with generally accepted accounting principles. Thus, highly compensated GCs appear to tolerate moderately aggressive behavior but constrain it such that it would not result in violation of securities laws and jeopardize their standing within the firm. This paper was accepted by Mary Barth, accounting.
Vintage capital and creditor protection

Abstract We provide novel evidence linking the level of creditor protection provided by law to the degree of usage of technologically older, vintage capital in the airline industry. Using a panel of aircraft-level data around the world, we find that better creditor rights are associated with both aircraft of a younger vintage and newer technology, as well as firms with larger aircraft fleets. We propose that by mitigating financial shortfalls, enhanced legal protection of creditors facilitates the ability of firms to make large capital investments, adapt advanced technologies, and foster productivity.
Sex, Culture, and the Biology of Rape: Toward Explanation and Prevention

For all that has been written about rape, its multiple causes remain insufficiently understood for law to deter it effectively. This follows, in part, from inadequately interdisciplinary study of rape causation. This Article argues that integrating life science and social science perspectives on sexual aggression can improve law's model of rape behavior, and further our efforts to reduce its incidence. The Article first explains biobehavioral theories of sexual aggression, and offers a guide to common but avoidable errors in assessing them. It then compares a number of those theories' predictions with existing data and demonstrates how knowledge of the effects of evolutionary processes on human behavioral predispositions may help us better understand - without justifying or excusing - psychological mechanisms that contribute to patterns of rape. Because increased knowledge of causal influences may afford law increased effectiveness in deterring rape, the author then explores ways in which biobehavioral theories could affect analysis of several current legal issues, from the debate over chemical castration to the meaning of motive in rape-relevant legislation.
The Exchange of Flow Toxicity

Flow toxicity can be measured in terms of the probability that a liquidity provider is adversely selected by informed traders. In previous papers the authors introduced the concept of Volume-synchronized Probability of Informed Trading (the VPIN * metric) and provided a robust estimation procedure. In this study, they discuss the asymmetric impact that an incorrect estimation of the VPIN metric has on a market maker’s performance. This asymmetry may be part of the explanation for the evaporation of liquidity witnessed on May 6th 2010. To mitigate that undesirable behavior, they present the specifications of a VPIN contract, which could be used to hedge against the risk of higher than expected levels of toxicity, as well as to monitor such risk. Among other applications, it would also work as an execution benchmark and a price discovery mechanism, since it allows for the externalization of market participants’ views of future toxicity.
Beyond Nomos and Narrative. Unconverted Antinomianism in the Work of Susan Howe

Robert Cover's "Nomos and Narrative" (NN questions about law's intersections with gender; and questions about law's intersections with religion. Contemporary commentary on Cover's work - including feminist commentary - has argued for N&N's continuing relevance and has either overlooked or excused its failure to engage with issues of gender. In refraining from strong critique of N&N, such commentary attaches itself to - and is limited by - the liberal-legalist genealogy that shapes not only N&N but also the texts that continue to dominate the areas of "Law and Religion" and of "Law and Literature." This article argues the need for theoretical movement "beyond N&N" and beyond legal-liberalism. It points to possibilities for such movement - especially within feminist-legal-theoretical ventures and in the "Law and Religion" and "Law and Literature" areas - by re-reading N&N alongside and in interaction with the work of the American poet, historian and critic, Susan Howe. A contemporary of Cover, Howe has taken up in her work the reality of gendered antinomianism - evident in American religious history and in American literature - that Cover excluded from N&N. Seeing in Howe's work the kind of freshness and force that readers of 25 years ago discerned in Cover's, this article introduces her work to legal theory, demonstrating the ways in which it exposes alternative directions for the study of law's engagement with narrativity, with religion, and with gender. Fragments from Susan Howe's writing appear throughout this article and will be recognizable by their appearance in a distinctive font.
Warranty Reserve: Contingent Liability, Information Signal, or Earnings Management Tool?

ABSTRACT: We examine the information role of accounting disclosures on warranties, utilizing a database that became available due to the requirements of FIN 45. First, because firms use warranty policies as a business strategy to promote their products, a warranty reserve can serve two roles: an information signal regarding product quality, as well as a contingent liability. Consistent with this view, we find that the stock market recognizes that: (1) the warranty reserve contains information about firms’ future performance, and (2) the reserve is a liability. Second, because warranty accruals require estimation of future claims, they can be used as a tool of earnings management. Our evidence indicates that managers use warranty accruals to manage earnings opportunistically to meet earnings targets. Finally, we find that the stock market recognizes the understatement of warranty liabilities of firms that managed earnings.
Super Cats as Alternative Investments

When a catastrophe or Super Cat occurs the costs can be exorbitant as Hurricane Andrew in 1992 dramatically showed. While the probability or odds of a hurricane striking southern Florida are rather high, not all catastrophes or Super Cats occur with such frequency. In fact, the probability of many Super Cats actually occurring is extremely low. Super Cats, which are currently little understood and thus scarcely covered, can present a potentially lucrative alternative investment opportunity for financial institutions with the requisite resources and proper valuation methodology. This article introduces the concept of super catastrophes, or Super Cats, as alternative investment opportunities. Using the recent Pepsi Play For a Billion sweepstakes case, it presents a methodology for valuing Super Cats with a reasonable margin of safety. The methodology combines insurance and value investing theory. In addition to the case discussion, general guidelines are presented that could prove useful in future alternative Super Cat investments.
The Apportionment of ‘Direct Taxes’: Are Consumption Taxes Constitutional?

In debates about reorienting the American revenue system, nearly everyone assumes the Constitution is irrelevant. With few exceptions, the tax provisions in the original Constitution - particularly the direct-tax apportionment rule and the uniformity rule - have been interpreted to be paper tigers. And in only one major case has the Sixteenth Amendment, which excepts "taxes on incomes" from apportionment, been held to limit congressional power.Rejecting conventional wisdom, this Article argues that some consumption taxes would violate constitutional norms. The Article focuses on the requirement that “direct taxes” be apportioned among the states on the basis of population. From a study of founding-era debates, the Article concludes that “direct taxes” has a meaning with contemporary relevance: Direct taxes are not duties, imposts, or excises, and they are imposed by the national government on individuals rather than on the states. Along the way, the Article criticizes Hylton v. United States, in which the Supreme Court considered the meaning of “direct taxes” in 1796, and argues that the Court did better in Pollock, which struck down the 1894 income tax.Applying this historical understanding, the Article examines several proposed national consumption taxes. It concludes that a value-added or sales tax would be an indirect tax not subject to apportionment, but that the so-called “flat tax” or the unlimited savings allowance (USA) tax would be a direct tax. Moreover, the Article argues that such a direct-consumption tax should not escape apportionment as a “tax on incomes” under the Sixteenth Amendment.
Avoiding the Creation of a Gender Ghetto in International Criminal Law

This article examines the harm suffered by women and girls in armed conflict and questions the role female lawyers and academics can play in order to best be of assistance. Specifically, the article addresses the problem that when women lawyers work only on gender issues, they find themselves in an all-female ghetto, excluding, or being excluded by, their male colleagues and brothers. Conversely, if women lawyers do not focus on atrocity crimes against women, the question arises of whether anyone will ensure these crimes receive attention. The article argues that by maintaining the treatment of gender crimes and crimes of sexual violence, and by ensuring adequate female representation in the various fields and institutions of international – and national – justice, these issues may be adequately addressed.
Pairwise kidney exchange

The literature on exchange of indivisible goods finds natural application in the exchange of live donor kidneys for transplant. However, in kidney exchange, there are constraints on the size of exchanges. Initially, kidney exchanges are likely to be between just two patient–donor pairs. We show that, although this constraint eliminates some potential exchanges, there is a wide class of constrained-efficient mechanisms that are strategy-proof when patient–donor pairs and surgeons have 0–1 preferences. This includes deterministic mechanisms that accommodate the priority setting that organ banks currently use to allocate cadaver organs, and stochastic mechanisms that allow distributive justice issues to be addressed.
A Comparative Analysis of the Empirical Validity of Two Rule-Based Belief Languages

Rule-based expert systems deal with inexact reasoning through a variety of quasi-probabilistic methods, including the widely used subjective Bayesian SB and certainty factors CF models, versions of which are implemented in many commercial expert system shells. Previous research established that under certain independence assumptions, SB and CF are ordinally compatible: when used to compute the beliefs in several hypotheses of interest under the same set of circumstances, the hypothesis that will attain the highest posterior probability will also attain the highest certainty factor, etc. This monotonicity is important in the context of expert systems, where most inference-engines and explanation facilities are designed to utilize relative scales of posterior beliefs, making little or no use of their absolute magnitudes. This research extends the comparative analysis of SB and CF to the field, where subjective degrees of belief and different elicitation procedures are likely to complicate their analytic similarity and impact their actual validity. In particular, we describe an experiment in which CF was shown to dominate SB in terms of several validity criteria, a finding which we attribute to parsimony and robustness considerations. The paper is relevant to i practitioners who use belief languages in rule-based systems, and ii researchers who seek a methodology to investigate the validity of other belief languages in controlled experiments.
God, Civic Virtue, and the American Way: Reconstructing Engel

If ever a decision embodied the heroic, countermajoritarian function we romantically ascribe to judicial review, it was the 1962 decision that struck down school prayer — Engel v. Vitale. Engel provoked more outrage, more congressional attempts to overturn it, and more attacks on the Supreme Court than perhaps any other decision in its history. Indeed, Engel’s countermajoritarian narrative is so strong that scholars have largely assumed that the historical record supports our romanticized conception of the case. It does not. Using the lens of legal history, this Article reconstructs the story of Engel, then explores the implications of this reconstructed narrative. Engel is not the countermajoritarian case it seems, but recognizing what it is not allows us to see Engel for what it is: a remarkably thick account of Supreme Court decision-making that enriches a number of conversations in constitutional law. Engel adds a new strand to a burgeoning body of scholarship on the power of culture in general, and social movements in particular, to generate constitutional change. It presents a rare glimpse of the Justices explicitly engaging in the dialogic function of judicial review. And it exposes qualitative differences in the way popular constitutionalism might play out in practice, with implications for the theory itself. In the end, Engel is still a case that offers valuable insights about Supreme Court decision-making and the role of judicial review. They just aren’t the insights that conventional wisdom would have us think.
Imperfect Monitoring and Impermanent Reputations

We study the long-run sustainability of reputations in games with imperfect public monitoring. It is impossible to maintain a permanent reputation for playing a strategy that does not play an equilibrium of the game without uncertainty about types. Thus, a player cannot indefinitely sustain a reputation for noncredible behavior in the presence of imperfect monitoring.
E-BUSINESS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT: AN OVERVIEW AND FRAMEWORK*

The web is having a significant impact on how firms interact with each other and their customers. Past stumbling blocks for supply chain integration such as high transaction costs between partners, poor information availability, and the challenges of managing complex interfaces between functional organizations are all dissolving on the web. In this paper, we examine how the web is changing supply chain management. We present a survey of emerging research on the impact of e-business on supply chain management including descriptive frameworks, analytical models, empirical analysis, and case studies. We classify the work into three major categories: e-commerce, e-procurement, and e-col-laboration.
Articulation-based accruals

We build an articulating financial statements model in which the beginning and ending balance sheet amounts are explicitly linked to accruals. We distinguish accruals based on the source financial statement of the accruals, either the cash flow statement, balance sheet, or statement of owners’ equity. We then examine how the accrual-generating source affects the relations between accruals and future earnings and stock returns. While prior studies document a negative association between accruals and future earnings and returns, we find accruals relating to the current operating section of the balance sheet are positively associated with future earnings. Further, accruals originating from net financial asset via the statement of owners’ equity are positively associated with future returns. We also show that equity investment and discontinued asset accruals differ from operating asset accruals in their association with future earnings.
When Finance Meets Physics: The Impact of the Speed of Light on Financial Markets and Their Regulation

Modern physics has demonstrated that matter behaves very differently as it approaches the speed of light. This paper explores the implications of modern physics to the operation and regulation of financial markets. Information cannot move faster than the speed of light. The geographic separation of market centers means that relativistic considerations need to be taken into account in the regulation of markets. Observers in different locations may simultaneously observe different “best” prices. Regulators may not be able to determine which transactions occurred first, leading to problems with best execution and trade-through rules. Catastrophic software glitches can tunnel through seemingly impregnable quality control procedures.
Social Media, Financial Algorithms and the Hack Crash

‘@AP: Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured’. So read a tweet sent from a hacked Associated Press Twitter account @AP, which affected financial markets, wiping out...
The Elusive Foundations of Political Freedom in Britain and the United States

Political freedom is relatively secure in both Britain and the United States. Its foundations, however, are obscure. We explore four possibilities: (1) that tolerant attitudes are widely held by members of the general public; (2) that those who hold intolerant views are unlikely to act on their beliefs; (3) that tolerant attitudes are widely held by members of the political elite; and (4) that constitutional organization plays a salutary role in the protection of political freedom. We conclude that neither public tolerance nor public apathy is a promising source of political freedom in either Britain or the United States. The critical underpinnings of political freedom in both countries, we conclude, seem to be elite tolerance and constitutional organization.
Hedging, Speculation, and Systemic Risk

Investors like to speculate. Financial institutions accommodate them, often hedging to reduce the risk of insolvency. Neither investors nor financial institutions create systemic risk. Governments do that, by refusing to enforce contracts, and by guaranteeing private debt without charging market rates for the insurance they are providing. Then governments ask for tax money so they can regulate to reduce the systemic risk they themselves have caused.
Atmospheric Biomarkers and their Evolution over Geological Timescales

The search for life on extrasolar planets is based on the assumption that one can screen extrasolar planets for habitability spectroscopically. The first space born instruments able to detect as well as characterize extrasolar planets, Darwin and terrestrial planet finder (TPF-I and TPF-C) are scheduled to launch before the end of the next decade. The composition of the planetary surface, atmosphere, and its temperature-pressure profile influence a detectable spectroscopic signal considerably. For future space-based missions it will be crucial to know this influence to interpret the observed signals and detect signatures of life in remotely observed atmospheres. We give an overview of biomarkers in the visible and IR range, corresponding to the TPF-C and TPF-I/DARWIN concepts, respectively. We also give an overview of the evolution of biomarkers over time and its implication for the search for life on extrasolar Earth-like planets. We show that atmospheric features on Earth can provide clues of biological activities for at least 2 billion years.
What Lies Beneath: Interpretive Methodology, Constitutional Authority, and the Case of Originalism

It is a remarkable fact of American constitutional practice that we cannot agree on a methodology of constitutional interpretation. What can explain our disagreement? Is it the product of a deeper, principled dispute about the meaning of constitutional law? Or is it just a veneer – a velvet curtain obscuring what is really a back-room brawl over political outcomes?This Article suggests that these, in essence, are the only viable possibilities. Either we disagree about interpretation because we disagree (or are confused) about constitutional authority – about why the Constitution binds us in the first place; or we disagree because we disagree politically about the particular results of using one methodology versus another.The Article contends that methods of interpretation must be defended by reference to accounts of constitutional authority. It takes as its case in point the family of interpretive approaches known as originalism, which favors the resolution of constitutional issues according to a meaning fixed at the Framing. Originalism is an apt case study because it currently is ascendant in both academic theory and judicial practice and, not incidentally, because it often is suspected of being a cover for controversial political commitments.The Article illustrates the relationship between interpretation and authority by assessing the “natural rights” defense of an originalist Constitution offered by the influential New Originalist Randy Barnett. Barnett’s account fails, the Article contends, because it cannot explain the authority of the Constitution it purports to justify. But its failure underscores the centrality of authority to methods of interpretation.The Article then examines three general accounts of constitutional authority that might be thought to entail originalism. Accounts based on “consent” or “popular sovereignty,” while rhetorically appealing, lack any basis in the realities of modern society. Accounts based on what the Article terms “Moral Guidance” – the supposedly superior wisdom of the Framing process – are both descriptively implausible and conceptually problematic. Only accounts based on “Dispute Resolution,” such as the well-known “Footnote Four” approach from the Supreme Court’s Carolene Products decision, can overcome the fatal flaws of these other accounts. But Dispute Resolution can support only a selective, modest use of originalism.Originalists, then, are left with a choice, the Article concludes. They can moderate their interpretive methodology as the Footnote Four approach suggests. Or they can insist on thoroughgoing originalism – with nothing to back it up but the bare desire for politically controversial results.
Privacy, Free Speech, and "Blurry Edged" Social Networks

Much of Internet-related scholarship over the past ten years has focused on the enormous benefits that come from eliminating intermediaries and allowing user generated one-to-many (one person to many people) communications. Many commentators have noted the tension created between the positive benefits for free speech and the negative effects on user privacy. This tension has been exacerbated by technologies that permit users to create social networks with “blurry edges” —places where they post information generally intended for a small network of friends and family, but which is left available to the whole world to access. The thought is that someone the user cannot identify a priori might find the information interesting or useful. These technological advances have created enormous benefits as people connect to each other and build communities online. The technology that enables these communities, however, also creates an illusion of privacy and control that the law fails to recognize. This Article discusses the technological, social, and legal regimes that have created this framework, and proposes a technical solution to permit users to maintain networks with blurry edges while still appropriately balancing speech and privacy concerns.
Wrongful Convictions and the Punishment of Attempts

Abstract This article presents economic models of law enforcement where the punishment of attempts leads to an increased risk of wrongful convictions. Consideration of these risks weakens the case for punishing attempts. Specifically, attempts ought to be punished less frequently than suggested in previous literature, and even when the punishment of attempts is desirable, they typically ought to be punished less severely than accomplished crimes. Purely deterrence related rationales as well as rationales based on costs associated with wrongful convictions support this conclusion. The presence of wrongful conviction costs also implies that a degree of under-deterrence is optimal and that incomplete attempts ought to typically be punished less severely than complete attempts.
The Myth of Ashby v. White

Ashby v. White is widely believed to have established the principle that “for every right, there must be a remedy,” sometimes known as the “ubi jus” principle. The ubi jus principle has played an important role in American law - it is frequently cited by both courts and scholars. Perhaps most famously, it was a central part of the rationale of Chief Justice Marshall’s opinion in Marbury v. Madison, establishing the foundations of judicial review. As the supposed progenitor of the ubi jus principle, Ashby has been praised as one of the most important cases is Anglo-American legal history. In this article, I demonstrate that the accepted account of Ashby's holding is wrong. By relying on previously ignored historical sources and case reports, I demonstrate that if anything, Ashby actually rejected the ubi jus principle. Even more fundamentally, a close reading of Ashby demonstrates how conceptually hollow the ubi jus principle is.
Telecom traffic and investment in developing countries : the effects of international settlement rate reductions

Developing countries, which received about $35 billion in net settlement payments from the United States telecom carriers between 1985 and 1998, were upset by the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) decision to slash rates, because lower rates mean lower payments. They claim that the payments help finance telecom investment, and that the FCC's decision will therefore harm their telecom sectors. The author uses a panel data set for 178 countries from 1985 to 1998 to test how changes in settlement rates affect telecom traffic and investment. He finds that rates are significantly negatively correlated with traffic, with the greatest effects in the poorest countries. In other words, reduced settlement rates spur telecom traffic from developing countries to the United States. And while there is a statistically significant correlation between settlement payments and telecom revenues in developing countries, he finds no correlation between the payments and the number of telephone mainlines or imports of telecommunications equipment. In short, there is no evidence that the payments are invested in telecom networks.
Money Stock Revisions and Unanticipated Money Growth

Abstract An important ‘empirical regularity’ is the strong positive effect of money shocks on output and employment. One strand of business cycle theory relates this finding to temporary confusions between absolute and relative price changes. These models predict positive output effects of unperceived monetary movements, but the quantitative importance of unperceived shifts in nominal aggregates is subject to question. Another strand of theory, based on long-term nominal contracts and analogous price-setting institutions, generates output effects from unanticipated, but not necessarily contemporaneously unperceived, money shocks. However, the real effects of unpredicted, but contemporaneously understood, monetary changes are not obviously consistent with efficient institutional arrangements. The present paper provides some empirical evidence on the two types of theories by analyzing the output effects associated with revisions in the money stock data, where the revisions are interpreted as components of unperceived monetary movements. The revisions turn out to have no significant explanatory power for output. Previous findings that innovations from an estimated money growth equation have a significant output effect remain intact when the revisions are included as separate explanatory variables. Overall, the study provides a small amount of evidence against the special role of unperceived, as opposed to unanticipated, money movements as a determinant of business fluctuations.
Some Preliminary Thoughts on the Law of Neighbors

A fundamental characteristic of real property law, one that is definitional in nature, is that its subject matter consists of land parcels. A land parcel, in contrast to an ownership interest such as a fee simple estate, is not an abstraction. Each land parcel has a physical reality, and virtually all land parcels abut other parcels. Each parcel has one particular location, defined by its proximity to other pieces of property. The value of a land parcel depends heavily upon its location, and the nature of neighboring parcels has a major impact in determining that value. Owners of neighboring parcels have sets of rights, privileges, and duties that define their legal relationships with neighbors. In Anglo-American law, those rights, privileges, and duties are components of real property law, but they are not a recognized category of real property law. Rather, they represent the application of general doctrines and rules to neighbors, instead of a distinct and cohesive body of law of its own. Other legal systems have developed distinct bodies of law to govern relations among neighbors. The law of neighbors or “neighborhood law” is not presently a recognized type of law practice in the United States, and it will not likely become one anytime in the near future. In part this is the case because neighbor law disputes typically do not involve high financial stakes and resulting incentives for lawyers to market themselves as experts in the area. This Article suggests that if the field of neighbor law develops in the United States, academics will have to lead the way.This Article does three things. First, it introduces the “stranger model” and the “friend model” of neighbors law, using these models as a frame for describing three components of existing U.S. law applicable to neighboring landowners. Second, it briefly describes the extent to which South Africa and Scotland have come to describe neighbors law as a discrete legal category, which correlates to the stranger model and friend model. Third, it concludes by making several suggestions on how the models may help in the construction of a coherent law of neighbors.
Centralization versus decentralization: Risk pooling, risk diversification, and supply chain disruptions

Abstract We investigate optimal system design in a multi-location system in which supply is subject to disruptions. We examine the expected costs and cost variances of the system in both a centralized and a decentralized inventory system. We show that, when demand is deterministic and supply may be disrupted, using a decentralized inventory design reduces cost variance through the risk diversification effect, and therefore a decentralized inventory system is optimal. This is in contrast to the classical result that when supply is deterministic and demand is stochastic, centralization is optimal due to the risk-pooling effect. When both supply may be disrupted and demand is stochastic, we demonstrate that a risk-averse firm should typically choose a decentralized inventory system design.
Uncertain lifetime, life protection, and the value of life saving

Abstract The analytic innovation is treating life's end as uncertain, and life expectancy as partly the product of individuals' efforts to self-protect against mortality and morbidity risks. The demand for self-protection is modeled in a stochastic, life-cycle framework under alternative insurance options. The model helps explain the trend and systematic diversity in life expectancies across different population groups, as well as the wide variability in reported “value of life saving” estimates. The analysis yields a closed-form solution for individuals' value of life saving that is estimable empirically. It reflects the impacts of specific personal characteristics and alternative insurance options on both life expectancy and its valuation.
The determinants of bank loan recovery rates

Abstract Using Moody’s Ultimate Recovery Database, we estimate a model for bank loan recoveries using variables reflecting loan and borrower characteristics, industry and macroeconomic conditions, and several recovery process variables. We find that loan characteristics are more significant determinants of recovery rates than are borrower characteristics prior to default. Industry and macroeconomic conditions are relevant, as are prepackaged bankruptcy arrangements. We examine whether a commonly used proxy for recovery rates, the 30-day post-default trading price of the loan, represents an efficient estimate of actual recoveries and find that such a proxy is biased and inefficient.
Performance Management and Deficit Adjustment in U.S. Cities: An Exploratory Study

ABSTRACTPerformance management or PM has been promoted as a tool to transform government. Claims that PM will enable governments to “do more with less,” “increase efficiency,” provide “value for money,” and make “rational budget decisions” abound. Has PM helped city governments in the United States cope with the effects of the 2007–2009 Great Recession? Theory suggests that PM can provide the informational and analytical foundation necessary for city officials to implement comprehensive but conflictive budget-cutting and revenue-raising strategies. By facilitating deep expenditure cuts and tax increases, PM can indirectly influence budget deficits. Using data from a national survey of city governments and multiyear audited financial reports, the empirical analysis shows that PM cities favored what are essentially decremental responses to fiscal crises that lead to marginal changes in revenues and expenditures. Not surprisingly, there is no evidence that PM influences the size and change in budget shortfalls.
Does acquirer cash level predict post-acquisition returns?

This paper investigates whether an acquirer’s pre-announcement cash level can predict post-acquisition returns. Harford (1999, Journal of Finance, 54, 1969–1997) shows that some cash-rich acquirers have lower announcement period returns than other acquirers, suggesting the market partially anticipates poor future performance. This paper shows that the acquirer’s cash level is also strongly and negatively predictive of post-acquisition returns, indicating that the announcement response is incomplete. Post-acquisition return on net operating assets (RNOA) is significantly decreasing in acquirer cash, suggesting that the market responds to subsequent poor operating performance as it is reported. Overall, these results are consistent with the market’s inattention to a less prominent accounting signal (acquirer cash) but attentiveness to a more prominent accounting signal (RNOA), as proposed by Hirshleifer and Teoh (2003, Journal of Accounting Economics, 36, 337–386).
Juicing the dividend yield: Mutual funds and the demand for dividends ☆

Abstract Some mutual funds purchase stocks before dividend payments to artificially increase their dividends, which we call “juicing.” Funds paid more than twice the dividends implied by their holdings in 7.4% of fund-years examined. Juicing is associated with larger inflows, and is more common among funds with unsophisticated investors. This behavior is consistent with an underlying investor demand for dividends, but is hard to explain by taxes or need for income, as funds can generate equivalent tax-free distributions by returning capital. Juicing is costly to investors through higher turnover and increased taxes of 0.57% to 1.52% of fund assets per year.
Why Do Authoritarian Regimes Sign the Convention Against Torture? Signaling, Domestic Politics and Non-Compliance ∗

Why Do Authoritarian Regimes Sign the Convention Against Torture? Signaling, Domestic Politics and Non-Compliance
The Role of Party: The Legislative Consequences of Partisan Electoral Competition

We examine the proposition that legislative organization can be explained by the nature of party competition in elections. We argue that legislators in environments where two parties are competitive for majority status should be most likely to have delegated power to their leadership to constrain individualistic behavior within their party, which should in turn increase the spatial predictability of individual voting patterns. Using roll call votes and district-level electoral data from the U.S. state legislatures, we show empirically that increased statewide interparty competition strongly corresponds to much more predictable voting behavior overall, while legislators from competitive districts have the least predictable