cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Are Sovereigns Entitled to the Benefit of the International Rule of Law

The applicability of the ideal we call �the Rule of Law� (ROL) in international law (IL) is complicated by (1) the fact that there is no overarching world government from whom we need protection (of the sort that the ROL traditionally offers) and it is also complicated by (2) the fact that IL affects states, in the first instance, rather than individuals (for whose sake we usually insist on ROL requirements). The article uses both these ideas as points of entry into a consideration of the applicability of the ROL in IL. It suggests that the �true� subjects of IL are really human individuals (billions of them) and it queries whether the protections that they need are really best secured by giving national sovereigns the benefit of ROL requirements in IL. For example, a national sovereign's insistence that IL norms should not be enforced unless they are clear and determinate may mean that individuals have fewer protections against human rights violations. More radically, it may be appropriate to think of national sovereigns more as �officials� or �agencies� of the IL system than as its subjects. On this account, we should consider the analogous situation of officials and agencies in a municipal legal system: are officials and agencies in need of, or entitled to, the same ROL protections as private individuals? If not, then maybe it is inappropriate to think that sovereign states are entitled to the same ROL protections at the international level as individuals are entitled to at the municipal level.
Firm characteristics and long-run stock returns after corporate events

Abstract The well-documented abnormal long-run buy-and-hold returns to firms issuing equity in initial public offerings and seasoned equity offerings, firms bidding in mergers, and firms initiating dividends can be attributed to imperfect control-firm matching. In addition to firm size and market-to-book ratio, event firms on average differ from control firms in terms of idiosyncratic volatility, liquidity, return momentum, and capital investment, each of which also explains returns. We propose a simple regression-based approach to control for differences in firm characteristics across event and control firms, and we show that long-run abnormal returns do not differ significantly from zero for event firms in the 1980 to 2005 period. The returns to event firms are, therefore, consistent with patterns known to exist for the broad stock market and do not require event-specific explanations.
Global Health Justice

The burden of disease falls unequally upon the world’s peoples. Mortality gaps between geographical areas and rich and poor countries are widening. Health inequities are significantly a product of the wider distributive inequities that are of concern in global justice. Various economic, social, and health sector variables operating at the global and domestic levels contribute to these global health inequalities. Groups of countries with high adult or under-five mortality, for example, have on average lower mean incomes, more extreme poverty, lower levels of investment in human and physical resources, higher inflation, less trade, less effective disease prevention, and worse educational outcomes and more severe health risk factors.1 Health inequalities are not limited to the global arena; within countries, they are widespread and often dramatic. Differences in life prospects by socioeconomic status, even within wealthy countries such as the United States, threaten the viability and sustainability of domestic economic systems.
Financial integration, globalization, and real activity

Abstract Using data for 48 advanced and emerging market economies during 1985–2008, this paper examines the impact of measures of financial integration and globalization on several dimensions of real activity. We find that both advances in financial integration and globalization are associated with higher growth, lower growth volatility, and lower probabilities of severe declines in real activity, with the positive impact of financial integration on macroeconomic stability enhanced by improvements in corporate governance. Thus, we find no evidence of a trade-off between advances in financial integration, globalization, and growth and macroeconomic stability.
ECONOMIC FREEDOM AND THE SUCCESS OF MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS

This study looks at the relationship between the success of microfinance institutions and the degree of economic freedom in their host countries. Many microfinance institutions are currently not self-sustaining, and both theoretical and empirical work suggests that the economic environment in which they operate is an important factor in their ability to reach this goal, furthering the mission of outreach to the poor. The sustainability of the microfinance institutions is analyzed here using a large cross-section of institutions and countries. The results show that microfinance institutions operate primarily in countries with a relatively low degree of overall economic freedom and that government intervention in the economy can reduce their sustainability.
Debt Covenants and Accounting Conservatism

Using a sample of over 5,000 debt issues, I test whether firms with more extensive use of covenants in their public debt contracts exhibit timelier recognition of economic losses in accounting earnings. Covenants govern the transfer of decision-making and control rights from shareholders to bondholders when a company approaches financial distress and thereby limit managers’ abilities to expropriate bondholder wealth. Covenants are expected to constrain managerial opportunism, however, only if the accounting system recognizes economic losses in earnings in a timely fashion. Thus, the demand for timely loss recognition should increase with a contract's reliance on covenants. Consistent with this conjecture, I find evidence that reliance on covenants in public debt contracts is positively associated with the degree of timely loss recognition. I also find evidence that the presence of prior private debt mitigates this relationship.
Rethinking Transboundary Ground Water Resources Management: A Local Approach along the Mexico-U.S. Border

Despite more than forty years of promises to the contrary, neither Mexico nor the United States have shown any inclination to pursue a border-wide pact to coordinate management of the border region's transboundary ground water resources. As a result, these critical resources-which serve as the sole or primary source of fresh water for most border communities on both sides-are being overexploited and polluted, leaving the local population with little recourse. Imminently unsustainable, the situation portends a grim future for the region. In the absence of national governmental interests and involvement on either side of the frontier, this article advocates an alternative approach, one that sidesteps the respective federal authorities. It proposes that subnational entities at the regional and local level pursue cooperation in the form of locally-specific, cross-border arrangements. These may take the form of informal memorandum of understanding, or more structured contracts for goods or services. Under the unique circumstances of the Mexico-U.S. border, such arrangements are likely more achievable and apt to create viable cross-border pacts that would be respected by the local communities. Moreover they are more likely to achieve a sustainable and water-secure future for the border its communities, and the natural environment.
Earnings Manipulation Risk, Corporate Governance Risk, and Auditors' Planning and Pricing Decisions

This paper investigates auditors' assessments of earnings manipulation risk and corporate governance risk, and their planning and pricing decisions in the presence of these identified risks. To conduct this investigation, we use engagement partners' assessments of their existing clients made during the participating public accounting firm's client continuance risk assessment process. We find that auditors plan increased effort and billing rates for clients with earnings manipulation risk, and that the positive relationships between earnings manipulation risk and both effort and billing rates are greater for clients that also have heightened corporate governance risk. These findings provide evidence that auditors assess situations involving both an aggressive management and inadequate corporate governance, and that there is a relationship between those assessments and auditors' planning and pricing decisions.
India's new patent regime: aiding 'access' or abetting 'genericide'?

This paper considers the impact of the new Indian patent regime on the important issue of access to affordable drugs. Access is dependent, in part, on the ability of generic manufacturers to produce cheap generic drugs. Working with the bird flu patent example, this paper will demonstrate that far from abetting 'genericide', the new regime provides adequate legal windows to aid the continued production of affordable generics. However, the mere existence of such windows/flexibilities is not enough generic manufacturers will only exploit such windows when it is economically and politically viable to do so.
Tests of investor learning models using earnings innovations and implied volatilities

This paper investigates alternative models of learning to explain changes in uncertainty surrounding earnings innovations. As a proxy for investor uncertainty, we use model-free implied volatilities; as a proxy for earnings innovations, representing signals of firm performance likely to drive investor perceptions of uncertainty, we use quarterly unexpected earnings benchmarked to the consensus forecast. We document that uncertainty declines on average after the release of quarterly earnings announcements and this decline is attenuated by the magnitude of the earnings innovation. This latter result is consistent with models that incorporate signal magnitude as a factor driving changes in uncertainty. Most important, we document that signals deviating sufficiently from expectations lead to net increases in uncertainty. Critically, this result suggests that models allowing for posterior variance to be greater than prior variance even after signal revelation [e.g., regime shifts in Pastor and Veronesi (Annu Rev Financ Econ 1:361–381, 2009)] better describe how investors incorporate new information.
Economics, Law and Institutions: The Shaping of Chinese Competition Law

China has been considering enactment of an anti-monopoly (antitrust) law since 1993, and it has now enacted such a law. Given the potential importance of this legislation, there is much uncertainty about what the enactment means and what roles it is likely to play in influencing the development of the Chinese economy. This article applies a neo-institutionalist analysis in examining some of the factors that have influenced the shaping of the legislation and that are likely to influence the operation of competition law and its organizations. The main argument is that the central dynamic in both the creation of the statute and its structuring has been the interaction of Chinese economic policy institutions with foreign pressures (institutional mechanisms intended to "push" the Chinese decision makers in certain directions) and foreign cognitive influence (cognitive factors that accord influence to foreign organizations, experience, and laws). These interactions also provide insights into how the law is likely to be applied. The paper also explores these two concepts - foreign pressure and foreign cognitive influence - in relation to the theory of institutional change.
Behavioral corporate finance

Managers and corporate directors need to recognize two key behavioral impediments that obstruct the process of value maximization, one internal to the firm and the other external. I call the first obstruction behavioral costs. Behavioral costs, like agency costs, tend to prevent value creation. Behavioral costs are the costs associated with errors that people make because of cognitive imperfections and emotional influences. The second obstruction stems from behavioral errors on the part of analysts and investors. These errors can create gaps between fundamental values and market prices. When they do, managers may find themselves conflicted, unsure of how to factor the errors of analysts and investors into their own decisions. Proponents of value based management emphasize that with properly designed incentives, managers will maximize the value of the firms for which they work. As such, either they treat behavioral costs as simply another form of agency costs, or they deny the relevance of cognitive errors. In contrast, proponents of behavioral finance argue that behavioral costs are typically large, and cannot be addressed though incentives alone. This is not to say that incentives are immaterial. On the contrary, incentives are of critical importance. The point, however, is that there are limits to incentives. If employees have a distorted view of what is in their own self-interest, or if they have a mistaken view of what actions they need to take in order to maximize their self-interest, then incentive compatibility, although necessary for value maximization, will not be sufficient.
Public Investment in Bolivia: Prospects and Implications

Bolivia's 'Patriotic Agenda 2025' sets targets for social and economic development propelled by state-led industrialization under a five-year development plan (2016-2020). Large-scale public investment has aimed to fill infrastructure gaps and raise productivity to ensure sustained medium-term growth. Pursuit of these goals in a period of lower hydrocarbon revenues has, however, contributed to widening fiscal and external current account deficits. The paper uses a structural model to outline different scenarios for the level of public investment in the face of declining hydrocarbon revenues. It finds that if public investment is sustained at current levels as a share of GDP while hydrocarbon revenues continue to decline, the sustainability of the public debt could be called into question.
A Property Clause for the Twenty-First Century

This article tries to draw some lessons from the way the Supreme Court has addressed implementation of the Property Clause of the U.S. Constitution by the Congress and the Executive, the more political branches of the national government. The Court has long said that the Property Clause contains no judicially enforceable limits on those other branches, and that stance is likely to continue. This article argues, instead, that the Property Clause can be said to have framed an attitude the Supreme Court has brought to bear on legal issues involving federal lands. That attitude, which may fairly be viewed as an expression of constitutional common law, favors retention of federal land in national ownership (retention), national over state and local authority (nationalization), and environmental preservation (conservation). It concludes that the Court’s decisions embodying that attitude have left a decidedly positive imprint on American life and culture.
Doing More for Less? New Evidence on Lobbying and Government Contracts

Why do firms lobby? This paper exploits the unanticipated sequestration of federal budget accounts in March 2013 that reduced the availability of government funds disbursed through procurement contracts to shed light on this question. Following this event, firms with little or no prior exposure to the federal accounts that experienced cuts reduced their lobbying spending. In contrast, firms with a high degree of exposure to the cuts maintained and even increased their lobbying spending. This suggests that, when the same number of contractors competed for a piece of a reduced pie, the more affected firms likely intensified their lobbying efforts to distinguish themselves from the others and improve their chances of procuring a larger share of the smaller overall. These findings are stronger in government-dependent sectors and when there is intense competition. The evidence is more consistent with a rent-seeking explanation for lobbying.
On the importance of baseline setting in carbon offsets markets

Incorporating carbon offsets in the design of cap-and-trade programs remains a controversial issue because of its potential unintended impacts on emissions. At the heart of this discussion is the issue of crediting of emissions reductions. Projects can be correctly, over- or under-credited for their actual emissions reductions. We develop a unified framework that considers the supply of offsets within a cap-and-trade program that allows us to compare the relative impact of over-credited offsets and under-credited emissions reductions on overall emissions under different levels of baseline stringency and carbon prices. In the context of a national carbon pricing scheme that includes offsets, we find that the emissions impacts of over-credited offsets can be fully balanced out by under-credited emissions reductions without sacrificing a significant portion of the overall supply of offsets, provided emissions baselines are stringent enough. In the presence of high predicted business-as-usual (BAU) emissions uncertainty or low carbon prices, to maintain the environmental integrity of the program, baselines need to be set at stringent levels, in some cases below 50 percent of predicted BAU emissions. As predicted BAU emissions uncertainty declines or as the carbon market achieves higher equilibrium prices, however, less stringent baselines can balance out the emissions impacts of over-credited offsets and under-credited emissions reductions. These results imply that to maintain environmental integrity of offsets programs, baseline stringency should be tailored to project characteristics and market conditions that influence the proportion of over-credited offsets to under-credited emissions reductions.
Maternal Stress and Child Outcomes: Evidence from Siblings

We study how maternal stress affects offspring outcomes. We find that in utero exposure to elevated levels of the stress hormone cortisol negatively affects offspring cognition, health, and educational attainment. These findings are based on comparisons between siblings that limit variation to short-lived shocks and controls for unobserved differences between mothers that could bias estimates. Our results are consistent with recent experimental results in the neurobiological literature linking exogenous exposure to stress hormones in utero with declines in offspring cognitive, behavioral, and motor development. Moreover, we find that not only are mothers with low levels of human capital characterized by higher and more variable cortisol levels but that the negative impact of elevated cortisol on their offspring is greater. These results suggest that maternal stress may play a role in the intergenerational persistence of poverty.
Forum-Shopping and Personal Bankruptcy

The dramatic increase in U.S. personal bankruptcy filings of the last fifteen years has focused attention on the wide disparities between different states' personal bankruptcy exemptions. These differences have been criticized both on the grounds of equity and also because they provide an incentive to move to a state with a higher exemption before declaring bankruptcy, that is to forum-shop. This paper focuses on the latter of these objections. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), we estimate a Nested Logit model of the household migration decision. Our econometric approach specifically avoids the problem of endogenously induced bankruptcy filings by examining the effect of filing propensity, rather than the actual event of filing, on the tendency to migrate to a higher exemption state. We conclude that while there is indeed evidence that considerations of bankruptcy laws do influence interstate migration, the actual effect is relatively modest. We estimate that, in any given year, roughly one percent of moves to higher-exemption states are motivated by considerations of differences in bankruptcy laws; by way of comparison, this is roughly comparable to the magnitude of recent estimates of welfare-induced migration. This suggests that the emphasis on differences in exemptions which has been a feature of recent attempts to reform the bankruptcy code is somewhat exaggerated.
Efficient use of information and social value of information

This paper analyzes equilibrium and welfare for a tractable class of economies (games) that have externalities, strategic complementarity or substitutability, and heterogeneous information. First, we characterize the equilibrium use of information: complementarity heightens the sensitivity of equilibrium actions to public information, raising aggregate volatility, whereas substitutability heightens the sensitivity to private information, raising cross-sectional dispersion. Next, we define and characterize an efficiency benchmark designed to address whether the equilibrium use of information is optimal from a social perspective; the efficient use of information reflects the social value of aligning choices across agents. Finally, we examine the comparative statics of equilibrium welfare with respect to the information structure; the social value of information is best understood by classifying economies according to the inefficiency, if any, in the equilibrium use of information. We conclude with a few applications, including production externalities, beauty contests, business cycles, and large Cournot and Bertrand games.
The Real Exchange Rate, Mercantilism and the Learning by Doing Externality

This paper examines the degree to which the learning by doing externality [LBD] calls for an undervalued exchange rate, a policy suggested by recent empirical studies which concluded that mildly undervalued real exchange rate may enhance growth. We obtain mixed results. For an economy where LBD externality operates in the traded sector, real exchange rate undervaluation may be used in order to internalize this externality, if the LBD calls for subsidizing employment in the traded sector. Yet, we also find that these results are not robust to changes in the nature of the LBD externality. If the LBD externality is embodied in aggregate investment, the optimal policy calls for subsidizing the cost of capital in the traded sector, and there is no room for undervalued exchange rate policy.
"Takings" as Due Process, or Due Process as "Takings"?

This article contends that the United States Supreme Court has been using the “takings” clause of the Fifth Amendment as a basis for limiting or overturning land use regulations where the Court should have been analyzing the cases using the Due Process Clause of the same Amendment. This article will test this hypothesis by applying due process analysis to five of the leading United States Supreme Court cases dealing with land use regulations, which should not have been subject to the Takings Clause. One of the key issues to be addressed is whether the Supreme Court is giving the state courts any guidance to enable them to decide these cases in a manner that is consistent with the federal Constitution. This article will also look at six recent cases from Minnesota to see if the Minnesota courts are able to work through this muddle and to see if the suggested approach would have resulted in different outcomes in those cases. This article contends that the Court should treat real takings as real takings and require the state to pay for them. It should treat unfair and unjust regulations as denials of due process and tell the state that it cannot do that. The Court should stop treating regulations as if they are taking property for public use, which they are not, and begin treating them as what they are: regulating what owners of property may or may not do with their property. This simpler approach to these cases would generate similar outcomes but in a more consistent and understandable manner.
The historical evolution of female earnings functions and occupations

Abstract The ambition of the school girl to “work in an office” in preference to work in a factory has often been commented on by vocational counsellers and others in touch with girls who are seeking their first jobs.
ON SOCIAL NETWORK ANALYSIS IN A SUPPLY CHAIN CONTEXT

The network perspective is rapidly becoming a lingua franca across virtually all of the sciences from anthropology to physics. In this paper, we provide supply chain researchers with an overview of social network analysis, covering both specific concepts (such as structural holes or betweenness centrality) and the generic explanatory mechanisms that network theorists often invoke to relate network variables to outcomes of interest. One reason for discussing mechanisms is facilitate appropriate translation and context-specific modification of concepts rather than blind copying. We have also taken care to apply network concepts to both “hard” types of ties (e.g., materials and money flows) and “soft” types of ties (e.g., friendships and sharing-of-information), as both are crucial (and mutually embedded) in the supply chain context. Another aim of the review is to point to areas in other fields that we think are particularly suitable for SCM to draw network concepts from, such as sociology, ecology, input-output research and even the study of romantic networks. We believe the portability of many network concepts provides a potential for unifying many fields, and a consequence of this for SCM may be to decrease the distance between SCM and other branches of management science.
The Political Origins of the UN Security Council's Ability to Legitimize the Use of Force

Since, at least, the Persian Gulf War, states have behaved “as if” it is costly to be unsuccessful in acquiring the legitimacy the UN Security Council confers on uses of force. This observation is puzzling for theories that seek the origins of modern institutional legitimacy in legalities or moral values. I argue that when governments and citizens look for an authority to legitimize the use of force, they generally do not seek an independent judgment on the appropriateness of an intervention but political reassurance about the consequences of proposed military adventures. Council decisions legitimize or delegitimize uses of force in the sense that they form widely accepted political judgments on whether uses of force transgress a limit that should be defended. These judgments become focal points in the collaboration and coordination dilemmas states face in enforcing limits to U.S. power while preserving mutually beneficial cooperation. In this article, I discuss the implications for the Council's legitimacy and theories of international legitimacy.Earlier versions of this article were presented at the 2003 International Studies Association Conference, Portland, Ore., 1 March; the 2003 Annual Meetings of the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia, 29 August; Columbia University International Politics Series, New York, 29 September 2003; and the Olin Institute for Strategic Studies at Harvard University, Cambridge, 6 October 2003. I thank the participants in these seminars, the editor, and anonymous referees of International Organization; and I also thank Bob Axelrod, Bruce Cronin, Michael Dark, Monica Duffy Toft, Nisha Fazal, Jim Fearon, Martha Finnemore, Page Fortna, Stacy Goddard, Macartan Humphries, Ian Hurd, Patrick Thaddeus Jackson, Andrew Kydd, Edward Miller, Katia Papagianni, Rita Parhad, Holger Schmidt, Arturo Sotomayor, and Joel Westra for useful comments, suggestions, and corrections. As usual, remaining errors are the sole responsibility of the author.
Financial Globalization and Real Regionalization

Abstract Over the period 1972–1986, the US business cycle was strongly correlated with the business cycle in the rest of the industrialized world. Over the period 1986–2000, international co-movement was much weaker (real regionalization). At the same time, US international asset trade has increased significantly ( financial globalization). We first document these phenomena in detail and then argue that they are related. In particular, we present a model in which financial globalization occurs endogenously in response to less correlated real shocks. Financial globalization, by enhancing cross-border capital flows, further reduces the international correlations in GDP and factor supplies. We find that both less correlated shocks and the endogenous change in international financial markets are needed to quantitatively account for the observed changes in the international business cycle.
The Private Antitrust Remedy: Lessons From The American Experience

The treble damage remedy has been a centerpiece of private antitrust enforcement since the enactment of the Sherman Act in 1890.1 Aware that government resources were limited, Congress created the private right of action as a complement to public enforcement to assure the detection and prosecution of antitrust offenders.2 The private right of action has proven to be a very potent weapon in the civil enforcement arsenal.3 It is the very potency of the private remedy, however, that has made the private right of action a target of criticism by defendants and, more recently, the courts.4 Indeed, in the last decade, the private remedy has been the subject of a full-scale siege in the federal courts. Ironically, at the very time the private antitrust remedy is seemingly in eclipse in the United States, antitrust enforcement authorities in Europe5 and elsewhere are contemplating adoption of the private right
The Feltham-Ohlson (1995) Model: Empirical Implications

This paper develops empirical implications of the Feltham and Ohlson (1995) model, which relates a firm's market value to accounting data and their expected realizations. The key issue concerns how...
Race, Performance, Pay, and Retention Among National Basketball Association Head Coaches

This paper estimates racial differences in the retention probability, pay and performance of NBA coaches over the 1996-2003 period. Using a hazard function approach, I find small and statistically insignificant racial differences in the exit hazard, conditional on team performance, team payroll, and a variety of coaching quality indicators. There were also statistically insignificant racial differences in the quit and discharge hazards, all else equal. Further, among marginal coaches, I find no racial performance differentials, all else equal. Finally, controlling for performance and qualifications, I find small and statistically insignificant racial differences in annual compensation, total contractwide compensation, and contract duration. Together, these findings do not suggest that black NBA coaches are subject to racial discrimination in entry, pay or retention.
Balancing evidence and norms in cultural evolution

Abstract Psychologists have long studied the ways in which individuals draw inferences from evidence in their environment, and the conditions under which individuals forgo or ignore those inferences and instead conform to the choices of their peers. Recently, anthropologists and biologists have given considerable attention to the ways in which these two processes intersect to jointly shape culture. In this paper I extend the BOP (“burden of (social) proof”; MacCoun, 2012) analysis of “strength in numbers” with a parallel account of “strength in arguments,” and examine ways the two processes might be linked. I compare these models to some leading accounts of individual learning and social transmission, suggesting opportunities for a closer integration of theory and research on cultural evolution across anthropology, biology, and psychology.
The Importance of Monitoring and Mitigating the Safety-Net Consequences of Regulation-Induced Innovation

As officials seek to identify the events and circumstances that generated the 2007–2009 financial crisis, they are attracted to explanations that deflect blame from themselves and the organizations they serve. The resulting array of seemingly authoritative explanations creates forward-looking policy turbulence. Conflicts between alternative crisis stories make it hard for outsiders to understand whether and how various proposed reforms might or might not reduce the frequency or depth of future crises. A particularly important issue concerns how giant U.S. financial institutions and automobile companies made themselves too difficult to fail and unwind (TDFU).
The Statutory Derivative Action in China: Critical Analysis and Recommendations for Reform

The article conducts a critical analysis of the newly introduced statutory derivative action in China and then makes relevant recommendations for reform. The introduction of derivative actions is a major development in Chinese company legislation. In general, the provisions have established a basic legal framework for the bringing of derivative actions, and it is expected that the regime will have important implications in practice. However, there are some serious problems that need to be properly dealt with in order for the derivative action to function more effectively. The article looks at these problems from a comparative perspective, drawing on overseas experience, and sets out reform proposals, taking into consideration China's particular situation.
Global Legal Education and Human Rights

Law schools play a vital role in establishing legitimate expectations for behavior in societies. Therefore, human rights education is crucial for the promotion of important values. A dramatic transformation is taking place in the world today. The processes that have led to this situation have resulted in increased transnational trade and investment, dramatic growth in the scope and speed of communications across the globe, and unprecedented exposure to foreign cultures and values. The internet, with its ability to transcend borders and allow for decentralized communication, is both a metaphor and a powerful engine that is increasingly contributing to a world without barriers. New challenges have emerged, concerning security, the environment, health, labor protection, and governance. National states are no longer the single most important actors in effectively addressing many of these challenges.
Banks, Short Term Debt and Financial Crises: Theory, Policy Implications and Applications

While the empirical association between a financial institution's, or country's, short-term borrowing and susceptibility to crises may, in fact, exist, the direction of causality is often precisely opposite to that traditionally suggested. Banks or countries that want to finance illiquid investments have to borrow short-term. Thus it is the increasing illiquidity of the investment being financed that necessitates shortterm financing, and causes the susceptibility to crises. Once illiquid investments have been financed, a ban on short-term financing may precipitate a more severe crisis, while, a priori, it reduces investment. Banning short-term debt deals with symptoms rather than underlying Causes.
Optimal dynamic matching

We study a dynamic matching environment where individuals arrive sequentially. There is a tradeoff between waiting for a thicker market, allowing for higher quality matches, and minimizing agents’waiting costs. The optimal mechanism cumulates a stock of incongruent pairs up to a threshold and matches all others in an assortative fashion instantaneously. In decentralized settings, a similar protocol ensues in equilibrium, but expected queues are ineffi ciently long. We quantify the welfare gain from centralization, which can be substantial, even for low waiting costs. We also evaluate welfare improvements generated by transfer schemes and by matching individuals in fixed time intervals.
A study of dark pool trading using an agent-based model

A dark pool is a securities trading venue with no published market depth feed. Such markets have traditionally been utilized by large institutions as an alternative to public exchanges to execute large block orders which might otherwise impact settlement price. It is estimated that the trading volume of dark pool markets was 9% to 12% of the total U.S. equity market share volume in 2010 [1]. This phenomenon raises questions regarding the fundamental value of securities traded through dark pool markets and their impact on the price discovery process in traditional “visible” markets. In this paper, we establish a modeling framework for dark pool markets through agent-based modeling. It presents and validates the costs and benefits of trading small orders in dark pool markets. Simulated trading of 78 selected stocks demonstrates that dark pool market traders can obtain better execution rate when the dark pool market has more uninformed traders relative to informed traders. In addition, trading stocks with larger market capitalization yields better price improvement in dark pool markets.
In or Out? Standards, Discretion, Compliance and the WTO

Self-enforcement in international agreements in the presence of uncertainty in the form of shocks and imperfect information regarding the extent of compliance by other members is enhanced by the use of standards in performance of commitments. Standards are less precise than rules. They must be sufficiently demanding that undercompliance is distinguishable from non-compliance. Discretion permits undercompliance as an alternative to renegotiation of commitments, safeguards and the filing of disputes. Undercompliance, particularly when restrained, is a lower cost and less confrontational resolution to addressing adverse shocks. Signatories are restrained in undercomplying so that the effects of their actions are imperfectly distinguishable from the effects of shocks. Compliance and evidentiary standards for formal disputes define the accomplishments of the agreement. Evidentiary standards serve as an important discipline to undercompliance even in the absence of formal disputes.
Financial Constraints, Monetary Policy Shocks, and the Cross-Section of Equity Returns

We analyze the impact ofa unanticipated monetary policy changes on the cross-section of U.S. equity returns. Financially constrained firms earn a significantly lower (higher) return following surprise interest rate increases (decreases) as compared to unconstrained firms. This differential return response between constrained and unconstrained firms appears after a delay of 3 to 4 days. Further, unanticipated Federal funds rate increases are associated with a larger decrease in expected cash flow news, but not discount rate news, for constrained firms relative to unconstrained firms.Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online.
Capacitated assortment and price optimization under the multinomial logit model

Abstract We consider an assortment and price optimization problem where a retailer chooses an assortment of competing products and determines their prices to maximize the total expected profit subject to a capacity constraint. Customers’ purchase behavior follows the multinomial logit choice model with general utility functions. This paper simplifies it to a problem of finding a unique fixed point of a single-dimensional function and visualizes the assortment optimization process. An efficient algorithm to find the optimal assortment and prices is provided.
Does Investment-Related Pressure Lead to Misreporting? An Analysis of Reporting Following M&A Transactions

ABSTRACT: This study examines whether managers alter their financial reporting decisions in the face of investment-related pressure. We define investment-related pressure as the increased pressure ...
Rulemaking Versus Adjudication: A Psychological Perspective

Legal systems make law in one of two ways: by abstracting general principles from the decisions made in individual cases (through the adjudicative process) or by declaring general principles through a centralized authority that are to be applied in individual cases (through the rulemaking process). Administrative agencies have long had the unfettered authority to choose between the two methods. Although each method could identify the same solution to the legal issues that come before them, in practice, the two systems commonly settle upon different resolutions. Each system presents the underlying legal issue from a different cognitive perspective, highlighting and hiding different aspects of a legal problem. These differences produce different resolutions to legal problems. The single-case perspective of adjudication seems, in many ways, cognitively inferior to the broad perspectives that legislatures can incorporate into their decisionmaking processes. The adjudicative approach, however, has advantages that are less obvious. Notably, the adjudicative process is more likely to facilitate the adoption of simple, elegant rules for decisionmaking. The assessment of which approach is superior is, therefore, indeterminate. Each has its strengths and weaknesses that make it more or less appropriate for different contexts.
Fortune or Evil? The Effect of Inward Foreign Direct Investment on Corruption

This paper analyzes the relationship between inward foreign direct investment (FDI) and corruption. Previous studies report a negative eect of corruption on FDI inows; yet inward FDI has the potential to aect corruption levels in the host countries. We argue that the eects of FDI on corruption are conditional on the host country’s underlying economic and political climate. The underlying structure of the economy determines the possibility of extracting rents that could distributed among foreign investors and the incumbent. Political development, on the other hand, determines the level of accountability of the incumbent, and hence creates a check on the incumbent’s ability to appropriate those rents, and the probability of getting caught and sanctioned for engaging in corrupt behavior. Hence, in more democratic polities with a diversied economy, FDI inows are likely to be associated with lower corruption. In non-democratic countries with less diversied economies, a rise in FDI inows are more likely to be associated with higher corruption levels. Most empirical attempts to estimate the relationship between FDI and corruption overlook the latent endogeneity problem. We, on the other hand, construct an instrument for inward FDI per capita using a measure of remoteness, namely a weighted average of the geographical distance between the host country and the richest economies in the world. Ancillary tests suggest that the instrument -which is loosely related to a gravity model of investment- is strong and valid. We test our hypotheses on the conditional eects of FDI on corruption in a two-stage least-squares setting. Controlling for other factors identied in the extant literature as determinants of corruption, such as legal systems, religion, ethnolinguistic fractionalization, and national resources endowments, we nd preliminary support for our hypotheses of the conditional eect of FDI. The eect of FDI on corruption is positive in authoritarian and poor countries, and turns negative as countries develop and become more democratic. Yet we also nd that the absolute eect of FDI on corruption in democratic and rich countries is smaller.
Factors leading to group identification: A field study of winners and losers

Why do fans of losing sports teams, alumni of poorly ranked educational programs, and patrons of charities that are rocked by scandal maintain or even increase their support? The present research investigates this issue by examining how differences in group success affect the factors that lead to identification and ultimately the incidence of group-supportive behaviors. The results of a two-group field study of professional sports fans suggest that members of unsuccessful groups identify on the basis of their involvement with the domain in which the group operates and the attractiveness of group members. Also, whereas perceived group performance is the most important factor leading to identification for members of successful groups, this factor is irrelevant to members of unsuccessful groups. In addition, the study finds a strong association between the strength of identification and the incidence of group-supportive consumption behaviors for members of both types of groups. The research has important implications for organizations that depend upon member support, such as sports teams, educational institutions, musical groups, and charities. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
A Daubert Motion: A Legal Strategy to Exclude Essential Scientific Evidence in Toxic Tort Litigation

In the US Supreme Court's Daubert v Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc decision, federal judges were directed to examine the scientific method underlying expert evidence and admit that which is scientifically reliable and relevant. However, if a judge does not have adequate training or experience in dealing with scientific uncertainty, understand the full value or limit of currently used methodologies, or recognize hidden assumptions, misrepresentations of scientific data, or the strengths of scientific inferences, he or she may reach an incorrect decision on the reliability and relevance of evidence linking environmental factors to human disease. This could lead to the unfair exclusion of valid scientific evidence, particularly that which is essential to a plaintiff's case in toxic tort litigation.
Imperfect Good and Evil: Savonarola, Soderini, and Machiavelli’s Excusing of Failure

In his Discourses on the First Decade of Livy, Machiavelli relies upon the example of his Tuscan contemporaries to tease out an understanding of the role of evil intentions in the founding of a political state. Through the examples of the Perugino Giovampagolo Baglioni and the Florentines Girolamo Savonarola and Piero Soderini, Machiavelli implicitly defines good and evil intentions for founding a state, as well as the corresponding ‘good’ and ‘bad’ means through which such a state is founded. When Machiavelli examines the failings of these men considering their respective motivations and means, he advocates in favor of excusing the failures of those who failed to be ‘perfectly evil’ through willingness to act over those of one who failed to be ‘wholly good’ through passive acceptance. This advocacy, in turn, reveals Machiavelli’s belief in the expedient nature of deception in the foundation of a durable political order.
Casimir energy and radius stabilization in five and six dimensional orbifolds

We compute the one-loop Casimir energy of gravity and matter fields, obeying various boundary conditions, in 5-dimensional S1/2 and 6-dimensional T2/k orbifolds. We discuss the role of the Casimir energy in possible radius stabilization mechanisms and show that the presence of massive as well as massless fields can lead to minima with zero cosmological constant. In the 5-d orbifold, we also consider the case where kinetic terms localized at the fixed points are not small. We take into account their contribution to the Casimir energy and show that localized kinetic terms can also provide a mechanism for radius stabilization. We apply our results to a recently proposed 5-dimensional supersymmetric model of electroweak symmetry breaking and show that the Casimir energy with the minimal matter content is repulsive. Stabilizing the radius with zero cosmological constant requires, in this context, adding positive bulk cosmological constant and negative brane-tension counterterms.
Physician-Assisted Suicide

Tremendous debate surrounds the acceptability of physician-assisted suicide in the United States. Progress requires carefully mapping the relationship of this practice to termination of life-sustaining treatment, appropriate pain relief and palliative care, and euthanasia. Arguments that have been offered in favor of permitting physicians to aid suicide include the importance of patient autonomy, the claim that patients need this option to cope with symptoms at the end of life, and the assertion that practices already accepted involve intentionally ending life. Arguments that have been offered against include the potential for abuse, the claim that forbidding intentional killing is essential to the ethics of medicine, and the assertion that patients can be provided good and humane care at the end of life without assisting suicide. Addressing the demand for physician-assisted suicide requires improvement in end-of-life care and continued discussion attentive to emerging empirical data.