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Notes: In the context of multiple emergencies occurring in an urban environment, it is important to perform a fair allocation and scheduling of emergency response units to each emergency, as human lives could be at risk. In this work, a multi-emergency management system based on a single step, non-cooperative, normal form game model, and a Nash equilibrium based optimization methodology is proposed. In the proposed system, each emergency event is represented as a player in the game, who is competing with other players for the allocation of resource units that are available in limited quantities within a given urban perimeter. The Nash equilibrium based methodology identifies a socially fair allocation of resources depending on various fairness criteria like the demand by each emergency event, and the criticality of the events. The fairness criterion is well modeled in the game theoretic setting, while the criticality of an event can be modeled as per the requirements of a specific emergency management system. Such a system will be useful in managing emergencies in small to medium urban settings. The proposed game theoretic methodology naturally models the emergency response and resource deployment problem in the framework of social fairness, which is pivotal in these scenarios. The Nash equilibrium solution is computed using the Terje Hansen's fixed-point algorithm. Experimental results are presented for various test cases and metrics are developed to establish the quantitative measure of fairness of the results. The proposed system can be used as a decision support tool for managing emergencies, or as a simulator for learning and training purposes.

Notes: The successful implementation of homeland security policy requires cooperation among all levels of government--federal, state, and local. The regional approach offers a powerful tool for encouraging greater intergovernmental coordination and improved homeland security readiness. The ability to coordinate preparedness and response activities across multiple jurisdictions is critical to the homeland security mission. In this research we evaluate the regional approach to homeland security coordination using survey data collected from 425 Florida municipal and county government officials and first responders. We identify the primary security concerns of local officials and evaluate the impact of unmet security needs across regions. We also provide analyses of the factors affecting the level of regional security concerns, improvement in intergovernmental cooperation, and ultimately, regional preparedness.

Notes: Book review of Holistic Disaster Recovery: Ideas for Building Local Sustainability after a Natural Disaster.

Notes: This is a book review article for the Advances in Homeland Security Series by Purdue University. The series consist of two volumes. Volume one is entitled The Science of Homeland Security. Volume two is entitled Guiding Future Homeland Security Policy. Amass F. S., Bhunia, A. K, Chaturvedi, A. L., Dolk, D. R., Peeta, S., and Atallah, M. J. Advances in Homeland Security Series: The Science of Homeland Security (Volume 1), West Lafayette, IN: Perdue University Press, 2006 227 pp, introduction, notes, bibliography, index (hardcover). Amass F. S., Chaturvedi, A. L., and Peeta, S. Advances in Homeland Security Series: Guiding Future Homeland Security Policy, West Lafayette, IN: Perdue University Press, 2006 152 pp, introduction, notes, bibliography, index (hardcover).

Notes: This paper presents a practical approach to the problem of estimating the size and location of the population likely to be affected in a natural or man-made (bioterrorist) disaster. It discusses the currently available sources of population data and details several methods for converting this data into geographic units appropriate for disaster preparedness and response. It also demonstrates how to estimate affected populations on-the-fly, in response to a disaster, and how to maintain updated data in preparation for future unplanned events. Examples implementing these methods are given, and their utility is compared in different situations.

Notes: Review of Winning the Un-War: A New Strategy for the War on Terrorism, by Charles Pena.

Notes: In the preface to this collection of eight essays, Daniel Benjamin observes that in the immediate aftermath of the September 11th terror attacks, the nations of the world, to a large extent, allied with the United States towards the principals of, and need for, a global war on terror. But as the processes of this war began to expose the absolutes of an us-verses-them posture in Washington, these nations ``...began to join together, building coalitions to balance against the world's only superpower. Restraining the American Gulliver, it appeared, had become the common end to many." (ix). Towards understanding the longer term effects of these shifting alliances over the preceding six years, the Center for Strategic and International Studies initiated a one-year study of the changes in ``competition and cooperation" between the United States and select nations: China, Georgia, Germany, Indonesia, Pakistan, the Russian Federation and Saudi Arabia.

Notes: Comments regarding Chief Hansen's letter to the editor regarding the article "A Critical Evaluation of the Incident Command System and NIMS."

Notes: All-hazard partnerships have the potential to expand the capacity of a community's ability to be ready, set and able to go in disasters. The Citizen Corps Council is an example of an all-hazards organization, which exists across the United States. Although the membership of each organization might change slightly, an essential similarity remains the partnership of trained volunteers working alongside first responders. One approach to gain insight into the organizational dynamics of the partnership is to identify shared core values. Members validate values through an Appreciative Inquiry process, which encourages story telling about the organization. This essay documents values associated with recruitment, training, coordination and retention elements of an all-hazards team. Recommendations for incorporation of identified value statements into all-hazard organizational campaigns for example, will likely resonate with prospective members.

Notes: Book review of NIMS Incident Command System Field Guide by Jeff Jones, Division Chief; Tigard, OR: and updated review of Homeland Security Field Guide: A Pocket Reference for WMD & Terrorism Response by Jan Glarum, Eric Swanson, BBA, NREMT-P, and Eric S. Gaull, CEM; Tigard, OR. Both published by Informed Publishing, 2006.

Notes: Book Review of Meeting the Challenge of 9/11: Blueprints for More Effective Government, by Thomas H. Stanton (2006).

Notes: Review of Emergency Management: Concepts and Strategies for Effective Programs By Lucien G. Canton, CEM. By taking a different perspective on local government emergency management programs, this book presents the vision for a very different model--one that includes an independent emergency manager leading an enterprise-wide program focused on strategies that promote disaster resilient communities.

Notes: This paper describes the previous attempts at improving the competency levels of first responders, problems with these approaches, and a suggested new approach that focuses on establishing a national emergency response competency system. The analysis focuses on how to derive an improved set of competencies that meet the needs of all stakeholders. It discusses the issue of how to create taxonomies for competencies and their aggregation into clusters, tasks, and roles. It explores the vital linkages between position classification, learning, and performance evaluation. It recommends an approach to performance indexing or scorecarding for ongoing management.

Notes: Despite the growing popularity of Geographic Information System (GIS) information maps as a public health tool, there are no published studies of low-average and low literacy adults' abilities to read and use GIS information presenting emergency preparedness information. We hypothesized that GIS maps are hard to read for at least the 50% of adults in the US reading at 8th grade level or lower (Kirsch et al., 1993). Using a current GIS map used in New York City's Office of Emergency Management Storm Surge Report researchers conducted interviews with 178 English and Spanish speaking residents of East and Central Harlem. Findings reveal that a majority of adults who have not completed high school could not read and use the maps for basic and vital information, including identifying if they lived in a hurricane evacuation zone, and locating where the nearest evacuation center to their home was. This study concludes there is a real and dangerous gap between the language and design of GIS and the abilities of millions of adults to interpret and use this information as currently presented.

Notes: Review of Learning from Catastrophe: Quick Response Research in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina by Jessica Leifeld, Presidential Fellow, NDSU. This book presents a scholarly, peer-reviewed collection of quick response research sponsored by the National Science Foundation following Hurricane Katrina. The findings presented in the book address a variety of topics; use a number of research approaches; and offer readers new knowledge about emergency management and disaster studies.

Notes: In addition to causing death, injury, and destruction on a massive scale, Hurricane Katrina also revealed critical flaws in the entire U. S. emergency management system. Some of those deficiencies were of long standing, while others were the result of poor policy and decision making following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.In the aftermath of Katrina, many critical reports were issued, and the executive and legislative branches of the U. S. government took steps to address some Katrina-related problems. Such efforts include the passage of the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act and the revision of the National Response Plan. It is too soon to tell whether new initiatives will actually improve the ability of the U.S. to respond to extreme and catastrophic events. It may be that measures undertaken following Katrina will make little difference in the long run. To effectively reduce disaster losses, significant advances must be made in several areas, including: the development of a fully-functional and integrated emergency management system; a return to an all-hazards and comprehensive emergency management philosophy; the de-politicization of top emergency management positions; reforms aimed at increasing the resilience of civil society institutions in the face of disasters; strategies to address existing and future deficiencies in the emergency management work force; and initiatives aimed at strengthening emergency management oversight, accountability, and program evaluation. These broad lessons are applicable both to the U.S. context and to other nations.

Notes: Critical Infrastructures at Risk--Securing the European Electric Power System by Gheorghe, Masera, Weijnen, and DeVries uses ``securing" and ``security" in a different sense that the typical U.S. usage. They are considering the stability of the entire European electrical power grid for reliability and ability to support economic growth and for resistance to internally caused blackouts. Very little emphasis is placed on terrorist and natural disaster risks and vulnerabilities.

Notes: After decades of near constancy at 40 cents on the dollar, the gender pay gap has declined markedly. Francine Blau and Lawrence Kahn document these developments and explore the reasons both for the remaining gender pay gap and changes in the gap over time.

Notes: Recognizing spam as a pollution problem points to a market-based approach that could be more effective than prior approaches based on technology or law. Marshall Van Alstyne argues that an imperfect market could create more value than even a hypothetical "perfect" filter.

Notes: How do economists know what they know? In a call for a new empiricism Barbara Bergmann asserts that economists mainly make it up.

Notes: The Stern Report seems optimistic about the cost of emissions reductions, and does not seriously face the fact that stabilizing the climate could require keeping much of the world in poverty, according to Rognvaldur Hannesson.

Notes: Aaron Edlin confesses his selfish reasons to root for a collapse of housing prices and explains why many who worry should not.

Notes: Models based on leading indicators suggest that a recession is almost certainly imminent, but Edward Leamer, a prominent econometrician, distrusts the econometrics and argues that the housing slump will be confined to that sector.

Notes: The existing international agreements on climate change are inadequate, according to Scott Barrett, and a new approach is needed.

Notes: Business reporters and Fed watchers focus on monetary policy which is no longer--if it ever was--the Fed's main job, according to Lester Telser. Ben Bernanke's own research suggests that even long ago the main danger to the economy came from the non-monetary effects of disruptions in confidence in the soundness of the banking system, a fact that is all the more true today.

Notes: Robert Hahn and Robert Litan defend President Bush's recent executive order on government regulation.

Notes: Adam Smith's methodology -- and the modern economist's -- is one of theory, led by observation. Alternative methodologies, including opinion surveys of businessmen are no more likely to generate useful answers than this time-tested epistemology.

Notes: Observation-based analysis at the firm and plant level is alive, well, and growing, according to Frank Giarratani. More than eight hundred scholars, including many economists, embrace observation-based analysis, and identify with industry studies as a research field based on this principle.

Notes: Steffen Kallbekken and Torben K. Mideksa explain why economic analysis may demand sharp emissions reductions today rather than the gradual path recommended by Sheila Olmstead and Robert Stavins.

Notes: Carbon taxes are not likely to be politically feasible in the U.S. for addressing climate change in the short term, according to Robert Hahn and Peter Passell. The time is now ripe for the U.S. to consider adopting a cap and trade approach to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Notes: In recent years, renewable energy generation has been coming up for effective use of natural energy, such as wind energy. Induction generators consisting squirrel-cage rotors are widely used as wind generators because of their salient features like robust rotor design, simplicity in the construction, maintenance free operation, etc. In this paper, it is derived that the transient current, electromechanical torque, and active power taking into account rotor speed change of induction generators at three-phase fault conditions. The output equations of the induction generator has nonlinearity, and the speed-time characteristic in a fault period is also expressed by the nonlinear equation. The approximation to derive analytical formulas for transient conditions is proposed, and the transient behavior of the induction generator is analyzed by the developed equations. The simulation block diagram in MATLAB/SIMULINK is constituted using the system equation in consideration of the nonlinearity of the induction generator. The simulation results obtained from each theoretical analysis are in close agreement with that of results obtained using MATLAB/SIMULINK simulation. Furthermore, theoretical discussion also developed to determine the fault phase angle and the time at which maximum transient currents flow in the system.

Notes: The tariff is the best incentive factor for the industrial customer today to reduce the peak load. This paper describes different methods of pricing electricity. It is important to study the influence of the tariff on the industrial loads and the costs of electricity before ILM can be implemented. This paper is interested in studying the economic aspects of fixed and operating cost, other factors affecting the generation economy, distribution of power, etc. Costs of supplying electricity to consumers are also considered. A utility can influence its customers' load by providing financial incentives through the prices charged for electricity at different times of use. By designing discriminatory time of use tariffs in which the prices of electricity corresponds to the marginal cost of supply, a utility provides appropriate signals to the customer to increase consumption of electricity at off peak periods. The proposed algorithm is implemented to a real system in operation.

Notes: Accurate electricity load and pool-price forecasting can provide a set of vital predicted information that helps generation, transmission and retailer participating companies to bid strategically into a deregulated electricity market in order to maximize their profits and increase returns to their stakeholders. Although a number of forecasting methods have been proposed to solve the short-term and long-term electricity load forecast, pool-price forecasting is a relatively new research area. In this article, we propose an autoregressive approach, based on a wavelet multiscale decomposition, for the prediction of one-hour ahead load and pool price based respectively on historical electricity load, and pool-price data. This approach is based on a multiple resolution decomposition of the signal using the redundant Haar à trous wavelet transform whose advantage is taking into account the asymmetric nature of the time-varying data. There is an additional computational advantage in that there is no need to re-compute the wavelet transform (wavelet coefficients) of the full signal if the electricity and pool price data (time series) is regularly updated. We assess results produced by this multiscale autoregressive method, in both linear and nonlinear variants, with single resolution autoregressive, multilayer perceptron, Elman recurrent neural network and the general regression neural network models. The input data consists of historical load and pool price data, which is collected over a period of 3 years (1999-2001), used for training, and 1 year (2002) used for testing. Experimental results are based on the New South Wales (Australia) electricity load and pool price data that is provided by the National Electricity Market Management Company.

Notes: This paper investigates the use of trajectory sensitivity analysis (TSA) technique for assessing the transient stability of a power system at various operating conditions. The effect of placement of a thyristor controlled series compensator (TCSC) as well as the influence of the change in firing angle is also discussed. The TCSC is modeled by a variable capacitor, the value of which changes with the firing angle. The systems studied are the WSCC 3-machine, 9-bus system and IEEE 16 machine 68 bus system. The results using TSA are validated by PSCAD/EMTDC simulation.

Notes: A range of techniques has been proposed to define the optimal locations and capacities of distributed generation (DG) as a means of ensuring that the maximum amount of DG can be connected to existing and future networks. However, there are limitations inherent in these methods, not least in finding the best combination of sites for connecting a predefined number of DGs. Here, a method combining optimal power flow and genetic algorithms aims to meet this requirement. Its use would be in enabling Distribution Network Operators to search a network for the best sites and capacities available to strategically connect a defined number of DGs among a large number of potential combinations. Some applications of the proposed methodology confirmed its effectiveness in sitting and sizing an assigned number of DG units.

Notes: This paper presents an approach for identifying the faulted line section and fault location on transmission systems using support vector machines (SVMs) for diagnosis/post-fault analysis purpose. Power system disturbances are often caused by faults on transmission lines. When fault occurs on a transmission system, the protective relay detects the fault and initiates the tripping operation, which isolates the affected part from the rest of the power system. Based on the fault section identified, rapid and corrective restoration procedures can thus be taken to minimize the power interruption and limit the impact of outage on the system. The approach is particularly important for post-fault diagnosis of any mal-operation of relays following a disturbance in the neighboring line connected to the same substation. This may help in improving the fault monitoring/diagnosis process, thus assuring secure operation of the power systems. In this paper we compare SVMs with radial basis function neural networks (RBFNN) in data sets corresponding to different faults on a transmission system. Classification and regression accuracy is reported for both strategies. Studies on a practical 24-Bus equivalent EHV transmission system of the Indian Southern region is presented for indicating the improved generalization with the large margin classifiers in enhancing the efficacy of the chosen model.

Notes: This paper presents a new decision tree (DT) based approach for fast voltage contingency screening and ranking for on-line applications in energy management systems. The hybrid decision tree model is developed to learn all the selected contingencies simultaneously, therefore fewer DTs are required. To reduce the size and improve the accuracy of the decision tree, the K-class problem is converted into the set of K two-class problems, and separate decision tree modules are trained for each of the two class problems. All the selected contingencies are presented to the filter module, which is trained to separate them in critical and non-critical contingency classes, which reduces the burden on ranking modular DT. The critical contingencies screened out by the filter module are presented to the ranking modular decision tree for their further ranking. To measure the severity of contingencies, bus voltage violation based scalar performance index is used. Full AC load flow is performed to generate the training and testing patterns for the proposed hybrid decision tree, under each contingency. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is tested on IEEE test systems. Once trained, a hybrid decision tree method gives fast and accurate screening and ranking of contingencies for unknown load patterns.

Notes: In this paper, a novel control algorithm is proposed to compensate the unbalanced and non-linear loads in a three-phase four-wire system using active power filters. The algorithm results in balanced and sinusoidal source currents under unbalanced and distorted three-phase supply voltages. The algorithm makes use of the positive sequence extraction of the supply voltage and the theory of instantaneous symmetrical components. To illustrate the concept, a three-phase four-wire system with unbalanced and non-linear load is considered for compensation. The detailed simulation and experimental results are presented to validate the proposed method.

Notes: The necessity of dynamic equivalents for power system analysis has been well known since the expansion of large interconnected power networks, and has been discussed during the last decades. The present paper proposes a new method for constructing dynamic equivalents of power systems. In this method, at the first step the ``study system" is modeled completely via a single machine-infinite bus modeling procedure. Then the ``external system" is identified as a MIMO feedback block of this model in such a manner that can include dynamic effects of the latter on the behavior of the former. The method is successfully experimented on a part of the Iranian southern network.

Notes: In this paper a comprehensive dynamical assessment of a high order synchronous generator plant is carried out using the Individual Channel Analysis and Design (ICAD) framework -a multivariable control engineering tool that allows robustness and system performance evaluations. The great benefits of ICAD are elucidated and contrasted to those provided by the long-time honored block diagram representations. Several models used for the small signal stability analysis of synchronous generators are evaluated under the framework of ICAD. The study, which builds on pioneering work, reveals the great advantages of carrying out control system analysis and design with higher order generator models. Moreover, careful analysis of the ICAD's Multivariable Structure Function (MSF) helps to explain, formally, why some operating conditions of the control system are more critical than others. Furthermore, correct interpretations of MSFs are amenable to robust and stable control system designs. Two kinds of studies are considered in the paper; one assesses operation under various power factor conditions and the other under a varying tie-line reactance. The control system design and stability and structural robustness assessment of the system are presented in the second part of this paper. Moreover, results obtained under the ICAD framework are compared with those arising from conventional controllers.

Notes: For high-frequency (HF) interference in an HVDC converter station, the modeling of the noise source which causes interference with the power line carrier (PLC) remains a problem. Based on the profound analysis of the basic principles on which HF noise in PLC band is produced during the commutation process, the equivalent model of the HVDC valve with a snubber circuit is applied to the simulation of the GUI-GUANG HVDC project in PSCAD/EMTDC. Then spectrum plots of the noise source in the frequency domain are obtained by FFT analysis of the voltage waveforms gained from the simulation. Through analyzing the spectrum characteristics of the noise source in various operating modes, the main factors influencing the level of HF noise are found. Furthermore, a modified empirical model used to calculate the level of the noise source is introduced, with particular explanation of the physical quantities used in the model. The spectra of the noise source gained from the modified empirical model and from the simulation are compared with an actual spectrum based on the GUI-GUANG HVDC project. The results show that the modified empirical model can meet the requirement of HF interference calculation.

Notes: Europe's largest Muslim population of 4-5 million Muslim resides in France. On February 10, 2004 the French government approved an internationally controversial ban on headscarves, known as the hijab, worn by Muslim women attending public schools. Although the law banned all religious symbols, in this paper I focus on the ramification it has on the Muslim girls adhering to the hijab. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the legislation ban of the hijab in France. Several questions are explored at various stages of the discussion including the following: Is wearing the hijab an expression of culture, religious obligation, or both? Does wearing the hijab jeopardize secularism, as French educational policy suggests? What are the alleged reasons, explicit and underlying, for the French legislation under scrutiny? What do French educators think of the law banning the hijab? Did the legislation take into account the decision's effect on young Muslim women in France, their self-esteem, their educational pursuits, and their identity formation?

Notes: The right of freedom of religion is one of the fundamental rights guaranteed in the Malaysian Constitution. The provision over the right to freedom of religion is seen as one of the most crucial provisions ever stated in the Federal Constitution. Article 11(1) has never been amended. Indeed, provision in Article 3(1) reiterates the right of individuals, especially the non-Muslims to profess and practise their religion freely, without any fear and interference. The special status of the religion of Islam enshrined in Article 3(1) does not mean that non-Muslims have no right in matter of freedom of religion. However, the Federal Constitution seems to restrict the right to freedom of religion, in the sense that freedom of religion in Malaysia is not absolute. There have been several restrictions imposed not only within the constitutional framework but also other general legislations. Among provisions that furnished such restrictions can be seen in Articles 11(4), 11(5) and 10(2) of the Federal Constitution. Moreover, the Parliament had also passed several legislations allowing such restrictions. This can be seen, among others, the Internal Security Act of 1960 (ISA), the Societies Act of 1966, the Police Act of 1967, the Printing Presses and Publications Act of 1984, the Town and Country Planning Act of 1976 and the Penal Code. As such, Muslims and non-Muslims alike must adhere to certain religious constraints for the sake of public order, public health and morality. While freedom of religion is guaranteed for individuals in the Malaysian Constitution, some states in Malaysia have penalised Muslims who renounced the Islamic faith. Although there is no death penalty for apostasy in Malaysia, apostates are subject to punishments like fine, imprisonment and to a certain extent whipping. In certain states, apostates are detained at the rehabilitation centre for up to 36 months. These have brought concern to human rights activists because such punishments and detention may seem contrary to the right to freedom of religion enshrined under Article 11(1) of the Federal Constitution and Article 5(1) that guarantees individual liberty. This article attempts to investigate whether restrictions over the right of freedom of religion particularly when Muslims renounce the Islamic faith is constitutionally valid. It also intends to highlight the conflict in the laws surrounding the punishment for apostasy in various states in Malaysia.

Notes: Many in the human rights community have expressed concern about the illiberal religious political system found in Iran today. However, Iran is not unique in its illiberal religious nationalism. Some contemporary liberal democracies in the West also have a history of illiberal religious nationalism. The English and later the British discriminated against Catholics in various ways. The Irish also have a history of discrimination against Protestants and inequality towards women which was based on a deep seated illiberal Catholic nationalism. In all of these cases moderation and liberalization occurred over time. An interesting question is whether moderation over time might be repeated outside of Europe, especially in religiously based nations in the Middle East.When looking especially at the evolution of Ireland we notice that: economic prosperity spread throughout the population, the perception of a threat from the United Kingdom declined, European norms were spread within Ireland, and there were scandals within the Catholic Church. All these factors diminished the power of Irish illiberal Catholicism over time. If the external threats to Iran were removed and economic prosperity was to spread, as corruption and scandals came to light, we might expect that Iran may begin to moderate its political system.The goal of this essay is to analyze what conditions are conducive for the gradual transformation from an illiberal, religiously defined nation-state to a more moderate, democratic one by examining Iran and Ireland. This article suggests that the evolution of religiously based political systems can lead to more democratic political systems which are more cooperative with other countries and are less supportive of violence and terrorism.

Notes: Since the last several years of the life of King Hassan II, Morocco slowly moved from authoritarian rule to a managed democracy. As a result of this gradual political liberalization, religious groups as well as secular ones formed political parties. Islamists have already won seats in the parliament and they are expected to gain nearly half the number of seats in the coming elections. Equally significant is the increased presence of human rights and non-government organizations and the emergence of independent and party-affiliated newspapers and other media outlets. In this article, I focus on the prospects of seeing a free press emerging in Morocco given the pressures exerted by official and non-official authorities. I argue that government interventions stifle freedom of expression and weaken civil society. This study focuses exclusively on Moroccan Arabic and French language print media.

Notes: Despite triggering one of the largest civilian death tolls in modern history, the policy and human consequences of economic sanctions on Iraq between 1990-2003 remain largely unexamined. This lack of scrutiny mirrors the euphemism and mis-information surrounding the embargo itself and the Oil-for-Food (OfF) program ostensibly adopted to protect Iraq's civilian population. But it also reflects incomprehension among Western publics - long removed from the realities of hunger and economic destitution - of the intimate link between economic conditions and mortality. Iraq suffered an estimated 1.5 million excess deaths because of a catastrophic undermining of civilian livelihood triggered by the embargo; an outcome termed slow famine in the demographic literature. With much of the population fully dependent on daily food rations of less than 21 cents per person for much of the sanctions period, OfF `relief' was inherently incapable of substituting for a functioning civil economy. Recent positive accounts of the impact of OfF, in the form of the Independent Inquiry Committee into the Oil-for-Food Program (Volcker Report), are refuted by close analysis of malnutrition and mortality rates across the sanctions period. The example of Iraq reveals the danger in treating economic sanctions as a cheap, `non-violent' tool for conflict resolution. In reality their deadly power is terrorizing for societies not protected from their application by permanent member status on the UN Security Council, a threat which continues to generate global insecurity. The Iraq experience reveals how current, narrowly framed, international law prohibitions on starvation as a weapon of war need to be extended to cover interference with civilian livelihood and hence access to food.

Notes: To understand the Muslim world it is essential to see it in a transnational context that is informed by its heterogeneity, power contestations, and continuous change. To understand human rights' foundations and origins it is essential to grapple with its legal, political, normative, and institutional groundings, and bear in mind its ongoing reconfigurations and global impacts. Each of these tasks is illustrated by how movements for the rights of women and sexual minorities have come to impact on the transnational Muslim world and international human rights. This article explores each element within these complementary themes as a way of framing how and why the international human rights regime increasingly intersects with the Muslim world in a way that underpins challenges to authoritarian politics and the monolithic constructs of politics and society on which authoritarianism thrives.

Notes: Agitation for women's rights in Iran is entwined with broader movements for freedom and reform that critique the Islamic Republic's shari'a law as discriminatory. Despite the foundation of these reform efforts in the social realities of contemporary Iran, anyone who critiques laws governing the rights of women is prone to the charge of insulting the sanctity and foundation of Islam and subject to harsh penalties. Reform efforts will be hamstrung until there is a foundation for open discourse and debate in Iran. Thus, human rights such as the right to freedom of expression and related rights must be seen as the fundamental basis for successful political and legal reform in Iran - whether that reform is based in liberal Islam or secularism.

Notes: Muslim women and Muslim members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community face a specific form of dual subordination in relation to their gender and sexuality. A Muslim woman might seek solace from India's patriarchal religious judicial structures only to find that the secular system's patriarchal structures likewise aid in their subordination and create a space for new forms of such subordination. Similarly, a marginalized LGBT Muslim might attempt to reject an oppressive religious formulation only to come to find that the secular Indian state might criminalize a particular form of sexuality. This analysis explores how Indian laws "give meaning" to sexuality through the legal structures manifested by state and religious regulatory bodies and argues that both religious and state legal institutions need to be reformed to create a legal environment that furthers rather than inhibits a full realization of sexual rights.

Notes: There exists a limited pluralist model of regulating or `managing' religious diversity in contemporary Europe. This pluralist model, however, is in contrast to the limitations that appear at the state level, which reflect an increasingly illiberal, secular Europe. Such contrast stems historically from tensions that exist between the national and transnational aspects of the model itself, but it also reflects the emerging debates on religious pluralism and the democratic state. With the settlement of post-colonial migrants (with Muslims constituting a large majority) a public debate on the role of religion in Europe has resurfaced as these communities exist outside the historical formation of Western church-state relations and are challenging the very underpinning of what comprises a `liberal' democratic state. In particular, it is the role of Islam in secular Europe that frames several questions in this debate: to what extent is it necessary to regulate religious freedoms in the `public sphere' in order to protect the democratic state? What restrictions on minority religions should be considered `necessary in a democratic society' and what limitations should be placed on state interference in minority religions as protection against the undue influence of a dominant social group? Against this backdrop, this article explores the historical social formation of religious pluralism in the European context and examines the legal and political frameworks at the national and regional levels to `regulate' diversity.

Notes: Hijab - covering of a Muslim woman's body - is the most visible Islamic mandate. For a century it has been a major site of ideological struggle between traditionalism and modernity, and a yardstick for measuring the emancipation or repression of Muslim women. In recent decades hijab has become an arena where Islamist and secular feminist rhetoric have clashed. For Islamists, hijab represents their distinct identity and their claim to religious authenticity: it as a divine mandate that protects women and defines their place in society. For secular feminists, hijab represents women's oppression: it is a patriarchal mandate that denies women the right to control their bodies and to choose what to wear. The clash has been particularly strident in Iran, where the state has twice intervened with legislation to an extent that no other Muslim country has experienced. Iran, too, has been a prime site for the emergence of `Islamic feminist' discourses that speak of hijab not as a `duty,' but as a `right,' and as a social rather than a religious mandate, and finds juristic arguments to support this position. This article traces the genealogy of this new juristic position from notions of hijab in classical Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh). It documents how jurisprudential positions and notions of hijab in Iran evolved in response to socio-political factors. It concludes by highlighting wider implications of the new juristic position on hijab for establishing common ground between secular feminist and Islamic discourses.

Notes: The Islam and human rights nexus is too often viewed as being static. In reality, the relationship is complex and mutable. In an era of unsettling changes to the status quo, perceptions of the Islam and human rights nexus have also proven to be sensitive to shifting political dynamics. In these circumstances, the position that Islam and human rights are inherently in conflict, which assumes two settled entities in a stable relationship, is becoming hard to sustain - as is the position that human rights are ineluctably tied to Western civilization. Many Muslims are arguing that Islam and human rights are harmonious, and human rights contain principles that address some of Muslims' most pressing concerns. However, there are also factors - such as certain U.S. policies - that could work in the opposite direction, energizing Islamist hostility to human rights and confirming Muslims' suspicions that human rights are part of a nefarious Western plot. We must recognize that the Islam and human rights relationship is regularly readjusting in response to a changing environment, so that the issues addressed over the next decades will not likely be the same ones that Muslim societies and Islamic thinkers have been wrestling with to date.

Notes: This article explores the political implications of Muslim public self-presentation and forms of self-fashioning associated with the ongoing processes of re-Islamisation in both Muslim-majority and Muslim-minority societies. It sketches how projects of the Muslim public self contribute to a refiguring of the public sphere. The argument put forward is that public practices of self-reform grounded in religion and presented in pietistic terms are political by virtue of being tied to projects of societal reform and because they have a bearing on the public sphere and public space. Proceeding from the premise that the public sphere is not neutral and that the subjectivities inhabiting it are shaped by power relations, the article examines the ways in which projects of Muslim public selves are imbricated in the material conditions of the settings in which they develop and as such are underpinned by dynamics of power and contestation.

Notes: In the last decade a body of literature has been written on the phenomenon of `Islamic Feminism,' which closely links it to a human rights discourse in Muslim countries. The term `Islamic Feminism' may seem a paradox, but by using Iran as a case study this article demonstrates that the idea of feminisms in Muslim societies, rather than being paradoxical, is actually a legitimate and potentially powerful force. In this paper Iranian feminists are categorized into four groups: Islamic state feminists, Islamic non-state feminists, Muslim feminists and secular feminists. Each group is differentiated according to their interpretations of fiqh (Islamic Jurisprudence), their use of ijtihad (independent reasoning) and their relations to human rights and to the government. The novel concept of feminist dependency paradigm is also explored. The dependency paradigm investigates the multi-layered dependencies of the feminists to the state, to foreign funders, intellectuals, and to the family.

Notes: This article argues that while Islam may not be the sole factor for ensuring the realization of human rights in Muslim States, it is certainly a significant factor that can be constructively employed as a vehicle for improving the poor human rights situation in predominantly Muslim States that recognise Islam as State religion or apply Islamic law or Islamic principles as part of State law. It addresses the question of how best to realize that in light of the two essential approaches (the `socio-cultural approach' and the `politico-legal approach') for promoting and protecting human rights generally, and the two divergent perspectives (the `adversarial perspective' and the `harmonistic perspective') to the discourse on Islam and human rights. The article then advances the view that the harmonistic perspective would be most helpful for employing Islam as a vehicle for the realization of human rights in the Muslim world within the context of the socio-cultural and politico-legal approaches for promoting and protecting human rights generally. Relevant academic and policy oriented examples, especially in relation to promoting women's rights in the Muslim world, are cited to substantiate this position.

Notes: This is a book review of Dominic McGoldrick's Human Rights and Religion: The Islamic Headscarf Debate in Europe, Portland, Oregon: Hart Publishing, 2006, pp. 309, Plus Index.

Notes: We analyze a monetary model with flexible labor supply, cash-in-advance constraints, and seigniorage- and tax-financed government spending. If the intertemporal elasticity of substitution of labor is greater than one, both determinate and indeterminate steady states exist. If the elasticity is less than one, there is a unique steady state, which can be indeterminate. Only in the latter case do there exist sunspot equilibria that are stable under adaptive learning. A sufficient reduction in government purchases or increase in tax rates eliminates the sunspot equilibria in many cases. However, raising taxes enough to balance the budget can fail to achieve determinacy.

Notes: This paper shows that standard Schumpeterian theory does not imply that the incumbent monopolist has too little incentive to carry out R&D aimed at displacing its own product. If the patent holder is rational as is any other R&D investor, she will know that in equilibrium her patent's obsolescence shall not be affected by her own R&D investment, because all the R&D firms operate under perfect competition and constant returns to scale at the private level. This reconciles Schumpeterian theory with the empirical evidence on innovation by incumbents. It is proved that the usual macroeconomic implications maintain their validity.

Notes: This paper examines the role of monetary policy in the presence of endogenous time preference. The framework in which this issue is addressed is a monetary model with cash-in-advance constraints and an additional trading friction that is typical of the class of "liquidity models" of the monetary business cycle. We find that the nature of the optimal policy designed to remove these distortions gets modified in the presence of endogenous utility discounting. Consequently the role of monetary policy is significantly altered. Specifically, monetary policy is likely to be less activist relative to the model with a fixed rate of time preference.

Notes: We construct a dynamic error correction model of the Australian labor market using a macroeconomic panel across seven states from 1972:3 to 1999:1. Medium-run equilibrium estimates support a real wage-productivity gap and an unemployment gap. The dynamic short-run estimates support expectations-augmented Phillips curves for wages and prices, and demand-led employment growth. We compare three procedures - pooled, aggregate and mean group estimates. Considerable heterogeneity existed across states in the pooled procedure, and state-level variables had a significant impact in the aggregate procedure. Out-of-sample aggregate forecasting for the pooled, aggregate and mean group procedures suggests that the pooled one performs best.

Notes: This paper argues that the effect of openness to trade on process innovations and skill premia importantly depends on the structure of labor markets in developed countries. Openness to trade with less developed countries is often modelled as a fall in the relative price of unskilled-labor intensive goods. We show within the model of Acemoglu (2003b) that such a fall in the relative price can make wage floors more binding and trigger costly process innovations that increase the productivity of unskilled workers. Empirical evidence using an industry panel for the US and Germany in the 1970s to 1990s supports this hypothesis: (i) embodied technology change seems distorted towards unskilled-labor intensive industries in Germany where wage floors are more important and (ii) embodied technology change in the 1980s is associated with an increase of the share of skilled labor in the wage bill of 15 percentage points in the US whereas the corresponding increase in Germany is much smaller at 3 percentage points.

Notes: The coexistence of barriers to labor mobility with large output-per-worker disparities driven by Total Factor Productivity (TFP) differences suggests that the world's labor force is misallocated across countries. We investigate the extent and consequences of this potential misallocation in the context of a simple two-location growth model, in which production requires capital, labor and an essential immobile factor (land). We characterize the magnitude of labor movements implied by an efficient long-run allocation, and derive their implications for capital accumulation. Quantitatively, even for moderate TFP differences, we find substantial increases in world output associated with efficient allocations. These output increases are driven by large movements of labor from low to high TFP countries, as well as by a sizeable increase in the capital stock and changes in its endogenous division across countries. Our results are robust to a large set of parameter values, including unrealistically conservative ones.

Notes: Cooley and Soares (1999) show that a pay-as-you-go (unfunded) pension system can be an outcome of a political equilibrium even without intergenerational altruism. This note assumes an endogenous growth model rather than an exogenous one. This assumption establishes a link between the savings rate and economic growth. Since the introduction of a pay-as-you-go system lowers the savings rate, it has an adverse effect on the growth rate and hence on the future interest rate and future pensions. When this additional incentive is taken into account, the level of the pay-as-you-go system chosen in political equilibrium can be lower or even, depending on calibration values, disappear entirely, relative to the exogenous growth model of Cooley and Soares.

Notes: Despite large potential gains, international equity investment is less diversified across countries than predicted by the international version of the traditional capital asset pricing model (ICAPM). This paper provides empirical evidence on the impact of capital market frictions on international equity portfolios using data on bilateral equity holdings. Two important findings are reported: First, besides a home bias in equities, a 'friendship bias' can be observed for some country pairs. Second, indirect barriers such as the degree of financial market development and especially information asymmetries have strong explanatory power, whereas direct barriers such as capital flow restrictions have no impact.

Notes: We analyze optimal discretionary monetary policy in an endogenous sticky prices model. Similar models with exogenous sticky prices can deliver multiple equilibria. This is a necessary condition for the occurrence of expectation traps (when private agents' expectations determine the equilibrium level of inflation). In our model, sticky-price firms are allowed to switch to flexible pricing by paying a random cost. For plausible parametrizations, our model has a unique low-inflation equilibrium. With endogenous sticky prices, the monetary authority does not validate high-inflation expectations and deviates to the Friedman rule.

Notes: This paper finds that a benchmark model of habit formation in consumer preferences can explain two well-known failures of the permanent income hypothesis: the sensitivity of aggregate consumption to predictable changes in income and to lagged consumer sentiment. One novel feature of the paper's methodology is to allow for measurement errors and other transitory elements (for example, weather-related disturbances) in consumption data. In contrast with traditional wisdom, aggregate consumption growth appears to be highly persistent after controlling for measurement errors and transitory consumption fluctuations: the estimates of persistence in quarterly consumption growth jump up from the commonly assumed 0.3 to about 0.7.

Notes: We use a panel of 16 OECD countries over several decades to investigate the effects of government debts and deficits on long-term interest rates. In simple static specifications, a one-percentage-point increase in the primary deficit relative to GDP increases contemporaneous long-term interest rates by about 10 basis points. In a vector autoregression (VAR), the same shock leads to a cumulative increase of almost 150 basis points after 10 years. The effect of debt on interest rates is non-linear: only for countries with above-average levels of debt does an increase in debt affect the interest rate. World fiscal policy is also important: an increase in total OECD-government borrowing increases each country's interest rates. However, domestic fiscal policy continues to affect domestic interest rates even after controlling for worldwide debts and deficits.

Notes: In this paper we present a technique for assessing data quality based on conformity with Benford's Law, which states that the first digits of numbers generated from natural phenomena do not occur with equal frequency. If data do not conform to the Benford distribution, then questions arise about the process that generated it. Because neutral transformations should preserve conformity to Benford's Law, any macroeconomic adjustment that destroys this conformity should make those calculations suspect.Benford's Law is applied to one of the most commonly used data sets in economics: international macroeconomic statistics. We find that the World Bank international GDP data and purchasing power parity (PPP) corrected Penn World tables for OECD countries conform well to Benford's Law. But some subsets of the data - particularly GDP figures from the developing world -- show non-conformity consistent with deliberate manipulation of the underlying series. The test also flags potential problems with a variety of standard macro transformations of the data.

Notes: This paper describes a simple Wicksellian macroeconomic model that can be used in undergraduate macroeconomics courses. It is designed as an alternative to the Romer (2000) model that is slowly replacing IS-LM/AS-AD in many textbooks. The Wicksellian model has four desirable features relative to the Romer model. First, it treats the interest rate as an exogenous monetary policy instrument rather than assuming that the central bank follows a monetary policy rule. Second, the model can be used to derive a monetary policy rule that is consistent with optimizing behavior on the part of the central bank. Third, the model includes a term structure equation. Fourth, the model has a simple recursive structure that makes it easy to work with. The model can be used to analyze a number of interesting issues in monetary policy that are difficult to handle in the IS-LM/AS-AD or Romer model frameworks. These include issues involving permanent versus temporary expenditures shocks, anticipated expenditures shocks, and shocks to the term structure of interest rates. The model can easily be simplified for use in a principles course or extended for use in upper-level macroeconomics courses.

Notes: This paper empirically decomposes the channels through which the determinants of growth operate. Methodologically, channel decomposition combines growth accounting with regression analysis. Under channel decomposition, the determinants could affect aggregate productivity growth through physical capital accumulation, through human capital acquisition, or through growth in total factor productivity (TFP). The results from channel decomposition show that TFP growth is the main channel of operation for most of the determinants. Specifically, TFP growth, not factor accumulation, is what accounts for conditional convergence. This finding is extremely robust. There is also no evidence that rich and poor countries converge through different channels.

Notes: In many countries, Employment Protection Legislation (EPL) establishes less strict dismissal procedures for specific groups of workers. This paper builds a simple matching model with heterogeneous workers in order to analyze this feature of EPL. We use the model to analyze the effects of reforms targeted at lowering the firing costs of a particular group of workers, and compare the results with those stemming from a comprehensive reform that reduces firing costs for all workers. The model is calibrated for the Spanish economy, where an important reform of this kind took place in 1997. Overall, our results point out that EPL reforms achieve the largest reduction in unemployment when they are targeted to workers with lower and more volatile productivity.

Notes: Since the mid-1990s, extraordinary advances in semiconductors have enhanced the embodied nature of information technology, fuelling efficiency growth in computers and communication equipment industries. The consequent fall in prices has enabled the rapid diffusion of these new technologies, which have reached the critical threshold to foster productivity growth. In light of the recent growth pattern of the United States, this paper presents a model where the endogenous engine of development is the learning-by-doing process stemming from the usage of ICT for investment and consumption. Based on a two-sector framework (à la Whelan) that distinguishes between ICT-producers and -users, the model yields a sound representation of the stylized facts of the Information Age.

Notes: During the period from 1990 to 2002, U.S. households experienced a dramatic wealth cycle, induced by a 369 percent appreciation in the value of real per capita liquid stock-market assets, followed by a 55 percent decline. However, despite predictions at the time by some analysts relying on life-cycle models of consumption, consumer spending in real terms continued to rise throughout this period. Using data that include the period from 1990 to 2005, traditional approaches to estimating macroeconomic wealth effects on consumption confront two puzzles: (i) econometric evidence of a stable cointegrating relationship among consumption, income, and wealth is weak at best; and (ii) life-cycle models that rely on aggregate measures of wealth cannot explain why consumption did not collapse when the value of stock-market assets declined so dramatically. We address both puzzles by decomposing wealth according to the liquidity of household assets. In particular, we find that significant appreciation in the value of real estate assets that occurred after the peak of the wealth cycle helped to sustain consumer spending from 2000 to 2005.

Notes: This paper presents a two-sector growth model of international trade that can account for the key features of the postwar world development experience. Two sectors represent traditional primitive production and modern sophisticated production. Due to increasing returns in the modern sector, the open-economy version of our model gives rise to three different equilibria: one in which the country produces only primitive goods and converges to a low-income steady state; another in which it produces both primitive and sophisticated goods and converges to the world-average steady state; and a third in which it specializes in the production of sophisticated goods and converges to a balanced growth path. We argue that the development experiences of poor, rich and growth-miracle countries are well described by these three equilibria.

Notes: Common practice in the housing and wealth distribution literature has proceeded as if the modeling of housing rental markets was unnecessary due to renters' relative low levels of wealth and the smaller fraction they represent in the total population. This paper shows, however, that their inclusion matters substantially when dealing with wealth concentration over the life-cycle. Renters are concentrated in the poorer and younger groups and when matching the data on wealth inequality by age groups, the model improves relative to a one asset economy and relative to a housing model with no rental markets.

Notes: This paper investigates one causal link between entrepreneurial overconfidence and economic growth in the US. Evidence from the social psychology literature suggests that this biased perception can lead to more successful outcomes for individuals. This paper examines the impacts of entrepreneurial overconfidence on the aggregate economy using an R&D-driven endogenous growth model. From this perspective, overconfidence is equivalent to a subsidy to R&D such that overconfident entrepreneurs are more likely to invest, and this increased R&D intensity is the driving force behind faster economic growth. In terms of social welfare, a small degree of overconfidence moves the market equilibrium level of R&D closer to the social optimum; however, a large degree of overconfidence may move the economy beyond the optimal level. Therefore, the welfare impact is ambiguous.

Notes: This paper constructs a simple model that can account for both the negative relationship between growth and income inequality observed in the cross-country data and the positive relationship observed within countries over time. The model employs a dual-economy structure with formal and informal sectors. Growth is driven by formal sector human capital spillovers. Restrictive institutions impose barriers to formality that reduce the growth rate and increase inequality. Redistributive taxation lowers inequality but blunts the incentive to accumulate, lowering growth. Institutional structures vary more across than within countries. Consequently, variations in institutional barriers to formality may account for the negative relationship between growth and inequality found in the cross-country data. Variations in the intensity of redistribution may account for the positive relationship observed within countries over time.

Notes: We construct a dynamic general equilibrium model in which household debt is sticky in nominal terms and debtor households are credit constrained. Interest payments on debt contracts may be at floating rates or fixed for the duration of the contract. A key result is that a simple static Taylor Rule can result in a prolonged period in which real interest rates are cut rather than raised in response to an inflationary shock. We show how the proportion of fixed rate contracts affects the monetary transmission mechanism and its implications for the distributional effects of an inflationary shock.

Notes: We build a stylised 12-country model of the euro area and use it to analyse how differences in national inflation and growth rates arise within the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). We find that the main source of differentials in the early years of the EMU have been aggregate demand shocks, followed by cost-push shocks; euro exchange rate shocks come third. Among the propagation mechanisms a key role is played by inflation persistence; for plausible parameter values even small changes in persistence can produce a dramatic increase in the differentials. Finally, we also find that a tight control of average area-wide inflation around a target tends to reduce the differentials as well.

Notes: This paper considers the canonical stochastic growth model with CRRA utility and Cobb-Douglas technology. It obtains a closed-form solution for the case where capital's share is equal to the reciprocal of the intertemporal elasticity of substitution. This provides a useful benchmark that illuminates the transmission mechanism under uncertainty. In particular, it highlights the complicated ways in which risk and nonlinearities interact, via Jensen's inequality, to affect the steady state capital stock.

Notes: The classical gold standard has long been associated with long-run price stability. But short-run price variability led critics of the gold standard to propose reforms that look much like modern versions of price-path targeting. This paper uses a dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model to examine price dynamics under alternative policy regimes. In the model, a pure inflation target provides more short-run price stability than does the gold standard and, although it introduces a unit root into the price level, it leads to as much long-term price stability as does the gold standard for horizons shorter than 20 years. Relative to these regimes, Fisher's compensated dollar (or pure price-path targeting) reduces inflation uncertainty by an order of magnitude at all horizons. A Taylor rule, with its relatively large weight on output, leads to large uncertainty about inflation at long horizons. This long-run inflation uncertainty can be largely eliminated by introducing an additional response to the deviation of the price level from a desired path.

Notes: The relationship between income and voting is usually studied using current income. Instead, I estimate how permanent income affects voting and to what extent voters are forward looking. A proxy for permanent income is constructed from stated expectations about one's future economic situation. Using panel data from the Norwegian Election Study I estimate the effect of stated expectations on realized future income to compute the effect of expectations. This is then linked to voting behaviour. Contrasting permanent and transitory income, the former has a large impact and the latter has little explanatory power on voting. This supports the hypothesis of forward looking voting. A high expected permanent income increase the propensity to vote Conservative.

Notes: This paper extends the savers-spenders theory of Mankiw (2000) to analyze fiscal policy in a small open economy with endogenous labor supply. It is first shown that tax cuts have a short-run contractionary effect on domestic production, and increased public spending has a short-run expansionary effect. Although consistent with recent empirical work, this result contrasts with those of most other theoretical models. Transitory changes in demand have permanent real effects in our model, and we discuss the implications for real exchange rate dynamics. We also show how ``rational" agents may magnify or dampen the responses of ``irrational" agents, and discuss how, unlike in previous contributions, this is in our model purely a result of the shape of rational agents' utility functions.

Notes: This paper assesses sign restrictions via a controlled experiment. A researcher estimates a VAR on an infinite amount of data generated by a DSGE model. He or she then imposes sign restrictions on impulse responses to identify a structural shock while being agnostic about the response of a key variable of interest to this shock. Can such an agnostic identification procedure pin down the correct sign of this unconstrained response?The DSGE models of Erceg, Henderson, and Levin (2000), as well as of Smets and Wouters (2003), are used as data generating processes. Two conditions must be met for the method to unambiguously deliver the correct sign of the unconstrained impulse response. First, a sufficiently large number of restrictions must be imposed -- more than what is typically imposed in applied work. Second, the variance of the shock under study must be sufficiently large -- larger than the values provided by Bayesian estimations of the DSGE models. Hence, sign restrictions can be a useful tool to recover structural shocks from VAR residuals.

Notes: This paper studies two roles that long-term nominal interest rates can play in the conduct of monetary policy in a New Keynesian model. The first allows long-term rates to enter the reaction function of the monetary authority. The second considers the possibility of using long-term rates as instruments of policy. In both cases a unique rational expectations equilibrium exists. Reacting to movements in long yields does not improve macroeconomic performance as measured by the loss function. Long-term rates, however, turn out to be better instruments of monetary policy than short-term rates when the concern for inflation volatility is high.

Notes: Official and four alternative regime classification schemes based on observed exchange rate behaviour are used to examine the relationship with inflation and growth in 91 developing countries over the period 1984-2001. Apart from one scheme that produces markedly unfavourable results for floating (for reasons that are discussed in the paper), the consistent findings are that (a) floats have similar growth rates to soft pegs and only slightly higher inflation; and (b) hard pegs have lower inflation and slower growth than other regimes.

Notes: This paper provides a framework for the analysis of firms' integration strategies that incorporates the endogenous determination of the number of firms that serve foreign markets through exports and the number of multinational firms that choose to engage in horizontal foreign direct investments. The aim of the study is to investigate how differences in firms' integration strategies affect the way productivity and monetary policy shocks spread their effects worldwide. Building on a general equilibrium model in the tradition of the new open economy macroeconomics with national and multinational enterprises, I find that firms' integration strategies play a key role in the international business cycle and they help explain a number of puzzling features in exchange rate data. The paper makes two main contributions. First, it provides an explanation of long-term deviations from purchasing power parity due to changes in the extensive margin of firms serving world markets via exporting and foreign investment that is novel in the literature. Second, it explores optimal monetary policy in a framework with endogenous trade and foreign investments, elucidating an interesting new trade-off between efficiency and volatility. My results show that monetary stabilization, by discouraging entry of new firms, might involve a policy trade-off between the desire to smooth fluctuations in producers' prices and the need to facilitate adjustments in consumers' prices.

Notes: This paper examines the performances of the past five Federal Reserve chairmen using optimal control techniques and a macroeconometric model. Each chairman is evaluated in two ways. The first way is comparing the actual performance of the economy under his term relative to what the performance would have been had he behaved optimally. Comparing chairmen only on the basis of the actual performance of the economy is not appropriate because it does not control for different exogenous-variable values and shocks that the Fed has no control over. This comparison is done for a wide range of loss functions. It does not assume that the chairman necessarily behaved by minimizing a loss function; it just compares his actual behavior to what he could have done had he minimized a particular loss function. The second way, on the other hand, assumes that each chairman minimized a loss function, and it chooses for each chairman which of the various loss functions tried comes closest to matching the actual values of the control variable to the optimal values. A summary evaluation of each chairman is presented in Section 6.

Notes: Development accounting exercises based on an aggregate production function find technology is biased in favor of a country's abundant production factors. We provide an explanation for this finding based on the Heckscher-Ohlin model. Countries trade and specialize in the industries that use intensively the production factors they are abundantly endowed with. For given factor endowment ratios, this implies smaller international differences in factor price ratios than under autarky. Thus, when measuring the factor bias of technology with the same aggregate production function for all countries, they appear to have an abundant-factor bias in their technologies.

Notes: Total factor productivity (TFP) falls markedly during financial crises, as we document with recent evidence from Latin America and Asia. We study the ability of various versions of the small open economy neoclassical growth model to account for the behavior of inputs, output, and aggregate productivity during Mexico's 1994-95 crisis. We find that that capital utilization and labor hoarding can account for a large fraction of the fall in measured productivity. While capital utilization alone does little to improve the performance of the model during the crisis, introducing labor hoarding significantly reduces the gap between the evidence and the predicted fall in output and hours.

Notes: Changes in firms' investment expenditures are considered one of the primary channels through which energy price shocks are transmitted to the economy. It is widely believed that the response of business fixed investment to energy price increases differs from its response to energy price decreases. We show that the apparent symmetry in the estimated responses of business fixed investment in equipment and structures cannot be reconciled with standard theoretical explanations of asymmetric responses. Rather this evidence is an artifact (1) of the aggregation of mining-related expenditures by the oil, natural gas, and coal mining industry and all other expenditures, and (2) of ignoring an exogenous shift in investment caused by the 1986 Tax Reform Act. After controlling for these factors, formal statistical tests are unable to reject the hypothesis of symmetric responses to energy price shocks for all components of investment in structures. For nonresidential equipment there is weak statistical evidence of classical asymmetries in some components, but not in the aggregate. Once symmetry is imposed and mining-related expenditures are excluded, the estimated response of business fixed investment in equipment and structures tends to be small and statistically insignificant. Historical decompositions show that energy price shocks have played a minor role in driving fluctuations in nonresidential fixed investment other than investment in mining.

Notes: We offer a model that sheds light on the debate over whether corporate ownership concentration converges to the Berle-Means image. Our model takes into account the importance of both legal rules and firm-specific arrangements. Our analytical result is that share ownership concentration either persists or falls depending on the relative importance of these protective arrangements. In particular, our model predicts: (a) diffuse corporate ownership in nations that impose legal limits on blockholders' clout to expropriate minority shareholder rights, and (b) concentrated corporate ownership in nations that rely on asset specificity as a form of investor protection. Our empirical work suggests partial convergence toward Berle-Means diffuse share ownership. It is thereby reasonable to infer the existence of path dependent forces on ownership concentration. But this result does not preclude the possibility of functional convergence or convergence to the diffuse form of share ownership via cross-listings on the major U.S. stock exchanges that impose stringent disclosure and listing requirements. In essence, these results suggest a case for the co-existence of the preexisting path-dependency and functional-convergence stories.

Notes: This study empirically investigates whether racial and ethnic differences in police searches of stopped drivers reflect efficient enforcement or biased policing. Null hypotheses consistent with efficient enforcement are derived from alternative assumptions regarding police objectives: 1) police seek to maximize public safety, and 2) police seek to maximize the hit rate. We use both an outcomes-based non-parametric analysis and a standard benchmarking parametric approach (regression analysis). Both approaches yield the same results: law enforcement officers display both personal and police cultural bias in their propensity to search African American and Latino drivers. African American and Latino status tends to lower the guilt signal required for police suspicion. Further, white officers police differently than their African American and Latino colleagues. White officers are 73 percent of the sworn police force, conduct 88 percent of the searches, and have a hit rate of 20 percent. Latino officers are 11 percent of the sworn labor force, conduct 8 percent of the searches, and have a hit rate of 24 percent. African American officers are 15 percent of the sworn labor force, conduct 4 percent of the searches, and have a hit rate of 26 percent. The preferential treatment of white drivers by police is attenuated with increases in the fraction of racial and ethnic minority residents in the county where the stop occurred.

Notes: In this paper we assert that, if an offender can dispose of some or all of his wealth after violating the law, raising the fine up to his wealth level will induce him to dispose of his wealth, thereby increasing social cost without deterring more offenses. This suggests that the socially optimal fine should be set below the offender's maximum wealth level.

Notes: This paper investigates the evolution of competition policy decisions in the US and, particularly, in the EU, concerning mandatory access to an essential facility held by a dominant firm. Based on some recent and controversial EU antitrust decisions, we outline a comprehensive test for identifying an essential facility and consequently imposing a mandatory access obligation on dominant firms.

Notes: The popularity of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is the subject of much controversy. This paper examines usage of the ICJ by all United Nations (UN) member states as compared with its usage by those states with the top-ten economies of the world. Five hypotheses explaining the decrease in ICJ usage by the top-ten economies are presented as follows: (1) a home-bias of judges, (2) the diversification of international tribunals, (3) changes in the composition of the cases filed, (4) the (re-)allocation of power, and (5) an increased heterogeneity of external institutions among UN member states. We find empirical evidence that an increase in UN membership has led to increased heterogeneity, which in turn has led to a decline in usage of the ICJ by the top-ten economies.

Notes: The corporate lawyer-client privilege is increasingly controversial. Courts assert that the privilege promotes corporate compliance with the law as long as it is restricted to communications in furtherance of legal advice. This article assumes the privilege increases the probability that a corporation will escape liability. Courts can apply various tests to determine whether the agent who communicated with the corporate attorney can be defined as a representative of the corporation. The most restrictive test, the "control group" test, has been rejected by most American jurisdictions, but it has recently re-emerged in the United Kingdom. The author proposes that this test motivates corporations to restructure their optimal internal decision-making processes in order to "squeeze" into the privilege. When plaintiffs are uninformed about the internal organization of a corporate defendant, even corporations that cannot squeeze into the test have an incentive to mimic the behavior of privileged corporations, and consequently pursue socially harmful actions. These findings are supported by case law from control group jurisdictions.

Notes: In a comprehensive study extending prior research, Prince and Rubin (2002) use the event study methodology, and find negative market reaction to a sample of 15 initial filings of product liability litigation and 29 other litigation events against U.S. automakers between 1973 and 1995. They conclude that the event study methodology is a useful way to measure the costs of litigation. In contrast, after examination of a new sample of 144 initial filing events and 465 other litigation events for six major automobile firms from 1985 to 2000, and after re-examining Prince and Rubin's data, we find that the market reaction to all but the most extreme and infrequent events is generally not significant. We suggest that the event study methodology may not generally be useful to study the social costs of litigation, but may be useful for unexpected abnormal litigation events where the potential liabilities (including reputation and other losses triggered by litigation) may far exceed the legal liability reserves set up by firms. We find mixed results for the market impact of litigation against a competitor. When a product liability lawsuit is first filed against a U.S. firm, the market values of the Japanese firms significantly decline. When a Japanese firm is sued for product liability, the U.S. firms register a significant increase in market value. However, these spillover results have to be interpreted with caution because of small sample sizes and possible confounding events.