The gradual corporatization of transport infrastructure: The Danish case

The article introduces the theoretical perspective on gradual institutional change to the corporatization literature. This is achieved via a longitudinal case study on the institutionalization of the Danish state guarantee model (SGM) for transport infrastructure based on archival document studies of seven infrastructure projects and 31 interviews with elite actors and experts. The article explores with a detailed analysis how the gradual change mechanisms of layering, conversion and displacement coexist, are interrelated, and are coevolving over a long period. It contributes to the corporatization literature presenting the SGM as an alternative to public and private partnerships and government agencies.     

Seeking rents in the shadow of Coase

In this paper, we study a two-stage rent-seeking game. In the first stage, contestants compete à-la-Tullock; in the second stage, the winner can resell the rent à-la-Coase. We consider a complete information Tullock game in which the contestants have different valuations for the rent. The analysis focuses on the ex ante effects of a secondary market on efforts, payoffs, rent-dissipation and rent-misallocation. We show that the secondary market, while correcting possible misallocations, may exacerbate rent dissipation. In some situations, the increase in rent dissipation more than offsets the allocative advantage, so that a secondary market might reduce welfare. We further show how the effect of ex post tradeability on welfare depends on the parties’ bargaining power and valuations of the rent, also considering the case of endogenous bargaining power.     

From subjectivism to constitutionalism: the intellectual journey of James M. Buchanan through his Italian heroes

Quack medicines were prepackaged, commercially marketed medicinal concoctions brewed from “secret recipes” that often contained powerful drugs. Governmental regulation of them in late nineteenth-century England is heralded as a landmark of public health policy. We argue that it’s instead a landmark of medicinal rent-seeking. We develop a theory of quack medicine regulation in Victorian England according to which health professionals faced growing competition from close substitutes: quack medicine vendors. To protect their rents, health professionals organized, lobbied, and won laws granting them a monopoly over the sale of “poisonous” medicaments, most notably, quack medicines.

     

Psychopathology and weapon choice: a study of 103 perpetrators of homicide or attempted homicide

Bone marrow (BM) analysis is of forensic interest in postmortem toxicological investigation in case of limited, unavailable or unusable blood samples. However, it remains difficult to determine whether a drug BM concentration is therapeutic or represents overdose, due to the lack of studies on this alternative matrix. Given the variations in BM composition in the body, sample location was suggested to be a relevant factor in assessing BM concentration. The aim of the present study was to compare postmortem caffeine concentrations in various BM sample locations and secondly to consider the correlation between BM and blood concentrations. Six BM samples (right and left side: proximal and medial femur and 5th rib) and a blood sample were collected from 21 forensic autopsies. Gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry was performed. Blood caffeine concentrations ranged from 60 to 7591ng/mL. Femoral and rib BM concentrations ranged from 51 to 6171ng/g and 66 to 7280ng/g, respectively. Blood concentrations were always higher than BM concentrations. As a good correlation was demonstrated between blood and rib BM and between blood and the average of the four femoral BM concentrations, blood caffeine concentrations could be correctly extrapolated from BM concentrations. BM caffeine concentration was found to depend on sample location. Rib BM caffeine concentrations appeared to be systematically greater than averaged femur values and concentrations were much more variable between the 4 femur BM samples than between the 2 ribs. From a practical point of view, for caffeine analysis, rib BM appeared more relevant than femoral BM, which requires multisampling to overcome the concentration variability problem.     

Improving automatic face recognition with user interaction

Face recognition systems aim to recognize the identity of a person depicted in a photograph by comparing it against a gallery of prerecorded images. Current systems perform quite well in controlled scenarios, but they allow for none or little interaction in case of mistakes due to the low quality of images or to algorithmic limitations. Following the needs and suggestions of investigators, we present a guided user interface that allows to adjust from a fully automatic to a fully assisted modality of execution, according to the difficulty of the task and to amount of available information (gender, age, etc.): the user can generally rely on automatic execution and intervene only on a limited number of examples when a failure is automatically detected or when the quality of intermediate results is deemed unsatisfactory. The interface runs on top of a preexistent automatic face recognition algorithm in such a way to guarantee full control over the execution flow and to exploit the peculiarities of the underlying image processing techniques. The viability of the proposed solution is tested on a classic face identification task run on a standard publicly available database (the XM2VTS), assessing the improvement to user interaction over the automatic system performance.     

Patent litigation insurance and R&D incentives

A major policy concern regarding patenting activity is related to the actual enforceability of the patents granted by Patent Offices. The risk of facing elevated legal costs to defend patent rights can affect ex-ante incentives to invest in R&D. This paper analyses whether the availability of insurance policies that cover legal expenditures for patent litigation could increase the appropriability of the innovation. We model a situation in which an incumbent innovator is endowed with a valid patent and an entrant imitator can either directly enter the market or try to apply for a patent, hoping that an error will be made by the Patent Office. The incumbent can accommodate the entrant, file a suit to a civil court or offer a settlement agreement. We model the presence of heterogeneity in the risk that the patents will face an error by both patent examiners at Patent Offices and judges at civil court. We analyse the changes in expected profits for the innovator when given the possibility of buying an insurance policy which will cover legal costs in the event of trial. We compare the cases in which (i) coverage is voluntary and the insurer can discriminate perfectly between risky patents; (ii) coverage is voluntary and the insurer cannot discriminate between patents, and (iii) coverage is compulsory. The model highlights a set of peculiar strategic characteristics of insurance for legal expenditures which contribute to singling out the reasons underlying the underdevelopment of this market. We suggest that the crucial reason for such a failure is not adverse selection; consequently, we challenge the benefits of making coverage compulsory.     

Toward a Balanced Approach: Defining Police Roles in Responding to Domestic Violence

Responding to domestic violence poses unique challenges to law enforcement officers. Prior research has focused on issues such as officer safety and arrest policies but overlooked a critical component—the officers’ perception of their role in responding to domestic violence incidents. This study explores how police officers define their roles through the use of focus group interviews with detectives assigned to a domestic violence unit. Findings include the identification of three role perspectives. Recommendations for a more balanced approach of these role perspectives in responding to domestic violence crimes through the use of more effective training, supervision, and evaluation are proposed.