Event Studies and the Law: Part I: Technique and Corporate Litigation

Event studies are among the most successful uses of econometricsin policy analysis. By providing an anchor for measuring theimpact of events on investor wealth, the methodology offersa fruitful means for evaluating the welfare implications ofprivate and government actions. This article is the first ina set of two that review the use and impact of the event studymethodology in the legal domain. This article begins by brieflyreviewing the event study methodology and its strengths andlimitations for policy analysis. It then reviews in detail howevent studies have been used to evaluate the wealth effectsof corporate litigation: defendants experience economicallymeaningful and statistically significant wealth losses uponthe filing of the suit, whereas plaintiff firms experience nosignificant wealth effects upon filing a lawsuit. Also, thereis a significant wealth increase for defendant firms when theysettle a suit with another firm, in contrast to other typesof plaintiffs, and in contrast to the settling plaintiff firms.These findings suggest that, at a minimum, lawsuits are nota value-enhancing way for corporations to settle their disagreementswith other corporations. In addition, the market appears toimpose a higher sanction on firms than actual criminal sanctions,and reputational losses are of equal magnitude for civil finesas for criminal ones. The article concludes with some recommendationsfor researchers: the standards for conducting an event studyare well established; researchers can increase the power ofan event study by increasing the sample size, and by narrowingthe public announcement period to as short a time frame as possible.The companion article reviews the use of event studies in corporatelaw and regulation.     

Inclusive Democracy and its Prospects

ABSTRACT Takis Fotopoulos' inclusive democracy project has generated one of the most interesting and ambitious undertakings within contemporary political philosophy. Fotopoulos synthesises what he regards as the principal contributions of five discrete traditions, retrieves classical Athens as democratic exemplar, thinks through and extrapolates the implications of his vision for daily life, and seeks to anticipate and resolve conundrums likely to follow. Any one of these dimensions would render his project noteworthy. Nonetheless, his project occurs within a historic moment that limits its prospects of consideration beyond its own political constituency. However unfairly, Fotopoulos' proposals will struggle for mass attention for reasons not principally of his creation. A leading reason for this is the widespread and probably reasonable leeriness toward large-scale alternatives borne of the pathological nature of much 20th century political radicalism.     

Women and American history

Psychoanalysis and Feminism, by Juliet Mitchell. New York : Pantheon Books. 435 pp. $8.95.     

Applicability of Greulich and Pyle and Demirijan aging methods to a sample of Italian population

Age estimation in forensics is essential in cases involving both living and dead subjects. For living subjects, age estimation may be used to establish an individual's status as a minor in cases involving adoption, criminal responsibility, child pornography, and those seeking asylum. Criteria for age estimation in the living have recently been put forth by The Study Group on Forensic Age Diagnostics. The group has proposed guidelines with a three-step procedure: a physical examination and anthropometrical analysis; dental analysis by orthopantomogram (OPG); and X-ray study of the left hand and wrist. The board of FASE highlighted advantages and limits of each method, and suggested practical solutions concerning the age estimation process for adults and subadults. The aim of this study was to verify the applicability of the Greulich and Pyle, and Demirjian techniques on a sample group of Italians, whose ages were known, in determining the skeletal and dental age, in addition to evaluating the reliability of these techniques. 535 subjects between the ages of 7 and 15years were examined, each one undergoing both an orthopantomography (OPG) and radiography of the left wrist and hand. The data obtained underwent statistical analysis. The analyses have shown that a correlation exists between skeletal and dental age, and real age. Age estimation carried out using the Greulich and Pyle method has shown itself to be especially accurate on the Italian sample, particularly in the age ranges of 7-9years and 10.4-11.5years. The Greulich and Pyle method has shown itself to be reliable for the sample analyzed notwithstanding the ethnic differences between the original sample of reference and those analyzed in this study. Application of the Demirjian technique resulted in an overestimation of dental age. This difference is shown to be more highly significant in the higher age ranges. The combination of the Greulich and Pyle, and Demirjian methods have revealed a difference regarding real age, which turns out to be more modest in the younger age ranges and more significant in older subjects.     

欧洲与中国的人权观差异

在欧中关系中,人权问题最为敏感,分歧最大。在对人权的理解上,双方不仅官方立场存在分歧,而且公众的人权观念也存在重要差异。欧洲人通常认为,更多的人权有助于经济发展,或者经济发展将导致更多的人权,并期望或假设随着中国经济的持续发展,中国人对人权和民主的需要也将不断上升。但是,本文对大量调查数据的分析说明,欧洲人的这种预期是不切实际的。实际上,欧洲与中国有关人权的观念差距可能在日益扩大。     

The Best Interests of the Child? Is the Best Interests of the Child in the Best Interests of Children?

The writings of Goldstein, Freud and Solnit, particularly someof the concepts they developed, have exercised a profound influenceon our thinking about children. A new, revamped, final, authoritativeedition presents the opportunity for critical re-assessment.The author finds a partial analytical framework, a dated imageof children, a narrow concept of children's rights, triggersfor intervention which leave children dangerously exposed and,above all, a sense diat events have moved on leaving the mostinfluential text of this generation firmly rooted in the ideas,problems and concepts of the last. The publication in one revised volume of the landmark trilogyof Beyond, Before and In¹ provides an excuse, if one were needed,to assess the impact and re-evaluate the arguments containedwithin the three monographs and now compressed and updated.Whether or not one agrees with all, or even any, of the ideascontained within Best Interests (as I shall now call the collection),and I shall criticize both applications and implications, theconcepts have impressed themselves, perhaps indelibly, on ourthinking about children. Like it or not, anyone thinking aboutchild law or policy, the relation between parents and children,the state and family, has to grapple with concepts like ‘leastdetrimental alternative’, the ‘psychological parent’,a child's sense of time and others of the rich ideas which permeateBest Interests.²     

Exchange Rate Volatility and Democratization in Emerging Market Countries

We examine some of the consequences of financial globalization for democratization in emerging market economies by focusing on the currency markets of four Asian countries at different stages of democratic development. Using political data of various kinds—including a new events data series—and the Markov regime switching model from empirical macroeconomics, we show that in young and incipient democracies politics continuously causes changes in the probability of experiencing two different currency market equilibria: a high volatility "contagion" regime and a low volatility "fundamentals" regime. The kind of political events that affect currency market equilibration varies cross-nationally depending on the degree to which the polity of a country is democratic and its policymaking transparent. The results help us better gauge how and the extent to which democratization is compatible with financial globalization.