Evolving Market Efficiency with an Application to Some Bulgarian Shares

With new technically advanced methods and computers at our disposal, the efficient market hypothesis is once again being debated. At the same time, we are witnessing an unprecedented growth in both existing and new financial markets. These new markets are often in economies which have just recently embraced free market economics; we term these stock markets infant markets. Such stock markets are obviously not efficient in allocating the supply of savings to productive capital. We do not test whether or not these infant markets are informationally efficient, but instead examine whether and how they are becoming more efficient. We propose modelling the excess returns of individual securities using a multi-factor model with time-varying coefficients and generalised auto-regressive conditional heteroskedastic (GARCH) errors. If the markets are becoming more informationally efficient or the agents are learning, we would expect this to manifest itself as the time-varying coefficients becoming more stable as time increases. We test our model using data on four Bulgarian shares. First, we estimate an AR(2) model and a GARCH-M(1,1) model for the shares. Then, we estimated our AR(2) model with time varying coefficients and GARCH type errors. We find varying levels of efficiency and varying speeds of movement towards efficiency within our sample of four shares.     

Did the Tax Reform Act of 1986 Improve Compliance? Three Studies of Pre- and Post-TRA Compliance Attitudes*

The Tax Reform Act of 1986 rewrote the federal income tax code, bringing it closer to policy professionals' vision of what constitutes an equitable and efficient income tax. Research on tax compliance suggests the law might have affected taxpayer compliance in three ways: by reducing opportunities to overstate deductions, by changing perceptions of fairness, and by altering tax liabilities. Changes in taxpayer perceptions, attitudes, and noncompliance intentions were examined in three bodies of survey data, each containing pre-and post-reform data from independent samples of the same population. The results show an improved normative climate for taxpayer compliance and point to both the feasibility and the importance of examining the effects of substantive tax policies on taxpayer perceptions, attitudes, and behavioral intentions.     

Prison mental health services: results of a national survey of standards, resources, administrative structure, and litigation

The formation of adequate mental health systems within prisons has accelerated as a result of successful class action lawsuits. Our recent national survey questioned all state correctional departments about the existence of standards in each system, compliance with such standards, prevalence of class action lawsuits involving the issue of providing adequate mental health services for inmates, issues related to consent decrees, available mental health resources within the correctional system, and the administrative structure of the mental health system. Our purpose was to identify those factors correlated with certified class action lawsuits involving issues related to mental health services. Twenty-one states were involved in such litigation. Only the presence of psychiatric hospitals operated by the department of corrections correlated with the presence of certified class action lawsuits involving mental health services. Prison systems larger than 15,000 inmates were at higher risk for such litigation. Smaller systems having psychiatric hospitals run by the state mental health agency appeared to be at less risk for such litigation.     

Recovery of decomposed and skeletal human remains in the "Green River Murder" Investigation. Implications for medical examiner/coroner and police

The Green River Murder Investigation in King County, Washington, is currently the longest active serial murder investigation in U.S. history. During its course, over 26 separate scenes with from one to five victims each have been processed. The experience of the authors is presented in order to acquaint other agencies with techniques of outdoor scene processing that have evolved during recovery of remains from Green River and other skeletal cases.     

对“人口准入制”的法学思考

北京两会期间,"人口准入制"的提案引起众多争议,无论是经济学界、社会学界,还是法学界都对此都争议颇多.文章从法学的角度,从正义、自由、平等等法的价值对此提案进行讨论.     

试析国有独资公司董事会建设

当前,国有独资公司董事会建设中存在着董事会职责不全、结构不合理、运作不规范,董事长定位不清,董事个人难以独立行使董事权力,董事会成员专业能力不够等问题。借鉴国际国内经验,加强国有独资公司董事会建设应采取强化董事会的战略决策职责,建立外部董事制度,明确董事的任职条件,健全董事会工作机构等措施。     

渎职罪立案标准修订研究

随着形势的变化,最高人民检察院关于渎职罪立案标准的司法解释应当进行如下修订:第一,克服与其他刑法解释之间相冲突;第二,完善某些立案标准的具体内容,使之更加适应司法实践的需要;第三,增加对某些问题新的解释。     

猪ERK6基因编码区的克隆及组织表达谱分析

利用RT-PCR方法扩增了猪ERK6基因编码区的序列,将扩增产物与pMD18-T载体连接,构建了重组质粒;重组质粒经PCR、酶切鉴定后进行测序;采用Northern杂交和半定量RT-PCR方法在猪不同部位骨骼肌中分析了ERK6基因转录本的个数、大小及组织表达谱。结果显示,所克隆的猪ERK6基因片段长1 113 bp,含有1个1 104 bp的开放阅读框(ORF),该ORF编码367个氨基酸;该基因与已报道的人ERK6基因核苷酸序列相似性为90%;猪ERK6基因在肌肉组织中只有一个转录本,大小约1.5 kb。此基因在骨骼肌中的表达量最高,心、子宫次之,卵巢最低;而在脂肪、胃、肝、脾、肺、肾、十二指肠和胰腺中未见表达。结果表明,猪ERK6基因与已报道的小鼠和人ERK6基因一样,主要在骨骼中特异表达。