Electoral Institutions and Electoral Cycles in Investment Incentives: A Field Experiment on Over 3,000 U.S. Municipalities*

Through a field experiment and audit study, we test how the electoral calendar affects the use of local economic development policies. We explore how electoral timing along with local political institutions and party composition affect local governments’ offers of investment incentives to outside firms. We legally incorporated a consultancy and, on behalf of a real investor in manufacturing, approached roughly 3,000 U.S. municipalities with inquiries. The main experimental results show no greater tendency to offer incentives for investment anticipated prior to than after elections—a null result that is estimated with high precision. Limiting the sample to municipalities that specialize in manufacturing, the relevant subgroup, suggests that election timing matters in this most likely set of locales. Some observational findings include additional evidence on how direct elections of executives and partisanship correlate with incentive offers.     

Fighting fire with fire: The effects of victim resistance in intimate versus stranger perpetrated assaults against females

The consequences of violence against woman are myriad, ranging from extreme psychological trauma to severe physical injury and even death. Utilizing the National Crime Victimization Survey, this paper explored the extent to which victim resistance, either physical or verbal/passive, during an assault differentially produced injury between intimate and stranger perpetrated assaults. It was found that female victims of assaults perpetrated by intimates were nearly twice as likely to sustain injury if they used either physical or verbal self-protective behavior. The only significant predictor of injury sustained by female victims of stranger perpetrated assaults, however, was presence of a weapon.     

Is there still a place for gene patents in Australia? Implications of recent United States and European case law

This article considers the ramifications of recent United States and European litigation relating to patents claiming rights to genes associated with hereditary forms of breast cancer (the so-called BRCA genes) for recently commenced Australian litigation relating to the same subject matter. The article is contextualised with brief summaries of the relevant patent law, the science of genetics, the history of the BRCA genes and an overview of the activities of the patent holder. The analysis of first instance and appeal decisions on the validity of the United States BRCA patents shows the final outcome is still highly uncertain in that jurisdiction, while the European litigation provides little assistance in predicting the outcome of the Australian action. This article concludes that the outcome of the Australian litigation is an issue that cannot be determined with any certainty due to the lack of specific, relevant precedents both in Australia and in other jurisdictions.