Optimal transfers and participation decisions in international environmental agreements

The literature on international environmental agreements has recognized the role transfers play in encouraging participation in international environmental agreements. However, the results achieved so far are overly specific. Therefore, we develop a more general framework that enables us to study the role of transfers in a systematic way. We propose transfers using both internal and external financial resources for making “welfare optimal agreements” self-enforcing. To illustrate the relevance of our transfer scheme, we use a stylized integrated assessment simulation model of climate change to show how appropriate transfers may induce almost all countries into signing a self-enforcing climate treaty.      

澳大利亚联邦法院对专家证据的采纳

I. Introduction
The opinion evidence of experts is an exception to the general rule that witnesses can only give evidence of that which they have seen or heard and may not give evidence of inferences which arise from their observations and from that which they have heard.     

Informal transfers,men, women and children: Family economy and informal social security in early 20th century Finnish households

Due to their role in discussions on community solidarity and social security in rich and poor countries alike, informal transfers between households have gradually become established as a research topic in economic and social history. Qualitative research has tended to emphasize the female-dominated nature of informal assistance. While research on intra-household resource allocation has demonstrated the potential for discerning gendered outcomes with household level data, quantitative research on informal assistance tends to ascribe a singular, “family” logic to transfers. Using an early 20th century Finnish household budget survey, this article analyses the differences in the statistical determinants of the reception of informal transfers in cash and in kind in the context of gendered household economy. Record linkage and statistical inference are utilized to reveal the sources of the different types of transfers and show how they were related to the position and welfare of men, women and children within households. The transfers in cash were actually controlled by men in the male breadwinner families of the data, exhibited elements of informal insurance, and were linked to trade union membership. The transfers in kind appeared to be the realm of particularly those women who were mainly engaged in unpaid work in households. At the same time, however, they were linked to outbound reciprocity in cash, indicating implicit dependence on male earnings.     

Changing Agendas in Australian Indigenous Policy: Federalism,Competing Principles and Generational Dynamics

This paper identifies two periods of punctuated change in the content and style of Australian Indigenous policy in the last fifty years. It also identifies a third period in which attention to Indigenous policy was heightened through the nationalisation of land issues already well‐established on the agendas of sub‐national jurisdictions. The paper relates all three periods to the changing federal institutions of Australian Indigenous policy, with the Commonwealth slowly exploring its post‐1967 role as a national government in Indigenous affairs. In later sections, the paper identifies some more conceptual bases of changing policy agendas, through ideas of the competing principles of equality, choice and guardianship and the generational moral dynamics of Indigenous affairs.     

美国行政审查制度探析——美国违宪审查研究进路的转换

美国的违宪审查不能等同于司法审查，美国联邦主席同样享有在职权范围内解释宪法、进行违宪审查的权力，即行政审查。文章对美国行政审查制度进行了初步的理论和实证研究，作为对美国违宪审查制度研究进路转换的一点粗浅的思考。     

IRC § 71 MAY IMPOVERISH CHILDREN,ENDANGER EX‐WIVES,AND DISRUPT FEDERALISM1

The Internal Revenue Code provides that alimony will be deductible to the payor and taxable to the payee. Although this treatment may seem contrary to the payee's interest, compared to making the payments non‐deductible and nontaxable, it can increase the payee's after‐tax income. The payor's deduction will allow larger payments at no after‐tax cost increase; if the payee is in a lower tax bracket, then even after paying taxes the payee will have more resources. Because this favorable treatment of alimony does not apply to child support, children of divorce are poorer. Nor does the favorable treatment apply to lump‐sum payments, making this option less generous, even though many states have phased down the grant of alimony. Because the definition of alimony requires that it end with the payee's death—to protect the treatment provided for lump sums—the tax system is on the wrong side of the issue of violence against ex‐spouses (typically the ex‐wife). The article proposes extending to other similar payments the favorable tax treatment now provided for alimony.     

Direct and Indirect Effects of Case Complexity, Guilty Pleas, and Offender Characteristics on Sentencing for Offenders Convicted of a White-Collar Offense Prior to Sentencing Guidelines

Previous research on the punishment of offenders convicted of a white-collar offense estimated models that specify only direct effects of defendant characteristics, offense-related variables, and guilty pleas on sentence severity. Drawing from conflict or labeling theories, much of this research focused on the effects of offender's socioeconomic status on sentence outcomes. Findings from this research are inconsistent about the relationship between defendant characteristics and sentence severity. These studies overlook how differences in case complexity of white-collar offense and guilty pleas may intervene in the relationship between offender characteristics and sentence outcomes. This study seeks to contribute to an understanding of federal sentencing prior to the federal sentencing guidelines by testing a legal-bureaucratic theory of sentencing that hypothesizes an interplay between case complexity, guilty pleas and length of imprisonment. This interplay reflects the interface between the legal ramifications of pleading guilty, prosecutorial interests in efficiency and finality of case disposition in complex white-collar cases, and sentence severity. Using structural equation modeling, a four-equation model of sentencing that specifies case complexity and guilty pleas as intervening variables in the relationship between offender characteristics and length of imprisonment is estimated. Several findings are noteworthy. First, the hypothesized interplay between case complexity, guilty pleas, and sentence severity is supported. Second, the effect of offender's educational attainment on sentence severity is indirect via case complexity and guilty pleas. Third, offender's race and gender effect length of imprisonment both directly and indirectly through the intervening effect of case complexity and guilty pleas. These findings indicate the need to specify sentencing models that consider the direct and indirect effects of offender characteristics, offense characteristics, and guilty pleas on judicial discretion at sentencing.     

Die Evaluation öffentlicher Politiken mit föderalistischen Vollzugsarrangements. Eine konzeptionelle Erweiterung des Stufenmodells und eine praktische Anwendung

Der vorliegende Artikel leistet einen Beitrag zur Konzipierung von Wirkungsmodellen für die Evaluation von öffentlichen Politiken mit föderalistischen Vollzugsarrangements. Das Phasenmodell des Policy‐Zyklus erfasst die Prinzipal‐Agent‐Probleme des Vollzugsföderalismus nur unzureichend. Es ist aus diesem Grund sinnvoll, in der Genesephase eine Zusatzschlaufe vorzusehen, die dem Umstand Rechnung trägt, dass in der Schweiz die Kantone beim Vollzug von Bundesgesetzen nicht nur Umsetzungs‐, sondern auch Programmierungskompetenzen haben. Diese Zusatzschlaufe impliziert allerdings beim häufig verwendeten Stufenmodell von Knoepfel und Bussmann (1997) für die Evaluierung öffentlicher Politik das Problem, dass es zu einer Vermischung der Evaluationsgegenstände auf Bundes‐ und Kantonsebene kommt. Diesem Umstand begegnen wir mit der Erweiterung des Stufenmodells, indem wir die beiden föderalen Ebenen getrennt betrachten und die Evaluationsgegenstände nicht generell, sondern entsprechend der Staatsebene definieren. Das Modell wird mit einer Anwendung aus der Evaluation des Krankenversicherungsgesetzes illustriert.     

The Significance of Location: Patterns of School Exclusionary Disciplinary Practices in Public Schools

An exploratory analysis is conducted across 3 years on school exclusionary disciplinary practices from all 56 high schools in one district. Using geographical information systems mapping and other statistical analysis, this study analyzes how socioeconomic status, racial composition, and geographical region relate to a school’s usage of exclusionary discipline. Results show that opportunity transfer, suspension, and expulsion rates vary within the district with the lowest exclusionary practices in high income areas and highest in low income areas. Findings suggest that suspensions are correlated with opportunity transfers and expulsions. However, there is no linear relation between opportunity transfers and expulsions. Poverty, student race/ethnic composition at school site, and school year are found to be predictors of exclusionary practices. Implications for future research are considered.