516 research outputs found
Class action and financial markets: Insights from law and economics
According to the law and economics approach, pure economic loss is a private loss that is not socially relevant but simply implies a redistribution of wealth. Consequently, wrongful behavior that induces reallocation of costs and benefits with no consequences on social welfare is not considered socially harmful, so is not necessarily subject to compensation. Since pure economic loss is very often financial, the above reasoning also applies to financial markets. However, the same law and economics arguments suggest that in financial markets, the policy of internalizing pure economic loss by means of class actions can be more far-sighted than simply compensating the victims: the liability system has the particular feature of producing deterrence and driving the market towards an efficient outcome. In this vein, the paper argues that class action intended as a complementary ex-post regulatory device can play a significant role in addressing a failure that ex-ante regulation has not. This is coherent with the law and economics tradition that interprets tort law remedies as a solution for internalizing externality and providing the correct incentive to the markets.class action, pure economic loss, regulation, liability, deterrence
The Riddle of Gravitation
There is no doubt that both the special and general theories of relativity
capture the imagination. The anti-intuitive properties of the special theory of
relativity and its deep philosophical implications, the bizzare and dazzling
predictions of the general theory of relativity: the curvature of spacetime,
the exotic characteristics of black holes, the bewildering prospects of
gravitational waves, the discovery of astronomical objects as quasers and
pulsers, the expansion and the (possible) recontraction of the universe..., are
all breathtaking phenomena. In this paper, we give a philosophical
non-technical treatment of both the special and the general theory of
relativity together with an exposition of some of the latest physical theories.
We then give an outline of an axiomatic approach to relativity theories due to
Andreka and Nemeti that throws light on the logical structure of both theories.
This is followed by an exposition of some of the bewildering results
established by Andreka and Nemeti concerning the foundations of mathematics
using the notion of relativistic computers. We next give a survey on the
meaning and philosophical implications of the the quantum theory and end the
paper by an imaginary debate between Einstein and Neils Bohr reflecting both
Einstein's and Bohr's philosophical views on the quantum world.
The paper is written in a somewhat untraditional manner; there are too many
footnotes. In order not to burden the reader with all the details, we have
collected the more advanced material the footnotes. We think that this makes
the paper easier to read and simpler to follow. The paper in full is adressed
more to experts.Comment: 40 pages, LaTeX-fil
Aggregate litigation and regulatory innovation: another view of judicial efficiency
In this article, we argue that aggregate litigation and the court system can not only restore the protection of victims and the production of deterrence, but also play a pivotal role in stimulating regulatory innovation. This is accomplished through a reward system that seems largely to mimic the institutional devices used in other domains, such as intellectual property rights, by defining a proper set of incentives. Precisely the described solution relies on creating a specific economic framework able to foster economies of scale and grant a valuable property right over a specific litigation to an entrepreneurial individual, who in exchange provides the venture capital needed for the legal action, and produces inputs and focal points for amending regulations. In this light, aggregate litigation thus can be equally seen as an incubator for regulation.aggregate litigation, efficiency, market for risk, hierarchy, regulation, innovation, asbestos
Aggregate Litigation and Regulatory Innovation: Another View of Judicial Efficiency
In this article, we argue that aggregate litigation and the court system can not only restore the protection of victims and the production of deterrence, but also play a pivotal role in stimulating regulatory innovation. This is accomplished through a reward system that seems largely to mimic the institutional devices used in other domains, such as intellectual property rights, by defining a proper set of incentives. Precisely the described solution relies on creating a specific economic framework able to foster economies of scale and grant a valuable property right over a specific litigation to an entrepreneurial individual, who in exchange provides the venture capital needed for the legal action, and produces inputs and focal points for amending regulations. In this light, aggregate litigation thus can be equally seen as an incubator for regulation.aggregate litigation, efficiency, market for risk, hierarchy, regulation, innovation, asbestos
Human agency and capability: a bottom-up perspective from North Central Nigeria
This dissertation engages an academic discourse around the Capability Approach, and how human agency and functioning is understood in North Central Nigeria. The goal is to contribute a top-down theoretical and bottom-up communitarian human development model that is complementary, and that understands how human agency and functioning is interpreted in North Central Nigeria and its application in Development Studies. This argument is built on the thesis that what people value determines their development. I explore the conversation on the applicability of Sen and Nussbaumâs conceptualization of the Capability Approach. Both Sen and Nussbaum correct an earlier focus and emphasis on a quantitative measure of human development by making a case to measure âwhat people valueâ using the instrumentality of democracy. I argue that Sen and Nussbaumâs Capability Approach is incomplete/top-down requiring bottom-up practical relational approaches to concretize it. I accomplish this by bringing in Alkire and Denuelinâs recommendations on the need to prioritize and show applicability of capabilities in policy using empirical data from the field.
I demonstrate that a Capability Approach focusing on what people value requires a bottom-up methodological approach in two ways. First, I demonstrate that the incompleteness of the Capability Approach is its inability to recognize the role of institutions, history and cultural realities. I argue that institutions as rules of the game and patterns of social interaction constitute the core of democratization processes but are not adequately situated. Secondly, I demonstrate that a Capability Approach that is âfully humanâ has to contend with, and give the right measure of analysis to âbeingâ and âdoingâ using empirical field data. As a response, I present primary data to show how the people define development, understand Being through self-consciousness based on belonging as value. I contend that this informs their interpretation of human agency and function. In concluding, the dissertation argues for complementarity in application of top-down functional theoretical approaches with bottom-up practical relational models
Recent Advances in Transfer Learning for Cross-Dataset Visual Recognition: A Problem-Oriented Perspective
This paper takes a problem-oriented perspective and presents a comprehensive
review of transfer learning methods, both shallow and deep, for cross-dataset
visual recognition. Specifically, it categorises the cross-dataset recognition
into seventeen problems based on a set of carefully chosen data and label
attributes. Such a problem-oriented taxonomy has allowed us to examine how
different transfer learning approaches tackle each problem and how well each
problem has been researched to date. The comprehensive problem-oriented review
of the advances in transfer learning with respect to the problem has not only
revealed the challenges in transfer learning for visual recognition, but also
the problems (e.g. eight of the seventeen problems) that have been scarcely
studied. This survey not only presents an up-to-date technical review for
researchers, but also a systematic approach and a reference for a machine
learning practitioner to categorise a real problem and to look up for a
possible solution accordingly
Development of teaching-learning sequences on quantum physics for the Italian secondary school
In the past 15 years, quantum mechanics has been included in most secondary school
standards, including the Italian ones, but still in a rather marginal way. The conceptual complexity
of quantum mechanics is often a hurdle for students as well as for teachers; as a consequence, most
teachers and textbooks opt for narrative/historical approaches which, however, are not sufficient to
grasp the deepest conceptual aspects of quantum physics, nor to deal with its technological
applications. Teaching quantum physics in secondary school is therefore a challenge that calls for a
close collaboration between physics teachers and physics education researchers. The goal of this
work is to develop and test research-based teaching-learning sequences (TLS) based on the study of
relevant literature in physics education research and on a survey to be conducted with secondary
school teachers. More specifically, the thesis work will include the following phases. A review of
the literature on the teaching and learning of quantum mechanics, with particular reference to the
proposals developed in the Italian context. A survey with a sample of secondary school physics
teachers aimed at understanding the needs and difficulties of teaching quantum mechanics. On the
basis of the literature and of the results of the survey, development of a teaching-learning sequence
(TLS) on quantum mechanics for the fifth year of the Italian âliceo scientificoâ. Testing and
evaluation of the TLS in a real classroom context
Holistic recommender systems for software engineering
The knowledge possessed by developers is often not sufficient to overcome a programming problem. Short of talking to teammates, when available, developers often gather additional knowledge from development artifacts (e.g., project documentation), as well as online resources. The web has become an essential component in the modern developerâs daily life, providing a plethora of information from sources like forums, tutorials, Q&A websites, API documentation, and even video tutorials. Recommender Systems for Software Engineering (RSSE) provide developers with assistance to navigate the information space, automatically suggest useful items, and reduce the time required to locate the needed information. Current RSSEs consider development artifacts as containers of homogeneous information in form of pure text. However, text is a means to represent heterogeneous information provided by, for example, natural language, source code, interchange formats (e.g., XML, JSON), and stack traces. Interpreting the information from a pure textual point of view misses the intrinsic heterogeneity of the artifacts, thus leading to a reductionist approach. We propose the concept of Holistic Recommender Systems for Software Engineering (H-RSSE), i.e., RSSEs that go beyond the textual interpretation of the information contained in development artifacts. Our thesis is that modeling and aggregating information in a holistic fashion enables novel and advanced analyses of development artifacts. To validate our thesis we developed a framework to extract, model and analyze information contained in development artifacts in a reusable meta- information model. We show how RSSEs benefit from a meta-information model, since it enables customized and novel analyses built on top of our framework. The information can be thus reinterpreted from an holistic point of view, preserving its multi-dimensionality, and opening the path towards the concept of holistic recommender systems for software engineering
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