The Costs of Changing Our Minds

This isn’t quite a draft yet – it’s a concept paper. You’ll see after the first 10 pages a good bit of text in brackets, which are primarily notes for me, but it’ll give you a sense of the content of those sections. I’d like to talk through the concept – the “duty” to mitigate emotional distress damages and how courts have struggled with it, as a foray into a broader dichotomy that I see in a number of areas of law that suggest an implicit value in “cognitive liberty.” This is a smaller version of a broader book project “On Cognitive Liberty” that I’m writing, but I’d like to talk through how I might structure this as a standalone article. Forgive its brevity and incompleteness, but it’s a great time for me to workshop the concept with you

Foreword

I min förra krönika hävdade jag att de förhärskande metaforerna får oss att handla ”endimensionellt” när vi driver ett IT-projekt; vi koncentrerar oss på enskilda delar och tappar därför helhetsperspektivet. Idag är den drivande metaforen utan tvekan ”molnet”, men om man bara har det i huvudet är det lätt att gå bort sig i dimman. Kan man hitta metaforer som får oss att tänka mer fler-dimensionellt; d.v.s. hålla flera aspekter i luften samtidigt, utan att därför försumma kopplingarna mellan dessa? Om detta finns olika meningar, men en alltmer dominerande gren inom forskningen (till vilken jag själv räknar mig) är praktik-perspektivet (praktik i samma betydelse som ”läkarpraktik”).

Behavioural Genetics in Criminal Cases: Past, Present and Future

Researchers studying human behavioral genetics have made significant scientific progress in enhancing our understanding of the relative contributions of genetics and the environment in observed variations in human behavior. Quickly outpacing the advances in the science are its applications in the criminal justice system. Already, human behavioral genetics research has been introduced in the U.S. criminal justice system, and its use will only become more prevalent. This essay discusses the recent historical use of behavioral genetics in criminal cases, recent advances in two gene variants of particular interest in the criminal law, MAOA and SLC6A4, the recent expert testimony on behalf of criminal defendants with respect to these two gene variants, and the future direction of behavioral genetics evidence in criminal cases

Note on Invariants of the Weyl Tensor

Algebraically special gravitational fields are described using algebraic and differential invariants of the Weyl tensor. A type III invariant is also given and calculated for Robinson-Trautman spaces.Comment: 3 pages, no figures, corrected expression (12

Specific Plateaus of the Quantum Hall Effect Induced by an Applied Bias

The spectrum and the eigenstates of a finite 2D tight-binding electronic system, with Dirichlet boundary conditions, in magnetic field and external linear potential are studied. The eigenstates show an equipotential character and may cross the plaquette in the direction perpendicular to the electric field. When leads are added to the plaquette, the channels carrying the current may be shortcut by equipotentials, resulting in additional plateaus situated inbetween the usual IQHE plateaus. This idea is confirmed by a numerical calculation within the four-terminal Landauer-B\"{u}ttiker approach.Comment: 9 pages, revtex, 2 gif figures and 5 postscript figure

Devaluation in low-inflation economies

In the current period of devaluation pessimism, devaluation is often seen as an instrument to accommodate inflation instead of one to change the real exchange rate and support external balance. The authors argue that such pessimism has in some cases gone too far. The real exchange rate is an endogenous variable, and whether devaluation can change the real exchange rate depends on other factors. But devaluation is not always evil, say the authors, and in some cases it can improve macroeconomic performance. It is most effective if it corrects an initial situation where the currency is clearly overvalued. In low-inflation countries, devaluation is less likely to destabilize prices because there is less indexing. The authors examine the effect of maxi-devaluation in low-inflation countries on the real exchange rate, inflation, and growth. They use a sample of 33 maxi-devaluations (20 percent or larger) in economies that had low inflation before the devaluation and where the exchange rate had remained fixed for at least three years before the devaluation. Not surprisingly, most of these episodes occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, when fixed exchange rates and inflation were the norm. The results indicate room for devaluation optimism. The authors find that devaluation is more effective in low-inflation economies where devaluation is a sporadic event - typically, effecting a real depreciation twice as large as that in inflationary economies. In low-inflation countries, a 50-percent devaluation typically succeeds in depreciating the real exchange rate by about 30 percent in the long run, without leading to a permanent increase in inflation. The authors also find that growth and exports increase after devaluation. Other findings include the following. Countries determined to maintain price stability after devaluation can do so. In countries with low inflation that have not devalued for three years, a maxi-devaluation is not likely to move the economy into high inflation. Under most of the most likely scenarios, inflation will increase around 3 percentage points (or 35 percent of the original rate of inflation). Under the best scenarios, there is an increase in inflation the year before and the year of devaluation, but inflation then falls to a level slightly higher than the level before devaluation. Devaluation has a favorable impact on exports. The shift to a more flexible exchange-rate regime was not associated with complete loss of control of inflation. In most cases, inflation went up slightly - and in only a few cases (Ecuador, Israel, Mexico, and Zaire) dramatically.But the movement toward greater exchange-rate flexibility was not associated with complete loss of control of inflation. In Pakistan and Rwanda, inflation fell, and in most countries it averaged less than 20 percent.Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Stabilization,Economic Theory&Research,Macroeconomic Management,Fiscal&Monetary Policy