THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MASSACHUSETTS PROBATE SYSTEM

American lawyers and laymen alike take for granted a system of probate of wills and administration of decedents\u27 estates under the supervision of a single tribunal usually called a probate court. We are familiar with the setting up of the will, appointment of the personal representative, filing of bond and inventory by the latter, granting of allowances for support of the family, notice to creditors to present their claims, and settlement of accounts of the administration, all accomplished by this court\u27s orders or under its scrutiny. While real property is deemed to pass directly to the heirs or devisees, it is often included in the inventory and in many states may be subject to possession or control of the personal representative in much the same way as personal property. Usually land may be sold to pay debts, and it is sometimes finally assigned to the beneficiaries, both by order of the probate court. The latter may and commonly does have jurisdiction over the whole administration of the entire estate

The Effects of Children's Time Use and Home and Neighborhood Quality on their Body Weight and Cognitive/Behavioral Development

We estimate a directional distance function to assess the impacts of multiple time-varying parent and child inputs on a cluster of jointly produced child outcomes for children aged 7 to 13 years. The directional distance function specification avoids several well-known empirical problems associated with analysis of household production data, namely, the need to aggregate inputs and outputs, assume separability among inputs and outputs, or estimate reduced form equations. Using a balanced panel of families from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth-Child Sample for 1996 to 2000, we assess the marginal contributions of home and neighborhood environmental quality and children's time allocations, on their math and reading performance, behavior problems, and body mass index. We also measure productivity growth, technical change, efficiency change, and technical efficiency for production of child outcomes. Our results indicate significant jointness among good and bad child outcomes. Significant improvements in children's good outcomes and reductions in bad outcomes are also associated with a better home and parent perceived neighborhood environment, Head Start participation, and increased family time spent together during meals. Children's productivity growth is found to be highest at age 8 years and diminishes thereafter.Health Economics and Policy, Labor and Human Capital,

THE NATURE OF PROOF

A Review of THE PRINCIPLES OF JUDICIAL PROOF. By John Henry Wigmore