Middle Ordovician conodonts and graptolites at Los Cauquenes range, central Precordillera of San Juan, Argentina

The Ordovician System is superbly represented in the Precordillera of western Argentina, at the Andean foothills. During the Middle Ordovician, an important paleogeographical rearrangement of depocenters and source areas took place associated with the demise of the Eopaleozoic carbonate platform of the Precordillera. This critical interval is recorded in the basin through widespread deposition of black shales over the fossiliferous limestones of the San Juan Formation, punctuated by local deposition of olistostromes, debris flows, conglomerates, and turbidites (e.g., Astini et al., 1995; Keller, 1999). Fossil dating of the lowest black shales and equivalent units indicates a diachronous deposition from north to south in the Precordillera basin (Hünicken, 1985; Albanesi et al., 1998).Fil: Voldman, Gustavo Gabriel. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Museo de Paleontología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra; ArgentinaFil: Ortega, Gladys del Carmen. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Museo de Paleontología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Albanesi, Guillermo Luis. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Museo de Paleontología; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas Físicas y Naturales. Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra; Argentin

Who Marries Differently-Aged Spouses?: Earnings, Ability and Appearance

In direct contrast to conventional wisdom and most economic models of gender differences in age of marriage, we present robust evidence that men and women who are married to differently-aged spouses are negatively selected. Earnings analysis of married couples in the 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000 Decennial Censuses finds that male earnings decrease with within-couple age difference, regardless of whether the man is older or younger than his wife. In contrast, female earnings increase with within-couple age difference. We argue and present evidence that women in differently-aged couples have higher earnings not because of positive selection, but because their hours of work increase in response to partnering with a lower earning man. We test for negative selection into differently-aged couples using three measures: average earnings per hour in occupation using Census data, cognitive skills assessments from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 cohort (NLSY79), and measures of physical appearance from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). The point estimates indicate negative selection on all of these characteristics, although statistical significance varies by outcome and sample.marital sorting, occupational choice, non-labor market outcomes

De Gustibus Disputandum

We propose a simple method to predict individuals' expectations about products using a knowledge network. As a complementary result, we show that the method is able, under certain conditions, to extract hidden information at neural level from a customers' choices database

The Social Cost of Blackmail

Despite the fact that blackmail constitutes a voluntary transaction between two parties, it is deemed to be a criminal offence in most legal systems. Traditional economic approach to this so-called ‘paradox of blackmail’ emphasizes welfare loss generated by the costly rentseeking activities of potential blackmailers as the primary justification for its criminalization. This argument however does not extend to cases in which potentially damaging information about the victim was acquired by the blackmailer at no cost. It also does not seem to shed light on a related puzzle: why is it legal for a potential victim to bribe the other party with the purpose of achieving the same final outcome (suppression of information) as in the case of blackmail? This paper addresses these questions in a simple model of bargaining under asymmetric information which is used as a unified framework for studying both blackmail and bribery. Under asymmetric information the bargaining outcome is not efficient regardless of the distribution of the bargaining power. However, when the blackmailer is the monopolist seller of the information inefficiency results from his demands being too high relative to the social optimum, providing justification for the practice of penalizing blackmail. On the other hand, when a victim is the monopolist buyer of the information the equilibrium offer is inefficiently low implying that its punishment would be counterproductive. These arguments provide further support for the claim that under reasonable assumptions criminalization of blackmail can be justified on efficiency grounds.blackmail, bribery, bargaining

Global Emissions Trading: Prospects and Pitfalls

Global Emissions Trading: Prospects and Pitfallspermit trading, climate change, Kyoto, Blueprint, Dutch Disease

Economic Geography, Venture Capital and Focal Points of Entrepreneurial Activity

Economic geography receives limited consideration in the venture capital literature. This study utilizes thirty years of data concerning companies that initially were backed by venture capital. These firms are located in Entrepreneurial Focal Points in the United States, namely: California, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania and Texas. How well do these companies operate once they go public? Do the scrutiny measures, expertise and financial backing that firms gain from the venture capitalists increase their annual and cumulative returns? The results show that returns on investment are adequate given their substantial risk.Annualized and cumulative returns, Venture Capital, Venture-Backed Public Companies, Active and Inactive firms, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, California, Texas, New York