\u3ci\u3eCourt Review\u3c/i\u3e, Volume 48, Issue 3 (Complete)

Articles 60 GPS Monitoring and More: Criminal Law Cases in the Supreme Court’s 2011-12 Term (Charles D. Weisselberg) 74 Opinions as the Voice of the Court: How State Supreme Courts Can Communicate Effectively and Promote Procedural Fairness (William C. Vickrey, Douglas G. Denton & Wallace B. Jefferson) 86 Increasing Court-Appearance Rates and Other Benefits of Live-Caller Telephone Court-Date Reminders: The Jefferson County, Colorado, FTA Pilot Project and Resulting Court Date Notification Program (Timothy R. Schnacke, Michael R. Jones & Dorian M. Wilderman) 96 An Experiment in the Law: Studying a Technique to Reduce Failure to Appear in Court (Alan J. Tomkins, Brian Bornstein, Mitchel N. Herian, David I. Rosenbaum & Elizabeth M. Neeley) Departments 58 Editor’s Note 59 President’s Column 108 The Resource Pag

\u3ci\u3eCourt Review\u3c/i\u3e, Volume 48, Issue 3 (Table of Contents)

Articles 60 GPS Monitoring and More: Criminal Law Cases in the Supreme Court’s 2011-12 Term (Charles D. Weisselberg) 74 Opinions as the Voice of the Court: How State Supreme Courts Can Communicate Effectively and Promote Procedural Fairness (William C. Vickrey, Douglas G. Denton & Wallace B. Jefferson) 86 Increasing Court-Appearance Rates and Other Benefits of Live-Caller Telephone Court-Date Reminders: The Jefferson County, Colorado, FTA Pilot Project and Resulting Court Date Notification Program (Timothy R. Schnacke, Michael R. Jones & Dorian M. Wilderman) 96 An Experiment in the Law: Studying a Technique to Reduce Failure to Appear in Court (Alan J. Tomkins, Brian Bornstein, Mitchel N. Herian, David I. Rosenbaum & Elizabeth M. Neeley) Departments 58 Editor’s Note 59 President’s Column 108 The Resource Pag

International Trade, Foreign Direct Investment, and Domestic Market Performance

We develop a model to estimate simultaneously import shares, export shares, outward foreign direct investment and domestic profits for a large sample of U.S. manufacturing industries. In our model, trade barriers alter the ability of domestic market structure to influence domestic performance. The results indicate that trade flows behave as expected in response to factor intensity. Profits are disciplined by imports and enhanced by exports. Concentration reduces both import and export shares but economies of scale increase them. Exports are complements rather than substitutes for foreign direct investment.Concentration; Exports; Foreign Direct Investment; Import; International Trade; Market Performance; Market Structure; Trade

Greer, Douglas

Cornell University, 1968 PhD Cornell University, 1967 MA University of Oregon, 1965 MA University of Oregon, 1963 BShttps://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/erfa_bios/1303/thumbnail.jp

Stochastic (s,S) Pricing and the U.S. Aluminum Industry

In the typical (s, S) pricing model, some type of adjustment cost deters firms from frequently adjusting their nominal prices in the face of inflation. In this paper, frequent price changes act to reduce revenues rather than increase costs. The typical (s, S) model is additionally altered by making the inflation processes stochastic. A numerical technique is used to find the optimal pricing strategy for a firm in this situation. Data from the U.S. aluminum industry--an industry where demand conditions mirror the assumptions of the model--are then used to test whether actual pricing was similar to the model's predictions. Empirical results conform to theoretical predictions.

Splitting the Bill: Estimating Personal Consumption in Case of Wrongful Death

In cases of wrongful death, the decedent’s survivors may sue alleged responsible parties for lost financial support. Forensic experts estimate a deceased individual’s personal consumption rate in order to separate the portion of the decedent’s income spent on him- or herself from the amount available as financial support for dependents. This paper enhances the prevailing estimation process by regressing consumption rates over individual households surveyed by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics in its annual Consumer Expenditure Survey. We contend that this method improves the precision of estimates by accounting for the inherent heterogeneity in consumption among households with otherwise similar characteristics while furthering the methods and purpose which have guided personal consumption estimation for over two decades. In a structure reminiscent of those used by Krueger (2015) and by Patton, Nelson and Lierman (1998), we regress a natural-log-on-natural-log model of personal consumption rate on household income, as well as on the number of dependent children living in the household. The estimated personal consumption rates produced in this analysis are distinctly flatter with respect to income than those of past research using BLS CE microdata. Additionally, the number of children in a household is shown to have greater effect on personal consumption than previously exhibited

On the Relative Accuracy of Discounting Based on Risk-Free and Risky Portfolios

The degree of risk that should be incorporated into the net discount rate that is used to estimate the present value of future lost earnings has been the subject of controversy. While some forensic economists insist that a risk-free discount rate must be used, others have offered economic arguments that support use of a risk-adjusted rate. Historical simulation studies have found that, when the discount rate is based on risk-free or low-risk securities, the historical averages method of estimating present value is subject to large forecast errors due to significant changes in net discount rates over time. This study explores whether basing the discount rate on mixed portfolios of equities, intermediate- term government bonds, and Treasury bills might result in more accurate estimation. Using the historical averages method with data covering the period 1926-2008, results are generated for four mixed portfolios of varying degrees of risk, and these results are compared to the results obtained with Treasury bills, intermediate-term government bonds and long-term corporate bonds. The historical simulations do show that the mixed portfolios often provide more accurate estimates. These results should be of considerable interest to forensic economists who believe that some degree of risk should be incorporated into the discount rate

Price Responses to Seasonal Demand Changes in the Swedish Gasoline Market

The demand for gasoline in Sweden follows a seasonal cycle. The paper investigates the response in prices and profits over the cycle. In contrast to what has been found for the gasoline market in the United States, we find no support for seasonal price changes compatible with the theories for cyclical variations of intensity of competition. We also investigate whether the effects on margins of the demand fluctuations induced by tax increases are compatible with these theories and find this not to be the case. Some possible explanations for this difference between Sweden and the United States are discussed.Seasonal cycles; gasoline market

The Erosion of Tariff Preferences: The Impact of U.S. Tariff Reductions on Developing Countries

The Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), the program instituted in 1976 that allows developing countries to export thousands of products to the United States duty-free, is an important element of U.S. efforts to promote economic growth in the developing world. However, since the program's inception U.S. tariff rates have fallen significantly, thus potentially reducing the ability of the GSP program to encourage U.S. imports from beneficiary countries. This paper estimates the impact of U.S. tariff reductions on imports from the developing world using a panel of import data from 76 countries and 2,389 GSP-eligible products between 1998 and 2001. It finds that reductions in U.S. tariff rates have diminished imports from developing countries significantly, although some countries have been impacted more than others.Generalized System of Preferences, GSP, Trade Diversion, Preferential Tariffs

Using Historical Simulation to Compare the Accuracy of Nine Alternative Methods of Estimating the Present Value of Future Lost Earnings

To estimate the present value of future lost earnings, forensic economists must employ some method to determine the interest rate and the earnings growth rate, or the net discount rate derived from them, to use in that estimation. Historical simulation can be used to determine how accurate any such method would have been had it been used in the past. In this paper, historical simulation is used to compare the accuracy of nine different methods of choosing the net discount rate to estimate present value for numerous 30-, 20- and 10-year loss periods. These methods include historical averages, current rates, recent rates, total offset, and a number of methods that combine historical averages with current or recent rates. While no one method is obviously superior in all cases, the results do provide some support for blending historical averages with current or recent rates