Assessing Clashes and Interplays of Regines from a Distributive Perspective: IP Rights Under the Strengthened Embargo Against Cuba and the Agreement on Trips

This Article examines the clash of the two regulatory frameworks from the angle of distributive justice. By doing so, I suggest that in addition to the important issues of legitimacy, substantive norms, and hierarchy of legal orders, clashes between potential regulatory frameworks should also be conceptualized in the way in which they allocate goods (here the rights associated with IP) or recognize claims to or interests in such goods. The reasons for being concerned with distributive justice are threefold

Assessing Clashes and Interplays of Regines from a Distributive Perspective: IP Rights Under the Strengthened Embargo Against Cuba and the Agreement on Trips

This Article examines the clash of the two regulatory frameworks from the angle of distributive justice. By doing so, I suggest that in addition to the important issues of legitimacy, substantive norms, and hierarchy of legal orders, clashes between potential regulatory frameworks should also be conceptualized in the way in which they allocate goods (here the rights associated with IP) or recognize claims to or interests in such goods. The reasons for being concerned with distributive justice are threefold

Portfolio Choice over the Life-Cycle in the Presence of 'Trickle Down' Labor Income

Empirical evidence shows that changes in aggregate labor income and stock market returns exhibit only weak correlation at short horizons. As we document below, however, this correlation increases substantially at longer horizons, which provides at least suggestive evidence that stock returns and labor income are cointegrated. In this paper, we investigate the implications of such a cointegrated relation for life-cycle optimal portfolio and consumption decisions of an agent whose non-tradable labor income faces permanent and temporary idiosyncratic shocks. We find that, under economically plausible calibrations, the optimal portfolio choice for the young investor is to take a substantial {\em short} position in the risky portfolio, in spite of the large risk premium associated with it. Intuitively, this occurs because the cointegration effect makes the present value of future labor income flows `stock-like' for the young agent. However, for older agents who have shorter times-to-retirement, the cointegration effect does not have sufficient time to act, and the remaining human capital becomes more `bond-like.' Together, these effects create a hump-shaped optimal portfolio decision for the agent over the life cycle, consistent with empirical observation.

Can standard preferences explain the prices of out-of-the-money S&P 500 put options?

The 1987 stock market crash occurred with minimal impact on observable economic variables (e.g., consumption), yet dramatically and permanently changed the shape of the implied volatility curve for equity index options. Here, we propose a general equilibrium model that captures many salient features of the U.S. equity and options markets before, during, and after the crash. The representative agent is endowed with Epstein-Zin preferences and the aggregate dividend and consumption processes are driven by a persistent stochastic growth variable that can jump. In reaction to a market crash, the agent updates her beliefs about the distribution of the jump component. We identify a realistic calibration of the model that matches the prices of shortmaturity at-the-money and deep out-of-the-money S&P 500 put options, as well as the prices of individual stock options. Further, the model generates a steep shift in the implied volatility ‘smirk’ for S&P 500 options after the 1987 crash. This ‘regime shift’ occurs in spite of a minimal impact on observable macroeconomic fundamentals. Finally, the model’s implications are consistent with the empirical properties of dividends, the equity premium, as well as the level and standard deviation of the risk-free rate. Overall, our findings show that it is possible to reconcile the stylized properties of the equity and option markets in the framework of rational expectations, consistent with the notion that these two markets are integrated.Money ; Macroeconomics ; Pricing

Les effets de vérité du discours de l’ADN pénal au Canada

À une vitesse folle, l’ADN est devenu un fétiche, un symbole chargé d’une force presque divine. Le système pénal n’échappe pas à ses charmes. Cet article porte sur l’ADN tel qu’il est produit lors des débats au comité permanent de la Chambre des communes qui sont à la base de la politique canadienne sur les empreintes génétiques. À travers l’analyse des mémoires soumis au comité, nous attirons l’attention sur deux effets de vérité produits par le discours de l’ADN pénal, soit la production d’un système pénal à la recherche de la vérité (par opposition à la recherche de la justice) et la réification des infracteurs en criminels monstrueux.In an incredible short period, DNA became a cultural icon, a symbol invested with an almost divine power. The penal system doesn’t escape it. This contribution aims at uncovering the way DNA is constructed in the debates of the standing committee of the House of Commons. Those debates lead to the Canadian DNA policy. Through the analysis of the briefs, we point at two effects of truth that are produced by the penal DNA discourse. The first is the construction of the penal system as truth searching mechanism (rather than a justice mechanism) and the second is the production of the monstrous criminal