Lawyers: Gatekeepers of the Sovereign Debt Market?

The claim that lawyers act as gatekeepers or certifiers in financial transactions is widely discussed in the legal literature. There has, however, been little empirical examination of the claim. We test the hypothesis that law firms have replaced investment banks as the gatekeepers of the market for sovereign debt. Our results suggest that hiring outside law firms sends a negative signal to the market regarding the pending issuance; a finding that is inconsistent with the thesis that outside law firms primarily play a certification role in the sovereign debt market

A Sovereign’s Cost of Capital: Go Foreign or Stay Local

A critical question faced by any sovereign seeking to raise funds in the bond market is whether to issue the debt under foreign or local parameters. This choice determines other key characteristics of any bond issue such as which banks, lawyers, and investors will be involved. Most important though, this decision involves a tradeoff between the sovereign retaining discretion in managing the issue and relinquishing control of the issue to third parties to prevent the sovereign from expropriating wealth from bondholders in the future. Based on a sample of 17,349 issuances by 117 sovereigns between 1990 and 2015, we investigate this question in the context of the initial pricing of government bonds. We examine the three key factors that bear on this decision; governing law, currency, and exchange listing. We find that highly-rated sovereigns, with strong domestic institutions that protect investors, almost always issue debt under domestic parameters. In contrast, low-rated sovereigns with weak domestic institutions tend to issue debt under foreign parameters. These findings suggest that low-quality sovereigns are forced to issue debt under foreign parameters to assure investors that the sovereign will not act opportunistically to expropriate their wealth once the debt is issued. Put differently, low-quality sovereigns that issue debt under domestic parameters face a higher cost of capital

UV-filtered fermionic Monte Carlo

The short-range modes of the fermionic determinant can be absorbed in the gauge action using the loop expansion. The coefficients of this expansion and the zeroes of the polynomial approximating the remainder can be optimized by a simple, practical method. When the multiboson approach is used, this optimization results in a faster simulation with fewer auxiliary fields.Comment: typo (solid dotted line) corrected; LATTICE98(algorithms

An analytically solvable model of probabilistic network dynamics

We present a simple model of network dynamics that can be solved analytically for uniform networks. We obtain the dynamics of response of the system to perturbations. The analytical solution is an excellent approximation for random networks. A comparison with the scale-free network, though qualitatively similar, shows the effect of distinct topology.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

LISTROPHORID MITES ON LABORATORY ANIMALS IN PUERTO RICO

LISTROPHORID MITES ON LABORATORY ANIMALS IN PUERTO RIC

CANINE MINIMA MYIASIS IN PUERTO RICO-A CASE REPORT

CANINE MINIMA MYIASIS IN PUERTO RICO-A CASE REPOR

INSECTICIDAL POWDERS CONTAINING METHOXYCHLOR, ROTENONE, OR CARBARYL FAIL TO REDUCE POPULATIONS OFFLEAS IN A CAT IN PUERTO RICO

INSECTICIDAL POWDERS CONTAINING METHOXYCHLOR, ROTENONE, OR CARBARYL FAIL TO REDUCE POPULATIONS OF FLEAS IN A CAT IN PUERTO RIC

THE TROPICAL HORSE TICK AND THE SOUTHERN CATTLE TICK IN PUERTO RICO

THE TROPICAL HORSE TICK AND THE SOUTHERN CATTLE TICK IN PUERTO RIC