Codes, Cultures, Chaos, and Champions: Common Features of Legal Codification Experiences in China, Europe, and North America

What are the key conditions and factors that contribute to a successful effort within a political unit to create a new legal code? This article builds of the existing "comparative codification" literature by examining that question in the context of three very different legal traditions: dynastic Chinese law, European civil law, and North American common law. Drawing on nine important codification experiences-four from China, two from Europe and three from North American-the author posits that three conditions must exist in a legal system for codification to occur: (i) that written law is generally regarded favorably as a means of ordering society; (ii) that the top political authority in the society is powerful enough to impose a code; and (iii) that such top political authority is eager to champion the cause of codification. Assuming these three necessary conditions are present, several key contributing factors-for example, cultural change and legal chaos-further augur in favor of codification. The author identifies five such factors and illustrates their importance in each of the nine codification experiences. The article concludes with some observations about (i) the value of including traditional Chinese law in comparative codification studies and (ii) the interplay between the concentration of political power (lacking, for example, in the international legal system) and the likelihood of legal codification

Judging Japan's FDI: The verdict from a dartboard model

We evaluate Japan's inward and outward FDI performance using theoretical benchmarks based on the premise that management teams headquartered around the world bid for the production facilities located in each country. Our model incorporates the assumption that bids are inversely proportionate to distance. It accurately predicts the multilateral shares of FDI stocks for most important countries. The theory predicts lower shares of FDI for Japan than its share of the world economy. Japan's actual share of outward FDI exceeds its inward share -as the model predicts- but both currently lie below the benchmark predictions.Foreign direct investment, gravity, mergers and acquisitions, openness

The effect of radiation creep on the stresses in the moderator graphite of a nuclear reactor

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Orbital optimization in the perfect pairing hierarchy. Applications to full-valence calculations on linear polyacenes

We describe the implementation of orbital optimization for the models in the perfect pairing hierarchy [Lehtola et al, J. Chem. Phys. 145, 134110 (2016)]. Orbital optimization, which is generally necessary to obtain reliable results, is pursued at perfect pairing (PP) and perfect quadruples (PQ) levels of theory for applications on linear polyacenes, which are believed to exhibit strong correlation in the {\pi} space. While local minima and {\sigma}-{\pi} symmetry breaking solutions were found for PP orbitals, no such problems were encountered for PQ orbitals. The PQ orbitals are used for single-point calculations at PP, PQ and perfect hextuples (PH) levels of theory, both only in the {\pi} subspace, as well as in the full {\sigma}{\pi} valence space. It is numerically demonstrated that the inclusion of single excitations is necessary also when optimized orbitals are used. PH is found to yield good agreement with previously published density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) data in the {\pi} space, capturing over 95% of the correlation energy. Full-valence calculations made possible by our novel, efficient code reveal that strong correlations are weaker when larger bases or active spaces are employed than in previous calculations. The largest full-valence PH calculations presented correspond to a (192e,192o) problem.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Agglomeration Benefits and Location Choice: Evidence from Japanese Manufacturing Investment in the United States

Recent theories of economic geography suggest that firms in the same industry may be drawn to the same locations because proximity generates positive externalities or 'agglomeration effects.' Under this view, chance events and government inducements can have a lasting influence on the geographical pattern of manufacturing. However, most evidence on the causes and magnitude of industry localization has been based on stories, rather than statistics. This paper examines the location choices of 751 Japanese manufacturing plants built in the U.S. since 1980. Conditional logit estimates support the hypothesis that industry-level agglomeration benefits play an important role in location decisions.

On the Pervasiveness of Home Market Effects

Krugman's model of trade between two countries of unequal size predicts that the country with the relatively large number of consumers is the net exporter and host of a disproportionate share of firms in the differentiated good sector. He terms these results home market effects. This paper analyzes two models that offer alternatives to Krugman's assumptions of Dixit-Stiglitz monopolistic competition with iceberg transport costs. Using a framework of location choice, we generate strikingly similar results for the three models. The common ingredients of these imperfect competition models are trade costs and increasing returns to scale.

Photo Abstraction: A Camera Vision

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Vertical Networks and US Auto Parts Exports: Is Japan Different?

This paper develops a model in which upstream network insiders' conduct relationship specific investment that induces the downstream firm to transact within networks. The scale of destination-country production and part-specific measures of the importance of network relationships and engineering costs are used to explain the pattern of U.S. auto parts exports. Our results support the prediction that large scale promotes relationship-specific investment and reduces imports. Also, while Japan is a large parts importer, the composition of its imports is shifted away from parts where vertical keiretsu are prominent. Nations hosting U.S.-owned automakers import more U.S. parts.