Ernst Freund as Precursor of the Rational Study of Corporate Law

Gindis, David, Ernst Freund as Precursor of the Rational Study of Corporate Law (October 27, 2017). Journal of Institutional Economics, Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2905547, doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2905547The rise of large business corporations in the late 19th century compelled many American observers to admit that the nature of the corporation had yet to be understood. Published in this context, Ernst Freund's little-known The Legal Nature of Corporations (1897) was an original attempt to come to terms with a new legal and economic reality. But it can also be described, to paraphrase Oliver Wendell Holmes, as the earliest example of the rational study of corporate law. The paper shows that Freund had the intuitions of an institutional economist, and engaged in what today would be called comparative institutional analysis. Remarkably, his argument that the corporate form secures property against insider defection and against outsiders anticipated recent work on entity shielding and capital lock-in, and can be read as an early contribution to what today would be called the theory of the firm.Peer reviewe

Basel II and fostering the disclosure of banks\' internal credit ratings

ISSN:1566-7529ISSN:1741-620

Russia’s Legal Transitions: Marxist Theory, Neoclassical Economics and the Rule of Law

We review the role of economic theory in shaping the process of legal change in Russia during the two transitions it experienced during the course of the twentieth century: the transition to a socialist economy organised along the lines of state ownership of the means of production in the 1920s, and the transition to a market economy which occurred after the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. Despite differences in methodology and in policy implications, Marxist theory, dominant in the 1920s, and neoclassical economics, dominant in the 1990s, offered a similarly reductive account of law as subservient to wider economic forces. In both cases, the subordinate place accorded to law undermined the transition process. Although path dependence and history are frequently invoked to explain the limited development of the rule of law in Russia during the 1990s, policy choices driven by a deterministic conception of law and economics also played a role.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40803-015-0012-

Optimum allocation of resources for QTL detection using a nested association mapping strategy in maize

In quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping studies, it is mandatory that the available financial resources are spent in such a way that the power for detection of QTL is maximized. The objective of this study was to optimize for three different fixed budgets the power of QTL detection 1 − β* in recombinant inbred line (RIL) populations derived from a nested design by varying (1) the genetic complexity of the trait, (2) the costs for developing, genotyping, and phenotyping RILs, (3) the total number of RILs, and (4) the number of environments and replications per environment used for phenotyping. Our computer simulations were based on empirical data of 653 single nucleotide polymorphism markers of 26 diverse maize inbred lines which were selected on the basis of 100 simple sequence repeat markers out of a worldwide sample of 260 maize inbreds to capture the maximum genetic diversity. For the standard scenario of costs, the optimum number of test environments (Eopt) ranged across the examined total budgets from 7 to 19 in the scenarios with 25 QTL. In comparison, the Eopt values observed for the scenarios with 50 and 100 QTL were slightly higher. Our finding of differences in 1 − β* estimates between experiments with optimally and sub-optimally allocated resources illustrated the potential to improve the power for QTL detection without increasing the total resources necessary for a QTL mapping experiment. Furthermore, the results of our study indicated that also in studies using the latest genomics tools to dissect quantitative traits, it is required to evaluate the individuals of the mapping population in a high number of environments with a high number of replications per environment

Towards an Economy of Higher Education

This paper draws a distinction between ways thinking and acting, and hence of policy and practice in higher education, in terms of different kinds of economy: economies of exchange and economies of excess. Crucial features of economies of exchange are outlined and their presence in prevailing conceptions of teaching and learning is illustrated. These are contrasted with other possible forms of practice, which in turn bring to light the nature of an economy of excess. In more philosophical terms, and to expand on the picture, economies of excess are elaborated with reference, first, to the understanding of alterity in the work of Emmanuel Levinas and, second, to the idea of Dionysian intensity that is to be found in Nietzsche. In the light of critical comment on some current directions in policy and practice, the implications of these ways of thinking for the administrator, the teacher and the student in higher education are explored

Advanced backcross-QTL analysis in spring barley (H. vulgare ssp. spontaneum) comparing a REML versus a Bayesian model in multi-environmental field trials

A common difficulty in mapping quantitative trait loci (QTLs) is that QTL effects may show environment specificity and thus differ across environments. Furthermore, quantitative traits are likely to be influenced by multiple QTLs or genes having different effect sizes. There is currently a need for efficient mapping strategies to account for both multiple QTLs and marker-by-environment interactions. Thus, the objective of our study was to develop a Bayesian multi-locus multi-environmental method of QTL analysis. This strategy is compared to (1) Bayesian multi-locus mapping, where each environment is analysed separately, (2) Restricted Maximum Likelihood (REML) single-locus method using a mixed hierarchical model, and (3) REML forward selection applying a mixed hierarchical model. For this study, we used data on multi-environmental field trials of 301 BC2DH lines derived from a cross between the spring barley elite cultivar Scarlett and the wild donor ISR42-8 from Israel. The lines were genotyped by 98 SSR markers and measured for the agronomic traits “ears per m²,” “days until heading,” “plant height,” “thousand grain weight,” and “grain yield”. Additionally, a simulation study was performed to verify the QTL results obtained in the spring barley population. In general, the results of Bayesian QTL mapping are in accordance with REML methods. In this study, Bayesian multi-locus multi-environmental analysis is a valuable method that is particularly suitable if lines are cultivated in multi-environmental field trials

Mixed model association scans of multi-environmental trial data reveal major loci controlling yield and yield related traits in Hordeum vulgare in Mediterranean environments

An association panel consisting of 185 accessions representative of the barley germplasm cultivated in the Mediterranean basin was used to localise quantitative trait loci (QTL) controlling grain yield and yield related traits. The germplasm set was genotyped with 1,536 SNP markers and tested for associations with phenotypic data gathered over 2 years for a total of 24 year × location combinations under a broad range of environmental conditions. Analysis of multi-environmental trial (MET) data by fitting a mixed model with kinship estimates detected from two to seven QTL for the major components of yield including 1000 kernel weight, grains per spike and spikes per m2, as well as heading date, harvest index and plant height. Several of the associations involved SNPs tightly linked to known major genes determining spike morphology in barley (vrs1 and int-c). Similarly, the largest QTL for heading date co-locates with SNPs linked with eam6, a major locus for heading date in barley for autumn sown conditions. Co-localization of several QTL related to yield components traits suggest that major developmental loci may be linked to most of the associations. This study highlights the potential of association genetics to identify genetic variants controlling complex traits

Statistical epistasis between candidate gene alleles for complex tuber traits in an association mapping population of tetraploid potato

Association mapping using DNA-based markers is a novel tool in plant genetics for the analysis of complex traits. Potato tuber yield, starch content, starch yield and chip color are complex traits of agronomic relevance, for which carbohydrate metabolism plays an important role. At the functional level, the genes and biochemical pathways involved in carbohydrate metabolism are among the best studied in plants. Quantitative traits such as tuber starch and sugar content are therefore models for association genetics in potato based on candidate genes. In an association mapping experiment conducted with a population of 243 tetraploid potato varieties and breeding clones, we previously identified associations between individual candidate gene alleles and tuber starch content, starch yield and chip quality. In the present paper, we tested 190 DNA markers at 36 loci scored in the same association mapping population for pairwise statistical epistatic interactions. Fifty marker pairs were associated mainly with tuber starch content and/or starch yield, at a cut-off value of q ≤ 0.20 for the experiment-wide false discovery rate (FDR). Thirteen marker pairs had an FDR of q ≤ 0.10. Alleles at loci encoding ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase/oxygenase activase (Rca), sucrose phosphate synthase (Sps) and vacuolar invertase (Pain1) were most frequently involved in statistical epistatic interactions. The largest effect on tuber starch content and starch yield was observed for the paired alleles Pain1-8c and Rca-1a, explaining 9 and 10% of the total variance, respectively. The combination of these two alleles increased the means of tuber starch content and starch yield. Biological models to explain the observed statistical epistatic interactions are discussed

The cAMP pathway is important for controlling the morphological switch to the pathogenic yeast form of Paracoccidioides brasiliensis

Paracoccidioides brasiliensis is a human pathogenic fungus that switches from a saprobic mycelium to a pathogenic yeast. Consistent with the morphological transition being regulated by the cAMP-signalling pathway, there is an increase in cellular cAMP levels both transiently at the onset (< 24 h) and progressively in the later stages (> 120 h) of the transition to the yeast form, and this transition can be modulated by exogenous cAMP. We have cloned the cyr1 gene encoding adenylate cyclase (AC) and established that its transcript levels correlate with cAMP levels. In addition, we have cloned the genes encoding three Gα (Gpa1–3), Gβ (Gpb1) and Gγ (Gpg1) G proteins. Gpa1 and Gpb1 interact with one another and the N-terminus of AC, but neither Gpa2 nor Gpa3 interacted with Gpb1 or AC. The interaction of Gpa1 with Gpb1 was blocked by GTP, but its interaction with AC was independent of bound nucleotide. The transcript levels for gpa1, gpb1 and gpg1 were similar in mycelium, but there was a transient excess of gpb1 during the transition, and an excess of gpa1 in yeast. We have interpreted our findings in terms of a novel signalling mechanism in which the activity of AC is differentially modulated by Gpa1 and Gpb1 to maintain the signal over the 10 days needed for the morphological switch