Crime, the Criminal Justice System, and Socioeconomic Inequality

Crime rates in the United States have declined to historical lows since the early 1990s. Prison and jail incarceration rates as well as community correctional populations have increased greatly since the mid-1970s. Both of these developments have disproportionately impacted poor and minority communities. In this paper, we document these trends. We then present an assessment of whether the crime declines can be attributed to the massive expansion of the U.S. criminal justice system. We argue that the crime is certainly lower as results of this expansion and the crime rate in the early 1990s was likely a third lower than what they would have been absent changes in sentencing practices in the 1980s. However, there is little evidence of an impact of the further stiffening of sentences during the 1990s, a period when prison and other correctional populations expanded rapidly. Hence, the growth in criminal justice populations since 1990s have exacerbated socioeconomic inequality in the U.S. without generating much benefit in terms of lower crime rates

Improved modelling of atmospheric ammonia over Denmark using the coupled modelling system DAMOS

A local-scale Gaussian dispersion-deposition model (OML-DEP) has been coupled to a regional chemistry-transport model (DEHM with a resolution of approximately 6 km × 6 km over Denmark) in the Danish Ammonia Modelling System, DAMOS. Thereby, it has been possible to model the distribution of ammonia concentrations and depositions on a spatial resolution down to 400 m × 400 m for selected areas in Denmark. DAMOS has been validated against measured concentrations from the dense measuring network covering Denmark. Here measured data from 21 sites are included and the validation period covers 2–5 years within the period 2005–2009. A standard time series analysis (using statistic parameters like correlation and bias) shows that the coupled model system captures the measured time series better than the regional- scale model alone. However, our study also shows that about 50% of the modelled concentration level at a given location originates from non-local emission sources. The local-scale model covers a domain of 16 km × 16 km, and of the locally released ammonia (NH<sub>3</sub>) within this domain, our simulations at five sites show that 14–27% of the locally (within 16 km × 16 km) emitted NH<sub>3</sub> also deposits locally. These results underline the importance of including both high-resolution local-scale modelling of NH<sub>3</sub> as well as the regional-scale component described by the regional model. The DAMOS system can be used as a tool in environmental management in relation to assessments of total nitrogen load of sensitive nature areas in intense agricultural regions. However, high spatio-temporal resolution in input parameters like NH<sub>3</sub> emissions and land-use data is required

Creative Destruction and Productive Preemption

We develop a theory of commercialization mode (entry or sale) of entrepreneurial inventions into oligopoly, and show that an invention of higher quality is more likely to be sold (or licensed) to an incumbent due to strategic product market effects on the sales price. Moreover, preemptive acquisitions by incumbents are shown to stimulate the process of creative destruction by increasing the entrepreneurial effort allocated to high-quality invention projects. Using detailed data on patents granted to small firms and individuals, we find evidence that high-quality inventions are often sold, and that they are sold under bidding competition

Disadvantage and discrimination in self-employment: caste gaps in earnings in Indian small businesses

Using the 2004-05 India Human Development Survey data, we estimate and decompose the earnings of household businesses owned by historically marginalized social groups known as Scheduled Castes and Tribes (SCSTs), and non-SCSTs across the earnings distribution. We find clear differences in characteristics between the two types of businesses with the former faring significantly worse. The mean decomposition reveals that as much as 55 per cent of the caste earnings gap could be attributed to the unexplained component. Quantile regressions suggest that gaps are higher at lower deciles, providing some evidence of a sticky floor. Finally, quantile decompositions reveal that the unexplained component is greater at the lower and middle deciles than higher, suggesting that SCST-owned businesses at the lower and middle end of the conditional earnings distribution face greater discrimination

Traveling surface acoustic wave (TSAW) microfluidic fluorescence activated cell sorter (μFACS)

We report a microfluidic fluorescence activated cell-sorting (μFACS) device that employs traveling surface acoustic waves (TSAW) to sort cells at rates comparable to conventional jet-in-air FACS machines, with high purity and viability. The device combines inertial flow focusing and sheath flow to align and evenly space cells, improving the sorting accuracy and screening rate. We sort with an interdigital transducer (IDT) whose tapered geometry allows precise positioning of the TSAW for optimal cell sorting. We sort three different cell lines at several kHz, at cell velocities exceeding one meter per second, while maintaining both sorting purity and cell viability at around 90% simultaneously

The dynamics of immigrant welfare and labor market behavior

Labor market transitions, Welfare, Immigration, State dependence, I30, J15, J61,