Methodology of Law and Economics

Introduction A chapter on the methodology of law and economics, i.e. the economic analysis of law, concerns the methodology of economics. The above quote (Becker 1976, 5) shows that economics should not be defined by its subject, but by its method (also Veljanovski 2007, 19). This method forms the core of our contribution. We discuss several related issues. In his entry on methodology in the Encyclopedia of Law and Economics, Kerkmeester (2000) states that most legal economists follow a pragmatic, eclectic approach and that it is hard to fit them in a particular school. A review of the methodology of law and economics must therefore concentrate on the ideas which are shared by the vast majority of legal economists (Kerkmeester 2000, 383). De Geest defines the use of elements from different schools as the ‘integrated paradigm’, and the predominant approach to law and economics as the ‘mainstream approach’ (De Geest 1994, 459ff, Mackaay 1991, p. 1509). In law and economics, the economic approach operates on two distinct levels. First, human choice is analyzed from an economic point of view. The predominant approach here is the rational choice theory, which we discuss in Section 2. The basic idea of this theory is that human behaviour is analyzed as if people are seeking to maximize their expected utility. The second level of the economic approach is the goals which are attributed to the legal system. In Section 3, we discuss the concept of market failure, which in law and economics is regarded as the primary raison d’être of law. Legal rules are analyzed as instruments to correct market failure, or at least to reduce its adverse consequences. We will briefly illustrate this idea by discussing, among others, competition law, tort law, patent law and consumer law as instruments to counter market power, negative externalities, collective goods and information asymmetry. In Section 4, we discuss the Coase Theorem, which states that the allocation of legal entitlements between market players is irrelevant for efficiency when the parties can transact these entitlements costlessly. Given that transaction costs are positive in the real world, we also pay attention to their implications for regulation. In Section 5, we discuss ‘behavioural law and economics.’ This relatively recent approach is based on insights from cognitive psychology, suggesting that people do not always act rationally. After reviewing the major findings in this field, we elaborate on the consequences for the more traditional approach of the rational choice theory. In Section 6 we conclude

Fast Food Sovereignty: Contradiction in Terms or Logical Next Step?

The growing academic literature on ‘food sovereignty’ has elaborated a food producer- driven vision of an alternative, more ecological food system rooted in greater democratic control over food production and distribution. Given that the food sovereignty developed with and within producer associations, a rural setting and production- side concerns have overshadowed issues of distribution and urban consumption. Yet, ideal types such as direct marketing, time-intensive food preparation and the ‘family shared meal’ are hard to transcribe into the life realities in many non-rural, non-farming households, and it is unclear, in turn, how such realities can fit into models of food sovereignty. A particular practical and research gap exists in how to engage the overwhelming need for food options served under time constraints and (often) outside of the home or a full-service restaurant. The over-generalized vilification of ‘fast food’ should be replaced by a framework that allows us to distinguish between unhealthy, corporate fast foods and both traditional and emerging alternatives that can serve to extend the tenets of food sovereignty further into food processing, distribution and consumption. This article analyzes existing conceptualizations of fast food, explores fast food historically, and studies how food sovereignty can operationalize its tenets and priorities in situations where fast food is an unquestionable necessity

High-Performance Carbon Electrodes Modified with Polyaniline for Stable and Selective Anion Separation

Capacitive deionization (CDI) is a technology used for water desalination and ion recovery based on the use of capacitive electrodes. Typically, the porous carbon electrodes used for CDI display limited ion storage capacity and selectivity due to the mechanism of ion storage in the electric double layer, but impressive improvements have been achieved using alternative, redox-based electrode materials, including conducting polymers like polyaniline (PAni). PAni is capable of capturing anions based on redox chemistry, but it degrades at anodic potentials typically used in CDI. In this work, we employed a multi-channel membrane CDI cell to map the stability window of a porous carbon electrode modified with PAni by controlling the anodic potential. We demonstrated for the first time that applying a potential as low as + 0.35 V (vs. Ag/AgCl) yields a stable and high chloride removal capacity (65 mgCl/gAnode) with charge and coulombic efficiencies close to 100% for CDI. Furthermore, this is first work to explore the selectivity of the PAni-modified CDI electrodes towards chloride in binary solutions, evidencing that chloride is preferred regardless the valence of the competing anions. We believe that this work provides an important contribution for a larger figure, one in which CDI can be used for both high-performance water desalination, and efficient anion-selective removal and recovery.This work was supported by the European Research Council (ERC Consolidator Grant 682444, E-motion, PI L.d.S)". L.A.M.R. thanks the Sao Paulo State Research Foundation (FAPESP, grant 2017/19838-5). The authors thank Kaíque S. G. C. Oliveira for the synthesis of the PAC material, Dr Sidharam Pujari for the AES measurements, and Ellen Dautzenberg for the nitrogen adsorption/desorption measurements. The authors also would like to thank the participants of the Advanced Materials for Chemical Selectivity group of the Laboratory of Organic Chemistry (WUR), particularly the CDI team, for the fruitful discussions

Effects of Fermi energy, dot size and leads width on weak localization in chaotic quantum dots

Magnetotransport in chaotic quantum dots at low magnetic fields is investigated by means of a tight binding Hamiltonian on L x L clusters of the square lattice. Chaoticity is induced by introducing L bulk vacancies. The dependence of weak localization on the Fermi energy, dot size and leads width is investigated in detail and the results compared with those of previous analyses, in particular with random matrix theory predictions. Our results indicate that the dependence of the critical flux Phi_c on the square root of the number of open modes, as predicted by random matrix theory, is obscured by the strong energy dependence of the proportionality constant. Instead, the size dependence of the critical flux predicted by Efetov and random matrix theory, namely, Phi_c ~ sqrt{1/L}, is clearly illustrated by the present results. Our numerical results do also show that the weak localization term significantly decreases as the leads width W approaches L. However, calculations for W=L indicate that the weak localization effect does not disappear as L increases.Comment: RevTeX, 8 postscript figures include

Adubação de milho no município de Oliveira, estado de Minas Gerais

Um experimento sobre adubação de milho (Zea maysL.), variedades "Agroceres - 13", foi conduzido no Município de Oliveira, Estado de Minas Gerais, com a finalidade de se estudar o efeito de adubos nitrogenado, fosfatado e potássico sobre a produção desse importante cereal. Os resultados obtidos a partir de um ensaio fatorial 2³ mostraram que a adubação nitrogenada foi a que proporcionou maior produção e renda líquida. Para a adubação fosfatada, houve um pequeno aumento de produção. Não houve resposta ao potássio.The present paper is related to a factorial experiment 2³ on corn fertilization carried out in the Municipality of Oliveira, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil. It has been found that the grain yield of the different treatments was: Control - 3.053 Kg/ha N only - 5.126 Kg/ha N K - 5.244 Kg/ha N P K - 5.937 Kg/ha HP - 6.046 Kg/ha Ascording to the results, it can be inferred that the most economical yield was obtained with the application of nitrogen. There was a small increase in the yield with phosphorus and there was no response to potassium. The soil analysis shoved a high phosphorus content (0,618 e.mg/100 g of soil). The phosphorus extraction was nade with H2SO4 0,05 N. In respect to exchangeable potassium, its content was 0,150 e.mg/100 g of soil; the extractor for potassium was HNO3 0,05 N. Concerning the soil nitrogen, the Kjeldahl method showed a percentage of total nitrogen of 0.154. In spite of this nitrogen content, the corn responds to nitrogen fertilization