The Role of State Law in an Era of Federal Preemption: Lessons from Environmental Regulation

Using environmental regulation as an example, Dwyer discusses the role of state law in an era ruled by federal preemption. The present hybrid system of national standards and state implementation and enforcement may be a reasonable accomodation of both state and national interests

Preface: hedge funds: creators of risk?

Hedge funds

Online Radio: A Social Media Business?

Digitisation and the internet have enabled the emergence of free digital music streaming services, like Last.fm, Spotify and We-7, and online-only radio services like Mixcloud, which disintermediate the traditional broadcast radio station’s role as a gatekeeper between the music industry and the listener (Weichmann, 2009). UK radio broadcasters have responded to these challengers with their own webcasting and with a platform – Radioplayer – created by a unique collaboration between BBC and commercial radio stations. Although online listening is still small compared to broadcast audiences, the potential exists for social media to transform the way audiences listen to music online and on mobile devices (Ofcom, 2011). This chapter proposes a new analytical framework to analyse the different services offered by traditional and digital radio and music services and to evaluate their performance,from an audience perspective. Having differentiated the various services within a competitive field, the chapter gives a more detailed examination to two innovative companies – Radioplayer and Mixcloud - which are attempting to redefine radio services online, on mobile and on social media. The particular focus of the final part of the chapter is in applying the analytical framework to analyse and evaluate the performance of the social media applications implemented by these companies, in comparison with a key competitor, Spotify

Economic slowdown: demand or supply induced?

Economic indicators ; Business cycles

Social Security private accounts: a risky proposition?

In the ongoing debate over Social Security, private accounts have been recommended as one part of the resolution of the funding difficulties the system faces in coming years. This article discusses what private accounts can and cannot do for individuals who choose to use them and for future Social Security deficits. ; Under current proposals, private accounts would give account holders personal ownership rights and could be willed to heirs at death. Most proposals would limit the range of assets that can be held but would permit account owners to determine their investments based on personal risk preferences. To the extent that financial asset returns can be higher than returns on Social Security, private accounts can be more worthwhile for those with a longer time until retirement because any difference in returns can compound over a longer period. ; Private accounts carry the risks inherent in holding financial assets, but Social Security carries a real risk of lower benefits in the future. Holders of private accounts would be trading one type of risk for another. ; The creation of private accounts can reduce Social Security’s future problems if the reductions in benefits in exchange for deposits in private accounts reflect the initial deposit plus interest earned.>Social security

Rules and discretion in monetary policy

Monetary policy ; Velocity of money

Expected returns to stock investments by angel investors in groups

Angel investors invest billions of dollars in thousands of entrepreneurial projects annually, far more than the number of firms that obtain venture capital. Previous research has calculated realized internal rates of return on angel investments, but empirical estimates of expected returns have not yet been produced. Although calculations of realized returns are a valuable contribution, expected returns, rather than realized returns, drive investment decisions. We use a new data set and statistical framework to produce the first empirical estimates of expected returns on angel investments. We also allow for the time value of money, which previous research has typically ignored. Our sample of 588 investments spans the 1972–2007 period and contains 419 exited investments. We conduct extensive tests to explore potential bias in the data set and conclude that the evidence in favor of bias is tenuous at best. Our results suggest that angel investors in groups can expect to earn returns that are on the order of returns on venture capital investments. Estimated net returns are about 70 percent in excess of the riskless rate per year for an average holding period of 3.67 years. This estimate is reasonable compared to Cochrane's (2005) estimate of 59 percent per year for venture capital investments, which tend to be in lower-variance, later-stage projects. Returns have a large variance and are heavily skewed, with many losses and occasional extraordinarily high returns.

Inflation and monetary regimes

Correlations of inflation with the growth rate of money increase when data are averaged over longer time periods. Correlations of inflation with the growth of money also are higher when high-inflation as well as low-inflation countries are included in the analysis. We show that serial correlation in the underlying inflation rate ties these two observations together and explains them. We present evidence that averaging increases the correlation of inflation and money growth more when the underlying inflation rate has higher serial correlation.

Stress-Minimizing Orthogonal Layout of Data Flow Diagrams with Ports

We present a fundamentally different approach to orthogonal layout of data flow diagrams with ports. This is based on extending constrained stress majorization to cater for ports and flow layout. Because we are minimizing stress we are able to better display global structure, as measured by several criteria such as stress, edge-length variance, and aspect ratio. Compared to the layered approach, our layouts tend to exhibit symmetries, and eliminate inter-layer whitespace, making the diagrams more compact