One Rule to Compensate Them All

The article claims that there is a unique compensation criterion that should be applied in all civil wrongs, inter alia, in tort, intellectual property and property law. Where an individual wrongfully infringes the right of another, the taker should be obliged to repay the victim her damages plus half the additional attributed net profits derived from the taking. This article names this criterion the Golden Rule. The suggested criterion contains three main components. First, for example, a firm increased manufacturing with profits of $1,000, acted wrongfully, and, as a result, someone suffered damages of$600-the taker should pay the victim $800 (600+$500 (0+1 (1, 000-0)). Third, if the firm loses after paying the victim her damages, for example, where the total profits are $400 (before paying the victim\u27s damages)-the taker pays the victim only her damages ($600). The article examines modem physics for an analogical exploration of the notion of phenomena that are hard to verify and current laws for any existing application of the Golden Rule. It finds that patent law embraces major aspects of the rule, inter alia, in the United States Supreme Court\u27s influential ruling in eBay Inc. v. MercExchange, L.L.C. that limits the automatic operation of injunctions and emphasizes the importance of the compensation scheme, and especially in reasonable royalty-the most common criterion of patent infringement compensation. The article claims that the reasonable royalty criterion that requires the court to perform hypothetical bargaining between the patent infringer and owner is theoretically equivalent to the Golden Rule. The article shows that the Golden Rule is already in use and that it is the unique socially optimal rule of compensation for all civil wrongs. First, using law and economics methodology, the article claims as follows: (1) in bargaining settings, the Golden Rule fully protects the value of the victim\u27s entitlements by assigning the maximum value to her right to negotiate and sell her entitlement by herself; damages awards eliminate this value; (2) where under-compensation may be expected, for example, due to asymmetric information, damages awards often lead to inefficient takings, while the Golden Rule ensures that only efficient takings occur; (3) in settings of competitive markets for victim entitlements, damages awards undermine the structure and operation of the markets by allowing potential takers to force a purchase of entitlements at their costs, which the Golden Rule may restore; and finally, (4) the Golden Rule may serve as a proper debiasing mechanism for correcting risk estimation errors caused by cognitive biases. Second, the article claims that normative theories of both corrective and distributive justice lead to the same unique, socially optimal Golden Rule compensation criterion. The article further suggests rules to implement the Golden Rule, including ways to measure compensation by this criterion. Inter alia, where takers\u27 profits or victims\u27 damages are elusive, the court may use takers\u27 financial ratios to determine the Golden Rule compensation. Where measuring damages and gains is impractical, the article suggests that the court may apply, mutatis mutandis, its ex-ante equivalent, namely the hypothetical bargaining criterion of patent litigation

Why Should We Not Protest For Consumption Tax Reduction? Consumption Tax Rate as a Partial Mechanism For Increasing Consumer Wealth

If you are an activist protesting against the high costs of living, we would like to offer you one suggestion: do not demand that the government reduce consumption tax. Social activists tend to believe that a government policy reducing consumption tax can, by itself, benefit the general population. This paper explains our suggestion to the contrary. The tax field alone is insufficient for consumption tax reduction to be effective in increasing consumer wealth over benefiting suppliers. Due to cognitive biases, or heuristics, when the government changes consumption tax rates in order to increase consumers’ well-being, suppliers are able to fix market prices above the normal equilibrium prices; this is especially true with low-priced and necessity goods. This article examines four product price display regimes as possible solutions to this problem: (1) the tax inclusive pricing rule, common in EU countries, requiring suppliers to include the tax in the display price of each product; (2) the tax exclusive pricing rule, common in North America, permitting suppliers to display the price of each product without the tax amount; (3) the net and total price rule, which we suggest as the preferable solution, requiring suppliers to present net and final prices for each product; and (4) the comparative net and total price rule, which is very similar to the net and total price rule but with the addition of comparative data and is more costly to apply. Among these four different product price display regimes, the net and total price rule is ultimately preferable as it effectively reduces the influence of heuristics at a minimal cost, which thereby best promotes distributional justice and economic efficiency

New Financial Tools for Small Businesses: A Commitment Mechanism to Secure Funding

We suggest new tools for financing small business newcomers that struggle to overcome bank's unwillingness to finance their operations and clients fear that suppliers may choose willful litigation by breaching the contract. We suggest a commitment mechanism based on a commitment to a bank that makes the newcomer supplier’s obligations reliable. We show how the purchase contracts and obligations to banks can be priced, and how the commitment mechanism may provide the banks new tools to spread the risk of newcomers' bankruptcy by selling the obligations as binary options in an options market or by securitization of the purchase contracts

New Differences between Negligence and Strict Liability and Their Implications on Medical Malpractice Reform

The present article seeks to explore previously undiscussed differences between the negligence and strict liability rules and thereby examine the required medical liability reform, if such reform is indeed required. Our main thesis is that negligence as a basis for liability entails a unique mechanism, which is essentially different than the strict liability mechanism, and is more efficient for several reasons, related to the legal function of resolving partial information problems which cause partial failure in the healthcare market. Among other things, the negligence mechanism (1) motivates the parties to a potential damages claim to invest in information gathering; (2) motivates doctors and medical institutions to adjust the appropriate medical procedures through time; (3) uses the market players\u27 professional reputation to resolve the market\u27s partial information problems; (4) introduces the courts as an additional oversight level; and (5) assists the law in reducing costs resulting from lack of standardization. Furthermore, the negligence rule allows the law to ensure a more efficient risk distribution. One reason for that is that it allows the law to distribute risk resulting from negligent errors separately from the risk resulting from non-negligent errors. This thesis leads to conclusions regarding various issues, such as the required medical liability reform. Inter alia, we argue that it is inappropriate to limit the negligence mechanism\u27s application, such as shrinking the limitation period or by imposing damage caps. We also argue for the advisability of creating and refining mechanisms to assist in resolving the market\u27s partial information problems. For example, general imposition of mandatory disclosure in the healthcare market, similar to that which is imposed on the securities market, including the establishment of a central authority such as the SEC and supportive mechanisms such as those applied to regulating the securities market

Structure-based mutational analyses in FGF7 identify new residues involved in specific interaction with FGFR2IIIb

AbstractReceptor binding specificity is an essential element in regulating the diverse activities of fibroblast growth factors (FGFs). FGF7 is ideal to study how this specificity is conferred at the structural level, as it interacts exclusively with one isoform of the FGF-receptor (FGFR) family, known as FGFR2IIIb. Previous mutational analysis suggested the importance of the β4/β5 loop of FGF7 in specific receptor recognition. Here a theoretical model of FGFR2IIIb/FGF7 complex showed that this loop interacts with the FGFR2IIIb unique exon. In addition, the model revealed new residues that either directly interact with the FGFR2IIIb unique exon (Asp63, Leu142) or facilitate this interaction (Arg65). Mutations in these residues reduced both receptor binding affinity and biological activity of FGF7. Altogether, these results provide the basis for understanding how receptor-binding specificity of FGF7 is conferred at the structural level

Why Should We Not Protest For Consumption Tax Reduction? Consumption Tax Rate as a Partial Mechanism For Increasing Consumer Wealth

If you are an activist protesting against the high costs of living, we would like to offer you one suggestion: do not demand that the government reduce consumption tax. Social activists tend to believe that a government policy reducing consumption tax can, by itself, benefit the general population. This paper explains our suggestion to the contrary. The tax field alone is insufficient for consumption tax reduction to be effective in increasing consumer wealth over benefiting suppliers. Due to cognitive biases, or heuristics, when the government changes consumption tax rates in order to increase consumers’ well-being, suppliers are able to fix market prices above the normal equilibrium prices; this is especially true with low-priced and necessity goods. This article examines four product price display regimes as possible solutions to this problem: (1) the tax inclusive pricing rule, common in EU countries, requiring suppliers to include the tax in the display price of each product; (2) the tax exclusive pricing rule, common in North America, permitting suppliers to display the price of each product without the tax amount; (3) the net and total price rule, which we suggest as the preferable solution, requiring suppliers to present net and final prices for each product; and (4) the comparative net and total price rule, which is very similar to the net and total price rule but with the addition of comparative data and is more costly to apply. Among these four different product price display regimes, the net and total price rule is ultimately preferable as it effectively reduces the influence of heuristics at a minimal cost, which thereby best promotes distributional justice and economic efficiency

Representation of women in editorial boards of infectious disease and microbiology journals-cross-sectional study

Objectives: We aimed to assess whether there is an association between the proportion of female editors-in-chief and members of editorial boards in infectious disease (ID) and microbiology journals. Methods: Our cross-sectional observational study included ID or microbiology journals according to the 2019 Clarivate Journal Citation Reports. Journals' Q ranking, open-access status, and number and gender of editors-in-chief and editorial board members were collected from the journals' official websites. We conducted a binary gender assignment for each editor using names, pictures, and other online descriptors. Journals with over 100 editorial board members and those with over 25% of board members for whom we could not determine gender were excluded. Editorial teams with &gt;50% women were considered women dominant. Univariate and multivariable analyses for female editor dominance were performed. Results: Overall, 167 journals were included, with total 6057 editorial members, 1655 (27.3%) of whom were women. Of 214 editors-in-chief, 48 (22%) were women, and only 25% (40 of 162) of journals had female editor-in-chief dominance. Factors associated with female dominance in the editor-in-chief role in univariate analysis were higher quartile rank, higher impact factor, and open access. Open-access journals remined significant in multivariable analysis (odds ratio (OR) 2.521; 95% CI, 1.140-5.576, p = 0.022). Larger editorial boards were less likely to have female dominance. Female editor-in-chief dominance was significantly associated with women-dominant editorial boards. Discussion: ID and microbiology journals have significantly few women as editors-in-chief and editorial board members. Understanding the reasons for this inequality is required as an important step to confront and resolve it.</p

Prochlorococcus Cells Rely on Microbial Interactions Rather than on Chlorotic Resting Stages To Survive Long-Term Nutrient Starvation

The ability of microorganisms to withstand long periods of nutrient starvation is key to their survival and success under highly fluctuating conditions that are common in nature. Therefore, one would expect this trait to be prevalent among organisms in the nutrient-poor open ocean. Here, we show that this is not the case for Prochlorococcus, a globally abundant and ecologically important marine cyanobacterium. Instead, Prochlorococcus relies on co-occurring heterotrophic bacteria to survive extended phases of nutrient and light starvation. Our results highlight the power of microbial interactions to drive major biogeochemical cycles in the ocean and elsewhere with consequences at the global scale.Many microorganisms produce resting cells with very low metabolic activity that allow them to survive phases of prolonged nutrient or energy stress. In cyanobacteria and some eukaryotic phytoplankton, the production of resting stages is accompanied by a loss of photosynthetic pigments, a process termed chlorosis. Here, we show that a chlorosis-like process occurs under multiple stress conditions in axenic laboratory cultures of Prochlorococcus, the dominant phytoplankton linage in large regions of the oligotrophic ocean and a global key player in ocean biogeochemical cycles. In Prochlorococcus strain MIT9313, chlorotic cells show reduced metabolic activity, measured as C and N uptake by Nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS). However, unlike many other cyanobacteria, chlorotic Prochlorococcus cells are not viable and do not regrow under axenic conditions when transferred to new media. Nevertheless, cocultures with a heterotrophic bacterium, Alteromonas macleodii HOT1A3, allowed Prochlorococcus to survive nutrient starvation for months. We propose that reliance on co-occurring heterotrophic bacteria, rather than the ability to survive extended starvation as resting cells, underlies the ecological success of Prochlorococcus