In Pursuit of Profit Maximization by Restricting Parallel Imports: The U.S. Copyright Owner and Taiwan Copyright Law

Parallel importation occurs when goods which are authorized by the copyright owner to be sold only in a specific territory abroad are imported, without the copyright owner\u27s authorization, into a non-authorized market. Parallel importation into Taiwan has been cause for concern for both U.S. copyright owners and their Taiwan licensees because such importation undermines their control over the marketing of copyrighted goods. A copyright owner may wish to market goods differently in different countries, setting the price of goods sold in one country higher than in another country. This Comment discusses the role of U.S. political pressure in Taiwan\u27s enactment of article 87, the 1993 amendment to the Taiwan Copyright Law restricting parallel imports into Taiwan. This Comment notes that, unlike section 602(a) of the U.S. Copyright Act, the harsh effect of article 87\u27s restriction on parallel imports has yet to be modified by caselaw; in effect, article 87 holds Taiwan importers to a potentially higher standard than the standard enforced by the United States against U.S. importers

Essays on Macroeconomic Effects of Taxation and Health Policies

This dissertation consists of two essays that study the macroeconomic effects of taxation and health policies. In the first chapter, I study the effects of international labor migration on optimal taxation. I develop an open economy model with global financial markets and international labor migration, in which governments engage in an international tax competition. By quantitatively applying the model to the United Kingdom and a set of Continental European countries, I find that strategic interaction between governments, and mobility of labor are important determinants of optimal taxation of capital and labor in open economies. The second chapter (co-authored with Hal Cole and Dirk Krueger) studies the short- and long-run effects of the labor and health insurance market policies in the United States. Motivated by recent legislations aimed at reducing households\u27 exposure to health risks during their working lives, we model the trade-offs between short-run insurance benefits and long-run incentive costs of the social insurance policies. Our quantitative results show that there are non-trivial incentive costs to implementing both labor and health insurance market policies in the long run, leading to a severe deterioration of population health distribution

An automated test assembly for unidimensional IRT tests containing cognitive diagnostic elements

textLarge-scale assessments are typically administered numerous times per year using parallel test forms. The traditional methods of constructing parallel test forms are based on manually selecting items for given test specifications such as content balancing. This methods are cumbersome, time consuming, and inefficient. To overcome these problems, an automated test assembly has been used successfully in test construction to assemble conventional IRT tests (van der Linden, 1994). However, these conventional large-scale assessments only provide a single summary score that indicates the overall performance level or achievement level of a student in a single learning area. For assessments to be more effective, tests should provide useful diagnostic information in addition to single overall scores. One approach is using a Cognitive Diagnosis modeling. The purpose of this research is to develop an algorithm for generating information-rich tests by combining Cognitive Diagnosis with the traditional IRT approach that not only produce a single score to measure an examinee’s ability level but also provide diagnostic information. This study describes a new method of automated test assembly, which incorporates diagnostic techniques with existing IRT-based testing assembly methods. The purpose of Cognitive Diagnosis modeling is to provide useful information by estimating individual knowledge states by assessing whether an examinee has mastered specific attributes measured by the test (Embretson, 1990; DiBello, Stout, & Rousses, 1995; Tatsuoka, 1995). Attributes are skills or cognitive processes that are required to perform correctly on a particular item. If standardized testing could incorporate assessments of the various attributes constituting the item, then students, parents, and teachers would be able to see where a student stands with respect to mastering the item. Such information could be used to guide the learner toward areas requiring more study. Helping students to identify their intellectual strengths and weaknesses is more informative and instructive than simply giving them a single score that represents their overall ability. By being able to assess where they stand in regard to the attributes that compose an item, students can plan a more effective learning path to be desired proficiency levels. Even though Cognitive Diagnosis has attracted considerable attention from researchers, few studies have described how to assemble a test that conforms to given cognitive criteria. If such a test could be assembled, it would provide more specific identification of the areas where students needs to improve their skills. Also, it would provide diagnostic feedback to teachers, who could then address the specific needs of individual students. In this way, the test becomes an active tool in the educational process rather than just a passive score report. The proposed automated test assembly method and its corresponding computer algorithm will be developed to construct tests automatically from a given item bank while assuring the tests conform to specifications from both conventional IRT scaling and the Cognitive Diagnostic aspects. The method employs the commonly used Zero-One (0/1) Linear Programming Method. This study describes a new method of automated test assembly, which incorporates diagnostic techniques with existing IRT-based testing assembly methods using Maxmin, Minimax, and Maximum Information Methods. A major goal of this research is to identify a set of the most reasonable constraints in Cognitive Diagnosis and to integrate those new constraints into traditional IRT scaling. Most traditional test assembly methods tend to select best test items to form a test under given test specifications, such as content balancing, item difficulties, item formats, reliabilities, test length, and many more (van der Linden, 1998). For this research, a component to deal with Cognitive Diagnosis is added to the current existing automated test assembly method based on IRT. The research described in this dissertation sought to apply and improve available technologies to automate this task and thereby contribute to a new area of educational research. By implementing the Cognitive Diagnostic approach within the traditional standardized test assembly methods, testing specialists will find that using the algorithm introduced in this dissertation might prove useful to test development.Educational Psycholog

Perfume of the Soul: Compositional Influences of Emile Naoumoff

Emile Naoumoff is a renowned Bulgarian pianist, composer, teacher and, most notably, the very last disciple of Nadia Boulanger. This document will analyze the four different periods of his compositional life: the early period, influenced by Slavic folk elements; the neoclassical period, from studies with Nadia Boulanger; the French art song period; and his current fascination with the art of improvisation. My main focus will be to define and analyze the distinct stylistic differences of each period and to explore Naoumoff's various influences and inspirations. Additionally, I will examine his use of harmony citing specific examples from his compositions and offering a brief analysis of representative pieces from each period. Despite the vastly different styles of these four periods, there is one overarching element that is apparent throughout his compositions: the frequent use of basso ostinato. Its use, according to Naoumoff, reflects the influence of Russian music, and this recurring element is seen repeatedly from his early Nocturne to his very latest improvisations

Analyzing the effects of insuring health risks : on the trade-off between short run insurance benefits vs. long run incentive costs

This paper constructs a dynamic model of health insurance to evaluate the short- and long run effects of policies that prevent firms from conditioning wages on health conditions of their workers, and that prevent health insurance companies from charging individuals with adverse health conditions higher insurance premia. Our study is motivated by recent US legislation that has tightened regulations on wage discrimination against workers with poorer health status (Americans with Disability Act of 2009, ADA, and ADA Amendments Act of 2008, ADAAA) and that will prohibit health insurance companies from charging different premiums for workers of different health status starting in 2014 (Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, PPACA). In the model, a trade-off arises between the static gains from better insurance against poor health induced by these policies and their adverse dynamic incentive effects on household efforts to lead a healthy life. Using household panel data from the PSID we estimate and calibrate the model and then use it to evaluate the static and dynamic consequences of no-wage discrimination and no-prior conditions laws for the evolution of the cross-sectional health and consumption distribution of a cohort of households, as well as ex-ante lifetime utility of a typical member of this cohort. In our quantitative analysis we find that although a combination of both policies is effective in providing full consumption insurance period by period, it is suboptimal to introduce both policies jointly since such policy innovation induces a more rapid deterioration of the cohort health distribution over time. This is due to the fact that combination of both laws severely undermines the incentives to lead healthier lives. The resulting negative effects on health outcomes in society more than offset the static gains from better consumption insurance so that expected discounted lifetime utility is lower under both policies, relative to only implementing wage nondiscrimination legislation

Developing and Assessing New List Operators in App Inventor

MIT App Inventor is a blocks-based programming environment in which users connect puzzle-shaped blocks to build apps for Android devices. App Inventor supports a Python-like list data structure typically manipulated with loops, but it lacks important list operations that can greatly simplify list manipulation. I have extended the implementation of App Inventor to include new blocks that map, filter, reduce, and sort lists. Since App Inventor does not have first class functions, many of these blocks incorporate the parameter and body declarations of functional arguments associated with these operators. For example, the mapping block has a socket for the input list, a parameter declaration to name each item in the list, and a socket for the expression that denotes the result of transforming the item. There are three sorting blocks: one using a default comparator that arranges the list items in increasing order; one with a key function that returns a proxy value used for sorting the list with the default comparator; and one that uses a comparator provided by the user. In addition, I also addressed the problem that some App Inventor list operators are destructive (they change their input list) while others are nondestructive (they return a new list). This inconsistency can be limiting and confusing to users. To solve this problem, I have implemented a mechanism for many list operators that allows users to choose between making the operator destructive or nondestructive. This flexibility eliminates complicated programming workarounds necessary in the current system. To test the usability of the map, filter, reduce and sort operators, I conducted a user study with 18 students at Wellesley College who had previous experience working with App Inventor. Most users, even those with no previous exposure to map, filter or reduce, were able to successfully complete a majority of the tasks. Two common problems that users faced, however, was manipulating a list of lists using map, filter and/or reduce and sorting a list with two keys. In future work, the results and feedback from this study will be used to iterate through the design of these new blocks