An investigation of privileged substructural motifs as templates for the discovery and design of chloroquine-resistance reversal agents

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 152-165)

Laws and Social Norms: Unintended Consequences of Obesity Laws

Traditional law and economic analysis considers how laws directly incentivize socially optimal behaviors. Meanwhile, a growing theoretical literature posits that beyond deterrence or incentives, laws also communicate normative judgments that can have effects unanticipated by classical predictions. This Article presents empirical evidence supporting the broader legal theory that laws can express social values, leading to shifts in social norms. Using data on adolescent peer networks in the United States, I find that where anti-obesity policies are stricter, social stigma increases for obese girls, though obesity rates do not necessarily decrease. These results are robust and consistent with a model in which the obese, in an anti-obesity policy environment, are negatively perceived as exerting less effort in their health than their non-obese peers. I explore implications of this stigma

Laws and Social Norms: Unintended Consequences of Obesity Laws

Traditional law and economic analysis considers how laws directly incentivize socially optimal behaviors. Meanwhile, a growing theoretical literature posits that beyond deterrence or incentives, laws also communicate normative judgments that can have effects unanticipated by classical predictions. This Article presents empirical evidence supporting the broader legal theory that laws can express social values, leading to shifts in social norms. Using data on adolescent peer networks in the United States, I find that where anti-obesity policies are stricter, social stigma increases for obese girls, though obesity rates do not necessarily decrease. These results are robust and consistent with a model in which the obese, in an anti-obesity policy environment, are negatively perceived as exerting less effort in their health than their non-obese peers. I explore implications of this stigma

Government Expropriation Increases Economic Growth and Racial Inequality: Evidence from Eminent Domain

Is it justified for states to appropriate private property rights? If so, should governments expropriate or regulate?We test three conventional views: insecure property rights cause underinvestment, moral hazard cause overinvestment, or public use cause economic growth.We embed these mechanisms in a model and measure them using the random assignment of U.S. federal court judges setting geographicallylocal precedent. For a half-century, racial minority Democrats were more likely to strike down government appropriations while Republican former federal prosecutors were more likely to uphold them. We find that pro-government physical takings precedent stimulated subsequent takings, expropriation of larger parcels, highway construction, and growth in construction, transportation, and government sectors as well as agriculture, retail, and financial sectors, overall economic growth, and property values. However, racial minorities were increasingly displaced, unemployed, and living in public housing, and the service sector declined. Pro-government regulatory takings precedent also spurred economic growth and property values, but did not increase displacement or racial inequality

Government Expropriation Increases Economic Growth and Racial Inequality: Evidence from Eminent Domain

Is it justified for states to appropriate private property rights? If so, should governments expropriate or regulate?We test three conventional views: insecure property rights cause underinvestment, moral hazard cause overinvestment, or public use cause economic growth.We embed these mechanisms in a model and measure them using the random assignment of U.S. federal court judges setting geographicallylocal precedent. For a half-century, racial minority Democrats were more likely to strike down government appropriations while Republican former federal prosecutors were more likely to uphold them. We find that pro-government physical takings precedent stimulated subsequent takings, expropriation of larger parcels, highway construction, and growth in construction, transportation, and government sectors as well as agriculture, retail, and financial sectors, overall economic growth, and property values. However, racial minorities were increasingly displaced, unemployed, and living in public housing, and the service sector declined. Pro-government regulatory takings precedent also spurred economic growth and property values, but did not increase displacement or racial inequality

How Do Rights Revolutions Occur? Free Speech and the First Amendment

Does law shape values? We test a model of law and norms using an area of law where economic incentives are arguably not the prime drivers of social change. From 1958–2008, Democratic judges were more likely than Republicans to favor progressive free speech standards. Using the random assignment of U.S. federal court judges setting geographically-local precedent, we estimate that progressive free speech standards liberalized sexual attitudes and behaviors and increased both crime rates and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. We then randomly allocated data entry workers to enter newsarticles of court decisions. Progressive decisions liberalized sexual attitudes and shifted norm perceptions for data entry subjects, but not self-reported behavior. These results present evidence of law’s expressive power – with fundamental implications for decision making in social and political settings and for the empirical predictions of theoretical models in these domains

How Do Rights Revolutions Occur? Free Speech and the First Amendment

Does law shape values? We test a model of law and norms using an area of law where economic incentives are arguably not the prime drivers of social change. From 1958–2008, Democratic judges were more likely than Republicans to favor progressive free speech standards. Using the random assignment of U.S. federal court judges setting geographically-local precedent, we estimate that progressive free speech standards liberalized sexual attitudes and behaviors and increased both crime rates and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. We then randomly allocated data entry workers to enter newsarticles of court decisions. Progressive decisions liberalized sexual attitudes and shifted norm perceptions for data entry subjects, but not self-reported behavior. These results present evidence of law’s expressive power – with fundamental implications for decision making in social and political settings and for the empirical predictions of theoretical models in these domains

Judicial Compliance in District Courts

Public enforcement of law relies on the use of public agents, such as judges, to follow the law. Are judges motivated only by strategic interests and ideology, as many models posit, rather than a duty to follow the law? We use the random assignment of U.S. Federal judges setting geographically-local precedent to document the causal impact of court decisions in a hierarchical legal system. We examine lower court cases filed before and resolved after higher court decisions and find that lower courts are 29-37% points more likely to rule in the manner of the higher court. The results obtain when the higher court case was decided in the same doctrinal area as the pending case and when the higher court case was decided on the merits. Reversals by the higher court have no significant effects. These results provide clean evidence that judges are motivated to follow the law and are not solely motivated by policy preferences