Politics in forgotten governments: the partisan composition of county legislatures and county fiscal policies

County governments are a crucial component of the fabric of American democracy. Yet there has been almost no previous research on the policy effects of the partisan composition of county governments. Most counties in the United States have small legislatures, usually called commissions or councils, that set their budgets and other policies. In this study, we examine whether counties with Democratic legislators spend more than counties with Republican ones. We assemble an original data set of 10,708 elections in approximately 298 medium and large counties over the past 25 years. Based on a regression discontinuity design, we find that electing a Democratic legislator rather than a Republican one leads the average county to increase spending by about 5%. Overall, our findings contribute to a growing literature on the policy consequences of partisan control of state and local government. They show that the partisan selection of county legislators has important policy effects in county governments.Accepted manuscrip

The Economics of Orphan Drugs: The Effectiveness of Priority Review Vouchers on the Development of Drugs to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) such as malaria and cholera affect more than 1.4 billion people a year. Pharmaceutical companies have historically neglected these diseases, as the affected populations are also some of the world’s poorest. In 2007, a bill was signed into US law that created a Priority Review Voucher (PRV) program. This program grants developers of drugs for neglected diseases a waiver that reduces the time needed for FDA drug approval. This waiver can be sold to other pharmaceutical companies hoping to expedite the process for potential blockbuster drugs. This law is still in its early stages at the time of this paper, and it would not be feasible for any drugs to be fully approved due to the long drug development timeline. By analyzing FDA clinical trial data, though, initial trends can be analyzed for the development of drugs for NTDs. The clinical trial data does not fully support the effectiveness of the PRV program, but recent sales prices support that the market incentives are working correctly

Redeeming Procrastination: Self-Compassion and Creativity

This paper investigates the effects of self-compassion interventions on creativity after reflecting on a past procrastination experience. The experimental survey ran on Amazon Mechanical Turk (“MTurk”) in April 2018. Over 400 participants were randomized according to the 2x2 factorial design into four groups: a self-kindness intervention group, a common humanity intervention group, a combined self-kindness and common humanity group, and a control group. Participants first completed pre-survey measures that measured trait self-compassion, guilt and shame proneness, and attributional causes. After being asked to reflect on a time they procrastinated that made them feel badly about themselves, participants completed a self-compassion or control writing task. Emotional affect and state self-compassion were then measured. Lastly, participants completed a written business proposal to measure creativity. Creativity scores were not significantly higher for those who received a self-compassion intervention, and were in fact highest in the control group, although not significantly so

To Enforce or Not to Enforce? Leslie Jones and Twitter’s DMCA Policies

On Twitter, the question for copyright holders is not how to enforce their rights under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), but whether to enforce them. Specifically, on Twitter, copyright holders can report any violations under the DMCA, and penalties for violations range from having the content removed to a permanent ban from Twitter. With having a presence on social media only becoming increasingly important for copyright holders, it has proven critical for these holders to strike a balance between protecting their rights and giving some leeway to users. Often, allowing users to have the latitude to use copyrighted material only promotes the holder’s product, either directly or indirectly. Accordingly, some copyright holders have decided that it’s sometimes better to “join them” rather than to “beat them,” as it relates to users who technically violate DMCA rules. A strong example of this question was Leslie Jones allegedly having some of her posts taken down during the 2022 Winter Olympics. This post was originally published on the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal website on February 28, 2022. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above

Peloton Is Climbing The Music Streaming Service Leaderboard After 2020 Settlement with NMPA

In a 2019 statement, Peloton’s co-founders stated their desire to have the company serve as “a discovery resource for new artists and songs while also providing the opportunity for [their] Members to re-discover music they love.” However, this statement came at a time when many artists and publishers weren’t feeling the love back. In April 2018, the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) sent Peloton a cease and desist letter in response to Peloton’s alleged use of particular songs without adequate licensing. At issue was Peloton’s alleged failure to obtain “sync” licenses, which are required when “music is synchronized with [a] visual media output,” for certain songs that were being used in Peloton classes. Subsequently, Peloton took down nearly 6,000 classes that featured the songs in dispute, and NMPA brought a lawsuit against Peloton requesting $150 million in damages, which eventually grew to$300 million. Following the removal of these classes, Peloton was sued by many of its customers for its alleged failure to supply an “ever-growing” library of classes, and the company left a group of its customers “pissed about bad music.” As this lawsuit between NMPA and Peloton progressed, you may have wondered if Peloton, artists, and music publishers would be long-term adversaries in a battle over licensing rights and costs. Fortunately for the artists, publishers, Peloton and Peloton Members, this has not been the case. This post was originally published on the Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal website on November 10, 2021. The original post can be accessed via the Archived Link button above

The Effectiveness of Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for the Treatment of Substance Use Problems: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Millions of people worldwide use and misuse psychoactive and alcoholic substances, which can cause a plethora of negative outcomes (WHO, 2018). A handful of studies have researched the efficacy of psychodynamic interventions in randomized clinical trials (RCTs) for individuals with substance use problems, with most only examining treatment for specific substances (Crits-Christoph et al.; Imel et al., 2008). These studies are thus limited by their narrow focus on specific substances, and their (between-group comparison) findings have not always been consistent. The present study aims to fill several gaps in the literature, in part by broadening the types of eligible outcome studies for inclusion in a meta-analysis. More specifically, studies do not have to use an RCT design for inclusion, as studies that examine only pre-post changes in psychodynamic psychotherapy (PDT) are also eligible. Consistent with this broader focus, the research question addresses within-study change rather than between-groups comparisons. In addition, potential moderator variables were coded and included in specific data analyses to determine the degree to which they predict change in patients with substance use problems who received PDT. The results of this meta-analysis indicated a statistically significant overall effect size of 0.44 and supported the primary hypothesis that PDT is an effective treatment for substance use problems. However, moderator analyses were not statistically significant, indicating that the moderator variables of age and adjunctive treatment did not influence overall treatment outcomes in any meaningful way. All publication bias analyses were not statistically significant, suggesting it is unlikely that issues of publication bias impacted study results

Essays on the Transmission of Risk and Volatility Across International Financial Markets

This dissertation consists of three distinct but related chapters studying the behavior of international financial markets. Chapter 1 explores volatility spillovers between European equity and foreign exchange markets from 2009 until 2016. In contrast to traditional empirical methods, this study uses realized volatility estimates to analyze causal linkages across the frequency domain. Volatility spillovers are tested using the CAC 40, DAX, and FTSE 100 equity indices and the USD/GBP, USD/EUR, and GBP/EUR exchange rates. Results show that volatility spillovers are bidirectional and asymmetric across the frequency domain. Daily volatility spillover from equity to foreign exchange markets is significant at high, mid-range, and low frequencies, whereas foreign exchange to equity market spillover is significant only at lower frequencies. Weekly analysis reinforces these results. However, volatility spillover from equity to foreign exchange markets is less persistent and insignificant from the CAC 40 and DAX to the USD/EUR. These findings highlight the need to consider a wide-range of frequencies when testing for spillover effects. Chapter 2 analyzes risk spillovers across North American equity markets from 1995 until 2016. Downside and upside Conditional Value-at-Risk (CoVaR) are estimated after modeling the dynamic dependence structure for each equity market pair using generalized autoregressive score (GAS) copulas. US-CAN and CAN-MX dynamic correlations trend upwards over the sample period while the US-CAN correlation fluctuates around a higher long-run average. Conditional tail dependence is symmetric in all cases and increases substantially following the Global Financial Crisis, reflecting greater co-movement under extreme economic conditions. Downside and upside risk spillovers are significant and asymmetric for each equity market pair, where downside risk spillovers are more severe. Risk spillover magnitude varies significantly with conditioning direction. Asymmetric behavior is observed across high/low risk and high/low risk spillover periods. The third and final chapter investigates the dynamic dependence structure between U.S. equity market returns and fluctuations in dollar strength using generalized autoregressive score (GAS) copulas. Analysis is conducted for both large and small equity market sizes, as well on a sector-specific basis to tease out differences attributed to international exposure. Significant variation is observed in the dynamic correlations over time, where they exhibit extreme persistence but with a tendency for rapid trend reversals. Dynamic correlations are negative on average with brief positive episodes. Symmetric tail dependence is significant for ten of the twelve equity market measures considered, peaking during periods of exuberance and financial stress when correlations are positive. Sub-sector tail dependence tends to follow the broader market behavior but with large deviations in overall magnitude across time