Does Inflation Targeting Matter? A Reassessment

This paper uses a number of identification approaches (using instrumental variables, assumptions about heteroscedasticity and panel fixed effects) to estimate the effect of inflation targeting on inflation. Generally, it finds the effect is small and insignificant.Inflation; Monetary policy

Separation of variables and the XXZ Gaudin magnet

In this work we generalise previous results connecting (rational) Gaudin magnet models and classical separation of variables. It is shown that the connection persists for the case of linear r-matrix algebra which corresponds to the trigonometric 4x4 r-matrix (of the XXZ type). We comment also on the corresponding problem for the elliptic (XYZ) r-matrix. A prescription for obtaining integrable systems associated with multiple poles of an L-operator is given.Comment: 11 pages, AMS-Te

Revision of the United Nations Charter and the Development of the Law

Article 109 of the Charter of the United Nations requires that the agenda of the 1955 General Assembly contain a proposal for the establishment of a General Conference to review the present Charter\u27. A Senate Commission was chosen in September, 1953, to study proposals for revision. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, announcing in August, 1953, that the United States favors holding the conference, said that if we are to have real security we must do those things which U.... are necessary to put international intercourse on a friendly and nonfriction basis. There were serious inadequacies in the Charter which required alteration, he said, one of which arose out of a disregard for the fact that, in the long run, world order depended upon law and justice. He pointed out that the General Assembly has made but little progress in codifying international law, and that the 1955 conference, which ... will be comparable in its importance to the original San Francisco Conference... will provide .... a conspicuous opportunity for which the lawyers of America should be prepared. Mr. Dulles has thus invited the cooperation of American lawyers in implementing present American policy to strengthen the United Nations

Suppose FIRPTA Was Repealed

This article argues, as others have before, that the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act of 1980 (or “FIRPTA”), or at least the provisions of FIRPTA relating to “United States real property holding corporations,” should be repealed. Their enactment in 1980 was misguided and in any event changes in the Internal Revenue Code since then have made the provisions obsolete. But if FIRPTA is repealed, in whole or in part, the article argues that the lack of parity between foreign investment in real property that is made directly or through a partnership, on the one hand, and foreign investment in a real estate investment trust (or a regulated investment company that invests in shares of real estate investment trusts) should be dealt with. Otherwise, repeal will exacerbate existing distortions (which were already pushed further by FIRPTA) resulting from the choice of the entity used to make an investment in US real property. The article also suggests that repeal of FIRPTA would provide an opportunity to look at the taxation of foreign investment in the United States more broadly and in particular the rules that tax income from U.S. real property. The tax treatment of inward investment is a generally neglected subject. The article concludes by arguing against legislation that would keep the FIRPTA rules and simply expand provisions of present law that favor foreign investment through real estate investment trusts, such as the Real Estate Jobs and Investment Act of 2011

Distortion and Revolution in Texas U.S. Congressional Redistricting Politics: 1972-2014

Over 42 years and 22 US congressional elections between 1972 and 2014, Texas evolved from a state controlled by the Democratic Party since Reconstruction to one dominated by the Republican Party. This thesis examines the relationship between measures of district compactness and changing demographics (decreasing non-Hispanic White percentage and increasing Hispanic percentage) on a measure of electoral bias, as measured by a metric called distortion during this transition. Distortion is the difference between the percentage of seats won by a party with the percentage of votes it received in a statewide congressional election. Using a general linear regression model, the research finds that distortion decreases as compactness increases, while demographic variables do not significantly affect distortion

Revision of the United Nations Charter and the Development of the Law

Article 109 of the Charter of the United Nations requires that the agenda of the 1955 General Assembly contain a proposal for the establishment of a General Conference to review the present Charter\u27. A Senate Commission was chosen in September, 1953, to study proposals for revision. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, announcing in August, 1953, that the United States favors holding the conference, said that if we are to have real security we must do those things which U.... are necessary to put international intercourse on a friendly and nonfriction basis. There were serious inadequacies in the Charter which required alteration, he said, one of which arose out of a disregard for the fact that, in the long run, world order depended upon law and justice. He pointed out that the General Assembly has made but little progress in codifying international law, and that the 1955 conference, which ... will be comparable in its importance to the original San Francisco Conference... will provide .... a conspicuous opportunity for which the lawyers of America should be prepared. Mr. Dulles has thus invited the cooperation of American lawyers in implementing present American policy to strengthen the United Nations