A Study of How Different Incentive Systems Can Impact Criminal Defense

This dissertation examines how different payment methods affect the behavior of criminal defense attorneys. In particular, I study the impact of switching from an hourly rate to a flat fee affects attorney behaviors across several measures. In my first paper, I begin by looking at how the switch affects the number of hours being reported. I identify the casual effect of switching from an hourly wage to a flat fee by exploiting a policy change that the South Carolina Commission on Indigent Defense instituted for private attorneys who handle indigent defense cases. I find that defense attorneys report 48\% less hours when they are paid a flat fee compared to an hourly wage. Additionally, I look at how the attorney\u27s in-court behavior changes. In-court behavior is a better measure of effort because in-court hours are observable by other members of the court. I find that attorneys are 25\% less likely to go to court under the flat fee system; then, conditional on them going to court, they reduce the number of hours in court by about 30\%. Next, I study how the change in payment methods affect the outcomes of criminal cases. Theoretically, neither payment method provides an incentive for the attorney to protect the client\u27s interests. Thus, it is empirical question as to which method does a better job at protecting the client\u27s interests. I construct a new data set on court outcomes using information on the South Carolina county web pages. The outcomes that I focus on are the sentence length that the defendant receives, the probability of the case being resolved with a guilty outcome, and the probability that the case is resolved at a lesser included charge. Although not statistically significant, I find that defendants receive a sentence length that is, on average, about 3 months shorter under the flat fee system compared to the hourly rate. This represents about a 10\% reduction in sentence length. On the other hand, there does not seem to be a difference between the two systems in the probability of being found guilty or in the probability that the case is resolved at a lesser included charge. My second paper looks at how the payment method could affect the plea bargaining process. I develop a model where the defense attorney is an imperfect agent of the defendant. This model shows that, holding all else constant, defense attorneys are willing to accept a plea with a longer sentence length for the defendant when they are paid a flat fee compared to an hourly rate. I also show that introducing an incentive where effort in the current case affects the probability of receiving future cases may offset the payment method effect. I then empirically test the model by taking advantage of a policy change by the state of South Carolina. Using a difference-in-difference model, I find that the sentence length is not statistically different when paying the attorney an hourly rate and paying him a flat fee where effort in this case affects the probability of receiving future cases

The origins and spread of domestic horses from the Western Eurasian steppes

This is the final version. Available on open access from Nature Research via the DOI in this recordData availability: All collapsed and paired-end sequence data for samples sequenced in this study are available in compressed fastq format through the European Nucleotide Archive under accession number PRJEB44430, together with rescaled and trimmed bam sequence alignments against both the nuclear and mitochondrial horse reference genomes. Previously published ancient data used in this study are available under accession numbers PRJEB7537, PRJEB10098, PRJEB10854, PRJEB22390 and PRJEB31613, and detailed in Supplementary Table 1. The genomes of ten modern horses, publicly available, were also accessed as indicated in their corresponding original publications57,61,85-87.NOTE: see the published version available via the DOI in this record for the full list of authorsDomestication of horses fundamentally transformed long-range mobility and warfare. However, modern domesticated breeds do not descend from the earliest domestic horse lineage associated with archaeological evidence of bridling, milking and corralling at Botai, Central Asia around 3500 BC. Other longstanding candidate regions for horse domestication, such as Iberia and Anatolia, have also recently been challenged. Thus, the genetic, geographic and temporal origins of modern domestic horses have remained unknown. Here we pinpoint the Western Eurasian steppes, especially the lower Volga-Don region, as the homeland of modern domestic horses. Furthermore, we map the population changes accompanying domestication from 273 ancient horse genomes. This reveals that modern domestic horses ultimately replaced almost all other local populations as they expanded rapidly across Eurasia from about 2000 BC, synchronously with equestrian material culture, including Sintashta spoke-wheeled chariots. We find that equestrianism involved strong selection for critical locomotor and behavioural adaptations at the GSDMC and ZFPM1 genes. Our results reject the commonly held association between horseback riding and the massive expansion of Yamnaya steppe pastoralists into Europe around 3000 BC driving the spread of Indo-European languages. This contrasts with the scenario in Asia where Indo-Iranian languages, chariots and horses spread together, following the early second millennium BC Sintashta culture

On the Phase Separation in n-Type Thermoelectric Half-Heusler Materials

Half-Heusler compounds have been in focus as potential materials for thermoelectric energy conversion in the mid-temperature range, e.g., as in automotive or industrial waste heat recovery, for more than ten years now. Because of their mechanical and thermal stability, these compounds are advantageous for common thermoelectric materials such as Bi 2 Te 3 , SiGe, clathrates or filled skutterudites. A further advantage lies in the tunability of Heusler compounds, allowing one to avoid expensive and toxic elements. Half-Heusler compounds usually exhibit a high electrical conductivity σ , resulting in high power factors. The main drawback of half-Heusler compounds is their high lattice thermal conductivity. Here, we present a detailed study of the phase separation in an n-type Heusler materials system, showing that the Ti x Zr y Hf z NiSn system is not a solid solution. We also show that this phase separation is key to the thermoelectric high efficiency of n-type Heusler materials. These results strongly underline the importance of phase separation as a powerful tool for designing highly efficient materials for thermoelectric applications that fulfill the industrial demands of a thermoelectric converter

Electronic structure and optical, mechanical, and transport properties of the pure, electron-doped, and hole-doped Heusler compound CoTiSb

The Heusler compound CoTiSb was synthesized and investigated theoretically and experimentally with respect to electronic structure and optical, mechanical, and vibrational properties. The optical properties were investigated in a wide spectral range from 10 meV to 6.5 eV and compared with ab initio calculations. The optical spectra confirm the semiconducting nature of CoTiSb, with a strong exciton absorption at 1.83 eV. The calculated phonon dispersion as well as elastic constants verify the mechanical stability of CoTiSb in the cubic C1b system. Furthermore, solid solution series of CoTi1−xMxSb (M=Sc, V and 0⩽x⩽0.2) were synthesized and investigated. The transport properties were calculated by all-electron ab initio methods and compared to the measurements. The thermoelectric properties were investigated by measuring the temperature dependence of electrical resistivity, Seebeck coefficient, and thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity of the substituted compounds was significantly reduced. Sc substitution resulted in a p-type behavior with a high Seebeck coefficient of +177.8 μV/K (350 K) at 5% Sc substitution. This value is in good agreement with the calculations. Fully relativistic Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker calculations in combination with the coherent potential approximation clarify the different contribution of states in the (001) plane of the Fermi surface for Sc- or V-substituted compounds CoTi0.95MxSb (M=Sc, V).Web of Science864art. no. 04511