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Adversarial Economics in Antitrust Litigation: Losing Academic Consensus in The Battle of The Experts
Get PDFThe adversarial presentation of expert scientific evidence tends to obscure academic consensus. In the context of litigation, small, marginal disagreements can be made to seem important and settled issues can be made to appear hopelessly deadlocked. This Article explores this dynamic's effect on antitrust litigation. Modem antitrust law is steeped in microeconomics, and suits rely heavily on economic expert witnesses. Indeed, expert testimony is often the "whole game" in an antitrust dispute because experts testify about dispositive issues such as the competitive effect of a business practice or the relevant boundaries of a market. And the Supreme Court has encouraged-even engineered-this delegation to economic authority. But when antitrust judges are faced with the appearance of deadlock among economic experts, they are forced to either decide the substance of the economics themselves or ask the jury to resolve it as a matter of fact. Both practices void much of the benefit of courtroom expertise. This Article examines several reforms that would make expert testimony less adversarial and evaluates their ability to better reveal the true distribution of expert opinion on an economic question. It then presents two reforms that, while preserving the adversarial structure of expert evidence, would increase the likelihood that consensus economic views prevail at trial
Vanderbilt Hustler; September 3, 2012
No full textThe official student newspaper at Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt Hustler; September 6, 2012
No full textThe official student newspaper at Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt Review 2012; Volume XXVI
No full textVanderbilt’s official undergraduate literary and arts journal including refereed work in fiction, poetry, drama, art, and photography from students, alumni, and University affiliates
The Value of a Statistical Life: Evidence from Panel Data
No full textarticle published economic reviewThis article addresses fundamental long-standing concerns in the compensating wage differentials literature and its public policy implications: the econometric properties of estimates of the value of statistical life (VSL) and the wide range of such estimates. Here we address most of the prominent econometric issues using panel data, a new and more accurate fatality risk measure, and systematic application of panel data estimators. Controlling for measurement error, endogeneity, latent individual heterogeneity that may be correlated with the regressors, state dependence, and sample composition yields estimates of the value of a statistical life in the range of about 10 million. This comparatively narrow range greatly clarifies the assessments of the cost-effectiveness of regulatory decisions. We show that probably the most important econometric issue is controlling for latent heterogeneity; less important is how one does it
The Null Patent
No full textarticle published in law reviewFailure is the basis of much of scientific progress because it plays a key role in knowledge building. In fact, negative results comprise the bulk of knowledge produced in scientific research. This is not a bad thing because failures always produce valuable technical information - whether it be a serendipitous finding, an abundance of unexpected technical data, or simply knowledge that an initial hypothesis was totally wrong. Though some have recognized that the dissemination of negative results has many upsides for science, transforming scientific norms toward disclosure is no easy task. As for patent law, the potentially important role that negative results can play in determining patentability has heretofore been overlooked. This Article addresses these issues by proposing a new medium of disclosure called the null patent. While null patents would lack claims and therefore not confer a right to exclude, they would strongly resemble other patent documents in substantive technical content and bibliographic information - thus making them amenable to technology-based classification, indexing, and open-access searching. This new medium of disclosure has potentially transformative implications for both patent law and science. Providing the Patent Office with ready access to a vast body of technical information would lead to a more thorough examination and, as a consequence, improve patent quality. Providing inventors with access to this information would allow them to gauge patentability ex ante with greater certainty. And since the null patent repository would be freely accessible, it would serve the public good by enriching the public storehouse of knowledge. Finally, null patents would promote broader policy goals shared by both science and patent law - namely, to promote technological progress through the dissemination of knowledge, coordinate the future development of technology, and spur innovation
Five Misunderstandings about Practical Theology
No full textThis work was originally published as Miller-McLemore, Bonnie J. 2012. "Five Misunderstandings about Practical Theology." International Journal of Practical Theology 16 (1): 5 - 26
The Slant; Vol. 12 Issue 07 February 9, 2012
No full textStudent humor newspaper at Vanderbilt University
Working to win vs. working to keep: Prospect Theory and effort-based decision-making in humans
No full textThesis describes humans' decisional behavior in regards to working to win money and working to avoid losing money, how it could relate to anhedonia, and how the results reflect the tenets of Prospect Theory.Reward processing studies of anhedonia have provided a great deal of support to the idea that this common symptom of depression and schizophrenia is characterized in part by decreased motivation to pursue rewards. However, there is also compelling evidence that reward and loss processing are linked, suggesting that anhedonic individuals may also experience reduced motivation to avoid a loss. Using a modified version of the Effort Expenditure for Rewards Task, this study examined undergraduates’ behavior when working to win money versus working to avoid losing money, and how this behavior reflected trait anhedonia, depression, and anxiety. Consistent with Prospect Theory, participants were more likely to expend effort to avoid a loss. However, no correlations were observed between performance and self-reported personality/psychopathological traits.Vanderbilt UniversityPsychological SciencesThesis completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Honors Program in Psychological Science
Eliciting Seven Discrete Positive Emotions Using Film Stimuli
Get PDFA thesis detailing the use of 14 film clips to elicit seven discrete positive emotions.Successful, efficacious, and reliable mood induction procedures are an important part of emotion research. Film clips have already been shown to reliably induce discrete negative emotional states, as well as general positive affect, in laboratory settings. However, there is an absence of research in eliciting discrete positive emotional states in these settings. This study attempted to elicit seven discrete positive emotional states using preselected film stimuli: joy, gratitude, awe, determination, interest, serenity, and hope. Elicitations for joy, awe, serenity, and interest were successful.Arts & SciencesPsychologyVanderbilt UniversityThesis completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Honors Program in Psychological Science