49755 research outputs found
Sort by
The Rules Governing Director Election Contests in Global Activism: A U.S.-Japan Comparative Study
No full textIn recent years, the relationship between corporate management and shareholders has grown increasingly confrontational, driven by a surge in shareholder activism. In the U.S., the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has responded with updates to shareholder communication regulations, including the Universal Proxy Rule. Meanwhile, Japan has seen a notable increase in activist campaigns, developing a proxy solicitation framework that was initially inspired by the U.S. system but has since evolved to incorporate unique local practices. This Note examines key distinctions between the U.S. and Japanese approaches to “solicitation” under proxy rules, analyzing regulatory constraints on shareholder and management actions, the role of information disclosure, and mechanisms that facilitate shareholder participation beyond voting rights. By re-evaluating these systems within the context of global corporate governance, this paper provides insights into the influence of shareholder activism on regulatory practices and offers perspectives relevant to emerging activism in jurisdictions beyond the U.S. and Japan
Regulation by Indexation?
No full textIf index fund asset managers are the new “emperors” of Wall Street, are index providers the power behind the throne? The financial press has called the indexers “kingmakers” and suggested they may soon “rule the world.” If so, why do they seem to have more influence over sovereign governments than corporate executives? Is it appropriate to think of indexers as private regulators? If so, what is the source of their regulatory power? This article answers these questions with the first theoretical model and empirical review assessing the regulatory capacity of global equity index providers.
I propose three regulatory roles through which indexers might deliver incentives or sanctions sufficient to exercise regulatory power: (1) subsidizers, delivering financial benefits to parties who follow their rules for index inclusion, (2) certifiers, delivering reputational benefits to parties who follow their rules, and (3) gatekeepers, delivering access to benefits (e.g., capital, licenses, markets) that are otherwise unavailable. I assess the influence of these regulatory channels on two groups—corporate managers, considering whether indexers can regulate corporate governance and sustainability choices, and sovereign governments, considering whether indexers can influence sovereign choices about financial market rules.
After establishing the theoretical frame, I review the empirical literature to assess the theoretical roles in three contexts: (1) corporate governance restrictions on inclusion in benchmark equity indices, (2) eligibility criteria for inclusion in ESG indices and (3) market requirements for inclusion in emerging markets indices. Empirical studies suggest that the subsidizer role is ineffective, the certifier role may provide sufficient incentives to meet eligibility criteria in some contexts if the costs are not too high, and the gatekeeper role can be very effective, even with high costs, but only if the indexers hold the keys to sufficiently valuable, otherwise unavailable assets
In Memoriam: Donald J. Rapson
No full textThis issue of the Columbia Business Law Review is dedicated to Donald J. Rapson, a member of our Board of Advisors. A graduate of Columbia College and Columbia Law School, Professor Rapson was a cherished member of our Columbia community and will be missed. In dedicating this issue to him, we would like to honor his support and dedication to our journal and Columbia Law School
“Girls Need to Dance”: How Jewish Women Navigated Twentieth Century Dance Halls
No full textThis paper dives into the vibrant world of early 20th-century dance halls, where Jewish immigrant women in New York City found freedom, excitement, and a chance to redefine their roles in a rapidly changing world. While reformers saw these dance halls as dangerous, immoral spaces, the women who flocked to them saw something entirely different: a place to explore romance, flirtation, and even sexual autonomy, all while challenging traditional gender norms. This paper explores how these women used dance halls to assert agency, challenge traditional matchmaking, and experiment with new forms of romantic and social relationships. Drawing on historical analyses by Kathy Peiss, Randy McBee, Sonia Gollance, and Mary Odem, as well as firsthand testimonies and period literature, the study examines the tension between perceived moral dangers and the lived experiences of Jewish women who found pleasure, independence, and self-determination in these spaces. Through commercial amusements like the dance hall, Jewish women navigated shifting cultural boundaries, formed homosocial bonds, and exercised the newfound ability to select their own partners, helping to shape evolving notions of gender, sexuality, and social identity within New York City’s immigrant communities
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Familial Factors in Adolescent Suicidality
No full textPurpose: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are risk factors for adolescent suicidal ideation (SI), but the influence of immediate family factors on this association remains understudied. This study examines how family functioning (FF) and perceived parental criticism (PPC) moderate the relationship between ACEs and SI. Methods: 46 community-based adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19 (Mage = 17.43 years, 69.57% female) participated in a study examining cognitive risk factors for SI. Several self-report measures were administered: the Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire to assess SI severity, the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire to measure ACEs, the McMaster Family Assessment Device – General Functioning Scale to evaluate FF, and the Perceived Criticism Measure to determine PPC. Results: Neither the presence (ß = .26, p = .09) nor the count of ACEs (ß = .24, p = .12) significantly predicted SI severity. SI severity was significantly associated with specific ACEs such as emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and mental illness or suicide attempts in the household (ß = .39-.65, p = .00-.04), but not with others (ß = -.21-.40, p = .08-.99). Furthermore, FF (ß = .28, p < .01) and PPC (ß = .19, p =.04) independently moderated the association between ACEs and SI severity, while their combined interaction was not significant (ß = -.03, p = .74). Conclusion: Specific ACEs predicted SI severity. Moreover, lower FF and higher PPC independently amplified the impact of ACEs on SI severity in adolescents, highlighting the need for interventions that enhance FF and address PPC to mitigate adolescent suicide risk
The Mental Health of Indonesian Male Breadwinners: Family Harmony as a Moderator Between Perceived Stress and Psychological Well-Being
No full textThese days, despite the increasing attention directed to mental health, men are typically placed on the back burner of these discussions due to the social stigma that men are supposed to be strong breadwinners. Multiple studies have found a negative association between perceived stress and psychological well-being, ergo, it is important to expand these studies to include the well-being of male breadwinners. Other literature has also suggested that the presence of a harmonious family might help buffer the effects of stress on well-being. Therefore, this study consisting of 304 participants aimed to understand the relationship between perceived stress and psychological well-being, and whether family harmony can moderate this relationship in male breadwinners. Results from linear regression models found that perceived stress predicted psychological well-being in male breadwinners (R² = .30, p < .01), and the moderated regression models also showed family harmony to be a significant moderator between perceived stress and psychological well-being in male breadwinners (R² = .40, β = -.04, p < .001, 95% CI [-.06, -.02]). Aside from adding to the body of research on stress and family psychology, the practical implications of this study highlight the need for family-centered therapy and workplace policies that support the well-being of male breadwinners
An Antitrust Approach to Sex Equality
No full textThis Article argues that antitrust law can and should promote gender equality by prioritizing key consumer markets, namely markets for products and services complementary to women’s labor force participation. These products and services include those that facilitate efficient outsourcing of home production (e.g., childcare, infant formula, and labor-saving household technologies) and those that reduce or eliminate the burdens of biological reproduction (e.g., maternity care, contraception, and abortion care). Drawing on economics, sociology, and feminist literatures, this Article develops a theoretical approach to antitrust law that takes into account the complementarities between these key markets and women’s labor force participation and also links consumer harm to worker harm. Importantly, this Article argues that using antitrust law to promote sex equality requires neither deviation from the conventional consumer welfare standard nor an equity efficiency tradeoff. On the contrary, prioritizing these key consumer markets is conducive to the simultaneous pursuit of efficiency, sex equality, and constitutional equal protection principles
CO₂ Uptake by Urban Forests in Seoul and its Implications for Nature-based Solutions in Cities
No full textOur society is steadily embracing urban green space for its role in mitigating heat waves and anthropogenic CO₂ emissions. This study reports surface fluxes of energy and CO₂ in an artificially constructed urban forest in monsoon East Asia. This study shows that the urban forest reduces both the warming trend and urban heat island intensity compared to the adjacent high-rise urban areas and that photosynthetic carbon uptake is large despite relatively small tree density and leaf area index. Further analysis reveals that ecosystem respiration in urban forests is more pronounced than for typical natural forests in a similar climate zone. This can be attributed to the substantial amount of soil organic carbon due to intensive historical use and soil transplantation during forest construction, as well as relatively warmer temperatures in urban areas. Our findings suggest the need for caution in soil management when aiming to reduce CO₂ emissions in urban areas
Mapping multimodal phenotypes to perturbations in cells and tissue with CRISPRmap
No full textPooled CRISPR screening has become a widely adopted high-throughput approach for studying gene functions by measuring cellular responses to diverse genetic perturbations in parallel. Integrating single-cell RNA sequencing with pooled CRISPR screens enabled the measurement of transcriptomic responses to genetic perturbations at single-cell level. However, such approaches inherently require cell isolation and lysis, making them unable to capture spatial organization of intercellular or intracellular phenotypes.
To address this limitation, imaging-based opitcal pooled CRISPR screens have emerged to enable the capture of complex cellular morphology and spatially resolved molecular phenotypes. I, under the supervision of my mentor Dr. Jellert Gaublomme and together with my colleagues in the Gaublomme Lab and our collaborators, implemented the design of CRISPRmap, a sequencing-free optical pooled CRISPR screening approach. CRISPRmap combines in situ CRISPR guide-identifying barcode readout with multiplexed immunofluorescence and RNA detection. CRISPRmap enables in situ barcode readout in cell types and contexts that were elusive to conventional optical pooled screening, including cultured primary cells, embryonic stem cells, induced pluripotent stem cells, derived neurons and in vivo cells in a tissue context.
Notably, I conducted optical base-editing screens in a breast cancer cell line to investigate the effects of DNA damage response gene variants on cellular responses to commonly used cancer therapies, and showed that optical phenotyping pinpoints likely pathogenic patient-derived mutations that were previously classified as variants of unknown clinical significance
Gromov-Witten theory of smooth Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in weighted ℙ⁴
No full textWe study the all-genus Gromov-Witten theory of the Calabi-Yau threefolds ₆ ⊂ ℙ(1,1,1,1,2), ₈ ⊂ ℙ(1,1,1,1,4), and ₁₀ ⊂ ℙ(1,1,1,2,5). In these examples, where the threefold satisfies ²=1, there are several important structural predictions which arise from translating structural results in B-model Kodaira-Spencer gravity (which is not defined mathematically) to Gromov-Witten theory using mirror symmetry.
The first major result of this thesis is the finite generation conjecture of Yamaguchi-Yau, which states that a normalization P_{,} of the genus- Gromov-Witten potential of the Calabi-Yau threefold is a polynomial in five power series , , ₂, ₃, defined using genus-0 data. We then prove the Feynman rule of Bershadsky-Cecotti-Ooguri-Vafa, which recursively determines _{,} from all _{<, } up to a polynomial of degree 3-3+ in , which is known as the in the literature. This Feynman rule determines a canonical expression in the five generators and implies the modular anomaly equation conjectured by Yamaguchi-Yau.
Our main computational tool is the theory of Mixed-Spin-P (MSP) fields developed originally by Chang-Li-Li-Liu and Chang-Guo-Li-Li for the quintic threefold. In order to apply it to our situation, we give an explicit description of the moduli space and write an explicit form of the virtual localization formula in our setting. The key geometric input is a generalization of the irregular vanishing theorem of Chang-Li. Systematically applying the idea of Givental to package MSP virtual localization into the action of an -matrix, we prove first the Yamaguchi-Yau finite generation conjecture and then the BCOV Feynman rule conjecture as corollaries of increasingly detailed results about this -matrix