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The Promised Land: Mexican Immigration and American Theology
Get PDFThe topic of immigration is a familiar concept in the bible. Adam and Eve migrated from the lush lands of the Garden of Eden (albeit, not their first choice) to a land east of Eden after disobeying God. Other biblical characters like Noah and family, Abram, (later Abraham), his son Isaac, Isaac’s son Jacob, and one of Jacob’s progeny, Joseph were all too cognizant with voluntary or involuntary migration. Perhaps one of the most famous travelers across land in search of a better life is found in the Old Testament with a man named Moses. If anyone could speak to the life of a migrant, Moses would certainly make the top of the list
Three Essays in International Trade and Macroeconomics
No full textThis dissertation examines the impact of international trade and trade policy on key economic outcomes, including income and productivity. The first chapter investigates the role of trade-induced technology diffusion in shaping global income inequality. When bilateral trade facilitates technology transfer, such diffusion can account for up to 85% of the income gap across countries. The second chapter focuses on the determinants of international trade in services. It highlights a significant link between service and manufacturing trade, conditional on the presence of foreign direct investment (FDI) relationships between trading partners. The third chapter evaluates the 2020 U.S. presidential election, aiming to identify the factors that contributed to Donald Trump’s electoral defeat. The analysis finds that the expansion of health insurance coverage played the most significant role in explaining his loss
Liberation as Apophasis: A Constructive Account
No full textClassical theism is often held to be antithetical to resisting oppression. Within this dissertation I argue that Classical theism is not merely consistent with the project of resisting oppression, but that traditional commitments of classical theism can be shown to entail an obligation to resist oppression and center the voices of the oppressed persons. Towards this end, I will advance four claims pivotal to my thesis. First, a commitment to classical theism entails a commitment to the creator-creature distinction. Second, a commitment to the creator-creature distinction entails an obligation to reject false conceptions of God.
My third and most crucial claim is that oppression depends upon false conceptions of God. This third claim is itself buttressed by two foundational premises. First, that all false moral evaluations depend upon false conceptions of God. Second, that oppression depends upon false moral evaluations. I take the latter of these two claims to be nearly uncontestable in its plausibility. However, the former claim will require a more fine-grained account of classical theism. In service of my argument, I will employ an Anselmian moral phenomenology drawn from Anselm’s Monologion and Proslogion and helpful contemporary interpreters of Anselm like Jeffrey Brower. These two buttressing claims support the plausibility that oppression depends upon false conceptions of God
If—on classical theism—one ought to reject false conceptions of God, then one ought to reject those false conceptions of God upon which all instances of oppression depend. Since oppression as a social relation is dependent upon false conceptions of God, then the classical theist ought to resist oppression. This all leads to my fourth claim: Classical theists ought to center the voices of oppressed persons. Here, I will draw from the tradition of standpoint epistemology to motivate my claim.
The plausibility of the thesis advanced within this dissertation follows from my four instrumental claims. Classical theism is not merely consistent with the project of resisting oppression, rather, the obligation to resist oppression and center the voices of the oppressed can be shown to be entailed by the traditional commitments of classical theism. Whether my argument is ultimately successful, this research serves as a constructive foray into the social and political implications of classical theistic commitments
Migration Fear, Race-Related Biases and Analyst Forecast Accuracy
No full textThis study examines whether heightened migration fear impairs minority analysts\u27 ability to access and convey accurate financial information. Using aggregate U.S. newspaper article counts regarding migration fear as a proxy for society wide sentiment about ethnic minorities and a sample of 1.3 million quarterly earnings announcements over 1990-2023, we find that elevated levels of the Migration Fear Index increase absolute forecast errors for Non-White analysts. For the average firm in our sample, a one standard deviation increase in migration fear leads to an additional 4 cents in EPS forecast error for Non-White analysts. Our results are robust across alternative measures of xenophobia, analyst accuracy, entropy-balanced samples, and fixed effects models. Using shocks to migration fear from the launch of the Make America Great Again Campaign in 2015, we observe that the shock selectively impairs Non-White analysts\u27 forecast accuracy. Further analyses reveal that migration fear\u27s impact on Non-White analyst forecast accuracy is driven by ethnic out-group bias, as the negative effects of xenophobia on Non-White analysts disappear when the CEO is also Non-White or when the firm is headquartered in a pro-immigrant area. Findings suggest that elevated levels of the Migration Fear Index lead to reduced information sharing with Non-White analysts, limiting their access to private information from management and thereby increasing their forecast error. We find no evidence of migration fear reducing Non-White accuracy through impaired cognitive processing capacity. These findings underscore the role of societal biases in shaping information access across capital markets, potentially hindering both price discovery and minority analysts\u27 career development
The Weighting Bias
No full textI develop a framework to reconcile the conflicting results on long-run IPO performance based on the matching firm approach and the calendar time portfolio approach. The approaches differ in their weighting schemes: the former gives equal weight to each firm and the latter to each period. While IPOs exhibit lower buy-and-hold returns than their matched counterparts, portfolios of IPO and matched firms generate alphas of similar magnitudes. This discrepancy stems from a weighting bias inherent in the matching firm approach, driven by non-random IPO firm survival. My findings underscore the crucial role of the weighting bias when evaluating long-run performance
Incremental Innovation
Get PDFTransformative innovations—the ones that use new technologies to disrupt the world—command our attention. But most new products are the result of a more mundane process of incremental iterative innovation, evolving through a long series of small modifications of existing technologies. Although both kinds of innovation can result in improved safety and utility, both can also create new dangers. We tend to be more aware of this in trans- formative innovations (as current worries over artificial intelligence show); by contrast, dangers created by incremental iterative innovation often go unrecognized, because the process itself is easy to overlook. Policymakers and regulators need to be aware of both kinds of innovation and to consider different approaches to each if we are to reap their benefits and avoid their dangers. Unfortunately, incremental iterative innovation has often been neglected, sometimes with devastating consequences. This is particularly true in the field of FDA-regulated medical devices, which have caused hundreds of thousands of injuries and deaths. Critics have attributed the harms caused by one particular set of devices to incremental iterative innovation, but they have failed to appreciate the full scope of this process, leading them to over- look the dangers posed by many other devices. This Article is the first to identify the full scope of incremental iterative innovation in the medical device field. It develops a nuanced understanding of where this process is taking place and where it is creating dangers, and suggests regulatory reforms designed both to ensure safety and to support innovation. Using the device field as a case study, the Article also helps to expand our understanding of how incremental iterative innovation and regulation intersect in other contexts
The Sky’s Not the Limit: Navigating Starlink’s Impact on Global Connectivity and Regulation
Get PDFThis case note examines the governance implications arising from the onset of accelerated satellite internet expansion and explores potential regulatory solutions for effective governmental oversight. Due to the interconnected nature of the internet and its global network, international organizations and treaties play a crucial role in content and data regulation, and rapid technological evolution presents increasing difficulties for these regulatory frameworks to keep pace. These challenges are particularly evident in satellite-based broadband internet services, with SpaceX’s Starlink emerging as the most prominent and currently relevant service in this domain. Proponents of this technology emphasize its ability to provide internet access to remote and underserved areas as well as its usage in disaster stricken or emergency situations where established infrastructure cannot be depended on, among other benefits. Alternatively, critics claim that the risks associated with satellite congestion within the low earth orbit, as well as regulatory concerns related to content moderation and criminal utilization, are significant and arguably commanding. To provide a comprehensive understanding of these issues, Part I introduces Starlink’s satellite technology and highlights a recent conflict with a sovereign government, foreshadowing current governance challenges. Part II delves into the advantages and potential drawbacks countries face when deciding whether to allow this technology within their borders. Part III analyzes the existing regulatory framework most capable in overseeing Starlink, revealing some key limitations. Finally, Part IV proposes the establishment of a specialized international regulatory body designed to adjudicate disputes and oversee this emerging technology, aiming to create a balanced and effective governance model
A Critique of Findings on Gun Ownership, Use, and Imagined Use From the 2021 National Firearms Survey: Response to William English
Get PDFFor a paper that has not yet been through peer review or even been formally published, William English’s “2021 National Firearms Survey” has been remarkably prominent in gun rights advocacy and scholarship. As of December 2024, it has been cited in roughly sixty-five briefs, invoked at oral argument in the Supreme Court and multiple courts of appeals, and regularly cited in public writings and published academic work.
This response is offered in the spirit of a peer review. Our focus is on methodological issues, questionable statistical results, and problematic conclusions. Because of serious methodological issues, English’s draft fails to provide a reliable estimate of the number of annual defensive gun uses, the stock of AR-15s, or the actual protective value of or frequency with which AR-15 type firearms have been used. The paper should not be used as an authoritative source.
This version of our paper has been updated to account for the response that Prof. English posted on October 23, 2024