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I estimate demand for health insurance using consumer-level data from the California and Washington ACA exchanges. I use the demand estimates to simulate the impact of policies targeting adverse selection, including subsidies and the individual mandate. I find (1) own-premium elasticities of -7.2 to -10.6 and insurance coverage elasticities of -1.1 to -1.2; (2) limited response to the mandate penalty amount, but significant response to the penalty's existence, suggesting consumers have a "taste for compliance"; (3) mandate repeal slightly increases consumer surplus because the ACA's price-linked subsidies shield most consumers from premium increases resulting from repeal and some consumers are not compelled to purchase insurance against their will; and (4) mandate repeal decreases consumer surplus if ACA subsidies are replaced with vouchers that expose consumers to premium increases. The economic rationale for the mandate depends on the extent of adverse selection and the presence of other policies targeting selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term unemployment (when a person is jobless for more than 12 months) can have serious negative consequences for the individual, society and its economic system. People who are unemployed for a long-term period find it more difficult to be employed as time goes by. Long-term unemployed persons often have limited employability, due to their low level of educational attainment, loss of skills and the substantial expenditures that are necessary to restore these skills. They also face significantly lower earnings and restricted career prospects. The participation rate of the long-term unemployed in employment programmes is usually very low. The article considers the significance of long-term unemployment in Croatia and measures for its reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the origin of the individual mandate in the U.S. Topics discussed include the efforts of some states to enact their own mandates, an explanation on whether the mandate is either necessary or politic and a discussion on the dissociation of health insurance premiums from an individual mandate.

The Fed has a spotty track record, and its discretionary approach to conducting monetary policy will lead to the same mistakes it made in the past. I emphasize the importance of adopting a strategic framework for conducting monetary policy. The Fed has constantly changed the course of monetary policy in response to high-frequency data and other temporary factors. The Fed's excessive monetary ease has distorted economic and financial behavior. The Fed should base its policy on longer-run objectives rather than short-run economic and financial fluctuations, and communicate these objectives to the public and to financial markets. Under the Financial Choice Act, the Fed would have to establish a strategic guideline, and explain to Congress why monetary policy may be deviating from the guideline. I respect the Fed and see the need for change to maintain its credibility. The Fed must acknowledge its shortfalls and modify its focus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This paper aims to assess if the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has been effective in combating corruption in Nigeria from 2003-2012.Design/methodology/approach The paper adopted a documentary analytical approach.Findings The organization has not been effective in combating corruption in Nigeria.Research limitations/implications The study is between 2003-2012.Practical implications There is a need to correct those identified inhibitors that undermined the Commission’s capacity, such as intrusive government interference, lack of autonomy, poor funding and weak laws, among others, to mitigate corruption.Social implications Eliminating those identified constraints will remove the incentive to be corrupt, thereby curbing the desire to be corrupt.Originality/value This paper is an original assessment of the EFCC's effectiveness in combating corruption in Nigeria during the specified period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The idea that parties make promises to voters during election campaigns and then attempt to fulfil those promises if elected to government is central to the theory and practice of democracy. This study examines how economic conditions affect the fulfilment of parties’ election pledges in Ireland. We formulate and test propositions relating to two aspects of economic conditions that negatively affect the likelihood of pledge fulfilment. The first is that parties do not adjust pledges to prevailing economic conditions, and the second is that they do not accurately anticipate future economic conditions. We test these expectations with evidence on the fulfilment of 3681 pledges made by Irish parties in the period 1977–2011, which is one of the largest country-specific datasets on pledge fulfilment currently available. Given the considerable variation in economic conditions faced by Irish governments in this time period, these cases offer a particularly powerful test of the impact of economic conditions on pledge fulfilment. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In a monetary union, the interaction between several governments and a single central bank is plagued by several sources of deficit bias, including common pool problems. Each government has strong preferences over local spending and taxation but suffers only part of the costs of union-wide inflation and higher interest rates, creating a tendency towards excessive debt. Motivated by the evident failure of fiscal rules to restrain debt in the European context, this article analyzes an alternative fiscal regime in which the control of sovereign debt issuance is delegated to an independent authority, while public spending decisions remain decentralized. Using a symmetric perfect-foresight model, we compare the long-run policy biases affecting a typical country across different institutional arrangements. Establishing an independent fiscal authority tends to reduce debt via three distinct channels: first, the debt aversion induced by its mandate; second, its greater patience, compared to an elected institution; and third, the internalization of common pool problems, if the authority is established at the union-wide level. Furthermore, we show that fiscal delegation is more effective in restraining debt, and more informationally efficient, than the establishment of a federal government which would centralize fiscal decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will discuss the history and context surrounding the document collection and statement gathering mandates of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and the challenges the newly established National Research Centre for Truth and Reconciliation will face in applying the Commission's metadata set in the realization of its vision. By working respectfully with Indigenous people through the implementation of Indigenous knowledge best practices and the application of contrasting traditional/non-traditional, archival/user-generated, and institutional/Indigenous descriptive elements, the Centre will attempt to create a “living archive” and facilitate Indigenous participation, collaboration, and ultimately, the process of reconciliation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

What would happen if cost-benefit analysis (CBA) were applied to disclosure regulations? Mandated disclosure has largely escaped rigorous CBA because it looks so plausible: disclosure seems rich in benefits and low in cost. This article makes two arguments. First, it previews our thesis in More Than You Wanted to Know that disclosure laws do not deliver their anticipated benefits and thus cannot easily pass quantified CBA. Second, it describes a previously unrecognized cost of disclosure, one arising from lawmakers' collective-action problem. With the proliferation of disclosures, each new mandate diminishes the attention that people can give to other information, including all other disclosures. The problem for CBA is lawmakers' inability to coordinate laws across different fields and jurisdictions. This article illustrates this regulatory failure by examining the rigorous cost-effectiveness analysis conducted by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for its recent mortgage disclosure regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Romanian Case Law Review / Revista Română de Jurisprudenţă is the property of Universul Juridic Publishing House and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The sports marketing, the market dynamics and the lack of regulation within the Colombian Legal System, among other factors, have led to a scenery where it is necessary to reconsider the legal forms that are used to transfer Sports Rights in Colombia. And private equity funds are set up as an effective mechanism to execute a series of legal transactions through a transparent structure and under the State supervision, which ends up encouraging the flow of private investment and the protection of athletes' fundamental rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the constitutionality and limitations of the gun control laws in the U.S. and addresses the need to reform existing laws. Topics discussed include the creation of policies for minimization of domestic violence cases, introduction of the mandatory insurance law for development of the structure of an insurance mandate and addresses the constitutionality of the insurance mandate with relevance to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller.

We find that acquirers in merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions are more likely to hire as advisors investment banks that provided analyst coverage for the acquirer prior to the transaction. We also find that compared to a matched control group of banks, the advisor banks are less likely to terminate and more likely to initiate analyst coverage of the acquirer after the transaction. Finally, the advisor banks that initiate coverage after the transaction collect higher fees. These findings suggest that firms value analyst coverage and use M&A advisor appointments and advisor fees to compensate for it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An inverse relationship between experience and risk of injury has been observed in many occupations. Due to statistical challenges, however, it has been difficult to characterize the role of experience on the hazard of injury. In particular, because the time observed up to injury is equivalent to the amount of experience accumulated, the baseline hazard of injury becomes the main parameter of interest, excluding Cox proportional hazards models as applicable methods for consideration. Methods: Using a data set of 81,301 hourly production workers of a global aluminum company at 207 US facilities, we compared competing parametric models for the baseline hazard to assess whether experience affected the hazard of injury at hire and after later job changes. Specific models considered included the exponential, Weibull, and two (a hypothesis-driven and a data-driven) two-piece exponential models to formally test the null hypothesis that experience does not impact the hazard of injury. Results: We highlighted the advantages of our comparative approach and the interpretability of our selected model: a two-piece exponential model that allowed the baseline hazard of injury to change with experience. Our findings suggested a 30% increase in the hazard in the first year after job initiation and/or change. Conclusions: Piecewise exponential models may be particularly useful in modeling risk of injury as a function of experience and have the additional benefit of interpretability over other similarly flexible models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a result of broad outcries against the incompetence and aggressiveness of the I.R.S., Congress reined in its behavior, requiring it to focus on treating taxpayers as customers. Congress also created oversight bodies to ensure that the I.R.S. would comply with the new mandate. Though those oversight bodies face some difficulties -- most notably, the unwillingness of Congress to adequately fund them -- they nonetheless have proven effective at checking the I.R.S. s misbehavior with regard to taxpayers. Congress has not, however, been as solicitous to the tax law itself. The I.R.S. can act in ways that violate both the letter and the intent of the tax law. Where such violations either provide benefits to select groups of taxpayers without directly harming others, or where the harm to taxpayers is de minimis, nobody has the ability or incentive to challenge the I.R.S. and require it to enforce the tax law as written. Congress could control the I.R.S. 's abuse of the tax law. Using insights from the literature of administrative oversight, this Article proposes that Congress provide standing on third parties to challenge I.R.S. actions. I f properly designed and implemented, such "fire-alarm oversight" would permit oversight at a significantly lower cost than creating another oversight board. At the same time, it would be more effective at finding and responding to I.R.S. abuse of the tax system and would generally preserve the I.R.S. s administrative discretion in deciding how to enforce the tax law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Româna de Dreptul Muncii is the property of Wolters Kluwer Romania and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article studies specific features of human factor's behaviour related to mandates and time horizon. It links results, change and goals within a mandate and on this basis establishes dependences between mandate-based behaviour, behaviour in the past and projective behaviour. It also discusses the degrees of overlapping in the mental model of the mandatee between self-assessment and external behaviour, which determine the content of mandate-based behaviour. The reasons for the current prob-lems and broken interaction in the mandate team are analyzed in depth. The motives for choosing certain mandate-based behaviour are justified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zimbabwe's Intelligence services have been labeled monstrous and one of the main violators of citizens’ rights and the rule of law. This perception has developed over the years when it has either covertly participated or simply directed operations that traumatized civilians. There is a strong and loud belief in the people that the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) conducts itself that way because of several reasons, chief amongst them being; too partisan, lack of legal and parliamentary oversight and lack of a well-defined policy. This article therefore looks at the organizational structure, its operations and mandate with a view to assess the possibility of an organizational reformation. It is this article's firm belief that if CIO is reformed, its efficiency, effectiveness, and mandate to serve and protect will be enhanced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Within the modalities of e-commerce is located the called e-trading channel, that is an order routing system to the stock exchange market, which is framed within the called stock exchange commission contract, that as a kind of mandate generates questions about the responsibility regime applicable and the appropriate probatory instrument to demonstrate a lack the mandate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Brokerage is an activity which plays an important role in the economy and is exercised in various areas thereof, such as trade, insurance, transport, etc. Despite the importance of this activity and the large number of brokered legal relationships, the first brokerage contract regulation is found in the Civil Code (Law no. 287/2009) which entered into force on October 1, 2011. The brokers are professionals and their goal is to bring together other natural or legal persons to conclude certain contracts specific to the economic sector they operate in. Brokers are third parties to the agreement between the two parties brought into relationship and have only the right to receive the established remuneration as far as the brokered agreement is concluded. In terms of the right to remuneration, the fulfillment of the obligations undertaken by the parties in the brokered contract is irrelevant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper I shall organize and explain some of the answers that Chilean legal doctrine has provided when introducing the distinction between the duty of reasonable care and the duty to achieve a certain result in order to decide cases of medical liability. For that purpose I employ an analytical method, focusing on the law of evidence and developing its substantive and procedural aspects. Basically I shall argue that article 1547 of the Chilean Civil Code (equivalent to article 1608.3 of the Colombian Civil Code) does not include a general principle that presumes guilt in all cases of contractual obligations. Furthermore, because it is not applicable to the type of obligations where some degree of care is required it is not an obstacle to the introduction of the distinction between the duty of reasonable care and the duty to achieve a certain result and its most controversial effect, the changes in the burden of proof of the degree of guilt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relying on the 14 years experience in various mandates in the UN since 1995 in the Human Rights Commission after 2006 at the Human Rights Council, the work of the special rapporteurs is reviewed in terms of its evolution, difficulties, limitations and repercussions in the respective societies and states targets of such mandates. The so-called special procedures or mechanisms at the UN human rights system are examined in the framework of contradictions present in the very political performance of states in human rights multilateral institutions. The analysis reaffirms the centrality of the victims as a key requirement for special rapporteurs to contribute to increase the visibility of human rights violations and the accountability for their perpetrators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines a vital element of the special rapporteur on torture's (SRT) mandate that of monitoring and the reports that have been produced as a result of fact-finding missions (FFMs). Over a 25 year period, the SRTs have visited 47 states and the reports present an interesting mosaic of the diversity of state compliance with regard to the prohibition itself and also the terms of reference of state visits. The reports reveal not only the unequalled access that the SRTs have had to places of detention and systems that foster torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment but also that the impact of monitoring is enhanced by the public reporting of these missions. However this article argues that there is a need to develop further follow-up FFMs mechanisms to place pressure on states to implement the recommendations of the SRT. The following examines the individual reports of states between 1985 and September 2010 to consider the reported challenges that have faced the SRTs in relation to their FFMs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the impacts of the global and medium-term mandates for biofuels on agricultural production and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It uses a global computable general equilibrium (CGE) simulation to model the regional impacts of the mandates on the economic patterns of consumption, production, and land use. It says that the CGE models projects that the global biofuel mandates will yield small reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

The article presents abstracts on serials librarianship topics which include the achievement of a publications policy at the University of Glasgow, a U.S. mandate that changes the way scientific articles are published, and a review of the Publishing and the Ecology of European Research (PEER) collaboration.

The article reports on the resolution of the legal case of Maloney v. Eskasoni Indian Band. In the case the plaintiff, who had been hired by the chief of the defendant band to develop and implement a drug-testing program for the First Nation's commercial fishery, sued for damages for breach of his five-year contract of employment. The court ruled that the plaintiff's contract was binding and enforceable and awarded him damages in the amount of $575,000 plus interest.

Recently, a demand regarding the assessment of release of dangerous substances from construction products was raised by European Commission which has issued the Mandate M/366 addressed to CEN. This action is in relation with the Essential Requirement No. 3 “Hygiene, Health and Environment” of the Construction Products Directive (89/106/EC). The potential hazard for environment and health may arise in different life cycle stages of a construction product. During the service life stage, the release of substances due to contact with the rain water is the main potential hazard source, as a consequence of the leaching phenomenon. The objective of this paper is to present the development of a coupled chemical-transport model for the case of a concrete based construction product, i.e. concrete paving slabs, exposed to rain water under outdoor exposure conditions. The development of the model is based on an iterative process of comparing the experimental results with the simulated results up to an acceptable fit. The experiments were conducted at laboratory scale (equilibrium and dynamic leaching tests) and field scale. The product was exposed for one year in two types of leaching scenarios under outdoor conditions, “runoff” and “stagnation”, and the element release was monitored. The model was calibrated using the experimental data obtained at laboratory scale and validated against measured field data, by taking into account the specific rain water balance and the atmospheric CO2 uptake as input parameters. The numerical tool used in order to model and simulate the leaching behaviour was PHREEQC, coupled with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) thermodynamic data base. The simulation results are satisfying and the paper demonstrates the feasibility of the modelling approach for the leaching behaviour assessment of concrete type construction materials. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper offers a case history of one university academic department's experience with the pressure to create online scholarship opportunities for professional educators. As tertiary education transforms its course delivery to Web-based learning management platforms, instructors are challenged to transform career-long practice suddenly and without warning. The department in question focuses on school leadership and primarily serves mid-career professionals studying at the post-baccalaureate level. Practical and political challenges encountered by faculty members and the measures taken to tackle them are addressed. Institutional support initiatives are described, along with perspectives on the consequences of sudden technology migration to the quality of teaching, learning, and lifestyle. Using various data sources, faculty and student responses to institutional change are assessed, with implications for further policy and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]