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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Anti-Speculation Doctrine And Its Implications For Collaborative Water Management, Sandi Zellmer Apr 2008

The Anti-Speculation Doctrine And Its Implications For Collaborative Water Management, Sandi Zellmer

Nebraska College of Law: Faculty Publications

From Texas tycoon T. Boone Pickens to former corporate conglomerate Enron, grandiose schemes to profit from large-scale, transbasin water transfers have proliferated in the past decade. Reactions range from outrage at the commoditization of this precious resource to support for letting the market and its pricing signals move water to the most efficient use. The long-standing prohibition against speculation in water is an impediment to commoditization and, consequently, water marketing in the western United States. By contrast, acquiring real estate, grain, art, and other types of property in hopes of profiting from future market fluctuations is not at all unusual. …


A Positive Theory Of Eminent Domain, Eric Kades Mar 2008

A Positive Theory Of Eminent Domain, Eric Kades

Eric A. Kades

By examining a novel data set of land acquisitions and condemnations for roads by all 50 states, this article attempts to formulate a positive theory of states’ invocation of their eminent domain power. Litigation models based on irrationality and asymmetric information suggest that geography, demography, and legal rules may influence the frequency with which state officials resort to condemnation. To a significant degree, the data support these models, as water area and hilliness (geography), population density (demography), and legal rules (fee-shifting statutes) explain a significant portion of the state-state variation in condemnation rates. A number of other theoretically relevant explanatory …


Chapter 12: Torts, Crimes, Sanctions. Witchcraft And Related Issues (The Anthropology Of Compensatory Or Retributive Justice), Wolfgang Fikentscher Jan 2008

Chapter 12: Torts, Crimes, Sanctions. Witchcraft And Related Issues (The Anthropology Of Compensatory Or Retributive Justice), Wolfgang Fikentscher

Wolfgang Fikentscher

Inclusive online updates jan10. Chapter 12 on torts and other wrongdoings will treat, along with the traditionally well researched basic concepts of this field of legtal anthropology (to which only brief attention will be given) a recently again debated alleged contrast between shame and guilt societies, the phenomenon of knowledge as witchcraft, and a short report on the growth and institutionalization of international criminal law. Early cultures do not distinguish between torts and crimes. They speak of wrongdoings. A designation of the person who commits the the tort or crime, is a “perpetrator” who is the defendant in civil and …


Regional Real Property Valuation Forecast Accuracy, Katherine Nicole Cote Jan 2008

Regional Real Property Valuation Forecast Accuracy, Katherine Nicole Cote

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to identify, evaluate, and critique four econometric and statistical alternatives to present forecasting practices for property valuation forecasts: (1) a traditional income elasticity method, (2) a regional structural econometric model, (3) a statistical ARIMA method, and (4) trend analysis. Forecast evaluation for 2001-2007 will be conducted for the property valuations of Single and Multi-Family residences and Commercial and Industrial properties in El Paso, Texas (MSA).


Law, Biology, And Property: A New Theory Of The Endowment Effect, Owen D. Jones, Sarah F. Brosnan Jan 2008

Law, Biology, And Property: A New Theory Of The Endowment Effect, Owen D. Jones, Sarah F. Brosnan

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Recent work at the intersection of law and behavioral biology has suggested numerous contexts in which legal thinking could benefit by integrating knowledge from behavioral biology. In one of those contexts, behavioral biology may help to provide theoretical foundation for, and potentially increased predictive power concerning, various psychological traits relevant to law. This Article describes an experiment that explores that context.

The paradoxical psychological bias known as the endowment effect puzzles economists, skews market behavior, impedes efficient exchange of goods and rights, and thereby poses important problems for law. Although the effect is known to vary widely, there are at …