Digital Commons Network^™

Anniversary Commemoration And Work Of The International Law Commission’S Seventieth Session, Sean D. Murphy

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This essay analyzes the outcome of the seventieth session of the U.N. International Law Commission held in the summer of 2018 in New York and Geneva. Notably, the Commission completed on second reading two topics: subsequent agreements and subsequent practice in relation to the interpretation of treaties; and identification of customary international law. The Commission completed on first reading two further topics: protection of the atmosphere; and provisional application of treaties. Progress was also made in developing draft conclusions on peremptory norms of general international law (jus cogens), draft principles on protection of the environment in relation to armed conflict, …

Unbundling Populism, David Fontana

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Populism is having its moment on our constitutional center stage, but the way we are treating this moment is adding to the risks that populism poses to our liberal democratic constitutional order. Populism has primarily been defined in our public discussions by the loudest self-identifying populists active in democratic politics at the moment. Populism has therefore often been treated as a bundled-together concept, merging not just anti-establishment sentiments, but also authoritarian and xenophobic ones as well. Populism is an eight-letter word that is then treated like a pejorative four-letter one. Populism, though, is a they, and not an it. The …

How American Rejectionism Undermines International Economic Law, Steve Charnovitz

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

The completion of the Trump Administration’s first two years is an appropriate moment to take stock of the United States of America’s aggressive international economic policies. The Trump Administration is carrying out a new form of American rejectionism powered by four horsemen of economic instability: first, the rejection of the international rule of law; second, the rejection of open markets; third, the rejection of economic peace in favour of perpetual economic war; and fourth, the rejection of the global interest. The analysis herein shows how these four rejectionist policies are harming the United States, other countries, and the global order. …

Bifurcating Settlements, Michael B. Abramowicz, Sarah Abramowicz

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In settling a lawsuit, parties agree on their obligations to one another, but they need not separately address each issue, claim, or remedy that a trial court would have confronted. The legal system, however, can bifurcate the settle-ment process, requiring separate resolution of components of a settlement. Bi-furcation can protect third parties, for example, by preventing divorcing parents from trading child custody for money. In addition to identifying a wide range of contexts in which preventing trade-offs may be desirable, this Article shows that bifurcation will generally have only modest (and sometimes beneficial) effects on settlement rates.

Evidence Of Racial And Geographic Disparities In The Use Of Medicare Observation Stays And Subsequent Patient Outcomes Relative To Short-Stay Hospitalizations, Brad Wright, Xuan Zhang, Momotazur Rahman, Mahshid Abir, Padmaja Ayyagari, Keith E. Kocher

Research Collection School Of Economics

To examine racial and geographic disparities in the use of-and outcomes associated with-Medicare observation stays versus short-stay hospitalizations.\nWe used 2007-2010 fee-for-service Medicare claims, including 3,555,994 observation and short-stay hospitalizations for individuals over age 65. We estimated linear probability models with hospital fixed effects to identify within-facility disparities in observation stay use, and estimated in-hospital mortality, and 30- and 90-day post-discharge mortality, return ED visits, and hospital readmissions as a function of placement in observation using linear probability models, propensity-score matching, and interaction terms.\nWe identified racial and geographic disparities in the likelihood of observation stay use within hospitals (blacks 3.9 percentage …

Informing Medicare's Two-Midnight Rule Policy With An Analysis Of Hospital-Based Long Observation Stays, Brad Wright, Xuan Zhang, Momotazur Rahman, Keith Kocher

Research Collection School Of Economics

Outpatient observation stays are increasingly substituting for standard inpatient hospitalizations. In 2013, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services adopted the controversial Two-Midnight Rule policy to curb long observation stays and better define the use of hospital-based observation services versus inpatient hospitalizations. We seek to determine the extent to which Medicare beneficiaries exposed to long observation stays (>48 hours) are clinically similar to those with short observation stays (≤48 hours) because this has relevance to the Two-Midnight Rule.\nUsing 100% Medicare claims data from 2008 to 2010, we identified all patients with long observation stays (>48 hours) who were …

Pythagorean Generalization Of Testing The Equality Of Two Symmetric Positive Definite Matrices, Jin Seo Cho, Peter C. B. Phillips

Research Collection School Of Economics

We provide a new test for equality of two symmetric positive-definite matrices that leads to a convenient mechanism for testing specification using the information matrix equality or the sandwich asymptotic covariance matrix of the GMM estimator. The test relies on a new characterization of equality between two k dimensional symmetric positive-definite matrices A and B: the traces of AB−1 and BA−1 are equal to k if and only if A=B. Using this simple criterion, we introduce a class of omnibus test statistics for equality and examine their null and local alternative approximations under some mild regularity conditions. A preferred test …

Sequentially Testing Polynomial Model Hypotheses Using Power Transforms Of Regressors, Jin Seo Cho, Peter C. B. Phillips

Research Collection School Of Economics

We provide a methodology for testing a polynomial model hypothesis by generalizing the approach and results of Baek, Cho, and Phillips (Journal of Econometrics, 2015, 187, 376–384; BCP), which test for neglected nonlinearity using power transforms of regressors against arbitrary nonlinearity. We use the BCP quasi-likelihood ratio test and deal with the new multifold identification problem that arises under the null of the polynomial model. The approach leads to convenient asymptotic theory for inference, has omnibus power against general nonlinear alternatives, and allows estimation of an unknown polynomial degree in a model by way of sequential testing, a technique that …

Sequential Auctions With Decreasing Reserve Prices., Massimiliano Landi, Domenico Menicucci

Research Collection School Of Economics

We study sequential sealed bid auctions with decreasing reserve prices when there are two identical objects for sale and unit-demand bidders (existing literature has dealt with the case of weakly increasing reserve prices). Under decreasing reserve prices bidders may have an incentive not to bid in the first auction, and no equilibrium exists with a strictly increasing stage one bidding function. However, we find that an equilibrium always exists, and its shape depends on the distance between the two reserve prices. The equilibrium exhibits some pooling at the stage one auction, which disappears in the limit as the number of …

Regulating Squeeze-Out Techniques By Controlling Shareholders: The Divergence Between Hong Kong And Singapore, Christopher C. H. Chen, Wei Zhang, Wai Yee Wan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Squeeze-out transactions are controversial as the controlling shareholders may expropriate the minorities’ shareholdings at unattractive prices. Existing scholarship has focused on the optimal approach towards regulating such transactions in the US and the UK, which have widely dispersed public shareholdings, but little attention is placed on jurisdictions with concentrated shareholdings, which may necessitate a different approach given that the prospects of expropriation are very high. This article fills the gap by examining Hong Kong and Singapore, which have concentrated shareholdings. Notwithstanding the fact that they have adapted their corporate and securities laws from the UK, Hong Kong ultimately provides greater …

Ghanaian Parents’ Experiences Of Caring For Their Preterm Infants After Discharge From The Neonatal Unit - A Narrative Inquiry Study, Esther Abena Adama

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The care of preterm infants is associated with stress. In the busy neonatal unit where highly skilled healthcare workers are always present, parents have reported being stressed when caring for their preterm infants in the neonatal unit. In Ghana, preterm birth is the highest cause of neonatal mortality with 70% of these morbidities and mortalities occurring in the community. Yet to date, no study in Ghana has explored how parents experience their care giving role after discharge from the neonatal unit into the community.

This study explored the experiences of caring for preterm infants in the neonatal unit and after …

Examining The Perceived Benefit Of Education For Aboriginal Secondary Students In Western Australia, Mary-Anne Macdonald

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Indigenous and remote Australians have lower education and employment levels than non- Indigenous and urban Australians and face continued socio-economic disadvantage. Many contemporary voices have called for quantitative evidence for Indigenous education policy. The current thesis responds to this gap in the literature by developing a factor model of Indigenous education engagement, and supports this with regression equations and qualitative interviews exploring the impact of various experiences on Indigenous engagement with secondary school. The current study found that, despite gap in attendance rates, Year 12 completion rates, and tertiary education enrolment and completion, Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants alike ascribed a …

Social Justice For Sex Trafficked Females And Sex Workers In Jordan, Nora Tawfiq Samoudi (Dekaidek)

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis explores social practices, policies and laws constituting criminal and social justice approaches to providing services and amenities for the sex trafficked females in Jordan. As the discussion of sex trafficked females overlaps with sex workers, this research explores the human rights of both groups who experience different forms of gender-based violence. To understand the protection, care and support that Jordan provides, I interviewed seven service providers offering protection for victims of sex trafficking. Also, I analysed the semiprohibitionist Jordanian Penal Code and the Human Trafficking Legislation that criminalise sex trafficking perpetrators and sex-related actions. This research relies on …

A Coat Of Ashes: A Collection Of Poems, Incorporating A Metafictional Narrative - And - Poetry, Daoism, Physics And Systems Theory: A Poetics: A Set Of Critical Essays, Janet Ruth Jackson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This thesis comprises a book-length creative work accompanied by a set of essays. It explores how poetry might bring together spiritual and scientific discourses, focusing primarily on philosophical Daoism (Taoism) and contemporary physics. Systems theory (the science of complex and self-organising systems) is a secondary focus of the creative work and is used metaphorically in theorising the writing process.

The creative work, “A coat of ashes”, is chiefly concerned with the nature of being. It asks, “What is?”, “What am I?” and, most urgently, “What matters?”. To engage with these questions, it opens a space in which voices expressing scientific …

An Unfamiliar Face, An Unfamiliar Environment: Investigating Educators’ Understanding Of Their Attachment Relationships With Infants And Toddlers In Early Childhood Education And Care Settings, Nadia Wilson-Ali

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Attachment theory has influenced research, policy and practice over the last six decades, offering a framework for understanding risk and protective factors in early childhood. However, this work has primarily been influenced from a medical health or psychological perspective. Despite the literature highlighting the importance of attachment relationships, there is limited research relating to educators’ knowledge and understanding of attachment theory. The first years of life are considered a sensitive period for attachment development, and with families increasingly utilising formal care for their infants and toddlers, educators are in a prime position to use attachment theory to inform their practices …

The Impact Of The Cost Of Car Ownership On House Price Gradient In Singapore, Naqun Huang, Jing Li, Amanda Ross

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper examines the extent to which a change in the cost of car ownership affects the house price gradient with respect to distance from the central business district (CBD). Theory suggests that if the cost of car ownership increases, then people will shift towards other modes of transportation, thus reducing house prices farther away from the CBD. However, the cost of car ownership is likely to be endogenous and correlated with various unobserved factors that also contribute to a change in the house price gradient. To obtain causal effects, we exploit a unique feature of Singapore’s car registration process. …

Universalism And The Value Of Political Power, Yumi Koh

Research Collection School Of Economics

While legislatures typically use majority rule to allocate a budget in distributive legislation, near-unanimous consent over the broad allocation of benefits is pervasive. I develop a game-theoretic model where players strategically interact in a universal coalition to determine allocations, with non-cooperative bargaining as a threat point for the breakdown of cooperation. To quantify the effects of political power and actual needs on the agreed-upon allocation, I structurally estimate the model using the "Bridge Bill Capital Budget" in 1992. I find that 9.58% of the budget would be allocated differently if allocations were determined only based on actual needs.

Extremal Quantile Treatment Effects, Yichong Zhang

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper establishes an asymptotic theory and inference method for quantile treatment effect estimators when the quantile index is close to or equal to zero. Such quantile treatment effects are of interest in many applications, such as the effect of maternal smoking on an infant’s adverse birth outcomes. When the quantile index is close to zero, the sparsity of data jeopardizes conventional asymptotic theory and bootstrap inference. When the quantile index is zero, there are no existing inference methods directly applicable in the treatment effect context. This paper addresses both of these issues by proposing new inference methods that are …

Contributors Of Singaporean Youths' Wellbeing: Life Goals, Family-Community-Nation Capitals, Opportunity And Social Mobility, Kong Weng Ho

Research Collection School Of Economics

Life goals induce one’s current investment and set one’s expectations of future outcomes, affecting one’s current state of subjective wellbeing. Using National Youth Survey (NYS) 2016, which has a representative sample of Singaporean youths, we find that non-zero-sum life goals such as family-oriented life goals and altruism-oriented life goals enhance happiness and life satisfaction of Singaporean youths while career-oriented life goals, zero-sum in nature, reduce subjective wellbeing. Apart from personal motivations or life aspirations, perceived social mobility (in terms of career opportunity and meritocracy) matters positively in the subjective wellbeing of both youths in school and in the workforce. Family …

Countering Untouchability: The Stories Of Mātaṅga, Chandrabhan P. Yadav

Articles

Excerpt:

"In the Jātakas we get description of the Caṇḍālas which is rare as far as traces about this class from the early Indian past is concerned. In around eight stories we get description of the Caṇḍālas.1 Amongst those the Mātaṅ gaJātaka (No.497) is the most important story because of its sheer description which is comparatively more elaborate than the other stories. In this essay I shall not only be examining this particular story to see the everyday lives of the Caṇḍālas in the early historic period, but most importantly, I shall also be exploring those processes through which these …

Dorothy Rauch Papers - Accession 1059, Dorothy Sealy Rauch

Manuscript Collection

The Dorothy Rauch Papers consist of copies of the Winthrop Alumnae Magazine, scrapbooks, 1910 Winthrop College yearbook, photographs, biographical data on Dorothy Rauch and her father Mr. J. B. Sealy, scholarship plaque, ceramic plates, and a Winthrop Training School jacket. Dorothy Rauch was the former Winthrop Director of Alumnae Affairs from 1966-1980.

Rock Hill Business And Professional Women's Club Records - Accession 1412, Business And Professional Women's Club, Rock Hill

Manuscript Collection

This Rock Hill Business and Professional Women’s Club Records consist of minutes, correspondence, reports, financial records, memberships list, yearbooks, photographs, awards, records relating to state and national level BPWC, newspaper clippings, and scrapbooks containing photographs and other paraphernalia pertaining to the Rock Hill Business and Professional Women’s Club. The collection documents the origin, history, and activities of the Business and Professional Women’s Club, especially the Rock Hill chapter. The state branch was organized in 1919 and the Rock Hill chapter in 1925. The records fall into three categories: the Rock Hill Business and Professional Women’s Club, the South Carolina Business …

Anne Edna Willis Lewis Collection - Accession 1209, Anne Edna Willis Lewis

Manuscript Collection

The Anne Edna Willis Lewis Collection consists of materials collected by Anne Edna Willis Lewis (1902-2001) during her academic career at Winthrop College from 1921-1925. She graduated as part of the Winthrop Class of 1925. Her collection consists of 11 reports cards, 2 photographs taken at her 50^th reunion, and a scrapbook containing photographs, programs, correspondence, tickets, invitations, newspaper clippings memorabilia, and commencement programs. A Winthrop scholarship was named in her and her husband’s honor titled the Anne W. Lewis and Robert M. Lewis Endowed Scholarship to assist academically talented students with financial need.

Robert Harris Papers - Accession 1168, James Robert Harris Jr., Harris Family, Bailes Family, Barham Family, Bratton Family, Brickhouse Family, Colthorp Family, Cureton Family, Elliott Family, Fullwood Family, Gordon Family, Hagins Family, Hall Family, Hawkins Family, Heath Family, Hood Family, Kirk Family, Mehaffey Family, Miller Family, Moore Family, Mulkey Family, Ormond Family, Parker Family, Pennington Family, Pettus Family, Polk Family, Potts Family, Womack Family, Wren/Wrenn Family, Yarborough Family

Manuscript Collection

Robert “Bob” Harris (1926-1998), of Lancaster, South Carolina, spent decades researching the genealogical history of the Harris family, dating back to Essex, England in the 1500s, and various branches thereof. The collection includes extensive notes, family trees, correspondence, and photocopies of original documents, such as wills and deeds, from the 1700s and 1800s. Mr. Harris, along with distant relatives and various correspondents from around the country, searched government records, archives, church records, newspapers and a variety of other sources to compile a significant collection of data pertaining to the history of various lines of Harris descendants. There are many family …

Helen Estis Snell Papers - Accession 1377, Helen Estis Snell

Manuscript Collection

The Helen Estis Snell Papers consist of memorabilia from Winthrop Class of 1936 alumna, Helen Estis Snell (1915-1989) of Elloree, SC. The collection contains a scrapbook filled with mementos from Ms. Snell’s years at Winthrop. Items within the scrapbook are small memos from classmates, decorative Christmas napkins, gift tags, a couple photographs (cyanotype), postcards, letters, truck tags, event programs, news articles, and other memorabilia of her time at Winthrop. There are also programs for many events held during Senior Week in 1936 as well as a Senior Class of 1936 Patch.

Cuneiform Tablet Collection - Accession 1382, Cuneiform Tablets

Manuscript Collection

The Cuneiform Tablet Collection consists of six cuneiform tablets ranging from 2300-547 BC. Cuneiform is the oldest known form of writing and was commonly used in the Middle East between 3,200 BC and the second century AD. It was created by pressing a wedge-shaped instrument, usually a cut reed, into moist clay.

Marilyn Frenkel Photograph Collection - Accession 1380, Marilyn Frenkel, Winthrop University, Winthrop University - Department Of Theater And Dance

Manuscript Collection

The Marilyn Frenkel Photograph Collection consists of photograph albums of Winthrop University’s Theater and Dance Department Productions from the years of 2001 through 2009. The photograph albums include the programs for each production which includes listings of the casts and production staff and photographs of Winthrop students throughout the productions. The albums were collected and organized by Marilyn Frenkel who attended the productions with her husband from 2001 through 2009. The collection consists of albums for the following productions: The Mad Woman of Chaillot, Piece of My Heart, Benedictions, Hamlet, Tartuffe, Twelfth Night, A Lie of the Mind, Blithe Spirit, …

Ball Family Papers - Accession 774, Ball Family

Manuscript Collection

The Ball Family Papers consists of 52 microfiche that covers the operation of several plantations on the Cooper River in the Berkeley County area in South Carolina. The Ball Family Papers consist of correspondence, legal documents, wills and estate papers, plantation papers and slave records, accounts, receipts, genealogical material, plats, and other items pertaining to the Ball family and related families. The collection also includes the papers of John Ball (1760-1817), William James Ball (1787-1808), Ann Simons Ball (1776-1840), John Ball (1782-1834), and William James Ball (1821-1891), as well as the journal (1715-1716) of Captain George Chicken (d. 1727). Also …

Chesnut-Miller-Manning Papers - Accession 771, Chesnut Family, John Chesnut, James Chesnut Sr., James Chesnut Jr., Stephen Decatur Miller, John Laurence Manning

Manuscript Collection

The Chesnut-Miller-Manning Family Papers consist of financial and property records, correspondence, estate records, legal documents, and other items. Included are the papers of John Chesnut (1743-1818), James Chesnut, Sr. (1773-1866), James Chesnut, Jr. (1815-1885), Stephen Decatur Miller (1787-1838), and John Laurence Manning (1816-1889). Papers pertain to the business, financial, and plantation affairs and political activities of three generations of the Chesnut family, John Chesnut, James Chesnut, Sr. and James Chesnut, Jr., as well as James Chesnut, Jr.’s father-in-law Stephen Decatur Miller and John Laurence Manning.

Patricia Royer Fitzgerald Papers - Accession 1521, Patricia Royer Fitzgerald, Brothers Family, Vidal Family, Baisieux Family

Manuscript Collection

The Patricia Royer FitzGerald Papers consists of various family genealogy research, newspaper clippings, photographs, writings, and manuscripts. The genealogy material consists of genealogical charts, biographical information, handwritten family stories and anecdotes, marriage records, birth records, death records, correspondence, research notes, photographs, and copies of articles written about the family related mostly to the Brothers Family, Baisieux family, and Vidal family. The rest of the collection consists of Pat FitzGerald (1937-2017) writings and manuscripts related to her time as a writer for the Rock Hill, SC based newspaper, The Herald predominately writing for the Travel and Lifestyle section, but also consists …