Law Commons^™

Paying To Save: Tax Withholding And Asset Allocation Among Low- And Moderate-Income Taxpayers, Michael S. Barr, Jane Dokko

Law & Economics Working Papers Archive: 2003-2009

We analyze the phenomenon that low- and moderate-income (LMI) tax filers exhibit a “preference for over-withholding” their taxes, a measure we derive from a unique set of questions administered in a dataset of 1,003 households, which we collected through the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. We argue that the relationship between their withholding preference and portfolio allocation across liquid and illiquid assets is consistent with models with present-biased preferences, and that individuals exhibit self-control problems when making their consumption and saving decisions. Our results support a model in which individuals use commitment devices to constrain their consumption. …

Going Public, Selling Stock, And Buying Liquidity, Richard A. Booth

Working Paper Series

It is a well known anomaly of corporation finance that initial public offerings (IPOs) tend to be underpriced. That is, it appears that shares tend to be offered at a price that is below what the market would bear. Scholars have offered several explanations, most of which focus on various sorts of underwriter opportunism (and insider acquiescence therein). But it is difficult to believe that competition among underwriters does not force offerings to be made at the highest possible price, particularly in view of the numerous alternatives to traditional underwriting methods that have arisen in recent years. The persistence of …

When Should Investor Reliance Be Presumed In Securities Class Actions, Roberta S. Karmel

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Short And Puzzling Life Of The “Implicit Minority Discount” In Delaware Appraisal Law, Lawrence A. Hamermesh, Michael L. Wachter

All Faculty Scholarship

The “implicit minority discount,” or IMD, is a fairly new concept in Delaware appraisal law. A review of the case law discussing the concept, however, reveals that it has emerged haphazardly and has not been fully tested against principles that are generally accepted in the financial community. While control share blocks are valued at a premium because of the particular rights and opportunities associated with control, these are elements of value that cannot fairly be viewed as belonging either to the corporation or its shareholders. In corporations with widely dispersed share holdings, the firm is subject to agency costs that …

It-Apas: Harmonizing Inconsistent Transfer Pricing Rules In Income Tax - Customs - Vat, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

In most jurisdictions there are three separate spheres of transfer pricing analysis - income tax, customs and VAT. Although they share policy objectives, terminology and frequently borrowing methodologies from one another these domestic transfer pricing systems are not in harmony.

Businesses find this lack of harmony costly, problematical, but also a planning opportunity. The door is open for arbitrage.

What if the transfer pricing rules within a jurisdiction were harmonized? The World Customs Organization (WCO) and the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are considering this question.

This paper synthesizes the range of transfer pricing regimes currently in use, …

Uk Car-Flipping: The Vat Fraud Market-Place And Certified Solutions, Richard Thompson Ainsworth

Faculty Scholarship

Missing Trader Intra-Community (MTIC) fraud and its offspring carousel fraud and contra trading fraud are siphoning huge amounts of VAT revenue from the UK Treasury. This fraud is not a function of the goods involved. It is a function of the market-place. Recently another type of market-place dependent VAT fraud has taken hold in the UK - car-flipping.

In some instances the market-place where these frauds festers is a pre-existing or natural market-place, one that grows out of legitimate commercial practices. Fraudsters enter this market-place (so the argument goes) and take advantage of legitimate businesses who unwittingly get caught up …

Expanding Homeownership Opportunity Ii: The Softsecond Loan Program, 1991-2006, Jim Campen

Gastón Institute Publications

This report provides data on lending by the SoftSecond Loan Program during the most recent three-year period (2004-2006) as well as over the sixteen-year life of the program. The Mortgage Lending Committee of the Massachusetts Community & Banking Council (MCBC) has had a special interest in the SoftSecond program since its inception and has carefully monitored the performance of its loans. The report updates an earlier report prepared for MCBC by the present author in 2004: Expanding Homeownership Opportunity: The SoftSecond Loan Program, 1991-2003. Detailed information about the origins and evolution of the program, and about the details of …

Reforming Key International Financial Institutions For The 21st Century: Hearing Before The Subcomm. On Security And International Trade And Finance Of The S. Comm. On Banking, Housing, And Urban Affairs, 110th Cong., Aug. 2, 2007 (Statement Of Daniel K. Tarullo, Geo. U. L. Center), Daniel K. Tarullo

Testimony Before Congress

No abstract provided.

Geo-Politics, The ‘War On Terror’ And The Competitiveness Of The City Of London, Richard Woodward

Books/Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Missing Link Between Insider Trading And Securities Fraud, Richard A. Booth

Working Paper Series

In a recent article, I argued that diversified investors - the vast majority of investors - would prefer that securities fraud class actions under the 1934 Act and Rule 10b-5 be dismissed in the absence of insider trading or similar offenses during the fraud period. See Richard A. Booth, The End of the Securities Fraud Class Action as We Know It, 4 Berk. Bus. L. J. 1 (2007), http://ssrn.com/abstract=683197. In this article, I draw on the classic case, SEC v. Texas Gulf Sulfur Company, to show that the federal courts originally viewed securities fraud as inextricably connected to insider trading …

Wal-Mart Bank In Mexico: Money To The Masses And The Home-Host Hole, Anna Gelpern

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

In November 2006 Wal-Mart's Mexican subsidiary received approval to open a bank. The application faced little opposition in Mexico, unlike the company's failed effort to start a bank in the United States. This was partly because in Mexico, Wal-Mart's entry was generally regarded as increasing competition in a historically concentrated banking sector. With over three-quarters of all Mexicans unbanked, the authorities also looked to Wal-Mart to reach the underserved. Along with the promise, Wal-Mart's entry presents a transnational regulatory dilemma with implications beyond Wal-Mart and Mexico. Because it is Wal-Mart's only banking venture, the new institution will have its Mexican …

Cross-Monitoring And Corporate Governance, Joanna M. Shepherd, Frederick Tung, Albert H. Yoon

Faculty Scholarship

We take the view that corporate governance must involve more than corporate law. Despite corporate scholars' nearly exclusive focus on corporate law mechanisms for controlling managerial agency costs, shareholders are not the only constituency concerned with such costs. Given the thick web of firms' contractual commitments, it should not be a surprise that other financial claimants may also attempt to control agency costs in their contracts with the firm. We hypothesize that this cross-monitoring by other claimants has value for shareholders.

We examine bank loans for empirical evidence of the value of cross-monitoring. Our approach builds on prior empirical work …

A Social Defense Of Sarbanes-Oxley, James A. Fanto

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Borrowing Trouble Vii: Higher-Cost Mortgage Lending In Boston, Greater Boston, And Massachusetts, 2005, Jim Campen

Gastón Institute Publications

Six years ago, in response to numerous reports of the growth of predatory lending, the Massachusetts Community & Banking Council (MCBC) – whose Board of Directors has an equal number of bank and community representatives – commissioned a study of subprime refinance lending in the city of Boston and surrounding communities. The resulting report, Borrowing Trouble? Subprime Mortgage Lending in Greater Boston, 1999, was the first detailed look at subprime lending in the city of Boston and in twenty-seven surrounding communities.

This is the seventh report in the annual series begun by that initial study. Over the years, the …

Of Cabbages And Cabotage: The Case For Opening Up The U.S. Airline Industry To International Competition, Robert M. Hardaway

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This article attempts to show that the economic advantages of free trade in the airline industry is no less than other industries, but also that the reasons posited for the rejection of free trade do not stand up to comprehensive analysis. Proposed herein is the adoption of "cabotage," defined by the Standard Dictionary of the English language as "air transport of passengers and goods within the same national territory. ' The definition adopted by International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) at the Chicago Convention is, "Each state shall have the right to refuse permission to the aircraft of other contracting states …

Preliminary Background Paper On The Canada Interest Act, Thomas G. W. Telfer

Law Publications

No abstract provided.

Laws Against Bubbles: An Experimental-Asset-Market Approach To Analyzing Financial Regulation, Erik F. Gerding

Publications

This article analyzes the effectiveness of proposed and actual securities, financial, and tax laws designed to prevent, or dampen the severity of asset price bubbles, including laws designed to mitigate excessive speculation. The article employs experimental asset market research to measure the effectiveness of these anti-bubble laws in correcting mispricings. Experimental asset markets represent complex simulations of stock markets in which subjects trade securities over a computer network. These markets allow scholars to test causal links between legal policies and market effects in ways that empirical research alone cannot. With these virtual markets, researchers can identify asset price bubbles - …

Inter-American System, Claudia Martin

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

An Empirical Analysis Of Investment Treaty Awards, Susan Franck

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

I. INTRODUCTION

Earlier speakers offered insights about investment law and its implications for the future of domestic administrative law and international law. To bring us full circle, I will discuss where we are today so that we can consider where we want development law to be tomorrow. In pursuit of that goal, I offer empirical data related to investment treaty arbitration. My goal today is to focus on three claims about investment treaty arbitration and consider the data's potential implications.

Training Law Students To Be International Transactional Lawyers - Using An Extended Simulation To Educate Law Students About Business Transactions, Daniel D. Bradlow, Jay Finkelstein

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The article describes an innovative approach to educating law students about the legal issues and the role of lawyers in negotiating international business transactions. It is based on our experiences in developing and teaching a course that is built around a semester-long simulation exercise and taught in counterpart classes at two law schools. The students in these classes represent the opposing parties and negotiate a cross-border business transaction involving a joint venture agreement, a licensing agreement and a long-term supply contract. The students, who attend either the American University Washington College of Law or the Centre for Energy Mineral and …

Thirty Years Of Solicitude: Antitrust Law And Physician Cartels, Thomas L. Greaney

All Faculty Scholarship

Over the last thirty years the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice have challenged dozens of physician cartels, networks, and other arrangements that they alleged constituted price fixing or other restraints of trade under the antitrust laws. In addition, the antitrust agencies have issued numerous advisory opinions, published detailed statements of enforcement policy, and made dozens of public statements on the issue of physician collaboration. The puzzle explored in this essay is why the government's deployment of unparalleled enforcement resources has not curtailed physician attempts to engage in collective bargaining and other attempts to restrain price competition. It …

City Government And Predatory Lending, Jonathan L. Entin, Shadya Y. Yazback

Faculty Publications

Predatory lending is heavily concentrated in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods and disproportionately affects minorities and the elderly. The consequences of predatory lending are devastating not only to the consumers who fall prey to unscrupulous lenders' tactics, but to the community as a whole. For these reasons, many cities have tried to regulate or prohibit the practice. These efforts face formidable legal obstacles, however. This article examines the problems that cities face in suing as parens patriae on behalf of their residents, the strong possibility that even home rule municipalities will find their efforts preempted by state law, and the growing …

A Social Defense Of Sarbanes-Oxley, James A. Fanto

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Private Finance, Social Responsibility, And Transitional Justice: The Case For South African Reconciliation And Development Bonds, Daniel D. Bradlow

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.

The Missing Monitor In Corporate Governance: The Directors' And Officers' Liability Insurer, Tom Baker, Sean J. Griffith

All Faculty Scholarship

This article reports the results of empirical research on the monitoring role of directors’ and officers’ liability insurance (D&O insurance) companies in American corporate governance. Economic theory provides three reasons to expect D&O insurers to serve as corporate governance monitors: first, monitoring provides insurers with a way to manage moral hazard; second, monitoring provides benefits to shareholders who might not otherwise need the risk distribution that D&O insurance provides; and third, the “bonding” provided by risk distribution gives insurers a comparative advantage in monitoring. Nevertheless, we find that D&O insurers neither monitor corporate governance during the life of the insurance …

Securities Underwriters In Public Capital Markets: The Existence, Parameters And Consequences Of The Fiduciary Obligation To Avoid Conflicts, Andrew F. Tuch

Scholarship@WashULaw

This article considers whether an investment bank, when acting as underwriter of a public securities offering, owes the issuing company the fiduciary obligation to avoid conflicts of interest. The question has not arisen for final judicial determination and has been overlooked by scholars and regulators. The highly lucrative and visible nature of underwriting work creates powerful incentives for investment banks to accept instructions in the face of this duty. At the same time, the web of loyalties that these institutions owe, by virtue of their broad and diverse range of products and services, creates intractable practical difficulties for compliance with …

Financial Accounting And Corporate Behavior, David I. Walker

Faculty Scholarship

The power of financial accounting to shape corporate behavior is underappreciated. Positive accounting theory teaches that even cosmetic changes in reported earnings can affect share value, not because market participants are unable to see through such changes to the underlying fundamentals, but because of implicit or explicit contracts that are based on reported earnings and transaction costs. However, agency theory suggests that accounting choices and corporate responses to accounting standard changes will not necessarily be those that maximize share value. For a number of reasons, including the fact that executive compensation often is tied to reported earnings, managerial preferences for …

Banking The Poor: Overcoming The Financial Services Mismatch, Michael S. Barr

Book Chapters

Low-income households often lack access to bank accounts and face high costs for transacting basic financial services through check cashers and other alternative financial service providers. Twenty-two percent of low- and moderateincome American households do not have a checking or savings account. Many other "underbanked" families have bank accounts but still rely on high-cost financial services. These households find it more difficult to save and plan financially for the future. Living paycheck to paycheck leaves them vulnerable to medical or job emergencies that may endanger their financial stability, and lack of longer-term savings undermines their ability to improve skills, purchase …

Is There An Emerging Fiduciary Duty To Consider Human Rights?, Cynthia A. Williams, John M. Conley

Articles & Book Chapters

No abstract provided.

The Challenge Of Hedge Fund Regulation, Houman B. Shadab

Articles & Chapters

Currently en vogue concerns about hedge funds are not nearly as substantial as is often claimed. Moreover, the funds themselves are reducing their risks to investors and the broader markets, in accordance with investor demands. As hedge funds benefit the broader market by mitigating price downturns, bearing risks that others will not, making securities more liquid, and ferreting out inefficiencies, policymakers should consider whether stricter regulation of hedge funds could do more harm than good.