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[helenbass93]

Institutions--North, 1991

North rejects modern competitive markets as a natural state and discusses the historic conditions which make them possible.

Evolution of trade not self-propelling (from relationship-based, small-scale trade to impersonal, specialized, large-scale markets).  Incentives for organization of property rights must exist.

Political institutions which allow for the beginning of voluntary organization within trade.  Without courts, laws, and the promise of enforcement, incentive for voluntary organization will not exist.

Trade across long distances made possible by innovations in 1) increasing the mobility of capital (dated bills of exchange, ability to use interest in contracts, etc.); 2) lower information costs (standardized measurements); 3)spreading risk (multiple investors, insurance)

[helenbass93]

Getting across the pond: Technicalities - Visas

Because I’ll be studying in the UK for more than 6 months, I’ll apply for a Tier 4 student visa (also required for students working abroad, no matter what the time frame).  This will allow me to enter the country 1 month before the start date of my program.  The problem is that I’ll be entering the country 2 months before the start date of my program.

In order to legally travel in the country in the interim time, I am planning to apply for a standard visa as well (the type of visa required for leisure/holiday travel).  This will allow me another 30 days in the country.  I’ve emailed the office of UK Visas and Immigration (formerly the UK Border Agency) to verify this Jerry-rigged visa plan and am awaiting results.

Because visa applications must be turned in within 3 months of the date of intended travel (or study, in the case of student visas), I am not yet eligible to complete my student visa application.  In the meantime, I will begin applying for the standard visa (well, as soon as I hear back from the UK Visa office that I’m using the visa system correctly).  The trickiest part of this double-layered visa scheme will be completing my student visa before July 13th, when I will leave for the UK on my standard visa.  The student visa will require a visit to an embassy satellite office.

Resources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKR5dsbUCHA

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/uk-visas-and-immigration

[helenbass93]

Getting across the pond: Technicalities

In mid-September, I will begin a Master’s Program (MSc/LLM) in Law & Economics at the University of Reading.  The program should last September-September, with two semesters of classes and one final stretch to be filled by thesis-writing.  The thesis may be written on the campus or remotely.

I’ll be flying out of Kansas City, MO on the evening of July 13th and arriving in London late morning on the 14th.  As soon as I land, I’ll store some of my heavier luggage in the city. Reading is about 30 minutes away by train.  I haven’t yet decided if I’ll spend that first night in London, likely checking on visa-related issues, or head straight to Reading for a hostel.. or maybe a couchsurf.

Step #1 to Getting Across the Pond was buying a ticket, #2 was looking for (not necessarily finding) accommodation, and Step #3 will be completing visa information.  

[helenbass93]

Another library visit, another really long paper

“A Model of Voting Behavior by State Court Justices in Death Penalty Panels” -Seong Min Wu

After finishing Seong Min Wu’s 107-page doctoral dissertation (not including references, just sayin’), I’m more seriously considering looking at personal characteristics of judges in relation to their rulings, but also wondering how much literature may have already been written on this subject.  Surely, someone has taken advantage of the database she collected for her project: death penalty decisions of state supreme court justices in 30 states from 2000-2006.

The paper set out to investigate which extralegal factors influence judges’ decisions.  These factors were separated into three sections: institutional, environmental, and personal.  

Institutional factors include the party affiliation of the Governor at the time each judge took office and at the time of each of their decisions, and the majority party in the legislative branch at the time each judge took office and of each of their decisions.  The study found the party of the judge at the time of a judge’s appointment to be significant

Envioronmental factors included the number of inmates on death row and the number of executions per year in the state.  Both were found to increase a the likelihood that a judge uphold the death sentence, although the direction of causality between these two variables was unclear to the author.

Disturbing to Wu was the fact that one of the personal factors, race of the judge, was found to impact rulings.  Sex was not found to be significant.  

“I find it troubling that extralegal factors matter in judicial decision-making.  According to my analysis, race does matter in decision-making--although it is not as significant as the key institutional variables in my analysis.”

Wu calls for a few different future studies to continue his progress.  The first would be to examine how the defendant-victim dynamic affects judicial decisions.  Another interesting study could be looking at the direction of causality between rulings and the environmental factors in Wu’s dissertation.  This would require a difference-in-differences model.

[helenbass93]

Boring project stuff

Taking the advice of a friend that does much more interesting work than I, I’ll be posting bits of research online to keep myself going on a research project for next semester.  To start out, I’ll be looking at the existing academic literature surrounding judicial selection.  

Study #1 looks at how different selection systems and demographic/geographic variables are related to judge level of experience, education, religion, and party affiliation.  The study found Protestant judges to be favored in merit selection systems, and did not find a difference in experience or education between any of the systems.  The authors recommended further study into how different judges make policy based on their personal religious affiliations, and therefore how different judicial selection processes may create different judicial policies.

“It would be useful to investigate whether judicial policy in merit selection states, within specific regions, is more conservative than in states using other methods of judicial selection within the same region.“

70 Judicature 232 (1986-1987) Selection Systems and Judicial Charateristics: The Recruitment State Supreme Court Judges; Glick, Henry R.; Emmert, Craig F.

[the-final-sentence]

They will have to ask the star itself where it goes and why it is not content to stay.

Nancy E. Turner, from These Is My Words (via the-final-sentence)

[argnoticias]

Carta abierta a la Selección Argentina de fútbol: Mi nombre es Manuel, tengo 20 años y soy argentino. Soy de una generación que no vio ni el Mundial del ‘78, ni el Mundial del ‘86. Ni siquiera la final del ‘90. Esos eran recuerdos de una época que no fue nuestra. Recuerdos de la copa con goles históricos de Maradona, de la hazaña de Kempes, Fillol, Passarella y compañía no existen en nuestra memoria.Son momentos que no vivimos. Son momentos que no fueron nuestros. Nacimos fanáticos de hechos que no presenciamos, de glorias que nosotros no alcanzamos y con ídolos que no vimos jugar. Nacimos con la ilusión de ganar una Copa del Mundo, de repetir las glorias que nuestros padres habían vivido pero nunca, ni siquiera, habíamos estado cerca. Crecimos con un Mundial de 2002 que fue lejano y nos golpeó. Crecimos con el de 2006 y el de 2010 teniendo una esperanza que nunca se había podido cumplir. No sabíamos lo que era pelear una Copa. Nada bueno parecía ser nuestro. Nuestro sí era el exitismo. Nuestra era la mentira de que el segundo es el primero de los perdedores. Nuestra era la mentira de que no se podía morir de pie. Nuestra era la mentira de que no podíamos pelear por la gloria. Nuestra era la mentira de que no podíamos tener ídolos, que jugadores eran los de antes. Era nuestra la mentira de que, después de 90 minutos, los jugadores no tenían piernas para correr 30 minutos más. Todo eso era nuestro. Hasta hoy. Esas mentiras ya no son nuestras. Nuestra generación nunca había vivido una final del mundo y ustedes nos la regalaron. Nunca la ilusión había llegado tan lejos, y ustedes nos regalaron esa ilusión. Nos regalaron la posibilidad de creer en un sueño, de creer en nuestro primer sueño. Nos regalaron darnos cuenta que sus partidos eran también nuestros partidos, que sus triunfos eran nuestros triunfos y que los ídolos podían empezar a ser nuestros. Nos regalaron darnos cuenta que a la cancha entraban 11, pero que había más de 40 millones que no dejaban de acompañarlos. El sueño fue nuestro. Ustedes éramos nosotros. Las gambetas de Leo fueron nuestras gambetas. Nuestras fueron las manos de Chiquito contra Holanda. Nuestras fueron la garra de Macherano y las ganas de todos de correr 90 minutos, y de seguir corriendo si había 30 minutos más. Nuestros fueron los goles de Angelito y el Pipita. Nuestras fueron las palabras de Masche antes de cada partido y nuestros fueron los abrazos y los triunfos. Nuestra fue la gloria de haber dejado todo. Todo fue nuestro.Gracias por desmentir todas las mentiras con las que nacimos y gracias por volver nuestra la importancia del esfuerzo, el sacrificio y las ganas de luchar hasta el final. Gracias por hacernos sentir a todos los que nunca lo habíamos vivido, que la sensación de pelear por la gloria podía ser nuestra. Gracias por unirnos a todos y por ser nuestro orgullo. “Hoy se convirtieron en héroes”. Nuestros héroes. Gracias.

(via argentina-for-the-world)

Gracias por mostrarme lo que significa un orgullo de una nación, Argentina!

[helenbass93]

Patagonia Hike Day 3

Super cold this morning! Warming up in the rain wasn't easy.  After realizing how dysfunctional 8 people trying to hike in a group was, we split into 2 groups of 4 instead.  After we wore off the chill of the early morning, we unanimously decided we were on the prettiest day of the trip by far.  The hike was uphill, but we were surrounded by lush green forest, gorgeous mountain streams, and could still see Lago Dickson behind us.  

We tried to take long snack breaks to enjoy the scenery, but the cold stopped us from sitting in one spot for too long.  Trickling streams turned to rapids as we moved further down the path, and we got our first experience with rickety bridges crossing over freezing water.  The hike was only about 4 hours, so we got to Campamento Perros relatively early and warmed up with some instant coffee (eek) and lentil soup (actually delicious) before heading to our tents for bed.

[helenbass93]

Patagonia Day 2

We thought day 1 was long.. but it was nothing compared to day 2!  The beginning of the day was still hot and dry, and pretty soon we were walking through a very steep, rocky, windy, and windy pass.  The wind was unpredictable and almost knocked us over more than a few times.  It started to die down as the temperature dropped, and before we knew it the scenery had completely changed again.  We were happy to be out of the wind, but the lower temperature and rain were incredibly tiring after an already long day.

When we came up our final big hill (half dead) and saw the picturesqueCampamento Dickson, it definitely made the hike worth it!  The misty/chilly weather perfectly fit the view from the side of the mountain.  Dickson was a greyish blue-green, exactly the color of water after a paintbrush was washed out in it (Maureen's spot-on description).  It was surrounded by a lush green forrest, a stream leading from the hills, and mountains in the foggy background.  Staying here was beautiful but freeeezzziinggg, and we started to make friends with other people on the circuit by sharing little luxuries to ward off the wet and cold for a while.

Side note: the hiking is great and all, but at this point, the sane part of my brain is looking down at my freezing-cold-huddled-in-a-ball-in-my-sleeping-bag self in contempt, wondering why reasonable people willingly choose to endure this torture, otherwise known as 'camping'.

[helenbass93]

Patagonia Hike Day 1

Kind of feels like a Kansas prairie + the Lion King landscape mixed together.  The path is surrounded in tall grasses and wildflowers, but the trees are all charred and dead from a fire a few years ago.  Especially considering that all fires in this region are created by people, not nature, it's so sad to think about what the park would have looked like before!

We can't really figure out what it it is, but we swear we can smell cinnamon in the wind (later read and found that this was probably Cinnamon Grass)--no complaints there.  The path started out dusty and dry, but it gets greener and greener as we walk further into the park.  

After about 6 hours of hiking on very hard ground, and with 10 days of food and supplies on our backs, we temporarily collapse when we first reach Campamento Seron.  We all wonder a little how we'll manage that type of hike for over another week.  The camp is VERY buggy, but everyone we talk to is super nice, making the mosquitoes not seem as bad.  After some bean/tofu/pita mini-pizzas, we all head to bed and sleep like rocks.