Check out my recent prawfs post on distance learning programs here. It highlights an excellent new blog by USC’s Tony Bertelli.
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Category Archives: Academia
“There must be a clear moment when the individual can recalibrate a behavior, make a choice, and act.”
Check out my Prawfs post on feedback loop technology here.
“Turn the switch on, the animal has the memory; turn it off and they don’t: that’s exactly how it worked”
The NY Times reports a recent study published in the Journal of Neural Engineering that suggests that scientists have made a good bit of progress in the effort to improve on retaining and regaining memories through the use of implants. Here’s a snapshot of the research: Continue reading
On the topic of deliberation…
Check out my 2nd post on Prawfs on the topic of decision systems here.
Guest blogging on Prawfs
I’ll be guest blogging on Prawfsblawg for the month of June. My first post is about memorable trial performances in movies. You can check it out here.
Criminal Registration – Knowledge as Power
Knowledge as Power
On Prawfs Dan Markel tells us that there’s a new book in town. FSU Law Professor Wayne Logan has recently published Knowledge as Power: Criminal Registration and Community Notification Laws in America. He was also recently quoted on this subject in the New York Times. Here’s some copy from the book: Continue reading
New review of our book in POP
The recent issue of Perspectives on Politics included a review of our book, “Presidential Rhetoric and the Public Agenda: Constructing the War on Drugs” by Diana Owen (Georgetown University). Here’s a selected passage:
In this important study, Andrew B. Whitford and Jeff Yates move beyond the standard focus on persuasion and build upon the established theoretical frameworks of “agenda setting” and “going public.” They explore the ways in which presidential rhetoric can not only shape opinion but also can influence policy implementation and bureaucratic action. Focusing their analysis on drug policy, the authors demonstrate that presidents can exert leadership authority and change the behavior of even entrenched administrative constituencies through public rhetoric. The detailed case study provides rich historical context documenting presidential administrations’ responses to the “war on drugs” dating back to the 1930s. The authors use a multimethod approach in order to provide empirical evidence that supports their argument that persuasion can translate into action. This study establishes a new benchmark for research on presidential rhetoric.
Do you like gladiator movies? Oh yeah, here’s a good book on Roman political thought
Daniel J. Kapust (University of Wisconsin – Political Science) has recently published “Republicanism, Rhetoric, and Roman Political Thought” (Cambridge University Press). Here’s some copy for the book: Continue reading
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Posted in Academia, Jeff, politics, Pop Culture
It’s official … we’re all middle class
Executive branch ideology reconsidered
Anthony Bertelli (USC) and Christian Grose (USC) have posted “The Lengthened Shadow of Another Institution? Ideal Point Estimates for the Executive Branch and Congress “ on SSRN. It will soon be appearing the American Journal of Political Science. Here’s the abstract:
While the president’s relationship to Congress has been carefully studied, the broader executive branch has received far less attention in that context. Scholars rely on assumptions about the relationship between the president and cabinet departments that remain untested. We construct the first statistical portrait of executive branch ideology by estimating ideal points for members of Congress, presidents, and the heads of cabinet-level departments between 1991-2004 in a Bayesian framework. We empirically assess claims about the composition of the president’s administrative team and the influence of institutions on the ideology of principal executive decision-makers. We also test an important claim regarding the tradeoff between ideological congruence and budgetary authority to demonstrate the utility of our estimates for other scholars. Our analysis reveals a new picture of the executive branch as ideologically diverse, casting into doubt some essential assumptions in a substantial body of work on the separation of powers.
STATA has a blog …
Check it out here. H/T ELS blog and Michael Heise. Continue reading
Same sex marriage and judicial retention elections in Iowa
David Pozen has recently posted “What Happened in Iowa” on SSRN. It examines the role of out of state interests in judicial elections. Here’s the abstract: Continue reading
New review of our book
We were very pleased to see a new review of our book, Presidential Rhetoric and the Public Agenda: Constructing the War on Drugs, in The International Journal of Press/Politics (by Brandon Rottinghaus). The review is not available online, but here’s a small sample:
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Posted in Academia, Jeff, Policy, politics, Presidency
Union Wars and Academic Freedom
In today’s NYT:
It was a lengthy and speculative examination of a national organization for conservative lawmakers that the professor, William Cronon, believed was partly responsible for what he described as “this explosion of radical conservative legislation.” The post soon received more than a half million hits, he said.
Two days later, on March 17, while attending a conference of historians, Professor Cronon learned that a public records request had been filed by a state Republican Party official demanding access to months of messages on his university e-mail account that referred to certain politicized words and names, including the governor and a number of legislators.
I expect we’ll see more of this. Frances Fox Piven is the most high-profile case but there are plenty of other opportunities.
Three Events at the Midwest Political Science Association Meeting
I’m currently president of the Midwest Public Administration Caucus. The Caucus is hosting three events at the Midwest Political Science Association meeting in Chicago.
1. Herbert Simon Lecture. Professor Daniel Carpenter, Harvard University, Crystal Room, 3rd Floor. Saturday, April 2nd at 4:35 PM.
We are honored to have Dan Carpenter of Harvard give this year’s Herbert Simon Lecture. Dan is the Allie S. Freed Professor of Government and the Director of the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard. His most recent book is Reputation and Power: Organizational Image and Pharmaceutical Regulation at the FDA (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010).
My thanks go out to Tom Hammond of Michigan State University, Brandice Canes-Wrone of Princeton, and Mike Ting of Columbia for their service on the committee to select this year’s recipient of the Herbert Simon Award.
At that time we will also take a few minutes for an MPAC business meeting, such that it is.
2. Roundtable on Public Services in an Economic Downturn. Saturday, April 2nd, 12:45 PM. Location TBA
This roundtable examines the impact of economic downturns on public services and how public agencies cope with the demand to “do more with less”. Our panelists will be Don Moynihan of Wisconsin, Sean Nicholson-Crotty of Missouri-Columbia, Hal Rainey of Georgia, and B. Guy Peters of Pittsburgh.
3. Roundtable on Regulatory Competition: Causes and Consequences. Sunday, April 3rd, 8:30 AM. Location TBA
This roundtable examines the balance of effective regulatory enforcement against the need to attract business and how this may result in regulatory competition between jurisdictions. Our panelists will be Evan Ringquist of Indiana, David Konisky of Georgetown, Dorothy Daley of Kansas, and Neal Woods of South Carolina.
My thanks go out to Colin Provost of University College London for arranging our two roundtables.
I hope you will take time to attend all of these events.
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Posted in Academia, Andy, Conferences, Policy
Questioning existing judicial decision making models
Corey Rayburn Young (John Marshall Law School) has posted “How Judges Decide: A Multidimensional Typology of Judicial Styles in the Federal Courts” on SSRN. Here’s the abstract: Continue reading
Of Black Swans and the 2008 Financial Crises
The author of “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable,” Nassim Nicholas Taleb, has posted “Why Did the Crises of 2008 Happen?” on SSRN. The paper “while a standalone invited essay written for a special crisis issue of New Political Economy – synthesizes the various technical documents by the author as related to the financial crisis. It can also be used as a technical companion to The Black Swan (2007-2010). “
I’ll summarize his causes of the crises here, but it is certainly worth reading for yourself (just 5 pages): Continue reading
Barton on the lawyer-judge bias
University of Tennessee law professor Ben Barton has recently penned The Lawyer-Judge Bias in the American Legal System (Cambridge 2010). He explains the premise of the book below in an interview with Instapundit and fellow UT Law Prof Glen Reynolds. (H/T Tax Prof Blog)
What can baboons teach us about stress?
Robert Sapolsky and an olive baboon share a quiet moment on the Talek River, July 2007 (Credit: John Heminway)
A lot, apparently. National Geographic has a fascinating look at stress via the research of Stanford neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky. Here’s a bit of it: Continue reading
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Posted in Academia, Data, Jeff, Policy, Pop Culture, Uncategorized
Some reading for the pre-law crowd
I recently came across two papers on SSRN that might be good reading for pre-law undergraduates. The first – “How To Read a Legal Opinion: A Guide For New Law Students” is by Orin Kerr. He outlines how to effectively read a legal opinion – While it’s aimed at first year law students, it is likely helpful for undergrads taking law oriented classes and anyone who wants to be well-read in legal matters. The second paper “Mammas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be … Lawyers” is by Herwig Schlunk. It outlines some of the considerations that students should take into account in deciding whether law school is a good investment. While I am not one of those professors who attempts to talk students out of going to law school, I do emphasize the investment of time and money involved and encourage them to think critically about this career choice.
Behavioral research with a mechanical Turk?
A recent paper posted to SSRN discusses conducting behavioral research with Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. What is the Mechanical Turk? Well, here’s some copy from Amazon:
The graduate program in political science at Binghamton University
As a member of the BU political science departments’ graduate committee I am going to blatantly use my blog platform to promote our graduate program. We offer a competitive stipend, have a good team of faculty scholar/mentors, and have placed Ph.D. students pretty well in academic (and other field relevent) positions. And, as you might recall from a prior post, we scored very well in the NRC’s recent ranking of political science programs.
You can check out the basics of our graduate program here. Information on our Ph.D. placements in recent years can be found here and a list of our current students on the market here.
Another Review of “Presidential Rhetoric and the Public Agenda: Constructing the War on Drugs”
A review of our book by Chad Murphy can be found in Political Communication. Here’s an excerpt: Continue reading
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Posted in Academia, Data, Jeff, Law, Methods, Policy, politics, Presidency, War on Drugs
On perceiving the Rule of Law
Often times perception is arguably as important as reality. Indeed the perception of the Rule of Law may influence important real world outcomes. How do citizens come to perceive the viability of the Rule of Law in their country? In a recent paper we (myself, Andy Whitford and David Brown) address this concern. The title of the paper is “Perceptions of the Rule of Law: Evidence About the Impact of Judicial Insulation.” Check out the syllabus below and, of course, feel free to download the paper via SSRN here. Continue reading
Predicting movie success
Academics show Hollywood how it’s done with empirical analysis. Check it out on NPR here.
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Posted in Academia, Jeff, Pop Culture
On the prison to poverty cycle
Slate has an interesting article on the prison to poverty cycle — here’ s an excerpt: Continue reading
Something for recent (unemployed) law grads and 3rd years
I point you to a post I did as a guest blogger with the Faculty Lounge a while back on the recent unpleasantness in the attorney job market. If you are unemployed or a 3rd year having a hard time finding employment, then you might enjoy this post. I offer a teaser here and then a link to the rest of the post on the Faculty Lounge. Continue reading
Former guest blogger hits the big time!
Former (and hopefully future) guest blogger on Voir Dire, Eileen Braman, recently won the Law & Courts section’s C. Herman Pritchett award for best book of 2009. Congratulations to Eileen!
Ivers – College is not 13th grade
This is probably one of the best posts on higher education that I’ve seen in a long time – here’s an excerpt:
Committing ‘The Perfect Crime’ – a.k.a. Anyone up for a picnic at Yellowstone national park?
Just when you thought is was safe to go back into Idaho ….
In “The Perfect Crime,” author Brian C. Kalt (Michigan State College of Law) argues that it may be possible to commit crimes and get off scott free in certain areas of Idaho where – for a complex set of reasons – it is darn near impossible to prosecute. The article can be found on SSRN here and also in the Georgetown Law Journal. The article is dated 2005, but an email exchange with the author suggests that this potential crime loophole has not been fixed. Here’s the abstract: Continue reading
New blog to check out
Jason Czarnezki (founder ELS Blog) has started a new blog - czarnezki.com – detailing “life, law, & the environment.” Check it out! [h/t Faculty Lounge]
“I’ve got nothing to hide”
I’m really glad that Daniel Solove (George Washington University) recently posted ” ‘I’ve Got Nothing to Hide’ and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy” on SSRN. Now I can simply tell people to read this paper when they make this argument. Here’s the abstract:
Abstract:
In this short essay, written for a symposium in the San Diego Law Review, Professor Daniel Solove examines the nothing to hide argument. When asked about government surveillance and data mining, many people respond by declaring: “I’ve got nothing to hide.” According to the nothing to hide argument, there is no threat to privacy unless the government uncovers unlawful activity, in which case a person has no legitimate justification to claim that it remain private. The nothing to hide argument and its variants are quite prevalent, and thus are worth addressing. In this essay, Solove critiques the nothing to hide argument and exposes its faulty underpinnings.
Some thoughts on Empirical Legal Studies
Creating your own degree?
Tim Ferriss
Tim “4 Hour Workweek” Ferris considers the tuition costs versus tangible benefits – can a degree be replicated on your own by using your planned tuition money for other learning endeavors? Check it out here.
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Posted in Academia, Jeff, Pop Culture
Politics and state punitiveness …
Since Richard is guest blogging this summer, I thought it might be a good time to highlight some of our co-authored work. Below is the abstract of an article we wrote a while back; you can download the article here. We plan to do some follow up research on this topic in the near future.
Politics and State Punitiveness in Black and WhiteAbstract:
Recent findings from the literature on imprisonment policy suggest that in addition to traditional social and economic variables, imprisonment rates are also strongly related to changes in the state political environment. In this study, we extend this literature by testing a theory of state punitiveness which posits that (1) the political environment of states influences the degree to which they incarcerate their citizens, and (2) the political determinants of state punitiveness may be conditional upon the racial sub-population being incarcerated. Our results suggest that increases in state political conservatism in recent decades have contributed to increases in both the growth in black imprisonment rates and black imprisonment disparity (relative to whites), but that these effects are, to a degree, tempered by countervailing political conditions.
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Posted in Academia, Data, Jeff, Law, Policy, politics, Richard Fording, War on Drugs
Judith Warner on generation “why worry?”
Honestly, I don’t really quite know what to make of this – it’s either good news or very, very bad news. Here’s an excerpt
But at a time when so many of their elders are struggling emotionally to keep their heads above water — dealing with layoffs or the fear of layoffs, feeling the walls closing in around them as whole professions contract in new and unanticipated ways — the children, you have to consider, might be on to something. I interviewed nine students recommended to me by college professors and officials, yielding a picture of emerging adults with a striking ability to keep self-doubt — and deep discouragement — at bay. Many were jobless, others were dissatisfied with their work or graduate-school choices, yet they didn’t blame themselves if life failed to meet their expectations. They didn’t call into question their choices or competencies. It was as if all the cries of “Good job!” they heard as children armed them against the repeated blows of frustration and rejection now coming their way.
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Posted in Academia, Jeff, Pop Culture
Don’t Forget Taxes When Weighing Job Options
When Jeff asked me to guest blog for Voir Dire, I decided that my first post would be the recent article by Jalbert, et al, which ranks university salary packages after adjusting for the local cost of living. Of course, Andy beat me to the punch on that, but after reading the article more closely I realized that perhaps there is more to think about here. The article provides a great service to those of us who occasionally consider relocating to another university. I was particularly interested in the cost of living adjustment, having dealt with this issue in my own research over the years. And as with most COL measures, the details are important. The authors report that their local COL measue is taken from the Yahoo.com real estate site, and Yahoo reports that their data come from Sperling’s Best Places website. While the measure seems reasonable, like nearly every other local COL index it does not consider state and local taxes. Continue reading
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Posted in Academia, Pop Culture
Ranking Universities by Cost of Living and Compensation
Yay! From Jalbert, et al.:
In this paper we rank 574 universities based on compensation paid to their faculty. The analysis examines universities both on a raw basis and on a cost of living adjusted basis. Rankings based on salary data and benefit data are presented. In addition rankings based on total compensation are presented. Separate rankings are provided for universities offering different degrees. The results indicate that rankings of universities based on raw and cost of living adjusted data are markedly different. The results suggest that faculty seeking employment opportunities should carefully consider cost of living issues. Administrators should design salary packages that reflect the cost of living conditions in their area in order to attract quality faculty.
Does this look familiar?
Hopefully it does not look familiar to you, but I’m guessing that you get some emails with the same tone.
"I believe that children are our future ...."
You can see the rest of the exchange here.
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Posted in Academia, Jeff, Uncategorized
CFP: Papers on Race and American Institutions
Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare (JSSW). A special issue of the JSSW will explore the role of race in the United States in light of William Julius Wilson’s classic, The Declining Significance of Race: Blacks and Changing American Institutions. Manuscripts should consider and/or challenge Wilson’s thesis that class has superseded race as the most important explanatory factor in situating blacks in the United States and demonstrate ways in which, and to what extent, black Americans are mainstreamed in American social and cultural institutions, as well as integrated into the American economy. Submit manuscripts to Richard K Caputo at caputo@yu.edu and Luisa S. Deprez at deprez@usm.maine.edu. Deadline: December 30, 2010. For more information, visit www.wmich.edu/hhs/newsletters_journals/jssw/index.htm.
Althouse on airlines’ carry on baggage fees
Somehow this matter has taken on an ideological dimension. The rather interesting post comments suggest that it probably has little to do with ideology notwithstanding legislative activity by Democrat members of congress to curtail such fees. Check it out here. For me it’s a fairly straightforward matter, but I’m not revealing what side I’m taking on this one — it’s just too divisive of an issue.
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Posted in Academia, Jeff, politics, Pop Culture, Uncategorized
Justin Wolfers on citing economists
On the Freakonomics blog, Justin Wolfers complains about the fact that economists do not get their work cited by other academics very much and then posits potential explanations. But first, the intro:
There’s no doubt in my mind that economics is currently the queen of the social sciences. Economists have invaded intellectual territory that was previously the exclusive domain of our friends in sociology, political science, criminology, geography and, to a degree, history. While the President regularly consults his Council of Economic Advisers, I’m not aware of him seeking the counsel of parallel councils of sociological, historical, or psychological advisers. (I will concede that he consults political advisers, although I suspect that they are only tenuously connected to scholarship in modern political science.) Popular discussion of economics trumps that of the other social sciences. Newsweek even declared economics “the sexiest trade alive.” Continue reading
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Posted in Academia, Jeff, Pop Culture
Wasserman on video evidence and civil rights
Howard Wasserman (Prawfs Blawg) has posted a paper to SSRN – “Orwell’s Vision: Video and the Future of Civil Rights Enforcment” (also available in Maryland Law Review). Here’s the abstract: Continue reading
How to Submit a Paper
Torn between the AJPS and JELS? Between the APSR and JOP? Can’t settle the QJPS vs. JLEO debate?
Never fear – we now have a model to sort out all those complicated choices. Says Heintzelman and Nocetti:
In this paper, we analyze the problem faced by impatient researchers attempting to balance the considerations of journal quality, submission lags, and acceptance probabilities in choosing appropriate outlets for their work. We first study the case in which probabilities of submission outcomes are exogenous parameters and show that authors can find the optimal submission path through the use of journal ’scores’ based only on the journals’ characteristics and the author’s degree of impatience. Then, we analyze a more realistic framework in which acceptance probability is determined by the quality of the manuscript, in which the reviewing process may be imperfect, and in which authors may not be certain of the manuscript’s quality. Throughout, we illustrate our analysis with data on actual economics journals. We also consider the problem of journals facing a large number of submissions, limited space, and limited resources to review papers and, in particular, we examine the relative effectiveness of using submission fees and reviewing lags to ration article submissions.
HT to Organizations and Markets.
New law school rankings
As set forth on TaxProf Blog — more available here on Leiter’s Rankings.
| School | Citations | U.S. News Peer | SSRN Downloads | Mean Rank |
| Yale | 1 | 1 | 5 | 2.3 |
| Harvard | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1.3 |
| Chicago | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3.3 |
| Stanford | 4 | 3 | 6 | 5.0 |
| NYU | 5 | 6 | 9 | 6.7 |
| Columbia | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4.7 |
| UC-Berkeley | 7 | 6 | 14 | 9.0 |
| Northwestern | 8 | 15 | 8 | 10.3 |
| UC-Irvine | 9 | NR | 51 | 30.0 |
| Vanderbilt | 10 | 17 | 13 | 13.3 |
| Cornell | 11 | 11 | 26 | 16.0 |
| Duke | 11 | 11 | 16 | 12.7 |
| Michigan | 11 | 8 | 19 | 12.7 |
| Penn | 14 | 9 | 12 | 11.7 |
| UCLA | 15 | 15 | 7 | 12.3 |
| Virginia | 16 | 9 | 22 | 15.7 |
| Texas | 17 | 13 | 10 | 13.3 |
| G. Washington | 18 | 20 | 2 | 13.3 |
| Minnesota | 18 | 20 | 18 | 18.7 |
| Georgetown | 20 | 13 | 15 | 16.0 |
| Arizona | 21 | 37 | 33 | 30.3 |
| Illinois | 21 | 25 | 11 | 19.0 |
| Emory | 23 | 20 | 36 | 26.3 |
| Florida State | 23 | 49 | 25 | 32.3 |
| UC-Davis | 23 | 25 | 44 | 30.7 |
‘Defenders of Liberty or Champions of Security’
You can find Kirk’s webpage here. Here’s some ad copy for his recently released book:
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent responses by the U.S. federal government have raised fundamental questions about civil liberties in both domestic and international laws. As a result, the U.S. judiciary, out of its responsibility for interpreting the Constitution, has assumed a crucial role in defining boundaries of domestic and foreign policy, and in balancing concerns about security with the protection of liberty. Utilizing a sophisticated blend of quantitative and qualitative analysis, Kirk A. Randazzo examines two main questions: To what extent do federal judges defend liberty or champion security when adjudicating disputes? And to what extent does the hierarchal structure of the federal judiciary influence decisions by lower court judges? There are, he argues, disturbing indications that the federal judiciary as a whole are not defenders of liberty. Furthermore, lower court judges strategically anticipate the decisions of higher courts and constrain their behavior to avoid reversal.
See more on the SUNY Press website.
Free market higher ed?
The NYTimes has an interesting story on trade schools – it is especially interesting in a time in which state higher education system are being criticized and have suffered at the hand of state legislatures. Here’s an excerpt:
At institutions that train students for careers in areas like health care, computers and food service, enrollments are soaring as people anxious about weak job prospects borrow aggressively to pay tuition that can exceed $30,000 a year.
But the profits have come at substantial taxpayer expense while often delivering dubious benefits to students, according to academics and advocates for greater oversight of financial aid. Critics say many schools exaggerate the value of their degree programs, selling young people on dreams of middle-class wages while setting them up for default on untenable debts, low-wage work and a struggle to avoid poverty. And the schools are harvesting growing federal student aid dollars, including Pell grants awarded to low-income students.
As an aside, I had no idea that trade schools charged that much for tuition. See the rest of the story here.
Higher education budget cuts in relative space
Tax Prof Blog has an interesting post on school budget cuts; here’s an excerpt:
- 32.6% of faculty had their salaries reduced, with a median decrease of 3%
- 21.2% of faculty had their salaries frozen
- 46.2% of faculty had their salaries increased, with a median increase of 3%
- 8.3% of administrators had their salaries reduced
CFP: Social Conflict and Simulation Methods
In the mail:
—————————————————————————————————
Call for Papers: Social Conflict and Social Simulation panel at World Congress on Social Simulation
—————————————————————————————————
We kindly invite you to submit a paper to the Special Interest Group Social Conflict and Social Simulation (SIG-SCSS) panel at the 2010 World Congress on Social Simulation (WCSS). As in the last two years we welcome papers that are thematically relevant to social conflict and social simulation in general. Papers will be double-blind peer-reviewed. Outstanding submissions will be selected to be published as a book chapter in the WCSS proceedings.We expect full papers to be submitted no later than 1 May 2010. Papers shall not exceed 8 pages in length. Detailed submission guidelines can be found on the WCSS 2010 website (http://www.usf.uni-kassel.de/wcss2010/guidelines.php). To indicate submission of your paper for this panel, check the ‘I.4 conflict and cooperation’-box when asked to chose your topic.
For questions please contact Nanda Wijermans (F.E.H.Wijermans@rug.nl)
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Posted in Academia, Andy, Conferences
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