30 Jun 2008
Rounding Error and Information Quality:
The case of Exxon Shipping Co. v. Baker
by Richard Belzer
in Information Quality
Last week the Supreme Court reversed an appellate court opinion that would have imposed $2.5 billion in punitive damages resulting from the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. In the majority opinion written by Justice David Souter, the Court opined on a matter of maritime law for which there was neither a constitutional precedent nor operating law. The Court ruled that a 1:1 ratio of punitive to compensatory damages "is a fair upper limit in such maritime cases."
The Court obtained this ratio by conducting an ad hoc qualitative statistical analysis of trial court practice, which yielded a ratio of 0.65:1, then rounding up to 1:1. It is instructive to note the practical financial significance of the arcane information quality issue of significant figures (see here and here). More...
2 Jan 2008
What Are Judges Worth? Part 2008
Chief Justice Roberts still fails economics but may yet win his case
by Richard Belzer
in Regulatory Economics
A
year ago we posted notes here
and here
on Chief Justice John Roberts' state of the judiciary report for 2007,
in which he bemoaned federal judges' low salaries and warned of a
"constitutional crisis" if salaries were not increased. We were not
competent to offer informed insight on CJ Roberts' legal claim, but we
were able to quickly dispense with his economic arguments. Taking his
own data at face value, we were able to show that his argument lacked
any merit.
The Chief Justice is back with his report
for 2008, and he recycles the same complaints about low judicial
salaries. What's different this year is that the Congressional
Research Service has analyzed the data more carefully than CJ Roberts
did, and found that Roberts' conclusions were not empirically
supported. In this year's report, Roberts' ignores the CRS study,
dropped the economic privation argument he made last year, and adopted
the all-purpose defense used by weak claimants: he divided the cost of
his proposal by the largest imaginable denominator. More...
19 Oct 2007
DHS' "No-Match Rule" Stopped by Preliminary Injunction:
The Regulatory Flexibility Act and illegal aliens
by Richard Belzer
in Information Quality, Litigation, Regulatory Policy
On October 10, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer issued a preliminary injunction barring the Department of Homeland Security from implementing a regulation it issued in August that tightened up existing practice in the enforcement of 1986 federal immigration law. The case provides a lesson in administrative procedure -- particularly, how an agency's failure to take obscure procedures seriously can backfire. More...
22 Jun 2007
What Is a Firm?
Economics reasoning in shareholder securities fraud suits
by Richard Belzer
in Regulatory Economics
The U.S. Supreme Court decided on June 21 that under federal law governing shareholder suits alleging securities fraud (Tellabs v. Makor Issues and Rights), "an inference of scienter must be more than merely plausible or reasonable—it must be cogent and at least as compelling as any opposing inference of non fraudulent intent." Newspaper commentary on the case correctly suggests that this will make shareholder suits more difficult. However, other aspects of economic reasoning in these stories has been woefully lacking.
Exhibit A is Stephen Labaton's Page One article in the New York Times. More...
17 Jan 2007
Conflict of Interest, Bias, and Mold
Challenging the Wall Street Journal
by Richard Belzer
in Litigation, Regulatory Science
On January 9, Wall Street Journal reporter David Armstrong published a long Page One article alleging that a position paper on the health effects of mold published by the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine suffered from bias and conflict of interest.
Today, ACOEM president Tee Guidotti responded to some of Armstrong's allegations.
More...9 Jan 2007
Senate Approves Cost of Living Raises for Judges
COLAs are delinked from congressional salaries
by Richard Belzer
in Regulatory Economics
On January 8, the Senate voted to de-link cost of living adjustments (COLAs) of judges from the pay received by Members of Congress. It is not clear whether this action was taken in response to Chief Justice John Roberts' recent complaint about declining judicial salaries, which are statutorily linked to salaries of Members of Congress.
Whether judicial salaries continue to be linked to Members of Congress, or are (as Roberts prefers) linked in some fashion to salaries in the competitive market for equally capable attorneys, there will be important incentive effects in the judicial labor market. Failing to consider these incentive effects carefully guarantees unintended consequences.
More...
3 Jan 2007
What Are Judges Worth? Part 2:
CJ Roberts' 2006 recycles economic claims from his 2005 report
by Richard Belzer
in Regulatory Economics
Yesterday we posted an extensive analysis of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts' claim that federal judges are underpaid. This morning we discovered that he made the same claim in his 2005 year-end report, and used almost identical language. More...
2 Jan 2007
What Are Judges Worth?
How good an economist is Chief Justice Roberts?
by Richard Belzer
in Regulatory Economics
In his 2006 report on the state of the federal judiciary, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts says salaries for federal judges are too low and calls on Congress to increase them. He writes that "the issue has been ignored far too long and has now reached the level of a constitutional crisis that threatens to undermine the strength and independence of the federal judiciary."
We analyze CJ Roberts' data and arguments. More...
15 Mar 2006
Welcome to the Neutral Source Blog
by Richard Belzer
in Corrections, Events, Glossary, Information Quality, Legislation, Litigation, Peer Review, People & Institutions, Regulatory Economics, Regulatory Policy, Regulatory Science, Welcome
Neutral Source opened for business on the Ides of March 2006. More...
