What is modal logic

Modern interest in modal logic began with this seminal work by the American C.I. Lewis. As well as developing a theory of strict implication based on criticism of Russell and Whitebread's concept of implication, it contains historical information on the history and application of algebra to developments in symbolic logic.

A Survey of Symbolic Logic.

Productivity Trends in the United States.

Foundations of Economic Analysis of Law, by Steven Shavell, 2004, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 737 pages Steven Shavell has contributed to the foundations of economic analysis of law in different manners According to Posner (2006), he is a member of the third generation of economic analysts of law-Coase, Becker, and Calabresi being the first group, with Posner himself, Landes, and Ehrlich forming the second Shavell has published several books and more than 100 articles on economics and on the economics of law He has contributed to the principal-agent theory (Shavell, 1979b) and, more particularly, to the moral hazard literature (Shavell, 1979a) This book proposes an overview of the fields in the economics of law to which the author has contributed It also covers in detail other fields and many contributions to the literature The emphasis is on theory, but some empirical facts are mentioned The book has twenty-nine chapters in seven parts or sections, a comprehensive list of references (786 references in the References section of the book), and two indexes (authors and subjects) It covers many subjects related to the economic analysis of basic law Particular attention is devoted to the positive analysis of law, although the normative aspect is also well covered The book is addressed to two broad audiences: economists and individuals interested in law with no formal background in economics There is no formal economic analysis in the text (but formal models are sometimes sketched in footnotes) and no detailed discussion of legal doctrine The subjects covered are important for any legal system: laws related to property, accidents, contracts, crimes, and their litigation process Specialized subjects such as labor, bankruptcy, or environmental law are not covered However, for the readers of the Journal of Risk and Insurance, accident law is discussed in detail (one section including five chapters that will be analyzed below) Chapter 1, the introduction to the book, presents the author's basic philosophy with regard to the economics of law He first distinguishes the positive analysis of the economics of law from its normative analysis Using his example for automobile accidents, the positive analysis is concerned with how a liability system affects accidents and litigation expenses, whereas the normative analysis looks at the social desirability of a liability system Two standard and important assumptions are made for the normative analysis First, the normative analysis does not take any of the distributive aspects into account; this is left to the income tax system and other transfer mechanisms Second, the notions of fairness and morality are not integrated in the analysis, although a significant effort is made to do so in part seven of the book The first four parts of the book treat areas related to private law: property law, liability for accidents, contract law, and civil litigation They are called private because they are enforced by the activities or suits of private parties The first of the four parts is devoted to property law Chapter 2 covers the rationale of ownership and the emergence of property rights The chapter defines concepts that are not often discussed in the standard economic literature For example, the author treats property rights, their justification, and their emergence Property rights are themselves divided into two types of rights: possessory rights and transfer rights The justification of property rights is mainly related to incentives: incentives to work, incentives to maintain and improve things, and incentives to transfer things Their emergence occurs when the advantages are greater than the costs of instituting and maintaining them Chapter 3 is devoted to the division of property rights while chapter 4 discusses, in detail, the acquisition and transfer of property rights, including transfer after death Chapter 5 concerns the issues of conflict and cooperation associated with the use of property rights …

Foundations of Economic Analysis of Law

The Ricardian equivalence

Boundary algebra ( BA ) consists of Spencer Brown's [ Laws of Form , 1969 (Allen & Unwin, London)] primary arithmetic ( PA ) and primary algebra ( pa ), restated here in a more convenient notation. The PA consists of an ordered set B ={( ),  =(( ))} of primitive values cum atomic formulae, formulae generated recursively by enclosure between '(' and ')' and juxtaposition, logical equivalence denoted by '=', and the axioms ( )( )=( )=  ( )=(  )=( )  , (( ))=  =   . Inserting variables with domain B into a PA formula yields a pa formula. The pa is a d B ,(·)·, B ¢ algebra of type d 2,0,0 ¢ , whose [ pa , calculus of truth values (CTV), dual CTV, Boolean] intended interpretations are: [( ), T , F ,1], [  , F , T ,0], [ ab , a  b , a # b , a ? b ], [ ( a ),¬ a , ¬ a , a ' ], and [( a ) b , a M b ,¬( b M a ), a h b ]. The pa is thus a bracket-free notation for the Boolean algebra 2 and CTV, embodying the expressive adequacy of {  / # ,¬} and { M ,¬/ F } . ( a ) a =( v ) a =( v ) and abc = bca form a b...

Discovering boundary algebra: A simple notation for Boolean algebra and the truth functors

From estimates of a modified life-cycle consumer expenditure function (LCF), Feldstein (1996) concluded that Social Security old age benefits reduced 1992 private saving by more than $400 billion. ...

http://www.ntanet.org/NTJ/51/2/ntj-v51n02p339-58-comment-social-security-private.pdf

Comment: social security and private savings

This paper uses bargaining dynamics, administrative politics, and agency theory to examine financial outcomes from New Zealand land reform. Results are inconsistent with payments arising from a bargain in which both the Crown and lessee advocate to their full potential, and are instead consistent with the Crown backing down to lessees' desires for a generous deal. This back-down stems either from "bureaucratic coping," or from the addition of a bureaucratic middleman between the Crown principal and its negotiator subagent, exacerbating the principal-agent problem.

Closing the Deal: Principals, Agents, and Subagents in New Zealand Land Reform

Feldstein (1996, 1974) reported that Social Security in the U.S.A. reduced personal saving (“saving”) in 1992 (1971) by $416 ($61) billion. I reestimate his life-cycle consumption specification using data from the latest NIPA revision, correct his calculations, and find that the implied reduction in 1992 (1971) saving is now $280 ($22) billion, 48% (16%) of actual net private saving, with a standard error of $114 ($14) billion. If structural breaks around WWII and the 1972 Social Security amendments (which raised real per capita SSW by 22%) are allowed, and the market value of Treasury debt included in the specification, the reduction in 1971 and 1992 saving attributable to Social Security is at most 0.55 times its standard error, and 12% of net private saving. I then reestimate the preferred specification of Coates and Humphreys (1999), allowing for these structural breaks and relaxing other restrictions. The implied effect of Social Security on saving is again statistically zero.

Social Security and personal saving: 1971 and beyond

Under ‘tenure review', a New Zealand pastoral lessee surrenders part of his leasehold to conservation and acquires a freehold interest in the remainder. Since 1992, 28 new freeholders paid the Crown $6.9 million for freehold rights to 101,752 ha, then sold 46% of that land for $135.7 million. We model tenure review as a sequential real option – first to acquire freehold, then to sell all or part of the new freehold. We find little evidence that the Crown accounted for the latter option value when negotiating tenure review, and conclude that the capital gains enjoyed by former lessees are rents.

/pdf/does-tenure-review-in-new-zealand-s-south-island-give-rise-54x2n671sz.pdf

Philip Meguire

Papers

Discovering boundary algebra: A simple notation for Boolean algebra and the truth functors

Comment: social security and private savings

Closing the Deal: Principals, Agents, and Subagents in New Zealand Land Reform

Social Security and personal saving: 1971 and beyond

Does tenure review in New Zealand's South Island give rise to rents?