THE CONSEQUENCES OF COSTLY DEFAULT

This paper investigates the consequences of assuming that default on loans or corporate debt is costly; that is, the act of default imposes a deadweight cost on the economy. The analysis deals with two simple capital market models. Conditions for capital market equilibrium nominal interest rates and probability of default to exist are given and the comparative statics of these equilibrium variables with respect to changes in expectations, productivity of investment, cost of default and riskless interest rates are examined. In many cases these comparative static results are unambiguous in sign.     

Synthetic-Fuel Plants: Potential Tumor Risks to Public Health

This article quantifies potential public health risks from tumor-producing pollutants emitted from two synthetic-fuel plants (direct liquefaction--Exxon Donor Solvent: and indirect liquefaction--Lurgi Fischer-Tropsch) located at a representative site in the eastern United States. In these analyses gaseous and aqueous waste streams were characterized; exposures via inhalation, terrestrial and aquatic food chains, and drinking water supplies were modeled. Analysis suggested that emissions of "polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons," "aromatic amines," "neutral N, O, S heterocyclics," "nitriles," and "other trace elements" pose the largest quantifiable risks to public health. Data and analysis for these pollutant categories should be refined to more accurately match compound-specific estimated exposure levels with tumorigenic potency estimates. Before these results are used for regulatory purposes, more detailed analysis for selected pollutant classes are needed, and more sophisticated aquatic exposure models must be developed. Also, differences in geographic scales among the environmental transport models used need to be rectified.     

Portfolio analysis and the product life cycle

This paper explains how the product life cycle and Boston Consulting Group's portfolio matrix can be combined to provide a more comprehensive framework for strategic analysis. The integrated model is more powerful than either concept taken separately because it provides an exhaustive system for classifying a diverse assortment of business units or product/market categories.     

The Spokane Tribe''s Multipathway Subsistence Exposure Scenario and Screening Level RME

Exposure scenarios are a critical part of risk assessment; however, representative scenarios are not generally available for tribal communities where a traditional subsistence lifestyle and diet are relevant and actively encouraged. This article presents portions of a multipathway exposure scenario developed by AESE, Inc. in conjunction with the Spokane Tribal Cultural Resources Program. The scenario serves as the basis for a screening-level reasonable maximum exposure (RME) developed for the Midnite Uranium Mine Superfund site. The process used in developing this scenario balances the need to characterize exposures without revealing proprietary information. The scenario and resulting RME reflect the subsistence use of original and existing natural resources by a hypothetical but representative family living on the reservation at or near the mine site. The representative family lives in a house in a sparsely populated conifer forest, tends a home garden, partakes in a high rate of subsistence activities (hunting, gathering, fishing), uses a sweat lodge daily, has a regular schedule of other cultural activities, and has members employed in outdoor monitoring of natural and cultural resources. The scenario includes two largely subsistence diets based on fish or game, both of which include native plants and home-grown produce. Data gaps and sources of uncertainty are identified. Additional information that risk assessors and agencies need to understand before doing any kind of risk assessment or public health assessment in tribal situations is presented.     

Viewpoint: A culture of despair: reflections on ‘post-modern’ architecture

The Modern Movement in architecture is dead: on this there is consensus from Right to Left. Anti-modernism, a cultural offshoot of anti-socialism, has become decidedly modish. There are, for us, two main strands to this ‘Post-Modern’ thinking – the populist and the patrician. Each, we argue, is a formalism, an elitist practice; above all, each is an avowed refusal of the emancipatory potential of modernism. Our critique of this resignation, this cultural despair, turns on an affirmation of early modernist practice; it turns on the proposition that the social content of design practice is the issue underpinning matters of aesthetic form.     

Settlement has many faces: physicians, attorneys and medical malpractice

We conduct an analysis of the jurisdictional dispute over the management of medical malpractice lawsuits, focusing on the process through which liability is defined. We utilize a North Carolina sample of physicians who have been sued, their defense counsel, and counsel for the plaintiff in the case. A comparison of the perspectives of these three parties reveals that over half of the physicians who settle perceive themselves as not liable. Defense counsel are more adept at predicting both negotiated resolutions and whether or not money will be paid than either plaintiffs' counsel or physicians. Almost two-thirds of physicians who thought they were not liable expressed a desire for vindication. Almost half the time when the physicians denied liability money was nonetheless paid to resolve the claim. Physician responses to the outcome of their cases focus on the need for reform, especially in terms of a call for peer or expert review. We identify and discuss culture conflict between law and medicine. For lawyers "settlement" is not a negative thing, but for physicians it implies fault. We challenge existing literature which analyzes the settlement of medical malpractice claims solely in terms of rational economic models, and we argue that social psychological variables are equally important.