This paper proposes a test of racial bias in capital sentencing based upon patterns of judicial errors in lower courts. We model the behavior of the trial court as minimizing a weighted sum of type I and type II errors, namely the probability of sentencing an innocent and that of letting a guilty defendant free. We define racial bias as a situation where the relative weight on the two types of ...

While several studies examine the effect of marriage market conditions on post-marital labor supply, few account for the effect of these conditions on pre-marital investment decisions and mate selection. This paper investigates theoretically and empirically how changes in marriage market conditions affect pre-marital investments. I first show how a change in the sex ratio – that is, the ratio o...

INTRODUCTION Today, more than ever, there is an increasing need for non-lethal methods to effectively control crop depredation by birds. One such method, involving the use of fear-provoking stimuli, has been used since ancient times but often with little success. If fear-provoking stimuli are to be improved, we must identify those features that are most effective and incorporate these into scar...

BACKGROUND This research was performed in an area belonging to the province of the city of Bologna (Emilia-Romagna region, Northern Italy). The purpose of the present survey was to record the local knowledge concerning traditional uses of wild food plants and related practices, such as gathering, processing, cooking, therapeutic uses, with the aim of preserving an important part of the local cu...

L Stebbins, born January 6, 1906, was deeply fond of nature all his life, starting with his experiences around Seal Harbor, Maine, when he was 4 years old. While he was still young, his mother contracted tuberculosis, and the family moved west to find a more healthy climate for her, first in Pasadena, then in Colorado Springs. An important formative period of Ledyard’s life was spent at Cate Sc...