Welcome to Jim Chen's SSRN abstracts. This is a human-friendly display of the RSS feedfor Dean Chen's official SSRN page (http://ssrn.com/author=68651), reorganized by reverse chronological order rather than number of downloads. To receive updates as Dean Chen posts new papers or updates old papers, please use the following form:
Progressive Taxation: An Aesthetic and Moral Defense, http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=1980731 (January 6, 2012)
The power to tax is at once the power to create and the power to destroy. If the United States government hopes to discharge its primary duty as creator and protector of its citizens' wealth, it must be willing to destroy wealth, from time to time, by redistributing it. More than any other tool, the means by which government finances and depletes its treasury affects the societal distribution of wealth. Differential taxation and targeted spending are the most significant and most effective mUpdate: Book Review - Soft Law and the Global Financial System: Rule-Making in the Twenty-First Century, http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=1944294 (December 22, 2011)
In Soft Law and the Global Financial System: Rule-Making in the Twenty-First Century (2011), Christopher J. Brummer provides a detailed and informative analysis of the international regulatory response to the global financial crisis of 2008. This accomplishment alone warrants a close look at this book. But Professor Brummer goes further in this pivotal work on the law of international finance. He provides a persuasive theoretical account of international financial law. Soft Law and the Globa
New PDF UploadedUpdate: A Degree of Practical Wisdom: The Ratio of Educational Debt to Income as a Basic Measurement of Law , http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=1967266 (December 22, 2011)
This article evaluates the economic viability of a student's decision to borrow money in order to attend law school. For individuals, firms, and entire nations, the ratio of debt to income serves as a measure of economic stability. The ease with which a student can carry and retire educational debt after graduation may be the simplest measure of educational return on investment. Mortgage lenders evaluate prospective borrowers' debt-to-income ratios. The spread between the front-end and back-
New PDF UploadedREVISION: Modern Disaster Theory: Evaluating Disaster Law as a Portfolio of Legal Rules, http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=1910669 (September 21, 2011)
Disaster law consists of a portfolio of legal rules for dealing with catastrophic risks. This essay takes preliminary steps toward modeling that metaphor in quantitative terms made familiar through modern portfolio theory. Modern disaster theory, by analogy to the foundational model of corporate finance, treats disaster law as the best portfolio of legal rules. Optimal legal preparedness for disaster consists of identifying, adopting, and maintaining that portfolio of rules at the frontier of ef