The aim of the present study was to perform comprehensive prenatal diagnosis using various detection techniques on a fetus in a high‑risk pregnant woman, and to provide genetic counseling for the patient and her family so as to avoid birth defects. The routine karyotype analysis via amniocentesis, fluorescence in situ hybridization, and whole genome microarray technique were performed for the p...

We consider a pollution permits market in which there are a large polluting firm plays and a fringe of competitive firms. To smooth compliance towards the longrun emissions goal, firms are initially allocated a stock (i.e., bank) of permits to be gradually consumed. We first show how the large firm can credibly manipulate the spot market in subgame-perfect equilibrium. Motivated by features obs...

Regulatory agencies frequently present violators with warnings, not pursuing prosecution if the violation ceases upon receipt of the warning. We show how such warnings may help regulators to keep control: Prosecution is costly for the regulator, and insufficient prosecution efforts yield low penalties. Thus, with a limited regulatory budget, threats of harsh sanctions are credible only if the n...

Regional councils manage United States fisheries. Fishermen can participate in fisheries managed by multiple councils, and effort controls in one region could lead to effort leakage into another. Theoretical modeling demonstrates that positive, negative, and no leakage are possible. Using difference-in-differences, we test for leakage across regional boundaries for a catch share program in New ...

There are two principal choices of the baseline from which emissions trading may take place: 1) emission reduction credits (ERCs) in which the baseline is existing regulations which are often activitybased; and 2) cap-and-trade which specified the total allowable emissions. This paper examines the effects of these two tradable permit systems on marginal and average costs for the firm, using ele...

The literature argues that income growth leads to increased demand for environmental quality and thus reduction in pollution. Using a utility theoretic model, we hypothesize that the income±pollution relationship should depend on the level of disamenity of the pollutant. We proxy for disamenity using the toxicity of releases. For counties in the United States, the functional relationship betwee...

We extend a Kalman filter model for count data to reflect observations irregularly spaced in time. The model is applied to estimate risk of rare events; bycatch of endangered leatherback turtles in a swordfish fishery off Oregon and California. Incidental takes of turtles are modeled as a Poisson process. The results suggest that take risk is better estimated by regarding the entire history of ...

Non-strategic firms with rational expectations make investment and emissions decisions. The investment rule depends on firms’ beliefs about future emissions policies. We compare emissions taxes and quotas when the (strategic) regulator and (nonstrategic) firms have asymmetric information about abatement costs, and all agents use Markov Perfect decision rules. Emissions taxes create a secondary ...