The capacity of river mouths to reduce storm surge water levels upstream, referred to as along-estuary attenuation, has been assessed by several studies. The coastal protection function of semi-enclosed water bodies such as lagoons and channels with narrow inlets remains less explored and generalization is hampered by differences in morphology and hydrodynamic forcing. Here we use a hydrodynamic model to investigate surge attenuation along a microtidal channel with a narrow inlet at the Baltic Sea coast of Germany called The Schlei. We quantify the importance of wind and the contribution of the barrier spit system, which is constricting the inlet, to the reduction of water levels at the landward end of the channel. In addition, we explore the role of dikes in the region for the reduction of peak water levels and coastal flooding. We find effective along-channel attenuation inside The Schlei in its current state, which is mostly a result of the channel’s narrows. However, reduction rates decrease under simplified sea-level rise scenarios. Furthermore, along-channel attenuation is highly variable and can change to substantial amplification depending on hydrometeorological forcing. The barrier spit contributes to along-channel attenuation whereas the effect of existing dikes (or their removal) for along-channel attenuation is negligible.

Across Latin American countries, there is remarkable heterogeneity in abortion legislation, ranging from full prohibition to legal elective abortion.1 However, abortion policy does not seem to clearly map onto implementation on the ground. On the one hand, even in countries with very restrictive abortion laws, (clandestine) abortion rates are comparatively high, and legislation that criminalizes abortion is rarely enforced (Blofield 2006; Htun 2003). On the other hand, in countries that allow abortion under all or some circumstances, access to abortion is not guaranteed. In Argentina, for instance, different reports have stressed the difficulty in accessing abortion procedures both before and after legalization was enacted in early 2021.2

The behaviour of mountain glaciers on decadal time scales is a useful indicator for assessing climate change. Although less monitored and studied than the ice sheet, local glaciers and ice caps along the coast of Greenland are substantial contributors to meltwater runoff and sea level rise. This study analyses the cumulative area, ice mass and Equilibrium Line Altitude (ELA) change that occurred on 4100 glaciers and ice caps in West Greenland from 1985 to approximately 2020, using remotely sensed data and including glaciers smaller than 1 km2 in the calculations. The glaciers involved in the study decreased in area by 1774 ± 229 km2 which corresponds to almost −15%. Their surface elevation decreased on average by 20.6 ± 3.9 m, corresponding to a rate of −0.5 ± 0.1 m w.e. a−1. The ELA shows a median regional rise of 150 m with marked local variability and higher median rise in the northern part of the study area. Strong regional gradients in ELA of individual glaciers are found, both towards the ice sheet and in areas where local orography affects precipitation. The observed high spatial variability of changes suggests that more monitoring on sub-regional level is needed.

Many real-world intertemporal decisions involve a group of two or more individuals making consensual decisions through group collaboration. Here, we ask how group collaboration affects intertemporal choices. In two experiments, participants completed intertemporal choices individually first (the precollaboration phase). Then, participants were placed into groups of two or three and completed a similar intertemporal task, with the group arriving at a consensual decision on each trial (the group collaboration phase). Finally, participants once again completed the intertemporal choices individually (the postcollaboration phase). Results showed that after group collaboration, the delay discounting significantly decreased compared to before collaboration both at group level and at individual level. The effect of group collaboration on individual intertemporal choices was no longer discernible by 1 week later. Therefore, the current research demonstrates the effectiveness of group collaboration and provides a way to nudge both groups and individuals to make farsighted choices.

This article examines recent measures undertaken by major commercial banks to mitigate and address human rights risks associated with their financial dealings in the arms industry. By reviewing the corporate policies of 20 leading banks that provide financing to top arms manufacturing and exporting companies, the article provides insights into three significant aspects of banks’ efforts: the development of defence sector policies, the implementation of risk assessments for adverse human rights impacts, and the application of exclusion clauses. These measures highlight the increasing recognition by banks of the need to address the ethical, social and human rights implications of financing arms deals, contributing to the broader regulatory and normative framework governing the arms industry.

New limit theory is provided for a wide class of sample variance and covariance functionals involving both nonstationary and stationary time series. Sample functionals of this type commonly appear in regression applications and the asymptotics are particularly relevant to estimation and inference in nonlinear nonstationary regressions that involve unit root, local unit root, or fractional processes. The limit theory is unusually general in that it covers both parametric and nonparametric regressions. Self-normalized versions of these statistics are considered that are useful in inference. Numerical evidence reveals interesting strong bimodality in the finite sample distributions of conventional self-normalized statistics similar to the bimodality that can arise in t-ratio statistics based on heavy tailed data. Bimodal behavior in these statistics is due to the presence of long memory innovations and is shown to persist for very large sample sizes even though the limit theory is Gaussian when the long memory innovations are stationary. Bimodality is shown to occur even in the limit theory when the long memory innovations are nonstationary. To address these complications, new self-normalized versions of the test statistics are introduced that deliver improved approximations that can be used for inference.

According to conventional wisdom, a great power engaging in international retrenchment regularly incurs tremendous costs. Following its withdrawal from a commitment abroad, the argument goes, windows of opportunity emerge that rivals exploit to their benefit, thus imposing significant costs on the retrenching great power. I argue that pundits and policymakers consistently overestimate the dangers associated with strategic withdrawals: great powers can – and in the past frequently have – successfully engaged in international retrenchment without creating opportunities for their rivals to gain significant strategic benefits. To make this case, I develop a new typology of international retrenchment strategies based on the kind and degree of disengagement they entail and demonstrate that most types do not regularly pave the way for rival gains. I support my argument through a series of plausibility probes: the Soviet retrenchment from Romania in the 1950s; the US retrenchment from Korea in the 1970s; and the US retrenchment from Western Europe in the 1990s.

This article compares China’s stance during the UNCLOS negotiations – the starting point of contemporary law of the sea, with its engagement in the latest development of negotiations on the United Nations agreement on biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ). It answers the question, how does China participate in these two important rules-making processes of the international law of the sea? By identifying salient positions China took in each set of lengthy negotiations and explaining the reasons behind, the article also aims to reflect what a rising China may bring to the international legal maritime order in the foreseeable future. The first part of this article, on the nature of China’s engagement in the UNCLOS negotiations, draws on archival study of official records of the UNCLOS III (1973–1982), as has been digitalized by the UN Office of Legal Affairs. The second part examines the period between the adoption of the UNCLOS (1982) and the start of the BBNJ process (2004), paying attention to China’s shifting practice towards the exploration and exploitation of the deep seabed mineral resources, and its concerns over the ratification of the UNCLOS and the 1995 FSA. Then the article focuses on China in the BBNJ negotiations – Working Groups, Preparatory Committee Meetings and Intergovernmental Conferences. Drawing upon the evolution of China’s positions over the past five decades, the article concludes with some insights on the likely future directions and implications of China’s engagement with the international law of the sea.

The main theories explaining electoral backlash against immigration focus on citizens’ cultural, economic, and security concerns. We test these predictions in Switzerland, which opened its labor market to neighboring countries in the 2000s. Employing a difference-in-differences design, we document a substantial rise in immigrant workers in Swiss border municipalities after the border opened. This was accompanied by a 6-percentage-point (95% confidence interval 2–10) increase in support for anti-immigrant parties, equivalent to a 32% rise at the mean. However, we find no adverse effects on citizens’ employment, wages, or subjective perceptions of economic, cultural, or security threats. Instead, we describe how far-right parties introduced novel narratives related to overcrowding to advance hostility toward immigrants. We provide evidence that this rhetoric targeted border municipalities, where it had the greatest impact on voters susceptible to political persuasion. Together, these findings suggest that elites can play a role in driving anti-immigrant votes.

Dualism holds that experiences and physical states are distinct in that neither sort of state is identical with or grounded in the other. Cognitive phenomenal realism holds that cognitive experiences are irreducible to sensory experiences. While dualism and cognitive phenomenal realism are logically orthogonal and usually discussed separately, I argue that dualism’s plausibility is sensitive to whether cognitive phenomenal realism is true. In particular, I argue that if cognitive phenomenal realism is true, then it bolsters the case for dualism via a cognitive knowledge argument that has several advantages over the standard sensory knowledge argument.

In this paper, we provide a theoretical framework justifying the existence of a correlation risk premium in a market with two traded assets. We prove that risk-neutral dependence can differ substantially from real-world dependence by characterizing the set of risk-neutral martingale measures. This implies that implied correlation can be significantly different with the realized correlation. Depending on the choice of the market regarding the pricing measure, implied correlation can be high or low. We label the difference between risk-neutral and real-world correlation the “correlation gap” and make the connection with correlation risk premium. We show how dispersion trading can be used to exploit this correlation gap and demonstrate how there can exist a negative correlation risk premium in the financial market.

Nozick’s ‘utility monster’ is often regarded as impossible, because one life cannot be better than a large number of other lives. Against that view, I propose a purely marginalist account of utility monster defining the monster by a higher sensitivity of well-being to resources (instead of a larger total well-being), and I introduce the concept of collective utility monster to account for resource predation by a group. Since longevity strengthens the sensitivity of well-being to resources, large groups of long-lived persons may, if their longevity advantage is sufficiently strong, fall under the concept of collective utility monster, against moral intuition.