The Reverse of the Reverse: The Anti-Rightist Campaign

The Anti-Rightist Campaign continued, claiming more than half a million victims, and it was a close call for Yuan-tsung. She witnessed the fall of her immediate boss, Director Wang, at his heartbreaking last meeting with his little daughter, Oriole. She also witnessed the fall of Zeng Zhaolun and the destruction of the Democratic League, the influential “third-way” party of which Zeng was a founding member. Zeng’s wife Yu Dayin, Yuan-tsung’s best friend, was a collateral victim. It broke both her heart and her spirit to see her husband being taken away. The tragedies happening around Yuan-tsung made her think she would not be spared, but at this juncture she reunited with her ex-lover, Jack, who came back from a trip on the Silk Road.

An exploration of Menzerath's law in wild mountain gorilla vocal sequences

Menzerath's law, traditionally framed as a negative relationship between the size of a structure and its constituent parts (e.g. sentences with more clauses have shorter clauses), is widespread across information-coding systems ranging from human language and the vocal and gestural sequences of primates and birds, to the building blocks of DNA, genes and proteins. Here, we analysed an extensive dataset of ‘close-call' sequences produced by wild mountain gorillas ( Gorilla beringei beringei , no. individuals = 10, no. sequences = 2189) to determine whether, in accordance with Menzerath's law, a negative relationship existed between the number of vocal units in a sequence and the duration of its constituent units. We initially found positive evidence for this but, on closer inspection, the negative relationship was driven entirely by the difference between single- and multi-unit (two to six unit) sequences. Once single-unit sequences were excluded from the analysis, we identified a relationship in the opposite direction, with longer sequences generally composed of longer units. The close-call sequences of mountain gorillas therefore represent an intriguing example of a non-human vocal system that only partially conforms to the predictions of Menzerath's law.

Hard Marriage with Heavy Burdens: Organized Labor as Takeover Deterrents

We examine how labor power affects a firm’s takeover exposure and merger gains. Using a regression discontinuity design that relies on “locally” exogenous variation in labor power generated by close-call union elections, we find that increased labor power significantly reduces a firm’s takeover exposure, reduces target offer premium and announcement returns, and prolongs deal completion duration. The results are stronger for more powerful and conflict-provoking unions. Bidders of unionized targets are experienced, are tough negotiators, and face fewer union threats by themselves. Our paper provides new insights into the real effects of shareholder-employee conflict regarding the market for corporate control. (JEL G34, G30, J51) Received: February 9, 2019; editorial decision January 15, 2020 by Editor Isil Erel. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix, which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online.