Stanford University

Automated Repression

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This seminar will present the first evidence of systematic ethnic discrimination in Artificial Intelligence (AI) used to assist judges in criminal sentencing. Using audit experiments on a commercial criminal sentencing software, we find that AI predicts longer sentences for defendants with ethnic minority status and names that convey minority cues. The magnitude of discrimination is similar to existing findings from sentencing decisions of judges. Additionally, we find that AI may introduce new forms of discrimination not seen in human judgment.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
 

Eddie Yang is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at UC San Diego and a predoctoral fellow at CDDRL and the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. His research focuses on repression and the politics of Artificial Intelligence. His dissertation studies how existing repressive institutions limit the usefulness of AI for authoritarian control, with a focus on China. His work has been published in both computer science and political science. 

Virtual to Public. Only those with an active Stanford ID with access to E008 in Encina Hall may attend in person.

Didi Kuo

Virtual to Public. Only those with an active Stanford ID with access to E008 in Encina Hall may attend in person.

Eddie Yang

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CDDRL/HAI Predoctoral Scholar, 2022-2023

Eddie Yang is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at UC San Diego. His research focuses on repression and the politics of Artificial Intelligence. His dissertation studies how existing repressive institutions limit the usefulness of AI for authoritarian control, with a focus on China. His work has been published in both computer science and political science. 

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CDDRL/HAI Predoctoral Scholar, 2022-2023
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The Representation Trap: How and Why Muslims Struggle to Maintain Power in India

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The Representation Trap: How and Why Muslims Struggle to Maintain Power in India

Challenging the conventional wisdom that power begets power, this paper argues that political gains for marginalized groups can create the very conditions for their political demise. When a marginalized group comes to power without institutional protections such as quotas or reservations, it can divide the marginalized group and unite the dominant group. I study this process, which I call the representation trap, in the context of one of the largest marginalized groups in the world's largest democracy: Indian Muslims. While India has made strides toward the political inclusion of many marginalized groups, Muslims stand in stark contrast, experiencing poor political representation, low socioeconomic status, and communal violence.

Using a regression discontinuity design, I find that a Muslim political win leads to an almost 30 percent lower likelihood of subsequent Muslim victory. I document the mechanisms for marginalized group divisions and dominant group consolidation through additional election analyses, experimental evidence from an original, in-person survey of about 5000 Muslim and Hindu voters, and qualitative evidence drawing on about 150 elite and voter interviews. Taken together, the theory and findings challenge the perspective that representation necessarily catalyzes the political empowerment of marginalized groups.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
 

Feyaad Allie
Feyaad Allie is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Stanford University and a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. His dissertation project examines the sustained exclusion of marginalized groups in multi-ethnic democracies with a focus on one of the largest marginalized groups in the world’s largest democracy: Indian Muslims. This work identifies how dominant group consolidation and marginalized group divisions contribute to poor political outcomes for Muslims in India. In other ongoing research, Feyaad studies majority-minority relations and the intersection of technology and politics. At Stanford, Feyaad is affiliated with the Immigration Policy Lab and the Abbasi Program for Islamic Studies. His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the King Center on Global Development, and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL). Prior to graduate school, Feyaad worked on an international development project in Nairobi, Kenya, and received his B.A. in Government from Dartmouth College. 

Virtual to Public. Only those with an active Stanford ID with access to E008 in Encina Hall may attend in person.

Didi Kuo

Virtual to Public. Only those with an active Stanford ID with access to E008 in Encina Hall may attend in person.

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Struggles for Political Change in the Arab World

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Struggles for Political Change in the Arab World seminar

Lisa Blaydes and Hesham Sallam join CDDRL to discuss their new edited volume, Struggles for Political Change in the Arab World: Regimes, Oppositions, and External Actors after the Spring (University of Michigan Press, 2022).

The advent of the Arab Spring in late 2010 was a hopeful moment for partisans of progressive change throughout the Arab world. Authoritarian leaders who had long stood in the way of meaningful political reform in the countries of the region were either ousted or faced the possibility of political if not physical demise. The downfall of long-standing dictators as they faced off with strong-willed protesters was a clear sign that democratic change was within reach. Throughout the last ten years, however, the Arab world has witnessed authoritarian regimes regaining resilience, pro-democracy movements losing momentum, and struggles between the first and the latter involving regional and international powers.

This volume explains how relevant political players in Arab countries among regimes, opposition movements, and external actors have adapted ten years after the onset of the Arab Spring. It includes contributions on Egypt, Morocco, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Algeria, Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen, and Tunisia. It also features studies on the respective roles of the United States, China, Iran, and Turkey vis-à-vis questions of political change and stability in the Arab region, and includes a study analyzing the role of Saudi Arabia and its allies in subverting revolutionary movements in other countries.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Lisa Blaydes
Lisa Blaydes is Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. She is the author of Elections and Distributive Politics in Mubarak’s Egypt (Cambridge University Press, 2011) and State of Repression: Iraq under Saddam Hussein (Princeton University Press, 2018).

Hesham Sallam
Hesham Sallam is a research scholar at Stanford’s Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) and serves as the associate director of the Program on Arab Reform and Democracy. He is also a co-editor of Jadaliyya ezine and serves on the Editorial Committee of Middle East Report. His research focuses on Islamist movements and the politics of economic reform in the Arab World. He is the author of Classless Politics: Islamist Movements, the Left, and Authoritarian Legacies in Egypt (Columbia University Press, 2022), co-editor of Struggles for Political Change in the Arab World (University of Michigan Press, 2022), and editor of Egypt’s Parliamentary Elections 2011-2012: A Critical Guide to a Changing Political Arena (Tadween Publishing, 2013).

Virtual to Public. Only those with an active Stanford ID with access to E008 in Encina Hall may attend in person.

Didi Kuo

Virtual to Public. Only those with an active Stanford ID with access to E008 in Encina Hall may attend in person.

Lisa Blaydes

Encina Hall West, Room 408
Stanford, CA 94305-6044

(650) 723-0649
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Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies
Professor of Political Science
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Lisa Blaydes is a Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. She is the author of State of Repression: Iraq under Saddam Hussein (Princeton University Press, 2018) and Elections and Distributive Politics in Mubarak’s Egypt (Cambridge University Press, 2011). Professor Blaydes received the 2009 Gabriel Almond Award for best dissertation in the field of comparative politics from the American Political Science Association for this project.  Her articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review, International Studies Quarterly, International Organization, Journal of Theoretical Politics, Middle East Journal, and World Politics. During the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 academic years, Professor Blaydes was an Academy Scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. She holds degrees in Political Science (PhD) from the University of California, Los Angeles, and International Relations (BA, MA) from Johns Hopkins University.

 

Affiliated faculty at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
Affiliated faculty at the Center for International Security and Cooperation
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Hesham Sallam

Encina Hall, E105
616 Jane Stanford Way
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

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Senior Research Scholar
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Hesham Sallam is a Senior Research Scholar at CDDRL, where he serves as Associate Director for Research. He is also Associate Director of the Program on Arab Reform and Development. Sallam is co-editor of Jadaliyya ezine and a former program specialist at the U.S. Institute of Peace. His research focuses on political and social development in the Arab World. Sallam’s research has previously received the support of the Social Science Research Council and the U.S. Institute of Peace. He is author of Classless Politics: Islamist Movements, the Left, and Authoritarian Legacies in Egypt (Columbia University Press, 2022), co-editor of Struggles for Political Change in the Arab World (University of Michigan Press, 2022), and editor of Egypt's Parliamentary Elections 2011-2012: A Critical Guide to a Changing Political Arena (Tadween Publishing, 2013). Sallam received a Ph.D. in Government (2015) and an M.A. in Arab Studies (2006) from Georgetown University, and a B.A. in Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh (2003).

 

Associate Director for Research, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law
Associate Director, Program on Arab Reform and Development
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Global Health Economics, China, & the Science of Health Care Delivery in the Digital Age

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Global Health Economics, China, & the Science of Health Care Delivery in the Digital Age


Advances in artificial intelligence, use of "big data", digital platforms enabling mass collaboration, automation, the "internet-of-things" and other so-called "4th Industrial Revolution" (4IR) technologies are enabling a radical shift in how healthcare is delivered. Few places are attempting to integrate these technologies into healthcare as rapidly as China. This talk will discuss China's comparative advantage in the adoption of these technologies and lay out a research agenda for the economics of digital health. While these technologies bring potential to produce massive improvements in access to high-quality care and lower costs, this result is far from certain. Beyond mere technical uncertainty, 4IR technologies are likely to produce profound changes in healthcare markets by altering the nature of incentives in the health system and relationships between patients, providers, payers. Evidence on these issues is needed to inform policy and regulation aiming to maximize social value and mitigate unintended consequences. Specific applications will be drawn from online research in China and other middle-income countries.

About the Speaker

Sean Sylvia headshot.

Sean Sylvia is an Assistant Professor of health economics at UNC. His primary research interest is in the delivery of healthcare in China and other middle-income countries. Working with multidisciplinary teams of collaborators, he conducts large-scale population-based surveys and randomized trials to develop and test new approaches to provide healthcare to the poor and marginalized. His recent work focuses on the use of information technology to expand access to quality healthcare. 


For more information, please visit his personal website.

This event will be held in-person at Stanford University, masks are not required but strongly encouraged.

Questions? Contact sccei-communications@stanford.edu

 

Philippines Room, C330, Encina Hall, Stanford University

Sean Sylvia
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Book Talk on the North Korean Conundrum

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NKDB Korean translated version of North Korean Conundrum

 

The North Korean Conundrum: Balancing Human Rights and Nuclear Security 
북한의 난제: 인권과 핵안보의 균형
한국어 번역판 발간 행사 북토크

In association with the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), a book talk on the Korean translated version of The North Korean Conundrum: Balancing Human Rights and Nuclear Security is held in Seoul, Korea. 

For more information about the book, please visit the publication webpage.

<Consecutive Korean-English interpretation is provided at the book talk event>

Presenters:

Gi-Wook Shin, Director of Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University

Robert R. King, former Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues

Joon Oh, former South Korean Ambassador to the UN

Minjung Kim, Associate Executive Director, Save North Korea

Discussants:

Yeosang Yoon, Chief Director, Database Center for North Korean Human Rights

Haley Gordon, Research Associate, Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University

Sookyoung Kim, Assistant Professor, Hanshin University

In-Person event in Korea
June 8, 2PM-5PM, Korea Time
Schubert Hall, Hotel President, Seoul

Seminars
Koret Workshop
Korea Program
Korean Studies Colloquium Series

Book Launch: South Korea's Democracy in Crisis

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3D mockup cover of APARC's volume 'South Korea's Democracy in Crisis'

South Korea's Democracy in Crisis: The Threats of Illiberalism, Populism, and Polarization 
위기의 한국 민주주의: 비자유주의, 포퓰리즘, 양극화의 위협

In this book launch event held in Korea, the participants will examine and discuss the threats to democracy in Korea. For more information about the book, please visit the publication webpage.

<The book launch event will be in Korean>

14:00-14:05 Introduction by Ho-Ki Kim, Professor of Sociology, Yonsei University

Moderated by Dukjin Chang, Professor of Sociology, Seoul National University

14:05-15:20 Presentations

Democracy in Crisis: Populism in Post-Truth Era
Gi-Wook Shin, Director of Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University
Ho-Ki Kim, Professor of Sociology, Yonsei University

Two divergences in South Korea’s Economy and Disparities in Democracy
Jun-Ho Jeong, Professor of Economics, Kangwon University
Il-Young Lee, Professor of Economics, Hanshin University

Judicialization of Politics and Politicization of  the Judiciary in Korea : Challenges in Maintaining the Balance of Power
Seongwook Heo, Professor of Law, Seoul National University

15:20-15:40 Break

15:40-16:55 Panel Discussion

Won-Taek Kang, Professor of Political Science, Seoul National University
Seeun Jeong, Professor of Economics, Chungnam National University
Chulwoo Lee, Professor of Law, Yonsei University

16:55-17:00 Closing Remarks by Gi-Wook Shin, Director of Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University

This event is made possible by generous support from the Korea Foundation and other friends of the Korea Program.

In-Person event in Korea
June 14, 2PM-5PM, Korea Time
Press Center, Seoul

Seminars
Stanford Korea Democracy Project
Korea Program
Korean Studies Colloquium Series

Enhancing the FTC's Consumer Protection Authority to Regulate Social Media Companies

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Julie Ness, Paul Barrett and Julie Owono head shots on blue background

Join us on Tuesday, June 7th from 12 PM - 1 PM PT for “Enhancing the FTC's Consumer Protection Authority to Regulate Social Media Companies” featuring Paul Barrett of the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, and Susan Ness of the Annenberg Public Policy Center in conversation with Julie Owono of the Content Policy & Society Lab. This weekly seminar series is jointly organized by the Cyber Policy Center’s Program on Democracy and the Internet and the Hewlett Foundation’s Cyber Initiative.

About the Seminar: 

The social media industry’s self-regulation has proven inadequate. It is time for Congress and the Federal Trade Commission to step in. Enhancing the FTC's Consumer Protection Authority to Regulate Social Media Companies offers principles and policy goals to help lawmakers and regulators sort through the dozens of bills pending before Congress and shape an agenda for the FTC to use its consumer protection authority to incentivize better corporate conduct.

About the Speakers:

Paul Barrett is the deputy director and senior research scholar at the Center for Business and Human Rights at New York University’s Stern School of Business. He joined the Center in September 2017 after working for more than three decades as a journalist focusing on the intersection of business, law, and society. At Bloomberg Businessweek magazine, he wrote cover stories on topics such as energy and the environment, military procurement, and the civilian firearm industry. From 1986 to 2005, he wrote for The Wall Street Journal, serving for part of that time as the newspaper’s Supreme Court correspondent. Paul is the author of four nonfiction books, including GLOCK: The Rise of America’s Gun, a New York Times Bestseller.
 
At the Center for Business and Human Rights, Paul has written a series of reports on the role of the social media industry in a democracy. Topics have included the problems of foreign and domestic disinformation, the consequences of outsourced content moderation, the debate over Section 230, the role of social media in intensifying political polarization in the U.S., and how Congress could enhance the Federal Trade Commission’s consumer protection authority to regulate the major platforms. Since 2008, Paul has served as an adjunct professor at the NYU School of Law, where he co-teaches a seminar called “Law, Economics, and Journalism.” He holds undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard.

Susan Ness is a distinguished fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center, where she leads a project to encourage transatlantic governments and stakeholders to forge common ‘modular’ solutions that are accepted under different tech regulatory frameworks. Previously, she convened the Transatlantic High-Level Working Group on Content Moderation and Freedom of Expression, which published a report and 14 briefing papers. She also is a distinguished fellow at the German Marshall Fund, working on transatlantic digital policy. She is a former member of the Federal Communications Commission, where she focused on digital transformation of communications. She is a board member of both media company TEGNA Inc, and Vital Voices Global Partnership, an NGO that supports women leaders who are improving the world. She holds a J.D. from Boston College Law School and an M.B.A. from The Wharton Graduate School (University of Pennsylvania).

Julie Owono is the Executive Director of the Content Policy & Society Lab (CPSL) and a fellow of the Program on Democracy and the Internet (PDI) at Stanford University. She is also the Executive Director of digital rights organization Internet Sans Frontières, one of the inaugural members of the Facebook Oversight Board, and an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. She holds a Master’s degree in International Law from la Sorbonne University in Paris, and practiced as a lawyer at the Paris Bar. 

With a fluency in five languages, a childhood spent in various countries, and an educational background at the Lyçée Français Alexandre Dumas in Moscow, Julie has a unique perspective to understand the challenges and opportunities of a global Internet. This background has shaped her belief that global and multi stakeholder collaborations can be instrumental in the emergence of rights-based content policies and regulations.

Susan Ness
Paul Barrett
Seminars

Russia, Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s War

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SEMINAR RECORDING

YouTube

About the Event: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reflects the decision of one man:  Vladimir Putin.  He has made a series of major miscalculations -- from underestimating the tenacity and determination of the Ukrainians to the strength and unity of the Western response in support of Ukraine -- but he seems to be doubling down.  We will have a conversation with Fiona Hill, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, on what is driving Putin, what he might do next, and what might cause him to change course.

About the Speaker: Fiona Hill is a senior fellow in the Center on the United States and Europe in the Foreign Policy program at Brookings. She recently served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019. From 2006 to 2009, she served as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at The National Intelligence Council. She is author of “There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the 21st Century” and co-author of “Mr. Putin: Operative in the Kremlin." Hill holds a master’s in Soviet studies and a doctorate in history from Harvard University. She also holds a master’s in Russian and modern history from St. Andrews University in Scotland.

For spring quarter 2022, CISAC will be hosting hybrid events. Many events will offer limited-capacity in-person attendance for Stanford faculty, staff, fellows, visiting scholars, and students in accordance with Stanford’s health and safety guidelines, and be open to the public online via Zoom. All CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone.

Virtual to Public. Only those with an active Stanford ID with access to William J. Perry Conference Room in Encina Hall may attend in person.

Fiona Hill Brookings Institution
Seminars
European Security Initiative

A Former South African Politician’s Effort to Combat Misinformation in Elections

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image of Julie Owono and Phumzile Van Damme on blue background

Join us on Tuesday, May 31st from 12 PM - 1 PM PT for "A Former South African Politician’s Effort to Combat Misinformation in Elections" featuring Phumzile Van Damme, former Member of Parliament in South Africa, in conversation with Julie Owono of the Content Policy & Society Lab (CPSL). This weekly seminar series is jointly organized by the Cyber Policy Center’s Program on Democracy and the Internet and the Hewlett Foundation’s Cyber Initiative.

About the Seminar: 

Misinformation during elections is a serious concern for democratic systems around the world. This is particularly true in various African countries, cases of electoral violence have been linked to disruptions in the informational realm. Yet, the underinvestment by technology companies in initiatives to limit the existence and impact of disinformation in Africa remains a reality.

Local initiatives have attempted to mitigate this inequality. This week’s webinar will focus on the work of Former South African MP Phumzile Van Damme, who launched a project to tackle the spread of misinformation on social media platforms before and during the local government elections in November 2021. She will share on the methodology used, and results observed. The webinar will also discuss the challenges faced in ensuring that South African users and citizens have access to reliable information.
 

About the Speakers:

Phumzile Van Damme is an independent consultant on disinformation and digital rights. She is a member of the Real Facebook Oversight Board, the International Grand Committee on Disinformation, and an advisory council member of #ShePersisted. Van Damme’s work on misinformation was the subject of a documentary that premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2020, “Influence.” 
 
A former Member of Parliament in South Africa, Van Damme served on the Communications and Digital Technologies committee as Shadow Minister. She played a pivotal role in holding social media platforms accountable for misinformation on their platforms and spearheaded the summoning of Facebook and other tech giants to Parliament. 
 
In September 2021, she helped found and coordinate South Africa’s first electoral disinformation monitoring project, the ‘Local Government Anti-Disinformation Project’. She has spoken on various platforms on the subject of disinformation including at the UNDP and the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

Julie Owono is the Executive Director of the Content Policy & Society Lab (CPSL) and a fellow of the Program on Democracy and the Internet (PDI) at Stanford University. She is also the Executive Director of digital rights organization Internet Sans Frontières, one of the inaugural members of the Facebook Oversight Board, and an affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center at Harvard University. She holds a Master’s degree in International Law from la Sorbonne University in Paris, and practiced as a lawyer at the Paris Bar. 

With a fluency in five languages, a childhood spent in various countries, and an educational background at the Lyçée Français Alexandre Dumas in Moscow, Julie has a unique perspective to understand the challenges and opportunities of a global Internet. This background has shaped her belief that global and multi stakeholder collaborations can be instrumental in the emergence of rights-based content policies and regulations.

Phumzile Van Damme
Seminars

Health Economics Seminar: Luca Maini

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Luca Maini
Luca Maini, PhD, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School. He focuses on the intersection between industrial organization and health economics and the regulation of pharmaceutical markets.

Talk Title — Mergers that Matter: The Impact of M&A Activity in Pharmaceutical Markets

 

We study how selection affects the analysis of consolidation through merger retrospectives. Using a novel dataset of pharmaceutical acquisitions from 2007–2019, we characterize M&A activity in the pharmaceutical market and examine its impact on prices and coverage of on-patent branded drugs. Approximately one-third of branded drugs are acquired by a different company during their patent terms. Most acquisitions involve drugs that are not direct competitors: only a minority of “overlap” acquisitions consolidate drug ownership in the same therapeutic area. Following an acquisition, acquired products experience an 8% price increase on average and are 1% more likely to be on a restricted formulary coverage tier. However, the effects are concentrated within two relatively small groups of deals less likely to raise regulatory scrutiny. The first group comprises within-market acquisitions whose value falls below the threshold for mandatory reporting. The second group comprises cross-market deals between small pharmaceutical companies, which are unlikely to be considered problematic even when disclosed. Following these acquisitions, prices increase by 60% on average, and drugs are 8% more likely to be on a restricted formulary coverage tier. Our results suggest that antitrust authorities are usually effective at preventing acquisitions that would hurt consumer welfare and that merger retrospectives that do not adequately account for regulatory oversight will underestimate the impact of M&A activity.

REGISTRATION

Encina Commons, Room 119

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