Book Review of Ignacio De Leon's An Institutional Assessment of Antitrust Policy The Latin American Experience

Book Review of Ignacio De Leon's "An Institutional Assessment of Antitrust Policy The Latin American Experience" (Wolters Kluwer 2009) Reviewed by A.E. RodriguezAntitrust; DeLeon; Rule of Law; Latin American Antitrust;

Defective Vortex Lattices in Layered Superconductors with Point Pins at the Extreme Type-II Limit

The mixed phase of layered superconductors with no magnetic screening is studied through a partial duality analysis of the corresponding frustrated XY model in the presence of weak random point pins. Isolated layers exhibit a defective vortex lattice at low temperature that is phase coherent. Sufficiently weak Josephson coupling between adjacent layers results in an entangled vortex solid that exhibits weak superconductivity across layers. The corresponding vortex liquid state shows an inverted specific heat anomaly that we propose accounts for that seen in YBCO. A three-dimensional vortex lattice with dislocations occurs at stronger coupling. This crossover sheds light on the apparent discrepancy concerning the observation of a vortex-glass phase in recent Monte Carlo simulations of the same XY model.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. To appear in PRB, rapid communicatio

Anti-Competitive Practices In The Tourism Industry: The Case Of Small Economies

Who benefits from the proliferation of ecolodges, beachfront resorts, safari parks, river cruises, forest forays and other similar and increasingly popular ventures popping up in developing economies across the world? Critics hold that multinational hotel chains, influential tour operators and foreign interests sometimes in association with powerful domestic groups often engage in anticompetitive practices at the expense of local communities, domestic workers and other stakeholders where the tourism activities take place. In this paper, we examine the possibility of market power abuses in the tourism industry in small economies or small national economies.  Many of these small economies have recently inaugurated antitrust enforcement agencies charged with curtailing market power abuses and other anticompetitive practices.  We also examine how effective these agencies are likely to be in challenging the powerful tourism industry. Succinctly, we conclude that monopsonistic practices may arise in the tourism sector of small economies. But we argue that domestic competition agencies are not suited to challenge monopsony for various reasons including a lack of political will.  We also analyze the plausible cartelization role of regional marketing boards.  Regional marketing boards are collaborative efforts by groups of countries.  Because it is entrusted with cross jurisdictional enforcement of competition laws, a “regional” agency with jurisdiction in several countries across a region may be more likely to successfully confront monopsony problems.  However, we conclude that a regional enforcement agency is equally unlikely to successfully challenged cross-border anticompetitive practices because it is not likely to challenge the impairment of consumer welfare of foreign nationals

Demonstrating Failure To Discharge Plaintiffs Duty To Mitigate In A Wrongful Termination Case: An Empirical Approach

In a wrongful termination case, the defendant has the burden of proving that the plaintiff did not adequately discharge his or her duty to mitigate damages.  The defendant may satisfy its burden by proving that the claimant failed to exercise “reasonable care and diligence” in seeking a job; and it must do so by a preponderance of the evidence.  On the other hand, the amount of any award turns on the difference between the plaintiff’s pre- and post-termination earnings.  Thus, there is a conflict between the potential increased damages award made possible by remaining jobless and the legal duty to mitigate.  It is reasonable to assume that a plaintiff may perceive an incentive to stay out of the workforce to enhance the damage award.  In this paper we empirically establish the expected joblessness duration period for a plaintiff’s population cohort in a wrongful termination lawsuit; we also calculated the estimated duration period’s associated standard error.  To illustrate the procedure we discuss a hypothetical case study and use uncensored data on joblessness duration from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Displaced Workers Survey.This process enables us structure a hypothesis test examining whether the plaintiff’s period of joblessness is statistically significantly different from the predicted test statistic in a manner consistent with case law.  Succinctly, we are able to empirically assess the soundness of the duration of a plaintiff’s job search and thereby enhance the robustness of present-day approaches

Book Review of Ignacio De Leon's An Institutional Assessment of Antitrust Policy The Latin American Experience

Book Review of Ignacio De Leon's "An Institutional Assessment of Antitrust Policy The Latin American Experience" (Wolters Kluwer 2009) Reviewed by A.E. Rodrigue

Book Review of Ignacio De Leon's An Institutional Assessment of Antitrust Policy The Latin American Experience

Book Review of Ignacio De Leon's "An Institutional Assessment of Antitrust Policy The Latin American Experience" (Wolters Kluwer 2009) Reviewed by A.E. Rodrigue

Exact solution of variable coefficient mixed hyperbolic partial differential problems

AbstractThis paper is concerned with the construction of exact series solution of mixed variable coefficient hyperbolic problems

Optical properties of a two-dimensional electron gas at even-denominator filling fractions

The optical properties of an electron gas in a magnetic field at filling fractions \nu = {1\over 2m} (m=1,2,3...) are investigated using the composite fermion picture. The response of the system to the presence of valence-band holes is calculated. The shapes of the emission spectra are found to differ qualitatively from the well-known electron-hole results at zero magnetic field. In particular, the asymmetry of the emission lineshape is found to be sensitive to the hole-composite fermion plane separation.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX, 7 figures. This revised version is to appear in Physical Review