Eighth Circuit Bungles Bundled Discounts: The Court Avoids Resolving Bundled Discounts Note

In Southeast Missouri Hospital v. C.R. Bard, Inc., the Eighth Circuit passed on an opportunity to choose a bundled discount test and instead focused on the proper market for the products at issue. This Note first explores the bundled discounts and contracts at issue in the instant decision. It then provides a detailed explanation of bundled discounts and the various tests proposed for them, as well as an explanation of the Eighth Circuit’s precedent concerning bundled discounts. The Note concludes by analyzing the instant decision and discussing why the court should have addressed bundled discounts in its opinion and the consequences of its failure to do so

Integrating renewable energy resources in electricity distribution systems—A firm-level efficiency analysis for Sweden controlling for weather conditions

Supplementary data are available online at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988324008570#appSC .Sweden is at the forefront of the transition of its energy sector to low-carbon technologies with profound consequences for both energy generation and its distribution. However, the impact of this transition on the performance of Electricity Distribution System Operators (DSOs) has not been thoroughly studied. The article addresses this gap by using a novel approach and detailed georeferenced firm-level, weather, and regional data in Sweden from 2014 to 2019. Our findings indicate that (i) an increase in the number of small-scale feeders and (ii) a higher degree of decentralized energy production (decentralization) both improve DSOs’ cost efficiencies. Additionally, we demonstrate that DSOs have adapted well to long-term weather variability. These results have significant implications for the effective implementation of renewable energy policies.The authors acknowledge financial support from the German Science Foundation for grant no. 411547861

Benchmarking and Firm Heterogeneity in Electricity Distribution: A Latent Class Analysis of Germany

In January 2009 Germany introduced incentive regulation for the electricity distribution sector based on results obtained from econometric and nonparametric benchmarking analysis. One main problem for the regulator in assigning the relative efficiency scores are unobserved firm-specific factors such as network and technological differences. Comparing the efficiency of different firms usually assumes that they operate under the same production technology, thus unobserved factors might be inappropriately understood as inefficiency. To avoid this type of misspecification in regulatory practice estimation is carried out in two stages: in a first stage observations are classified into two categories according to the size of the network operators. Then separate analyses are conducted for each sub-group. This paper shows how to disentangle the heterogeneity from inefficiency in one step, using a latent class model for stochastic frontiers. As the classification is not based on a priori sample separation criteria it delivers more robust, statistical significant and testable results. Against this backround we analyze the level of technical efficiency of a sample of 200 regional and local German electricity distribution companies for a balanced panel data set (2001-2005). Testing the hypothesis if larger distributors operate under a different technology than smaller ones we assess if a single step latent class model provides new insights to the use of benchmarking approaches within the incentive regulation schemes

Historiese teologie in ʼn veranderende konteks

In this contribution, the author reflects on historical theology as theological discipline. After a short introduction to the precarious situation of church history as a theological discipline in South Africa and the question of faith and history, the contribution presents an analysis of Gerhard Ebeling’s 1947 publication on church history in which he proposed that church history should be understood as a history of Biblical interpretation. Based on some of the principles Ebeling delineated, the author proposes that historical theology could be applied to five areas of research: prolegomena, history of the church, history of missions, history of theology and church polity. The point is made that historical theology, when properly structured and presented, could play a major role in enriching the theological and ecclesial conversation and in assisting the church in the process of reformation and transformation.http://www.hts.org.zaam2016Church History and Church Polic

Productivity in Electricity Retail after Market Liberalisation: Analysing the Effects of Ownership and Firm's Governance Structure

This paper, which is one of the first to estimate productivity in retail electricity for a European country after liberalisation, analyses the effect of ownership and governance structure by using a unique dataset of German electricity retailers from 2003 to 2012. An innovative service production function for the retail sector is derived with labour and external services as the main inputs. A structural model is used with a proxy function for productivity to overcome the endogeneity of input choice. Ownership is controlled for in the law of motion for productivity. The results of the dataset used to validate the model show that firm-level productivity did not increase after 2008 and that ownership had no effect on productivity. The results provide useful insights into the link between ownership and productivity in modern public enterprises after liberalisation

Honderd Jaar Hervormde Teologie

The Faculty of Theology of the University of Pretoria is celebrating its centenary during 2017. Since its inception in 1917, the Nederduitsch Hervormde Kerk van Afrika (by agreement) appointed lecturers in the Faculty and more than a thousand ministers of the Hervormde Kerk received their theological education at the University of Pretoria. As such, the centenary of the Faculty is also a celebration of hundred years of ‘Hervormde theology’. This contribution reflects on two publications (by M.J. Goddefroy and P.J .Muller, respectively) which appeared in 1890 and 1908, firstly to give an overview of the prehistory of the establishment of the Faculty of Theology and secondly to illustrate the diverse origins and nature of Hervormde theology as reflected in the publications of Goddefroy and Muller