Collusive networks in market sharing agreements in the presence of an antitrust authority

This paper studies how the presence of an antitrust authority affects market-sharing agreements made by firms in oligopolistic markets. These agreements prevent firms from entering each other´s market. The set of market-sharing agreements defines a collusive network, which is under suspicion by antitrust authorities. This paper shows that, from the firm´s point of view, the probability of being caught is endogenous and depends on the agreements each firm has signed. Stable collusive networks can be decomposed into a set of isolated firms and complete alliances of different sizes. While in the absence of the antitrust authority, a network is stable if its alliances are large enough, when the antitrust authority is considered, the network is stability depends on the network configuration as a whole. Antitrust laws may have a pro-competitive effect as they give Firms in large alliances more incentives to cut their agreements at once

Virtual classes of Artin stacks

We construct virtual fundamental classes of Artin stacks over a Dedekind domain endowed with a perfect obstruction theory.Comment: 12 pages, comments welcom

Peace at the Lily. The De Franceschi section in the stockbook of Bernardino Giunti

This contribution investigates the catalogue of publications by Francesco De Franceschi, printer, publisher and bookseller between 1561 and 1599, and his heirs, who took over his business until 1624, as recorded in the stockbook of Bernardino Giunti (Los Angeles, University of California Library, Department of Special Collections, call number 170/622), also a printer, publisher and bookseller in Venice at the beginning of the seventeenth century. Each entry of this De Franceschi section has been matched with the edition it was meant to describe, in order to analyse the price of each book according to the Giunti stockbook as the result of material features and book marketing strategies

Utopian clothing: the futurist and constructivist overalls in the early 1920s’

‘Can fashion start from zero?’ is a question that, as observed by theorists, historians and curators, ultimately haunts those radical sartorial projects embodying a ‘new’ vision of the world. In the experimental overalls designed at the beginning of the twentieth century by Thayaht in Italy, and Stepanova, Rodchenko and Popova in Russia, it is possible to follow and progressively unfold the aspiration to a total renovation and re-organization of life. The differences between the artistic contexts to which these artists belong – Italian Futurism and Russian Constructivism - have often induced critics to separately discuss their sartorial proposals, overlooking their points of convergence. Within this article, the overalls by Thayaht and the Russian Constructivists are instead analysed in relation to each other, as agents of change, or rather as instances of a ‘utilitarian outrage’ (Davis, 1992). In examining their biographies, the article questions the newness of these creations, the rhetoric of the ‘new’ that accompanied them, and their status as ‘anti-fashion’ projects. Combining material culture with cultural history, it argues that their iconoclasm and utopian potential, resides precisely in their proposing a rationalization of clothing, and in ‘questioning the very fashion project itself’ (Wilson, 2003), in both its symbolic and tangible presence. Finally, on the basis of archival research and interviews conducted at the Thayaht-RAM Archive, Florence, the characterization of Thayaht’s tuta as a Futurist creation, which has often been taken for granted, is reconsidered and problematized further

Protective potential of glucagon like peptide 2 (GLP-2) against the neurodegeneration

Neurodegeneration consists in loss of neuron specific types, pattern and distribution, leading to progressive dysfunctions of the central nervous system. Neurodegenerative diseases include diverse pathological conditions, among which Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases are the most prevalent ones. Alzheimer’s disease is known as a growing dementia, characterized by progressive language, memory, and cognitive loss, while Parkinson’s disease is primarily characterized as a motor disorder. Senile plaques, caused by amyloid β peptide, hyperphosphorylated tau-based neurofibrillary tangles and synapse loss, are the principal pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. Amyloid β oligomer formation is associated with development of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, inflammation, calcium-dependent excitotoxicity, impairment of cellular respiration, and alteration of synaptic functions related with learning and memory. Parkinson’s disease is produced by dopaminergic neuron deterioration in the extrapyramidal tract of the midbrain. Accumulation of α-synuclein proteins (Lewy bodies) in the central, autonomic, and peripheral nervous system is the hallmark of the Parkinson’s disease. The Levy bodies break the neuronal membrane leading to neuronal death through oxidative stress, excitotoxicity, energy failure and neuroinflammation

THE IMPACT OF THE FOREIGN INVESTMENTS ON THE CAPITAL MARKET IN ROMANIA

No country can develop without an active capital market, which has to be capable to meet the mobilization requests of the assets for financing the national economy. On the other hand, it has to be a profitable instrument for placing the available financing resources. The existence of a potential positive impact of the foreign investments on the competitivity of the receiving country is well known. Starting from the above mentioned, in this paper, we intend to examine the way in which the foreign investment flow influences the performance of the economy and that of the Romanian capital market.foreign investment, macroeconomic variables, GDP, capitalization

The Saving Glut Explanation of Global Imbalances: the Role of Underinvestment

According to the “Saving Glut hypothesis”, global imbalances are caused by inefficiently high level of precautionary savings in financially underdeveloped regions, where agents have limited opportunity to diversify idiosyncratic risk. This paper generalizes the approach by modeling idiosyncratic risk in entrepreneurial activities, which can be only partially hedged. As a result, agents save too much and invest too little, relative to the efficient allocation, depressing production activities and the real interest rate. Capital account liberalization towards financially more advanced economies then produces an outflow of capital in search of safer investment, with the effect of further reducing domestic investment in countries with poor financial institutions. The model predicts welfare losses for less financially developed economies, and an increase in wealth inequality for advanced economies. Finally, the present analysis is able to explain the direct link between the financial crisis and global recession and the long run implications of worsening financial conditions on countries’ net external positions.Current Account, Financial Markets, Heterogeneity, Incomplete Markets, International Capital Movements

Collusive networks in market sharing agreements in the presence of an antitrust authority

This paper studies how the presence of an antitrust authority affects market-sharing agreements made by firms in oligopolistic markets. These agreements prevent firms from entering each other´s market. The set of market-sharing agreements defines a collusive network, which is under suspicion by antitrust authorities. This paper shows that, from the firm´s point of view, the probability of being caught is endogenous and depends on the agreements each firm has signed. Stable collusive networks can be decomposed into a set of isolated firms and complete alliances of different sizes. While in the absence of the antitrust authority, a network is stable if its alliances are large enough, when the antitrust authority is considered, the network is stability depends on the network configuration as a whole. Antitrust laws may have a pro-competitive effect as they give Firms in large alliances more incentives to cut their agreements at once.Market-sharing, Economic networks, Antitrust authority, Oligopoly

On the limit configuration of four species strongly competing systems

We analysed some qualitative properties of the limit configuration of the solutions of a reaction-diffusion system of four competing species as the competition rate tends to infinity. Large interaction induces the spatial segregation of the species and only two limit configurations are possible: either there is a point where four species concur, a 4-point, or there are two points where only three species concur. We characterized, for a given datum, the possible 4-point configuration by means of the solution of a Dirichlet problem for the Laplace equation