The Prohibition of the Proposed Springer-ProSiebenSat.1-Merger: How much Economics in German Merger Control?

We review the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office Germany) decision on the proposed merger between Springer and ProSiebenSat.1 from an economic point of view. In doing so, it is not our goal to analyse whether the controversial decision by the Bundeskartellamt has been correct or flawed from a legal point of view. Instead, we analyse whether the economic reasoning in the decision document reflects state-of-the-art economic theory on conglomerate mergers. Regarding such types of mergers, anticompetitive effects either do not occur regularly or are more often than not overcompensated by efficiency gains, so that a standard welfare perspective demands reluctance concerning antitrust interventions. This is particularly true if two-sided markets, like media markets, are involved. However, anticompetitive conglomerate mergers are not impossible, in particular in neighbouring markets where there is some relationship between the products of the merging companies. In line with the more-economic approach in European merger control, a particular thorough line of argumentation, backed with particularly convincing economic evidence, is necessary to justify a prohibition of a conglomerate merger from an economic point of view. Against this background, we do not find the reasoning of the Bundeskartellamt entirely convincing and sufficiently strong to justify a prohibition of the proposed combination from an economic perspective. The reasons are that (i) the Bundeskartellamt fails to continuously consider consumer and customer welfare as the relevant standards, (ii) positive efficiency and welfare effects of cross-media strategies are neglected, (iii) in contrast, the competition agency sometimes appears to view profitability of post-merger strategy options to be per se anticompetitive (efficiency offence), (iv) the incontestability of the relevant markets is not sufficiently substantiated, (v) inconsistencies occur regarding the symmetry of the TV advertising market duopoly versus the unique role of the BILD-Zeitung and (vi) the employment of modern economic instruments appears to be underdeveloped. Thus, we conclude that the Bundeskartellamt has not embraced the European more-economic approach in the analysed decision. However, one can discuss whether economic effects are overcompensated in this case by concerns about a reduction in diversity of opinion and threats to free speech. Similar to the Bundeskartellamt, we do not consider these concerns in our analysis.merger control, media markets, more-economic approach, conglomerate mergers, cross-promotion

The prohibition of the proposed Springer-ProSiebenSat.1-Merger: how much economics in German merger control?

We review the Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office Germany) decision on the proposed merger between Springer and ProSiebenSat.1 from an economic point of view. In doing so, it is not our goal to analyse whether the controversial decision by the Bundeskar-tellamt has been correct or flawed from a legal point of view. Instead, we analyse whether the economic reasoning in the decision document reflects state-of-the-art economic theory on conglomerate mergers. Regarding such types of mergers, anticompetitive effects either do not occur regularly or are more often than not overcompensated by efficiency gains, so that a standard welfare perspective demands reluctance concerning antitrust interventions. This is particularly true if two-sided markets, like media markets, are involved. However, anticompe-titive conglomerate mergers are not impossible, in particular in neighbouring markets where there is some relationship between the products of the merging companies. In line with the more-economic approach in European merger control, a particular thorough line of argumen-tation, backed with particularly convincing economic evidence, is necessary to justify a pro-hibition of a conglomerate merger from an economic point of view. Against this background, we do not find the reasoning of the Bundeskartellamt entirely convincing and sufficiently strong to justify a prohibition of the proposed combination from an economic perspective. The reasons are that (i) the Bundeskartellamt fails to continuously consider consumer and customer welfare as the relevant standards, (ii) positive efficiency and welfare effects of cross-media strategies are neglected, (iii) in contrast, the competition agency sometimes ap-pears to view profitability of post-merger strategy options to be per se anticompetitive (effi-ciency offence), (iv) the incontestability of the relevant markets is not sufficiently substanti-ated, (v) inconsistencies occur regarding the symmetry of the TV advertising market duopoly versus the unique role of the BILD-Zeitung and (vi) the employment of modern economic instruments appears to be underdeveloped. Thus, we conclude that the Bundeskartellamt has not embraced the European more-economic approach in the analysed decision. However, one can discuss whether economic effects are overcompensated in this case by concerns about a reduction in diversity of opinion and threats to free speech. Similar to the Bundeskartellamt, we do not consider these concerns in our analysis. --merger control,media markets,more-economic approach,conglomerate mergers,cross-promotion

Financial globalisation and the labour share in developing countries:The type of capital matters

In this paper, we investigate how de facto financial globalisation has influenced the labour share in developing countries. Our main argument is the need to distinguish between different types of capital in this context as they differ in their effect on the host countries' production process and vary concerning their bargaining power vis-a-vis labour. Our econometric analysis of the impact of foreign direct versus portfolio investment in a sample of about 40 developing and transition countries after 1992 supports this claim. Using different panel data techniques to address potential endogeneity problems, we find that foreign direct investment has a positive effect on the labour share in developing countries, while the impact of portfolio investment is significantly smaller and potentially negative. Our results also highlight that de facto foreign investment cannot explain the decline of the labour share in developing countries over the investigated period

Asiatische Großmächte: China, Indien und Japan als Akteure regionaler und internationaler Ordnungspolitik

"China, Indien und Japan sind zentrale Partner Deutschlands und der EU in Asien, von denen erwartet wird, dass sie mehr internationale Verantwortung übernehmen. Die wachsende weltwirtschaftliche Bedeutung der drei Staaten wirft die Frage auf, ob und inwieweit sie neue internationale Ordnungsvorstellungen entwickeln. Inwieweit stimmen ihre außenpolitischen Ideen mit der bestehenden internationalen Ordnung überein oder inwieweit entwickeln sie eigene regionale und globale Ordnungsvorstellungen, die sich als Alternative oder Gegenentwurf zu bestehenden Institutionen deuten lassen? Vieles spricht dafür, dass das 21. Jahrhundert eher wirtschaftlich als politisch von den drei asiatischen Staaten geprägt sein wird. Während es in China Ansätze zu eigenen regionalen und internationalen Ordnungsvorstellungen gibt, zeichnet sich in Indien und Japan eine Debatte dazu bislang kaum ab. Dennoch wird globales Regieren schwieriger, denn die Staaten werden angesichts unterschiedlicher innenpolitischer Herausforderungen ihre eigenen Interessen verstärkt in internationalen Verhandlungsregimen zur Geltung bringen." (Autorenreferat

Comprehensive Fragment Screening of the SARS-CoV-2 Proteome Explores Novel Chemical Space for Drug Development

12 pags., 4 figs., 3 tabs.SARS-CoV-2 (SCoV2) and its variants of concern pose serious challenges to the public health. The variants increased challenges to vaccines, thus necessitating for development of new intervention strategies including anti-virals. Within the international Covid19-NMR consortium, we have identified binders targeting the RNA genome of SCoV2. We established protocols for the production and NMR characterization of more than 80 % of all SCoV2 proteins. Here, we performed an NMR screening using a fragment library for binding to 25 SCoV2 proteins and identified hits also against previously unexplored SCoV2 proteins. Computational mapping was used to predict binding sites and identify functional moieties (chemotypes) of the ligands occupying these pockets. Striking consensus was observed between NMR-detected binding sites of the main protease and the computational procedure. Our investigation provides novel structural and chemical space for structure-based drug design against the SCoV2 proteome.Work at BMRZ is supported by the state of Hesse. Work in Covid19-NMR was supported by the Goethe Corona Funds, by the IWBEFRE-program 20007375 of state of Hesse, the DFG through CRC902: “Molecular Principles of RNA-based regulation.” and through infrastructure funds (project numbers: 277478796, 277479031, 392682309, 452632086, 70653611) and by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program iNEXT-discovery under grant agreement No 871037. BY-COVID receives funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement number 101046203. “INSPIRED” (MIS 5002550) project, implemented under the Action “Reinforcement of the Research and Innovation Infrastructure,” funded by the Operational Program “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation” (NSRF 2014–2020) and co-financed by Greece and the EU (European Regional Development Fund) and the FP7 REGPOT CT-2011-285950—“SEE-DRUG” project (purchase of UPAT’s 700 MHz NMR equipment). The support of the CERM/CIRMMP center of Instruct-ERIC is gratefully acknowledged. This work has been funded in part by a grant of the Italian Ministry of University and Research (FISR2020IP_02112, ID-COVID) and by Fondazione CR Firenze. A.S. is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [SFB902/B16, SCHL2062/2-1] and the Johanna Quandt Young Academy at Goethe [2019/AS01]. M.H. and C.F. thank SFB902 and the Stiftung Polytechnische Gesellschaft for the Scholarship. L.L. work was supported by the French National Research Agency (ANR, NMR-SCoV2-ORF8), the Fondation de la Recherche Médicale (FRM, NMR-SCoV2-ORF8), FINOVI and the IR-RMN-THC Fr3050 CNRS. Work at UConn Health was supported by grants from the US National Institutes of Health (R01 GM135592 to B.H., P41 GM111135 and R01 GM123249 to J.C.H.) and the US National Science Foundation (DBI 2030601 to J.C.H.). Latvian Council of Science Grant No. VPP-COVID-2020/1-0014. National Science Foundation EAGER MCB-2031269. This work was supported by the grant Krebsliga KFS-4903-08-2019 and SNF-311030_192646 to J.O. P.G. (ITMP) The EOSC Future project is co-funded by the European Union Horizon Programme call INFRAEOSC-03-2020—Grant Agreement Number 101017536. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEALPeer reviewe

Umströmung von Zylindern mit abschnittsweiser, leeseitiger, poröser Ummantelung

Diese Arbeit befasst sich mit der Reduktion derWiderstandskraft sowie der Strömungsfeldanalyse von Kreiszylindern mit einer leeseitigen, porösen Beschichtung. Hierfür werden Versuche im Windkanal durchgeführt. Systematische Kraftmessungen erfolgen für diverse Zylinderkonfigurationen. Unterschiedliche Parameter wie die Schichtstärke, der Ummantelungswinkel und die Porosität des porösen Materials werden dabei variiert. Ausgewählte Zylindervarianten werden zudem mittels Druckmessungen und der Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) detaillierter untersucht. Die Versuche werden im Reynoldszahlbereich 3 x 10^4 < Re < 1, 4 x 10^5 durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass eine dünne, leeseitig im Kreiszylinder integrierte oder auf dem Zylinder aufgebrachte poröse Schicht zu einem Anstieg des Drucks bzw. zur Verringerung des Unterdrucks im Leebereich führt. Die Folge davon ist eine reduzierteWiderstandskraft im Vergleich mit einem glatten Kreiszylinder gleichen Durchmessers. Es zeigt sich zudem, dass eine leeseitige poröse Beschichtung des Zylinders zu einer Reduktion der Amplituden von böeninduzierten und Wirbelresonanzschwingungen führt. Im betrachteten Reynoldszahlbereich sind die Verläufe des mittlerenWiderstandsbeiwerts (cd- Wert) nahezu konstant und die maximale Widerstandsreduktion beträgt 13,2 %. Die Ursache des reduzierten cd-Werts der leeseitig porös ummantelten Zylinder ist eine weiter nach stromab verschobeneWirbelbildungszone, weshalb es zu einer Abnahme der Druckschwankungen an der Zylinderrückseite kommt. Verantwortlich für die vergrößerteWirbelformationszone ist die Störung, bzw. das Nichtzustandekommen des Mechanismus des Hoch- und Herunterlaufens des Primärwirbels an der Leeseite des porös ummantelten Zylinders. Des Weiteren kann eine verringerte Nachlaufbreite sowie eine dünnere Scherschicht im Vergleich mit dem glatten Zylinder identifiziert werden. Es zeigt sich ferner dass eine leeseitige, poröse Ummantelung zu einer leicht erhöhtenWirbelablösefrequenz führt

Zukunfts-Campus Bergedorf : Impetus sprach mit dem Dekan Prof. Dr. Claus-Dieter Wacker

NonPeerReviewe

The joint impact of ocean circulation and plate tectonics on the glacial South Pacific carbon pool

To understand the whereabouts of CO2 during glacials and its pathways during deglacial transitions is one of the main priorities in paleoclimate research. The opposing patterns of atmospheric CO2 and Δ14C suggest that the bulk of CO2 was released from an old and therefore 14C-depleted carbon reservoir. As the modern deep ocean, below ~2000 m, stores up to 60-times more carbon than the entire atmosphere, it is considered to be a major driver of the atmospheric CO2 pattern, storing CO2 during glacials, releasing it during deglacial transitions. We use a South Pacific transect of sediment cores, covering the Antarctic Intermediate Water (AAIW), the Upper Circumpolar Deep Water (UCDW) and the Lower Circumpolar Deep Water (LCDW), to reconstruct the spatio-temporal evolution of oceanic Δ14C over the last 30,000 years. During the last glacial, we find significantly 14C-depleted waters between 2000 and 4300 m water depth, indicating a strong stratification and the storage of carbon in these water masses. However, two sediment cores from 2500 m and 3600 m water depth reveal an extreme glacial atmosphere-to-deep-water Δ14C offset of up to -1000‰ and ventilation ages (deep-water to atmosphere 14C-age difference) of ~8000 years. Such old water masses are expected to be anoxic, yet there is no evidence of anoxia in the glacial S-Pacific. Recent studies showed an increase of Mid Ocean Ridge (MOR) volcanism during glacials due to the low stand of global sea level. For this reason, we hypothesize that the admixture of 14C-dead carbon via tectonic activity along MORs might have contributed to these extremely low radiocarbon values. With a simple 1-box model, we calculated if the admixture of hydrothermal CO2 has the potential to lower the deep Pacific Δ14C signal. We show that if the oceanic turnover time is at least 2700 years, an increased hydrothermal flux of 1.2 µmol kg-1 yr-1 has the potential to reproduce the extreme radiocarbon values observed in our records