An empirical analysis of countervailing power in business-to-business bargaining

Pricing schemes in business-to-business (B2B) relationships reflect price discrimination and bargaining over rents. Bargaining outcomes are determined by upstream market power and countervailing buyer power downstream. This paper uses an exceptional panel of B2B transactions in the UK brick market to study B2B transaction prices. The empirical analysis identifies three effects on prices: nonlinear volume and freight absorption effects; countervailing power effects arising from buyers' local commercial significance; and competition effects due to the buyers' local potential suppliers. And it shows that small buyers benefit more from competition than large buyers because they are not constrained by the suppliers' capacity

Serum concentrations of cancer antigen 125, placental alkaline phosphatase, cancer-associated serum antigen and free beta human chorionic gonadotrophin as prognostic markers for epithelial ovarian cancer

Objective - To investigate the prognostic significance of elevated levels of cancer antigen 125 (CA125), placental alkaline phosphatase (PLAP), free beta human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG) and cancer-associated serum antigen (CASA) in women with primary epithelial ovarian carcinoma. Design A two year follow up study of survival. Setting A tertiary care gynaecological oncology unit. Participants - One hundred and eleven women with histologically confirmed epithelial ovarian cancer. Main outcome measures - Survival over a two year period. Results - Stage corrected log-rank 2 tests demonstrated a significant effect on survival for all four tumour markers (CA125 P= 0.0142 ; PLAP P < 0.0001 ; CASA P= 0.0098 ; hCG P= 0.0002 ). This was confirmed when each variable was fitted together with disease stage in Cox proportional hazard models. When fitted as multiple variables in a Cox proportional hazard model, the addition of free beta-hCG and CASA to disease stage, PLAP concentrations and CA125 levels did not demonstrate further prognostic value. Conclusions - Levels of all four markers correlate with survival in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer. The combination of PLAP and CA125 concentrations together with disease stage may be used to predict survival but the addition of hCG and CASA levels do not give additional prognostic information