6,552 research outputs found
Why Tie A Product Consumers Do Not Use?
This paper provides a new explanation for tying that is not based on any of the standard explanations -- efficiency, price discrimination, and exclusion. Our analysis shows how a monopolist sometimes has an incentive to tie a complementary good to its monopolized good in order to transfer profits from a rival producer of the complementary product to the monopolist. This occurs even when consumers -- who have the option to use the monopolist's complementary good -- do not use it. The tie is profitable because it alters the subsequent pricing game between the monopolist and the rival in a manner favorable to the monopolist. We show that this form of tying is socially inefficient, but interestingly can arise only when the tie is socially efficient in the absence of the rival producer. We relate this inefficient form of tying to several actual examples and explore its antitrust implications.
Trade booms, trade busts and trade costs
What has driven trade booms and trade busts in the past and present? We derive a micro-founded measure
of trade frictions from leading trade theories and use it to gauge the importance of bilateral trade costs
in determining international trade flows. We construct a new balanced sample of bilateral trade flows
for 130 country pairs across the Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania for the period from 1870 to
2000 and demonstrate an overriding role for declining trade costs in the pre-World War I trade boom.
In contrast, for the post-World War II trade boom we identify changes in output as the dominant force.
Finally, the entirety of the interwar trade bust is explained by increases in trade costs
Morse, Mind, and Mental Causation
Stephen Morse’s illuminating scholarship on law and neuroscience relies on a “folk psychological” account of human behavior in order to defend the law’s foundations for ascribing legal responsibility. The heart of Morse’s account is the notion of “mental state causation,” in which mental states (e.g., beliefs, desires, and intentions) cause behavior. Morse argues that causation of this sort is necessary to support legal responsibility. We challenge this claim. First, we discuss problems with the conception of mental causation on which Morse appears to rely. Second, we present an alternative account to explain the link between mental states, reasons, and actions (the “rational–teleological” account). We argue that the alternative account avoids the conceptual problems that arise for Morse’s conception of mental causation and that it also undergirds ascriptions of legal responsibility. If the alternative succeeds, then Morse’s conception of “mental state causation” is not necessary to support legal responsibility
Eliminating crystals in non-oxide optical fiber preforms and optical fibers
A method is provided for eliminating crystals in non-oxide optical fiber preforms as well as optical fibers drawn therefrom. The optical-fiber-drawing axis of the preform is aligned with the force of gravity. A magnetic field is applied to the preform as it is heated to at least a melting temperature thereof. The magnetic field is applied in a direction that is parallel to the preform's optical-fiber-drawing axis. The preform is then cooled to a temperature that is less than a glass transition temperature of the preform while the preform is maintained in the magnetic field. When the processed preform is to have an optical fiber drawn therefrom, the preform's optical-fiber-drawing axis is again aligned with the force of gravity and a magnetic field is again applied along the axis as the optical fiber is drawn from the preform
Trade costs in the first wave of Globalization
What drives globalization today and in the past? We employ a new micro-founded measure of bilateral trade costs based on a standard model of trade in differentiated goods
to address this question. These trade costs gauge the difference between observed bilateral trade and frictionless trade. They comprise tariffs, transportation costs and all other factors that impede international trade but which are inherently difficult to observe. Trade costs
fell on average by ten to Ăžfteen percent between 1870 and 1913. We also use this measure to decompose the growth of global trade over that period and Ăžnd that roughly 44 percent of the global trade boom can be explained by reductions in trade costs; the remaining 56 percent is attributable to economic expansion
Near-UV OH Prompt Emission in the Innermost Coma of 103P/Hartley 2
The Deep Impact spacecraft fly-by of comet 103P/Hartley 2 occurred on 2010
November 4, one week after perihelion with a closest approach (CA) distance of
about 700 km. We used narrowband images obtained by the Medium Resolution
Imager (MRI) onboard the spacecraft to study the gas and dust in the innermost
coma. We derived an overall dust reddening of 15\%/100 nm between 345 and 749
nm and identified a blue enhancement in the dust coma in the sunward direction
within 5 km from the nucleus, which we interpret as a localized enrichment in
water ice. OH column density maps show an anti-sunward enhancement throughout
the encounter except for the highest resolution images, acquired at CA, where a
radial jet becomes visible in the innermost coma, extending up to 12 km from
the nucleus. The OH distribution in the inner coma is very different from that
expected for a fragment species. Instead, it correlates well with the water
vapor map derived by the HRI-IR instrument onboard Deep Impact
\citep{AHearn2011}. Radial profiles of the OH column density and derived water
production rates show an excess of OH emission during CA that cannot be
explained with pure fluorescence. We attribute this excess to a prompt emission
process where photodissociation of HO directly produces excited
OH*() radicals. Our observations provide the first direct
imaging of Near-UV prompt emission of OH. We therefore suggest the use of a
dedicated filter centered at 318.8 nm to directly trace the water in the coma
of comets.Comment: 21 page
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