13,855 research outputs found
Digital Platforms and Antitrust Law
This Article is about “big data” and antitrust law. Big data, for my purposes, refers to digital platforms that enable the discovery and sharing of information by consumers, and the harvesting and analysis of consumer data by the platform. The obvious example of such a platform is Google. The big platforms owe their market dominance not to anticompetitive conduct but to economies of scale. This Article discusses three types of anticompetitive conduct associated with digital platforms: kill zone expropriation, acquisition of nascent rivals, and denial of access to data. There is nothing so unusual about digital platforms that would require a reform of the antitrust laws. Some are described as two-sided markets, but this designation, even after Ohio v. American Express Co., should not present an obstacle to the application of antitrust law.
I. Introduction
II. Platforms
III. Competition Issues ... A. Kill Zone Expropriation ... B. Acquisition of Nascent Rivals ... C. Denial of Access to Data
IV. Antitrust Law
V. Conclusio
When Should a Case Be Dismissed? The Economics of Pleading and Summary Judgment Standards
This paper applies a simple economic framework to the choice between pleading and summary judgment as points at which a claim can be dismissed. It concludes generally that pleading standards should vary with the evidentiary demands of the associated legal standards and the social costs of litigation. The common law's imposition of higher pleading standards for fraud claims is consistent with this proposition. The theory implies that the rigorous summary judgment standards that have been developed by antitrust courts should lead to a correspondingly rigorous assessment at the pleading stage.
Trial Selection Theory: A Unified Model
This paper provides a formal model of the trial selection process that incorporates the Priest-Klein hypothesis and alternative theories of selection. We derive the conditions under which the hypothesis is valid, and examine implications for the relationship between trial outcome uncertainty and litigation. The model suggests a generalization of the hypothesis.
Innovation and Optimal Punishment, with Antitrust Applications
This paper modifies the optimal penalty analysis by incorporating investment incentives with external benefits. In the models examined, the recommendation that the optimal penalty should internalize the marginal social harm is no longer valid as a general rule. We focus on antitrust applications. In light of the benefits from innovation, the optimal policy will punish monopolizing firms more leniently than suggested in the standard static model. It may be optimal not to punish the monopolizing firm at all, or to reward the firm rather than punish it. We examine the precise balance between penalty and reward in the optimal punishment scheme.optimal law enforcement, optimal antitrust penalty, monopolization, innovation, internalization, strict liability, static penalty
Quantum Nondemolition Squeezing of a Nanomechanical Resonator
We show that the nanoresonator position can be squeezed significantly below
the ground state level by measuring the nanoresonator with a quantum point
contact or a single-electron transistor and applying a periodic voltage across
the detector. The mechanism of squeezing is basically a generalization of
quantum nondemolition measurement of an oscillator to the case of continuous
measurement by a weakly coupled detector. The quantum feedback is necessary to
prevent the ``heating'' due to measurement back-action. We also discuss a
procedure of experimental verification of the squeezed state.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure
Spontaneous Supersymmetric Generation of an Indeterminate Mass Scale and a Possible Light Sterile Neutrino
If a global continuous symmetry of a supersymmetric field theory is
spontaneously broken while preserving the supersymmetry, the resulting theory
has a massless superfield. One of its two bosonic degrees of freedom is the
familiar phase rotation of the usual massless Nambu-Goldstone boson, but the
other is a scale transformation. An indeterminate mass scale is thus generated.
In the fermion sector, a seesaw texture appears which may be suitable for a
possible light sterile neutrino. This feature persists even after the gauging
of the continuous symmetry or the breaking of the supersymmetry to resolve the
aforementioned mass-scale ambiguity.Comment: 9 pages, expanded to include the discussion of a possible sterile
neutrin
Segmenting root systems in X-ray computed tomography images using level sets
The segmentation of plant roots from soil and other growing media in X-ray
computed tomography images is needed to effectively study the root system
architecture without excavation. However, segmentation is a challenging problem
in this context because the root and non-root regions share similar features.
In this paper, we describe a method based on level sets and specifically
adapted for this segmentation problem. In particular, we deal with the issues
of using a level sets approach on large image volumes for root segmentation,
and track active regions of the front using an occupancy grid. This method
allows for straightforward modifications to a narrow-band algorithm such that
excessive forward and backward movements of the front can be avoided, distance
map computations in a narrow band context can be done in linear time through
modification of Meijster et al.'s distance transform algorithm, and regions of
the image volume are iteratively used to estimate distributions for root versus
non-root classes. Results are shown of three plant species of different
maturity levels, grown in three different media. Our method compares favorably
to a state-of-the-art method for root segmentation in X-ray CT image volumes.Comment: 11 page
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