89 research outputs found
The Appropriate Legal Standard and Sufficient Economic Evidence for Exclusive Dealing under Section 2: the FTCâs \u3ci\u3eMcWane\u3c/i\u3e Case
The FTC recently found McWane, Inc. liable for unlawful monopoly maintenance by a 3-1 majority. The dispute among the FTC Commissioners raises important and interesting issues regarding the law and economics of exclusive dealing and the proper evaluation of the competitive effects of exclusionary conduct. Commissioner Wrightâs Dissent proposes and utilizes a new legal standard that requires the plaintiff to show âclear evidenceâ of harm to competition before shifting the burden to the defendant to show procompetitive efficiency benefits. This burden of proof and production on the plaintiff is much higher than showing âprobable effectâ based on a preponderance of the evidence standard. Application of this higher burden to interbrand exclusivity restraints by monopolists is not supported either by the case law, economic theory or empirical evidence. In evaluating harm to competition, this legal standard places no weight on certain important factors, including the fact that McWane was a monopolist with the explicit purpose of raising the costs and reducing the distribution of its only competitors. His proposed standard also does not consider whether McWaneâs efficiency claims were valid, in the absence of other clear evidence of competitive harm. Commissioner Wright limits his economic analysis to only a single possible mechanism of exclusionary effect, whether the entrant was prevented from reaching minimum efficient scale of production, rather than a broader analysis of whether the entrantâs costs were raised or whether its ability to expand output was so limited by the exclusives that it was unable to prevent the maintenance of McWaneâs monopoly pricing. Commissioner Wright also fails to credit the direct evidence of price effects found by the Commission. In our view, this proposed type of legal standard and economic approach is not an âenquiry meet for the case.â It creates a serious risk of leading to false negatives, under-enforcement and under-deterrence
X-ray Observations of the Compact Source in CTA 1
The point source RX J0007.0+7302, at the center of supernova remnant CTA 1,
was studied using the X-Ray Multi-mirror Mission. The X-ray spectrum of the
source is consistent with a neutron star interpretation, and is well described
by a power law with the addition of a soft thermal component that may
correspond to emission from hot polar cap regions or to cooling emission from a
light element atmosphere over the entire star. There is evidence of extended
emission on small spatial scales which may correspond to structure in the
underlying synchrotron nebula. No pulsations are observed. Extrapolation of the
nonthermal spectrum of RX J0007.0+7302 to gamma-ray energies yields a flux
consistent with that of EGRET source 3EG J0010+7309, supporting the proposition
that there is a gamma-ray emitting pulsar at the center of CTA 1. Observations
of the outer regions of CTA 1 with the Advanced Satellite for Cosmology and
Astrophysics confirm earlier detections of thermal emission from the remnant
and show that the synchrotron nebula extends to the outermost reaches of the
SNR.Comment: 5 pages, including 4 postscript figs.LaTex. Accepted for publication
by Ap
Thirty Years After Michael E. Porter: What Do We Know About Business Exit?
Although a business exit is an important corporate change initiative, the buyerâs side seems to be more appealing to management researchers than the sellerâs because acquisitions imply growth, i.e., success. Yet from an optimistic viewpoint, business exit can effectively create value for the selling company. In this paper we attempt to bring the relevance of the sellerâs side back into our consciousness by asking: What do we know about business exit? We start our exploration with Porter (1976), focusing on literature that investigates the antecedents of, barriers to, and outcomes of business exit. We also include studies from related fields such as finance and economics.1 Through this research we determine three clusters of findings: factors promoting business exit, exit barriers, and exit outcomes. Overall, it is the intention of this paper to highlight the importance of business exit for research and practice. Knowing what we know about business exits and their high financial value we should bear in mind that exit need not mean failure but a new beginning for a corporation
Amenability of groups and -sets
This text surveys classical and recent results in the field of amenability of
groups, from a combinatorial standpoint. It has served as the support of
courses at the University of G\"ottingen and the \'Ecole Normale Sup\'erieure.
The goals of the text are (1) to be as self-contained as possible, so as to
serve as a good introduction for newcomers to the field; (2) to stress the use
of combinatorial tools, in collaboration with functional analysis, probability
etc., with discrete groups in focus; (3) to consider from the beginning the
more general notion of amenable actions; (4) to describe recent classes of
examples, and in particular groups acting on Cantor sets and topological full
groups
Action to protect the independence and integrity of global health research
Storeng KT, Abimbola S, Balabanova D, et al. Action to protect the independence and integrity of global health research. BMJ GLOBAL HEALTH. 2019;4(3): e001746
International genome-wide meta-analysis identifies new primary biliary cirrhosis risk loci and targetable pathogenic pathways.
Primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC) is a classical autoimmune liver disease for which effective immunomodulatory therapy is lacking. Here we perform meta-analyses of discovery data sets from genome-wide association studies of European subjects (n=2,764 cases and 10,475 controls) followed by validation genotyping in an independent cohort (n=3,716 cases and 4,261 controls). We discover and validate six previously unknown risk loci for PBC (Pcombined<5 Ă 10(-8)) and used pathway analysis to identify JAK-STAT/IL12/IL27 signalling and cytokine-cytokine pathways, for which relevant therapies exist
Breast cancer management pathways during the COVID-19 pandemic: outcomes from the UK âAlert Level 4â phase of the B-MaP-C study
Abstract: Background: The B-MaP-C study aimed to determine alterations to breast cancer (BC) management during the peak transmission period of the UK COVID-19 pandemic and the potential impact of these treatment decisions. Methods: This was a national cohort study of patients with early BC undergoing multidisciplinary team (MDT)-guided treatment recommendations during the pandemic, designated âstandardâ or âCOVID-alteredâ, in the preoperative, operative and post-operative setting. Findings: Of 3776 patients (from 64 UK units) in the study, 2246 (59%) had âCOVID-alteredâ management. âBridgingâ endocrine therapy was used (n = 951) where theatre capacity was reduced. There was increasing access to COVID-19 low-risk theatres during the study period (59%). In line with national guidance, immediate breast reconstruction was avoided (n = 299). Where adjuvant chemotherapy was omitted (n = 81), the median benefit was only 3% (IQR 2â9%) using âNHS Predictâ. There was the rapid adoption of new evidence-based hypofractionated radiotherapy (n = 781, from 46 units). Only 14 patients (1%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 during their treatment journey. Conclusions: The majority of âCOVID-alteredâ management decisions were largely in line with pre-COVID evidence-based guidelines, implying that breast cancer survival outcomes are unlikely to be negatively impacted by the pandemic. However, in this study, the potential impact of delays to BC presentation or diagnosis remains unknown
- âŠ