Critical import supply elasticities and the ‘imports-as-market-discipline’ hypothesis

This paper formally examines the factors underlying how responsive imports must be to domestic prices (the ‘import supply elasticity’) in order to thwart an anticompetitive domestic price increase stemming from a merger––an issue that frequently arises in many antitrust reviews. Domestic firms face a fringe comprised of foreign firms who import their products into the domestic market. In the eyes of domestic consumers, these imports are viewed as imperfect substitutes in demand to the output produced by the domestic firms. The model is solved in terms of the ‘critical’ import supply elasticity that can then be used evaluate the ability of imports to constrain an anticompetitive price increase post-merger. Both general and linear demand specifications are considered. Numerical simulations are conducted to consider the magnitude of perturbations in the model’s exogenous parameters. Potential empirical extensions of the model are also considered.

Critical import supply elasticities and the ‘imports-as-market-discipline’ hypothesis

This paper formally examines the factors underlying how responsive imports must be to domestic prices (the ‘import supply elasticity’) in order to thwart an anticompetitive domestic price increase stemming from a merger––an issue that frequently arises in many antitrust reviews. Domestic firms face a fringe comprised of foreign firms who import their products into the domestic market. In the eyes of domestic consumers, these imports are viewed as imperfect substitutes in demand to the output produced by the domestic firms. The model is solved in terms of the ‘critical’ import supply elasticity that can then be used evaluate the ability of imports to constrain an anticompetitive price increase post-merger. Both general and linear demand specifications are considered. Numerical simulations are conducted to consider the magnitude of perturbations in the model’s exogenous parameters. Potential empirical extensions of the model are also considered.Competitive effects; Critical loss; Market definition; Import supply elasticity

Competition and cost pass-through in differentiated oligopolies

The impact that competition exerts on the incentives of firms to pass through reductions in their marginal costs is an important consideration in assessing the performance of alternate market structures. This paper examines the role of product differentiation on firm-specific and industry-wide pass-through rates. Relying on Shubik’s (1980) model of differentiated Cournot competition with linear demand, we show that there exists an initial critical range over which the firm-specific cost pass-through rate decreases in the number of firms. Beyond this range the rate continually increases – approaching 50 percent as the number of firms goes to infinity. This contrasts with a model of differentiated Bertrand competition in which cost pass through monotonically decreases in the number of firms. The disparate effects across the Cournot and Bertrand models are shown to stem from the influence of competition and product differentiation on the respective firm reaction functions. Suggestions for future empirical work based upon the models’ predictions and implications for antitrust policy are also discussed.Competitive effects; Oligopoly; Merger; Pass-through; Product differentiation

Some Observations on Current Cosmological Theories

It has been rightly said that there are fashions in science as in all other fields. This fact has been demonstrated lately by the large number of articles dealing with cosmological problems that have appeared in the last two years in both popular and scientific journals. There has been striking evidence of increased interest in cosmology, the study of the universe, and in cosmogony, the study of the origin of the universe and the world. One of the most popular programs of the British Broadcasting System in 1950 was a series of lectures on the origin of the world and the universe by Fred Hoyle of the University of Cambridge

Catholic Action

According to well established policy the Catholic Church considers it its right and responsibility to rule in temporal affairs as well as in spiritual. Therefore, the Papacy today is striving through Catholic Action to condition the social and moral thinking of society so that the leadership of the Catholic Church may eventually be accepted in every field of human activity. The tremendous implications of this program demand thorough study. In our discussion of Catholic Action we shall first trace the development of Catholic Action from its beginning to the present day. We shall then consider its theological bases. Finally, we shall examine and evaluate the organization of Catholic Action as it exists in our own country

Pressure buildup during CO2 injection in brine aquifers using the Forchheimer equation

If geo-sequestration of CO2 is to be employed as a key emissions reduction method in the global effort to mitigate climate change, simple yet robust screening of the risks of disposal in brine aquifers will be needed. There has been significant development of simple analytical and semi-analytical techniques to support screening analysis and performance assessment for potential carbon sequestration sites. These techniques have generally been used to estimate the size of CO2 plumes for the purpose of leakage rate estimation. A common assumption has been that both the fluids and the geological formation are incompressible. Consequently, calculation of pressure distribution requires the specification of an arbitrary radius of influence. In this talk, a new similarity solution is derived using the method of matched asymptotic expansions. By allowing for slight compressibility in the fluids and formation, the solution improves on previous work by not requiring the specification of an arbitrary radius of influence. A large-time approximation of the solution is then extended to account for non-Darcy inertial effects using the Forchheimer equation. Both solutions are verified by comparison with finite difference solutions. The results show that inertial losses will often be comparable, and sometimes greater than, the viscous Darcy-like losses associated with the brine displacement, although this is strongly dependent on formation porosity and permeability

Children's Understanding of Psychogenic Bodily Reactions

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/65537/1/1467-8624.00289.pd

Enantioselective Synthesis of Piperidines through the Formation of Chiral Mixed Phosphoric Acid Acetals: Experimental and Theoretical Studies

An enantioselective intramolecular chiral phosphoric acid‐catalyzed cyclization of unsaturated acetals has been utilized for the synthesis of functionalized chiral piperidines. The chiral enol ether products of these cyclizations undergo subsequent in situ enantioenrichment through acetalization of the minor enantiomer. A new computational reaction exploration method was utilized to elucidate the mechanism and stereoselectivity of this transformation. Rather than confirming the originally postulated cyclization proceeding directly through a vinyl oxocarbenium ion, simulations identified an alternative two‐step mechanism involving the formation of a mixed chiral phosphate acetal, which undergoes a concerted, asynchronous S N 2′‐like displacement to yield the product with stereoselectivity in agreement with experimental observations. Eine enantioselektive Cyclisierung ungesättigter Acetale mit einem chiralen Phosphorsäurekatalysator führt zu funktionalisierten Piperidinen. Die dabei erhaltenen chiralen Enolether durchlaufen anschließend in situ eine Enantiomerenanreicherung. Eine neue Rechenmethode wurde genutzt, um den Mechanismus und die Stereoselektivität dieser Transformation zu beleuchten. Cbz=Benzyloxycarbonyl; S =Anreicherungsfaktor.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109322/1/ange_201405128_sm_miscellaneous_information.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/109322/2/11376_ftp.pd