The coping strategies of families who have more than one child with autism: a qualitative study

How do families with more than one child with autism manage to cope and do they risk family disintegration or demonstrate resilience? Although there is extensive literature on coping with children with disabilities, no previous study has examined the effect of living with two or more children with autism. Eleven families including parents, siblings, and verbal children with autism, (45individuals) were interviewed to ascertain their coping strategies. Using Grounded Theory, the semi-structured interview typescripts were analysed, and a theory emerged that all families cope, but they go through different periods of perilous coping and buoyant coping. The various factors which lead to each type of coping are demonstrated, and discussed. Practical suggestions to improve coping are given by the families. Their message to the non autistic world was that they do not want to be pitied. The results showed a remarkable degree of resilience in all the families. Family and extended family were the most significant source of support. Perilous coping was associated with a number of intervening factors. The families showed real warmth and love towards the affected children and in spite of concerns about the future, the non affected siblings were confident they would look after their disabled siblings when the parents were no longer able to do so. Children with autism had a fascinating range of perceptions about autism

Consumers and Competition

This paper shows that even if all consumers face search costs, if these are below a certain level dependent upon the firm numbers and demand elasticity, the Diamond-type equilibrium with all prices at the monopoly level fails to exist.Diamond Paradox ; Search Behaviour ; Oligopoly pricing

The role of consumers in competition and competition policy

This paper develops the idea that consumers’ behavior matters significantly from the viewpoint of industry performance. This is examined through some theoretical propositions, but then at greater length by means of some case study examples. These examples demonstrate how, even in potentially competitive industries, reluctance on the part of consumers to search or to switch suppliers can lead to a sub-competitive outcome. The significance of non-traditional competition policy remedies in changing the outcome is drawn out.

Beer - the ties that bind

It started with the Beer Orders (1989). A watershed decision was made by the Law Lords in July 2006. For one man, Bernie Crehan, this was the culmination of a 15 year episode in the pub trade, in which he has made legal history as the first UK case of damages for breach of competition law being awarded by a court. Possibly hundreds of other cases hung on their Lordships’ decision and Nomura, the Japanese bank that took over the chain called Inntrepreneur, had a total potential liability of £100m. And it all concerns Article 81, vertical agreements, and the price of a pint of beer. In 1989, the UK Monopolies and Mergers Commission published its lengthy and longawaited report on Beer. The Commission “…recommended measures that eventually led brewers to divest themselves of 14000 public houses. The MMC claimed that their recommendations would lower retail prices and increase consumer choice. There is considerable doubt, however, that their objectives were achieved.” (Slade, 1998, p565). In their report, the MMC noted rising real prices of beer and seized upon the power of the then big six brewers exercised through their considerable tied estates as being a prime motor. Consequently, they recommended that the ties be substantially cut. At that stage, the MMC (unlike the present day Competition Commission) did not determine remedies and it was left to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) to formulate the remedies (the Beer Orders) and the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to supervise their implementation. Thus the OFT found itself implementing the Beer Orders in the face of a brewing industry determined to fight back.

Comparison of signalized junction control strategies using individual vehicle position data

This paper is concerned with the development of control strategies for urban signalized junction that can make use of individual vehicle position data from localization probes on board the vehicles. Strategy development involves simulating the behaviour of vehicles as they negotiate junctions controlled by prototype strategies and evaluating performance. Two strategies are discussed in this paper, a simple auctioning agent strategy and an extended auctioning agent strategy where a machine learning approach is used to enable agents to be trained by a human expert to improve performance. The performance of these two strategies are compared with each other and with the MOVA algorithm in simulated tests. The results show that auctioning agents using individual vehicle position data can out perform MOVA, but that this performance can be improved further still by using learning auctioning agents trained by a human expert

Do British wind generators behave strategically in response to the Western Link interconnector?

In Britain, the key source of renewable generation is wind, most abundant on the west coast of Scotland, where there is relatively little demand. For this reason, an interconnector, the Western Link, was built to take electricity closer to demand. When the Link is operating, payments by National Grid to constrain wind farms not to produce will be lower, we may predict, since fewer or less restrictive constraints need be imposed. But the Link has not been working consistently. We empirically estimate the link’s value. Focusing on the three most recent episodes of outage, starting on 4th May 2018 up to 25th September 2019, our essential approach is to treat these outages as a natural experiment using hourly data. Our results reveal that the Link had an important role in costs saved and price constrained and MWh curtailed reductions. We estimate a cost-saving of almost £30m. However, the saving appears to drop over time, so we investigate wind farms’ behavior. We find that wind farms behave strategically since the accuracy of wind forecasting depends on the relevant prices impacting their earnings

Chain-store pricing for strategic accommodation

Chain-stores now dominate most areas of retailing. While retailers may operate nationally or even internationally, the markets they compete in are largely local. How should they best operate pricing policy in respect of the different markets served - price uniformly across the local markets or on a local basis according to market conditions? We model this by allowing local market differences, with entry being inevitable in certain markets while being naturally or institutionally blockaded in others. We show that practising price discrimination is not always best for the chain-store. Competitive conditions exist under which uniform pricing can raise profits

Your call: eBay and demand for the iPhone 4

The iPhone 4 was introduced into the UK market on 24th June 2010 to significant consumer interest. This clearly exceeded supply through conventional channels, since there was very extensive activity in terms of bidding on eBay auctions for the product. We monitored all eBay transactions on the iPhone 4 for six weeks from introduction, with total transactions amounting to around £1.5m. We analyse determinants of the winning bid in terms of characteristics of the phone, the seller and the buyer. Our most notable and novel finding relative to previous studies is a very significant premium over list price being paid in almost all cases, with positive uplift factors including whether the phone was unlocked and whether it could be sold overseas. Demand fell over time, as evidenced by lower achieved prices, but the fall in price was relatively modest. A significant premium of 32GB over 16GB versions is revealed.eBay auctions ; demand revelation ; auctions ; bidding ; short supply ; versioning JEL Classification: D44 ; L81 ; D12 ; L63

Market Structure and Entry: Where's the Beef?.

We study the effects of market structure on entry using data from the UK fast food (counter-service burger)industry over the years 1991-1995. Over this period, the market can be characterized as a duopoly. We find that market structure matters greatly: for both firms, rival presence increases the probability of entry. We control for market specific time-invariant unobservable and their correlation with existing outlets of both firms through a variety of methods.LEARNING ; MARKET ; DUOPOLY

Private label products as experience goods

Food retailing has become more concentrated and private label goods have spread over the last 40 years. Using a two-stage model in which consumers become informed about the quality of the good only in period 2, we examine what determines the presence or absence of private label experience goods in supermarkets. Our most novel result is that in the case of products purchased infrequently, producing a reputable private label is not sustainable. Retailer bargaining power increases the likelihood of a private label good being produced. Evidence from France is consistent with the main propositions