Burden of Production in Merger Cases Litigating Divestiture Fixes: Amicus Brief

In this amicus brief to the D.C. District Court judge, Amy Berman Jackson, in the U.S. v Assa Abloy, we explain the legal and policy rationales for courts to place the burden of on the merging parties to produce sufficient evidence that the divestiture will preserve competition to rebut the anticompetitive structural presumption based on the market shares of the unremedied merger that was reported to the agencies in the Hart-Scott-Rodino filing

Assessing the communication level in people with Down syndrome: inventory and assessment of instruments

Verschillende facetten van (pre)linguïstische taalontwikkeling zijn bij mensen met downsyndroom (DS) vertraagd of minder ontwikkeld. Dit kan zorgen voor probleemgedrag en moeilijkheden in de communicatie.Passende ondersteunde communicatie is nodig, maar het is niet duidelijk hoe op een laagdrempelige manier een afgewogen keuze kan worden gemaakt. In de verstandelijk gehandicaptenzorg wordt daarom vaak gebruikgemaakt van trial-and-error. Dit literatuuronderzoek inventariseert en evalueert instrumenten voor het bepalen van het communicatieniveau van mensen met downsyndroom. Middels systematisch literatuuronderzoek is gezocht naar artikelen waarin relevante instrumenten worden genoemd. Deze instrumenten zijn beschreven en beoordeeld op basis van zes criteria die zijn opgesteld vanuit de literatuur over specifieke kenmerken bij downsyndroom. De instrumenten zijn beoordeeldop toepasbaarheid bij deze doelgroep. Van de 1480 gevonden artikelen zijn 35 artikelen geanalyseerd, waaruit 23 verschillende instrumenten zijn geïdentificeerd. Van de relevante artikelen zijn onder andere studiepopulatie,doel en gebruikte instrumenten beschreven. Daarnaast zijn per instrument gegevens verzameld over eigenschappen als doelgroep, materiaal, afnameduur, normering, betrouwbaarheid en validiteit.Na beoordeling van de 23 instrumenten op basis van de criteria bleek één instrument te voldoen aan alle zes criteria. Zes instrumenten voldeden aan vijf van de zes criteria. Er is geen instrument gevonden dat specifiek voor mensen met DS is ontwikkeld. De ComVoor lijkt het meest passende instrument. Voor deinzet bij mensen met DS worden aanpassingen aan het instrument wenselijk geacht

Stability of chronotype over a 7-year follow-up period and its association with severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms

Background: Chronotype is an individual's preferred timing of sleep and activity, and is often referred to as a later chronotype (or evening-type) or an earlier chronotype (or morning-type). Having an evening chronotype is associated with more severe depressive and anxiety symptoms. Based on these findings it is has been suggested that chronotype is a stable construct associated with vulnerability to develop depressive or anxiety disorders. To examine this, we test the stability of chronotype over 7 years, and its longitudinal association with the change in severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Methods: Data of 1,417 participants with a depressive and/or anxiety disorder diagnosis and healthy controls assessed at the 2 and 9-year follow-up waves of the Netherlands Study of depression and anxiety were used. Chronotype was assessed with the Munich chronotype questionnaire. Severity of depressive and anxiety symptoms were assessed with the inventory of depressive symptomatology and Beck anxiety inventory. Results: Chronotype was found to be moderately stable (r = 0.53) and on average advanced (i.e., became earlier) with 10.8 min over 7 years (p <.001). Controlling for possible confounders, a decrease in severity of depressive symptoms was associated with an advance in chronotype (B = 0.008, p =.003). A change in severity of anxiety symptoms was not associated with a change in chronotype. Conclusion: Chronotype was found to be a stable, trait-like construct with only a minor level advance over a period of 7 years. The change in chronotype was associated with a change in severity of depressive, but not anxiety, symptoms

Old lady charm: explaining the persistent appeal of Chicago antitrust

The paper deals with the mysterious persistence of the Chicago approach as the main analytical engine driving antitrust enforcement in American courts. While the approach has been almost completely replaced in contemporary industrial economics by the so-called Post-Chicago view, Chicago arguments still permeate antitrust case law at all judicial levels. Chicago rise to dominance was allegedly due to the superiority of its economic analysis. Why did the Post-Chicago approach, which is supposed to have a clear analytical edge, fail to do the same? The paper offers a series of explanations: though none is completely exhaustive, each may account for a bit of the story. More generally, the current situation of antitrust case law offers valuable methodological insight on themes such as how economists persuade (i.e., how economic arguments come to be accepted and applied by policy- or law-makers) or the impact of the different professional practices in the diffusion of economic ideas