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• China's Anti-Monopoly Law (AML) has a positive impact on average labor wage. • Labor income share increases more in local state-owned and nonstate-owned enterprises. • AML effectively promotes industry competition and boosts the labor income share. • AML reduces market power, curbs monopoly profit, and increases the average labor wage. This study examines the impact of increased market competition on labor income share. We use the enactment of China's Anti-Monopoly Law as a quasi-natural experiment. The results reveal that the Anti-Monopoly Law has a significant positive effect on the labor income share of firms with higher market power. This is because the rising market competition, effected by the Anti-Monopoly Law, inhibits market power and increases average labor wages. Our findings are relevant for firms in provinces with higher administrative monopolies, with less competition, and under industries with less competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 15 studies highlighted in this special issue collectively underscore the significant impacts of market participation on farmers' well-being, income, poverty reduction, dietary diversity, and rural economic growth. They also delve into the importance of marketing channel choice and the role of e-commerce in enhancing farmers' market linkages. In addition, they address farmers' preferences for market access interventions and the examination of market power within the agricultural industry, especially in low-income countries. The key findings include: (1) Market participation is critical for improving farmers' subjective and objective well-being, with studies demonstrating positive impacts on income, poverty reduction, and dietary diversity; (2) The choice of marketing channels significantly influences income, with evidence suggesting online sales can substantially increase farmers' earnings; (3) E-commerce plays a pivotal role in connecting farmers to broader markets, leading to income growth and enhanced market visibility; (4) Understanding and addressing farmers' preferences for market access through interventions like systematization policies and joint ventures can facilitate better market integration and support inclusive business models; (5) Analysis of market power within the primary foods industry reveals rising markups, particularly affecting low-income countries. These findings suggest that policies and interventions aiming to improve market access, promote e-commerce, and consider farmers' preferences and market power dynamics can significantly impact farmers' incomes, poverty levels, and overall rural economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Chinese government aims to balance employment stabilization and emissions reduction when it initiates an emissions trading scheme (ETS) to control carbon emissions. However, the policymakers should not neglect the role of imperfectly competitive market structure and market power from incumbent firms. In view of this, classical framework of Berman and Bui's (2001) is extended in this paper to clarify the theoretical mechanism of employment effect of the ETS considering firm-level market power. In addition, based on the firm-level panel data from 2008 to 2019 of China, the employment effect of each pilot ETS is measured with the method of difference-in-difference-in-differences. Then a moderating effect model is established to verify the role of firm-level market power on the heterogeneous employment effect among the pilot ETSs. Moreover, the employment effect is further decomposed to evaluate the influential mechanism from the perspective of firms' strategic behavior. It is found that there is negative employment effect of China's ETS policy, due to the significant moderating role of firm-level market power. This decrease in labor demand is mainly dominated by a negative output effect rather than a positive substitution effect because strategic allowance sellers with stronger market power tend to hire fewer employees to reduce carbon emissions by controlling production scale. However, the heterogeneity of policy effects resulted by market structure is also identified in different pilot regions. Employment dividend has been found in Beijing and Tianjin where strategic allowance buyers manipulate the carbon market and hire more employees to consolidate their market power. Therefore, policymakers should improve the design of the ETS to overcome the adverse employment effect duo to the region-specific market structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive quantitative approach to electricity market monitoring through the development of an effective system. The proposed system consists of three stages: operational monitoring of market participants' behavior, analysis of collective behavior and economic parameters, and midterm assessment of market competition indices. By leveraging quantitative analysis techniques, such as statistical methods, the system aims to identify patterns signaling significant changes in participants' behavior. Additionally, the system reduces the number of labor-intensive studies leading to false results, automates monitoring partially, and provides long-term analysis capabilities. Ultimately, this quantitative-based system enhances transparency, reliability, and responsiveness to unforeseen shocks in the electricity market, ensuring effective policy assessment and decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Chemical Industry / Hemijska Industrija is the property of Association of Chemical Engineers and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The study of market power in the primary foods industry is of high interest to policymakers seeking to help develop low-income countries, due to its potential source to create market inefficiencies and hamper economic development. Recent studies have provided ample empirical evidence, that market power has been increasing nearly continuously since the 1980s. Nevertheless, due to the (un)availability of firm-level data, most research is constrained to analyzing firms within industries of a few high-income with a particular focus on manufacturing and service sectors. This paper proposes to remedy this gap in the literature by using aggregate data contained within the Eora Input-Output Tables and a procedure based on Generalized Maximum Entropy to provide estimates of the markup for the primary foods industry (defined as the agriculture, hunting, logging and fishing industries) for 43 countries in Asia. We document a large heterogeneity based on a country's income level classification. Furthermore, measures of globalization are seen to significantly reduce markups. Opening up to trade might therefore be an attractive option to policymakers seeking to stimulate economic efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I study the proximity-concentration trade-off faced by two multiproduct multinational companies (MNCs) that operate in two countries under horizontal product differentiation. In this context, characterized by two-way trade and foreign direct investment, the trade-off regulates the domestic stock of investment (concentration) against the foreign stock (proximity) in a way that is centred around the exploitation of large market shares and market power. I show that MNCs follow pricing-to-market that mirrors the proximity-concentration trade-off, and I characterize how market shares, prices, and markups react to changes in investment and trade frictions. Endogenous variables turn out to be closely interrelated across markets and firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study empirically examined the spatial competition and stability of rural banks. Using detailed quarter-balanced panel bank-level data on rural banks in Indonesia, this study investigated spatial competition and bank stability using a spatial autoregressive model (SAR) constructed by weight matrices based on the inverse distance between a bank and its neighboring banks to measure market power using the adjusted-Lerner index. The significant characteristics of rural banks were discussed, and a unique dataset was used, such as provincial GDP, inflation, and forex. The results showed that banks exerted some pricing power with an existing inverted U-shaped relationship, which was consistent with the monopolistically competitive structure of the industry. This supported the competition-fragility hypothesis. In addition, the evidence showed that bank stability increased with a decrease in the stability of neighboring banks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2005, the Food and Drug Administration required the use of chlorofluorocarbon-free propellants in albuterol inhalers. But 3M held patents on the only U.S.-approved chlorofluorocarbon-free inhaler. The agency's regulations forced multiple generic albuterol manufacturers to choose between infringing 3M's patents or exiting the market. This state of affairs was lucrative for 3M, perhaps good for the environment, bad for competition, and terrible for patients faced with high costs for essential medical devices. This is an example of a general phenomenon: mandatory infringement. Intellectual property prohibits certain activities, but sometimes the government also mandates these very same activities. Such situations arise surprisingly frequently in fields including environmental protection, pharmaceutical labeling, information technology, and access to justice. The manifest injustice of regulatory law requiring what intellectual property law disallows has sparked vigorous debates over individual cases in all these fields. Yet there has been no unified treatment of how the law should address mandatory infringement. Courts and scholars have taken approaches that are scattershot, idiosyncratie, and even inconsistent with each other. The key to fixing mandatory infringement is understanding why it is a problem in the first place: competition. Mandatory infringement creates outsized market power due to an inverse relationship between the effect of regulations and intellectual property rights on competition. It further enables passing the buck between regulators and courts, encourages rentseeking rather than innovation, and induces government offloading of licensing costs onto regulated entities that produces a principal-agent disconnect. These phenomena explain why regulators and courts applying antitrust or intellectual property laws have difficulties resolving mandatory infringement. Although they try hard to reach fair outcomes, and often succeed, the distinctive aspects of mandatory infringement and authorities' failure to recognize them frequently have left unjustified market dominance intact. A new approach is required: a trans-substantive doctrine that excuses mandatory infringement, not tied to specific legal regimes but broadly encompassing matters of competitive markets and public welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The majority of microwave ovens on the market are powered by magnetrons, which can only produce a narrow-band frequency that has a large peak, resulting in poor uniformity. A method is proposed to improve nonuniform heating based on nonlinear response characteristics of the magnetron to produce multi-frequency. First, a multi-physics model of microwave heating is established to realize the calculation of multi-frequency heating. Second, a multi-frequency heating experimental system based on the characteristics of the magnetron is built and verified with the calculated results. The results show that the calculated results are in good agreement with the experimental results. Finally, based on the multi-physics model, the influences of different parameters, such as frequency intervals, cavity size, location of the object to be heated and material properties, on microwave heating uniformity have also been discussed. The results show that the method adopted in this paper is feasible, and the heating uniformity of microwaves is improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The annual Forbes magazine’s lists of the wealthiest individuals in the world are a widely used source of data about the dynamics of wealth concentration. They complement the estimates of global and national wealth concentration published annually by Credit Suisse Bank and the World Inequality Database. Both sources enable analysis of the dynamics of wealth accumulation. This paper seeks to assess the degree to which political–institutional forces as opposed to market forces shape the process of wealth accumulation. The paper finds that the growth rate of the total wealth of the top 400 individuals between 2000 and 2020 was much higher than for their countries as a whole. Moreover, wealth at the very top has become significantly more concentrated. The processes generating accumulation of wealth nationally foster higher rates of wealth accumulation for the wealthiest. The paper proposes political and institutional explanations based on opportunities for rent-extraction by the wealthiest. Rising market power on the part of some firms and sectors enables profitability to become decoupled from productivity and enables individual-level wealth to accumulate at a rate proportional to the level of wealth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the experience of crop diversification in Indian Punjab through involvement of private corporate companies twice. The intention of the policy planners to develop interface of agriculture with agro-processing companies for solving the problem of low income of farmers and save water did not succeed. This is discussed in the light of market form represented by these companies. Contrary to perfect competition these companies display imperfect competition especially monopsony/ oligopsony in nature. In these market forms the companies use their market power to extract abnormal/super profits when they deal with farmers . It is further brought out that bureaucracy lacks capacity to protect the interests of the farmers when they have interface with the big companies. This makes task of developing integration of agriculture with industry for inclusive development difficult in the Indian context. The policy planners have to think creatively to devise measures to resolve critical issues of transitional phase of Indian agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The article assesses market designs in liberalized electricity markets. • It compares two very different zonal designs: the German and the Nordic market. • Policy preferences and institutional logics of market designs are investigated. • Main interests of key stakeholders are identified. • The study assesses how well the two designs comply with the energy transition. Electricity market design becomes increasingly important with growing shares of renewable energy in the electricity system. This article examines zonal market designs and their compatibility with ongoing energy transitions, focusing on two types of zonal market designs: the Nordic market with numerous, smaller zones, and the German "copper plate approach" with one, national zone. It assesses the dominant ideas and institutional logics within the two market designs. Perceptions of what kind of market design works best and is most efficient vary significantly, in line with the roles and interests of dominant stakeholders. Overall, the Nordic market is found to be better aligned with the energy transition in terms of flexibility, portfolio effects and system costs. The German market has considerably higher system costs but provides better conditions for long-term trading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we use an innovative and nonstandard approach to model and estimate markups and market power. The approach uses a regression framework with determinants as well as a random component. We use this innovative tool to investigate the level of market power in Norwegian industries and regions. Norway is an interesting case study because in Norway prices on most consumer goods and services are higher than in similar countries. Given that many studies show substantial and an increasing trend in markup, it is naturally interesting to investigate the market power in different industries and different regions in Norway. We use an unbalanced panel collected by The Norwegian Tax Administration for the period 2000–2018 to address this issue. We find low and non-increasing market power in Norway, which is different from other countries. Further, we find that market powers decrease with firm-size, increase with geographical industrial concentration and decrease with rural location. • We investigate the level of markups in Norwegian industries and regions. • We use an innovative and nonstandard approach to model and estimate markups. • We account for heterogeneity in the markup estimates. • To get a better understanding, we include determinants of markups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's power sector is transforming rapidly, marked by rising demand and a growing share of renewables. The short-term power market provides option for power distribution utilities to meet demand exigency. The paper presents trends and perspectives of short-term electricity trading of select states of India. Market transactions reflect seasonal demand variations, higher during summer-monsoon months, dipping in winters. Analysis of data highlights substantial share of short-term power in the total procurement. Quantum of power traded correlates inversely with operational performance of thermal plants as well as grid share of renewable energy. Suggested policy measures include honing of demand forecasting skills using advanced metering infrastructure, deploying energy storage technologies, including decentralized solar, ensuring sustained supply of coal and preventive maintenance of thermal power plants, initiating seasonal procurement contracts with merchant power plants, encouraging power banking arrangements and including storage component in solar and wind tenders. Power markets, if employed appropriately, can help minimize the demand-supply gap, facilitate energy access, and accommodate higher quantum of green power, thus fulfilling SDG-7 targets. • Strong role of climate in influencing power demand. • Distinct patterns of short-term power trading across Indian states. • Market inversely correlates with thermal PLF and RE penetration. • Need to enhanced forecasting skills. • Tenders clauses can include seasonal procurement and storage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Romanian Journal of Intellectual Property Law / Revista Română de Dreptul Proprietăţii Intelectuale is the property of Universul Juridic Publishing House and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Contaduría y Administración is the property of Facultad de Contaduria y Administracion-Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Medunarodni Problemi is the property of Institute of International Politics & Economics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Contaduría y Administración is the property of Facultad de Contaduria y Administracion-Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

It has become almost an article of faith that large, zero-price platforms--such as Facebook and Google--exercise market power by offering lower levels of privacy. Yet, a rigorous examination of the assumptions underlying this dataprice analogy is seriously lacking. Even more important, almost no empirical work has been done in this area. This Article contributes to the debate by filling these important gaps in the literature. After presenting a theoretical examination of the relationship between privacy and competition, we provide empirical evidence on the relationship between market power and privacy. First, using data from PrivacyGrade.org, we find no relationship between privacy grades and our proxies for market power. Second, we collected website traffic data from SimilarWeb and matched it to DuckDuckGo's privacy ratings for sites in thirty-seven website categories. Again, the data suggest no systematic relationship between privacy ratings and market concentration. Our theoretical analysis and empirical results challenge conventional wisdom, suggesting that antitrust is a poor tool to address perceived privacy problems. Instead, if markets produce less than optimal levels of privacy, it is likely due to informational problems that are not based on the level of competition. We suggest that absent specific allegations on (1) the causal link between conduct and degraded privacy, and (2) the lack of benefits from increased data collection, antitrust complaints that merely assert a causal link between privacy reductions and market power should not survive the Twombly-Iqbal plausibility standard. Further, we conclude that privacy regulation and competition policy might be complementary, but only in one direction: consumer protection designed to increase consumer access to information about firms' privacy practices--and firms' ability to credibly commit to these promises--may help foster competition over privacy, but the converse is not true. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• This study reveals a significant and positive impact of controlling shareholders on dividends in Chinese listed companies. • The impact is mainly due to the tunnel effect of the controlling shareholder rather than the governance effect. • The influence is negatively regulated by product market competition from two levels: industry competition and market power of company. This study aims to investigate the impact of control rights held by actual controller on dividends in China, and further explores whether this impact is affected by product market competition from both industry competition (IC) and corporate market power (MP) perspectives. The results show a positive relationship between control rights and dividends in both state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises, and the mechanism is dividend tunneling rather than governance. Moreover, IC has a disciplinary effect on dividend tunneling by the controllers, and MP weakens the positive relationship, which is associated with the promotion of stock liquidity, information disclosure quality and financial risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two issues remain overlooked in empirical investigations of how labour share varies with technological innovation and market power. One is the risk of omitted variable bias that arises from failure to control for both innovation and market power at the same time. The second is the risk of confounding bias that arises from the possibility that innovation and market power affect each other and the labour share at the same time. I address both issues by adopting a simultaneous equations approach and using EU-KLEMS data from 1995 to 2019 on 31 OECD industries and 12 countries. The novel evidence I discover indicates that: (i) innovation always increases with market power, particularly when the latter increase from a high initial level; (ii) market power always increases with innovation, particularly when the latter is extended to include marketing and organisational innovation; (iii) market power is always more detrimental for labour share compared to innovation; and (iv) the combined effect of human capital and labour-market institutions reverses the adverse effect of innovation but it is insufficient to reverse the adverse effect of market power. These findings are robust to a wide range of sensitivity checks and indicate that the major driver of the decline in labour share is not technological innovation per se, but the extent of market power that enables firms to set real wages below the marginal product of labour. • Innovation increases with market power, particularly when markups are higher. • Market power increases with innovation, particularly when firms invest in marketing strategies and organisational change. • A given increase in market power is always more detrimental for labour share compared to innovation. • Human capital and labour-market institutions may compensate for the adverse effect of innovation on labour share. • However, they are insufficient to reverse the adverse effect of market power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims at investigating the tourism growth nexus by launching a new approach when conceptualizing tourism expansion. We add to the relevant discussion in two specific ways. First, we claim that tourism is a heterogeneous economic activity and launch the concept of market segments when searching for cointegrating and causality relationships at the interface of tourism and economy, an issue that goes unnoticed and an approach that is not tested so far. We define them in two different ways: business tourism spending and leisure tourism spending. In the analysis, we also take into consideration capital investment spending as well as internal consumption within the tourism industry. Second, we apply second-generation panel data analysis within the Eurozone economic space, which is insufficiently investigated within the concept of tourism growth nexus discussion. Research findings indicate that a unidirectional causality relationship running from business tourism spending to economic growth is present. Hence, if business tourism spending increases (decreases) then economic growth will increase (decrease) too. Additionally, changes to leisure tourism spending will cause changes to economic growth in the same direction and vice versa. Internal travel and tourism consumption as well as capital investment spending within the travel and tourism sector form a feedback hypothesis with economic growth meaning that they are mutually influenced when changes occur. Practical implications indicate that a friendly and attractive tourism ecosystem in terms of investments and innovations will enhance sustainable economic growth and tourism demand in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper "The protection of competition in Romania, in the 2015-2019 period" presents a few aspects related to the duration of the investigations related to the potential violation of the competition laws in the analysed period, the entities penalised by the Competition Council and the investigations on progress at the end of the year during this period. In the period between 2015 and 2019, the Competition Council monitored the smooth operation of the competition in the market, and therefore, it opened and finalized investigations on an annual basis, but it also gave fines to companies that were found to have carried out activities likely to affect the competitive environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Currently, power generators are facing an imperfectly competitive power market with relatively limited information, and they can increase their own economic returns by raising their quotations through game theory, which leads to an inflated price in the wholesale power market. In this paper, we propose a bidding application for the wholesale power market called Federated Learning Power Quotation System (FedLPQS), which combines federated learning and blockchain to consider the characteristics of the future power trading market of "Liberalizing both ends". FedLPQS using federated learning aggregates cost data of each power plant to achieve a certain degree of transparency and records the data in a blockchain platform based on the consortium chain to reduce the price of power traded in the wholesale power market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revue Economique is the property of Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Listy Cukrovarnicke a Reparske is the property of VUC Praha a.s. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper argues for the characterization of contemporary capitalism as monopsony capitalism and, specifically, as global monopsony capitalism. This means that the degrees of buyer power should be added to the usual demand–supply analysis of markets for labour power and other inputs. Monopsony is used to understand the nature of global value chains, within which the paper distinguishes high, medium and low levels of monopsony power and outlines the main features of labour conditions in these different levels of monopsony power. The paper also sees how the working of monopsony power is gendered. The concluding section points to the difficult task of forming countervailing power in the age of global monopsony capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we examine the influence of investment of corporate capital, which we capture through heterogeneous company information technology utilization, on labor demand and labor income share. We find that increased investment in information technology by enterprises is associated with a general decrease in the proportion of labor income and the demand for labor. We also find that if the market power of enterprises in the industry is greater, the increase in investment of enterprise information technology capital is even less conducive to the willingness of enterprises to hire workers. Our results have implications for guidance towards corporate (information technology) investment decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Article seeks to establish a principled economic or behavioral basis for regulating gaming. It first examines the traditional economic imperfections for governmental regulation of private activity--the presence of market power, external costs or benefits, public goods, severe informational asymmetries, and collective action problems--and the policy prescriptions that correct for the inefficiencies that those imperfections cause. It then demonstrates that none of these deviations seems to apply to gaming markets. The Article next shows that neither market insurance nor self-insurance is likely to be available to protect those addicted to gambling from losses. Following the famous psychological experiments of Kahneman, Tversky, and others, the Article then discusses whether the persistent, systematic, and difficult-to-correct biases in individual decision-making, such as overoptimism, susceptibility to framing manipulations, and the stickiness of default rules, might serve as a principled basis for gaming regulation. The Article concludes by considering information disclosure and self-restriction, whether by a public, certified form or by a commitment bond, as devices for protecting the addicted gambler. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Discretionary or ex gratia payouts are widespread in parametric insurance programs. • Payouts attempt to secure social license to operate despite contractual basis risk. • Discretionary payouts obscure and entrench insurers' market power. • Attempts at conciliation often stoke further demands from aggrieved collectivities. • Geospatial monitoring alone cannot resolve questions of post-disaster distribution. The past decade has seen the dramatic proliferation of geospatial tools to remotely monitor, measure, and transfer weather and climate risk, particularly in the Global South. These "parametric" tools are calculative market devices used to commodify risk and facilitate its distantiated exchange via insurance markets. Yet the environmental estimates they generate are frequently wrong, sometimes grossly so. This paper investigates what happens after calculative market devices fail, analyzing so-called ex gratia ("from grace") practices in which insurers make payouts to aggrieved clients even when none are due under contractual terms. Though these payments are commonly deployed to dispel discontent, these "public secrets" of the industry have gone unnoticed in insurance scholarship. This paper documents numerous ex gratia payouts in parametric programs across Africa, disputing the myth of autonomous insurance markets that function according to formal, transparent rules administered by dispassionate calculative devices. Instead, these "discretionary" monetary transfers reintroduce human decision making in informal, black-boxed ways, cloaking the inadequacy of the parametric contracts they shore up. Far from incidental, I argue that these practices have been constitutive of the parametric insurance market's persistence and expansion. Though ex gratia payments sometimes give rise to negotiations over indemnification with aggrieved collectivities, these unfold on insurers' terms, informalizing power and delegitimizing complaint. The growing emphasis on parametric insurance as a tool for climate adaptation makes it all the more important to excavate the mechanics and politics of ex gratia, and to relinquish expectations that geospatial algorithms alone can resolve questions of post-disaster redistribution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores how Digital platforms have a profound influence on online networking platforms that are actively involved in our social activities and have morphed into significant information centers, providing more convenient ways to learn about the world.

Interest in the application of phygital marketing to retail commerce has increased in recent years. Implicit in this excitement is the notion that physical experiences provide unique value above and beyond what can be offered via digital means, and therefore that combining the two can galvanize sales. However, the specific sources of this marketing potential remain undertheorized and the factors determining the appropriateness of such implementations remain unclear. Based on an extensive review of relevant literatures, we begin by considering a particularly important potential source of phygital marketing's power. Specifically, we bring together findings from consumer psychology and neuroscience to provide a mechanistic account explaining how the combination of reduced "pain of payment", facilitated by digital purchasing technologies, and the product attachment generated by real or simulated product experiences prior to purchase holds the potential to increase sales. We then propose a more general theoretical framework grounded on a review of primary and secondary research findings from consumer psychology and consumer neuroscience to explain the potential power of phygital marketing experiences, account for their unique value, and provide a platform for future research. The paper equips both academics and practitioners with a better and more scientific understanding of the practical dimensions of phygital commerce and lays a foundation for future enquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Modular production requires new service provision under the trend of servitization. This paper is to explore the issue of module-based service associated with three different power structurers in a two-echelon supply chain that consists of a module supplier and a manufacturer. The manufacturer considers to delegate its upstream module supplier to provide services for downstream consumers. We divide the market into two types: the price-sensitive market and the service-level sensitive market. Different power structures and market types have a great impact on the service levels, prices and the profitability of each member in the supply chain. When the manufacturer (the supplier) acts as the leader in the supply chain, the module supplier should provide the highest (lowest)-level service and the manufacturer will charge the highest (lowest) price for the bundled product and service. The module supplier can benefit from the service-delegation relationship while the manufacturer will be hurt. There is an opportunity for the module supplier to offer the service, especially when the module supplier is in a dominated position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Ius et Praxis (07172877) is the property of Universidad de Talca and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Financial inclusion (FI) is increasingly becoming a global policy priority because it enables access to financial services, such as savings, payments, risk management, and credit, to households and firms with a wide range of needs. However, to the best of our knowledge, no study has yet been undertaken on measures of FI and the nexus between FI and bank market structure in Africa. We used panel data from 17 African countries from 2004 to 2018 to measure FI and examine its nexus with bank market structure in these countries. We employed two-stage unsupervised machine learning to index FI: its dimensions in the first stage and overall FI in the second stage. Then, we employed an endogenous panel threshold model to examine bank market power and asset concentration impacts on FI. We found that bank market power enhances availability and accessibility dimensions but reduces the usage dimension. The impact of a higher regime market power on usage is worse than that of a lower regime market power. Asset concentration impacts on overall FI, availability, and usage are more pronounced under a lower regime concentration. The results imply that bank asset concentration and market power beyond thresholds are not desirable for promoting FI. The results also imply that scrutinizing potential sensitivity of the results to FI dimensions is vital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Environmental protection laws decrease cash holdings. • Environmental protection laws weaken firms' liquidity positions by increasing operating costs and lowering profit margins. • High-market power firms experience less impact on cash holdings under strict environmental regulations. • Firms in countries with lenient anti-tax avoidance rules face reduced cash holdings to a lesser extent. This paper examines the relation between environmental protection laws and corporate cash holdings. Using a panel of public firms across 31 countries, we show that laws protecting the environment reduce cash holdings, consistent with environmental protection regulations weakening firms' liquidity positions through heightened operating costs and lower profit margins. In cross-sectional analyses, we document that high-market power firms and firms in countries with lenient anti-tax avoidance rules suffer from cash-holding reductions to a lesser extent. Overall, these findings suggest that environmental protection laws map negatively into firms' cash balances and shed new light on the economic consequences of environmental laws. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Facebook, the world's largest online networking platform, is the subject of multiple antitrust investigations by various state and federal regulators. Yet scholars and practitioners remain divided on how to measure Facebook's market power. Some argue that conventional approaches for identifying market power are suitable for the online networking market. This Article argues such conventional approaches are inadequate for assessing market power in online networking markets. This Article begins by introducing the traditional approaches that courts have employed to assess market power: the direct effects approach, the Lerner Index approach, and the market share approach. It next describes Facebook's business model and shows that, because Facebook is a two-sided market, these traditional approaches should not be applied to Facebook. Instead, the Article proposes that the information gaps, switching costs, and entry barriers approaches are better suited for assessing the market power of online networking platforms. The Article thus concludes by proposing a legal framework for assessing market power in online networking platforms which employs such non-traditional approaches. While this Article uses Facebook as the main case study, this paper's findings are equally applicable to similar online networking platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By applying the normative power Europe (NPE) and market power Europe (MPE) lenses, this thesis examines the European Union (EU)'s diplomatic strategy concerning the global labour agenda of the EU-Republic of Korea (ROK) relations from the provisional implementation of the bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) in 2011 to recent developments following the initiation of the dispute settlement procedure in 2020. The ROK has taken more decisive measures after the EU's initiation of the dispute settlement, which altered the diplomatic method from cooperation to coercion, and shifted the power nature from NPE to MPE. Despite the innovative institutional instruments in the EU's trade and sustainable development chapters, this research identifies factors that can marginalise the EU's effective exercise of power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to investigate the nexus between the banking sector structure and credit risk. Unlike many other studies that address internal and external factors affecting credit risk, the study addresses banking competition, as the banking sector structure has an impact on banks' loan portfolios. It also employs macro-level data which provides important implications for regulatory authorities. The study utilizes a fixed-effects model to explore the impact of banking competition on credit risk using a panel dataset comprising 52 countries during the period of 1998-2016. In the study, non-performing loans to total gross loans ratio (NPL) is employed as a proxy of credit risk. Lerner index, Boone indicator, and five-bank asset concentration are used for the measurement of banking competition. The empirical findings show that competition and concentration have different impacts on credit risk. Consistent with the relationship lending literature, increased market power alleviates credit risk. On the other hand, concentration does not have a significant impact on credit risk. In particular, banking competition has a more significant impact on credit risk in countries with high non-performing loan volatility. Given higher market power causes less credit problems, policy makers, especially those who officiate in developing economies, should reassess the pro-competition policies. In addition, increasing income and higher foreign ownership diminish credit risk, whereas higher unemployment and a larger amount of credit trigger credit risk. Therefore, bank managers should follow up macroeconomic factors in their lending decisions. Lastly, it should be kept in mind that these results are obtained from cross-country data and the banking regulations in a specific country may affect the relationship between banking competition and credit risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This contribution explores the role of art. 16 CFR in the enforcement of art. 102 TFEU by building on the close link existing between them in terms of the guarantee of individual economic freedom. It is submitted that their distinctive normative purposes shape the divergent forms of manifestation of individual economic freedom vested in them that, in turn, generate a two-sided interaction. On the one hand, the subjective right to business equality and free competition embodied in art. 16 CFR can be construed to reinforce the notion of economic freedom protection as the rationale of art. 102 TFEU in containing the exercise of market power in the EU internal market. On the other hand, consolidating the freedom to exercise an economic or commercial activity and contractual freedom, the protective safeguards of art. 16 CFR taken in conjunction with the benchmarks under art.52(1) CFR also offer dominant market actors a new analytical path to assert their interests in the enforcement of art. 102 TFEU. This, however, requires the adoption of a more systematic approach over the benchmarks under art. 52(1) CFR, particularly the "essence " test, given the uncertainty surrounding its actual contours. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the world evolution of the market economy and the major transformations that the market has undergone, the emphasis placed in the competitive regulation process has also evolved considerably. Starting from the need to manage the relations of market actors in order to prevent abuses of market power, today we know a complex process of regulating competitive relations and protecting competition. Although the origins of the study and analysis of competition come from the United States, currently the policies and competitive regulation of most countries are based on 2 major platforms, that of the Federal Trade Commission of the United States of America (USA) and the European Commission of the European Union (EU). However, each country correlates competition regulations with the development stage of the internal market, and adopts its rhythm of the evolution of these policies, in the process of adjustment of regulations to its situation and needs. The process of evolution of competition regulations and its political orientations is usually influenced by the level and pace of market development, but also by political factors not least. The paper reflects the evolution of competition policies and regulations in Romania in a historical context and presents an analysis of them in correlation with the evolution of US and EU competition policies and regulations. In this context, the stages of development of competition policies and the directions of development of market regulation methods are highlighted. Of interest is the extent to which they are influenced by market changes and adapted to their conditions for intervention in sectors at risk of distorting the competitive environment to maintain market equilibrium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collective management organisations (CMOs) provide a practical service which significantly reduces rights administration costs. Nonetheless, they have often been attacked for lack of transparency. This article studies some of the pros and cons of CMOs and takes on a case study from Bulgaria to illustrate when the management of rights risks becoming mismanagement. Looking forward, it argues that these organisations may be key in solving the convoluted licensing obligations in art. 17 of Directive 2019/970. In order to do so, however, now more than ever it is imperative that they become better mediators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Collected Papers of the Faculty of Law in Split / Zbornik Radova Pravnog Fakulteta u Splitu is the property of Split Faculty of Law and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)