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The South African Competition Act was crafted on the basis that it could be used to address distortions and inequalities in the market through enforcing competition. A question which has arisen is whether competition enforcement has been effective given that many economic sectors are still largely dominated by monopolies, duopolies or oligopolies. In this study, I assess whether competition enforcement has reduced inequality in South Africa by studying the link between market power and inequality, following a competition intervention in selected product markets. Using the nonlinear autoregressive distributed lag model, I assess whether competition enforcement in the market for bread, maize meal, and sunflower oil, has been effective in increasing consumer welfare, by lowering income inequality through lower prices. The findings of this study suggest that firms in these markets abuse their market power even post-intervention, such that they can raise prices and reduce consumer welfare, increasing inequality indirectly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates how regulatory policy modulates the complex relationship between market power and bank lending. The empirical evidence is based on the seemingly unrelated panel regressions by employing a dataset of 52 African countries for the period, 2006–2018. The study finds a U-shaped relationship between market power and bank lending. The study shows that the estimated thresholds fall within the range of -4.38 to 9.67 of market power. It observes that the thresholds of market power in countries with stringent regulatory policies are relatively greater than countries operating in low regulatory policy regimes. The study shows a negative and direct effect of market power on lending. In the light of interactions, the conditional effects are estimated to provide meaningful interpretations. This is relevant to policymakers because our established conditional effects, imply that regulatory policy is a sufficient complementary condition for reducing the negative effect of market power on bank lending. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Feta cheese is a Greek product under Protection Designation of Origin (PDO), benefiting its producing regions with its marketing potential. However, farmers are evidently often excluded from this value chain. This study aims at understanding the opportunities farmers in Greece have for supply chain arrangements (SCAs) that ensure fair market participation. It uses a two-step latent class analysis on data from a farm survey to explore and classify farmer–cheesemaker SCAs based on their perceived characteristics, farmers' satisfaction, availability of alternative options and farmers' sustainability objectives. Results highlight the importance of collective arrangements, economic incentives and price formulation mechanisms in forming farmer-inclusive SCAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThere has recently been a burgeoning interest in private rental housing, yet few studies have addressed the tenant/landlord relationship as lived. This paper contributes related insights from the ‘young’ markets of Eastern Europe where the tenant/landlord relationship is entirely market based but embedded in specific cultural norms and supply/demand balances. Drawing on cultural theories of risk and rich qualitative data from tenants and landlords in Romania, this paper examines narratives of risk and repertoires of risk mitigation practices of the relational risks of renting. Findings portray a supply-rich market where tenants have market power hence financial checks on tenants are socially unacceptable, evictions are rare, and most tenants feel at home in their rented properties. In this tenant market, landlords rely on the social vibe of the first tenant/landlord encounter, showing openness to construct win-win collaborations. These less institutionalised practices seem more inclusive to tenants’ economic unpredictability but high rents push the poor, and ethnic stigmatisation drives the Roma ‘others’ into alternative housing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zooming in on the European Union's international identity, this paper argues that maturation, and the achievement of a solid international identity, may result from a process in which different identity traits are integrated, even strategically incorporated. It frames this hybridisation argument in terms of Dragon Power Europe and proceeds in two steps. In a first step, the paper develops an integrated analytical framework for studying the European Union's international identity by comparing the Normative Power Europe and Market Power Europe conceptualisations along three dimensions, namely drivers, actions and impact. In a second step, the paper demonstrates the framework's empirical value through an exploration of the European Union's functioning in relation to health information standardisation, investigating the logics behind the inclusion of a new chapter on diagnoses and syndromes associated with Traditional (Chinese) Medicine in the eleventh revision of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases in 2019. The involvement of the European Union and its member states in this specific case of health (information) standardisation shows initial but compelling evidence of NPE-MPE dynamics shaping the EU's international functioning, in particular its drivers, actions and impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research has debated about whether institutionalization could improve market efficiency. We develop a theoretical model under anticipated utility combined with probability weighting to study the impacts of institutionalization on market participation and market efficiency. The prudence attitude towards probability uncertainty leads to limited participation by investors. We find that institutionalization influences the market in two different ways. An increase in the total sector size of institutional investors facilitates price discovery but discourages market participation from naïve investors due to information asymmetry. However, when the top institution has high market power, this large institution trades strategically to induce more participation by naïve traders for risk-sharing at the cost of lowering information efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on a unified framework, this study explores the influence of regional intellectual property protection (IPP) on domestic value added in exports. A theoretical model is constructed to illustrate that IPP affects the types and prices of intermediate goods through effects of market power, product category, and crowding-out, influences the choice of domestic and imported raw materials, and finally affects the domestic added value in exports of enterprises. Empirical evidence on the influence of IPP on the domestic added value in exports is provided utilizing China Customs Statistics, the Chinese Industrial Enterprise Database, and Chinese prefectural-level data from 2000 to 2007. The results show that IPP significantly promotes the domestic value added of exports in China, but the effect is heterogeneous in terms of region and mode of enterprise trade; in the eastern region and processing trade enterprises the IPP effect is more pronounced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional, price-focused antitrust tools for assessing dominance under Article 102 TFEU and merger control are challenged by the business models and features of multisided digital platforms. This article demonstrates the importance of data in digital markets and how data enable the utilization of network effects and economies of scale in a manner that challenges the traditional dominance evaluation. Based on this, the article systematizes the solutions to the challenges caused by decreased accuracy of price-based tools through an analysis of various approaches to the issue. It is argued that potential competition should be emphasized more strongly throughout the dominance assessment and that different approaches can be chosen based on the case at hand. Thus the article contributes to the development of the dominance analysis for digital markets with a thorough overview of possible solutions and ties it to the proposed renewal of the Market Definition Notice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the antitrust investigations by the European Commission (AT.40703 – Amazon Buy Box) and Italian Competition Authority (A528-FBA AMAZON), and the regulatory proceeding by the Italian Authority for Communications and Postal Services (AGCom's resolution 94/22/CONS), surrounding Amazon's Store, and the interplay with its logistics and delivery services. While these authorities have raised concerns about Amazon's alleged "self-preferencing", rapid growth, and its alleged ability to leverage its (upstream) e-commerce market power to strengthen its position in (downstream) logistics services, this paper highlights alternative perspectives that are often overlooked or neglected. To achieve a comprehensive understanding of Amazon's conduct related to the above-mentioned investigations, we consider its business model, monetisation strategy, and underlying incentives. By delving deeper into the Amazon Store and its connection to logistics services, we argue that the allegations do not fully capture the evidence surrounding Amazon's practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing market concentration has become a topical issue in competition law worldwide. This article explores how firms, especially digital platform businesses, increase market concentration which may facilitate entrenched market power and anti-competitive conduct in their upstream or downstream markets. It considers in an Australian context two specific ways in which the power of a dominant firms including digital platforms may be constrained. The first is allowing the parties with lesser market power to collectively bargain, which can redress the imbalance in bargaining power to make the market work more effectively. A second and related option is the introduction of mandatory codes of conduct, which may be suitable in markets where perennial problems with market power imbalances exist. Australian experience suggests that these options can assist markets to function more effectively, and they may provide additional flexibility for other jurisdictions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this this article I evaluate how authorship of theatre occurred in the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. I explore whether individual playwrights such as William Shakespeare were viewed as authors, and thus owners, of plays at this time. I analyse the role of the Stationers' Company as print monopolists, and the role of Elizabethan theatre companies, who took ownership of scripts for performance purposes. I examine the impact of the publication of the First Folio. I note that the publishing syndicate behind the First Folio, led by Shakespeare's friends John Heminges and Henry Condell, had to obtain the print rights for several plays, not from Shakespeare's estate, but from the various Stationers who had acquired publishing rights while Shakespeare was alive. Therefore, the First Folio stands as an early example, even before statutory copyright existed, of a book created via what we now describe as the 'clearing' of copyright licences. A consequence of the First Folio was not just the emergence of Shakespeare as the English author-figure par excellence; the First Folio coincided with a rising legal expectation that authors should be owners of dramatic texts under copyright law. Throughout the seventeenth century and into the early eighteenth century I mark how tensions between the market power of the Stationers' Company and emerging recognition of the author's literary property led to the first British copyright statute: the Statute of Anne in 1710. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors present a Web application they designed in the R programming language as an experiential learning tool for teaching production theory. The app simulates production decisions where a manager is tasked to find the optimal mixture of inputs through experimentation. Users of the application are instructed to use calculations and intuitions from production theory to improve profitability quickly. The underlying parameters and starting points are randomized to allow for additional practice. Variations of the exercise correspond to cost-minimization and profit-maximization problems with and without market power in the output market. Also, the app provides dynamic, interactive visualizations in 3D in order to assist in a better understanding of standard production theory graphs. The app is located at . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on the effects of bank market power on access to credit has produced many results that are sometimes contradictory. Yet, all of these studies are based on unconsolidated data that ignore the national market power of banking groups. This results in an underestimation bias that this paper proposes to correct. Using a panel of more than 55,000 French firms covering the period 2006–2017, I consider a set of structural and non-structural measures of bank market power both at the unconsolidated and consolidated levels. My results strongly support the market power hypothesis which emphasizes the virtues of competition on interest rate setting. I find that bank market power increases the interest rate charged, but only when using my consolidated measures. This effect is stronger for small and risky firms and is concentrated on long-term loans. My findings highlight the need to take into account the capital linkages of subsidiaries within the same banking group in order to fully assess the implications of bank market power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More people are listening to more recorded music than any other time in history. While record labels have largely rebounded from the lean 'Napster years' of the early 2000s, remuneration for artists remain low. This article moves beyond an investigation of label-artist contracts – largely blamed for low recording royalties – and considers the broader array of consequences brought by the institutional structure of the streaming economy. Three factors explain dynamics within the music economy: music as a non-rival, non-excludable good; digital service providers (DSPs) as interchangeable market substitutes; and the concentration of Major Label market power due to their discretion to grant or withhold catalog access to DSPs. The ultimate consequence of this market structure is to depress prices in the music economy; value that can be captured largely rests with rights holders. With the DSPs as nearly perfect substitutes, the music industry is constrained in its ability to increase its revenues. Due to market power asymmetries, the burden of this contracted market size is borne by musicians, and to a lesser extent, by DSPs. To illustrate the problematic dynamics of the music streaming economy, music is compared to another non-rival, non-excludable good with a divergent market structure and outcomes: video streaming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major economic rationale for trade agreements is limiting mutually harmful terms-of-trade externalities. We analyse the impact of market power on tariff commitments of original and acceded WTO members. As countries grow, their market power in different sectors can change in unforeseen ways. To quantify the economic significance of our estimates, we compare actual and predicted tariff commitments under current market power. We find that tariff cuts required to reflect current economic conditions would amount to up to $26.4 billion – nearly 10% of global tariff costs. In the past, the GATT/WTO system has updated tariff commitments through periodic 'rounds', and our findings support the long-overdue revival of the WTO's negotiation function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Markups, which are when prices are greater than the marginal cost of production, have increased in the USA over the last decades. Our paper explores the differences in markups between Information Technology (IT) and non-IT firms. By doing so, we contribute to the understanding of the role of the IT industry in the increase in markups. We extend to De Loecker, Eeckhout, and Unger (2020), who find that markups of publicly traded firms have risen since 1980. They argue that no industry has systematically higher markups. We develop a novel firm-level classification method using natural language processing (NLP) to distinguish IT from non-IT firms. Our approach differs from the commonly used North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Using our classification, we find that the increase in markup in the period since 1980 occurred in two separate episodes. In the first, from 1980 until 1996, firms recovered from the fall of markups in the 1970s. In the second episode, since 1996, markups of IT firms diverge enormously. Markups of IT firms surge from 47% in 1996 to 80% in 2018, while the markup of non-IT firms remains largely unchanged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aim to investigate the impact of the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) on a firm's strategic voluntary disclosure decisions under different product market conditions. In the corporate world, firms tactically decide the level of voluntary disclosures considering their benefits, like resolving information asymmetry in the financial market, and costs, like providing proprietary information to their rivals. The adoption of IFRS has affected the demands in the financial market for complementary information, and therefore, it would affect the incentive to withhold corporate information in consideration of proprietary costs in the product market. Using a sample of Korean firms, we find that the likelihood of withholding management forecasts in concentrated industries is weaker in the post-IFRS adoption phase than in the pre-IFRS adoption phase. This is because there are greater demands for corporate disclosures for firms in concentrated industries in the post-IFRS adoption phase than earlier. Moreover, we find that the influence of IFRS on the decision of firms in concentrated industries to disclose management forecasts is significant only for firms with higher market power and higher financial leverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mainstream marketing management is a disciplinary field essentially unruffled by ideological reflection. In this paper, we approach the subjectifying power of marketing ideology through Louis Althusser's work on interpellation, the process by which ideology calls its willing subjects into ideological belief and practice. Through our autoethnographic accounts, we develop a counterposition to the epistemic ideology of normative mainstream marketing management by accounting for misinterpellation to its ideology. Where interpellation outlines how a hegemonic marketing management ideology compels individuals to perform within the ideological apparatus as good educators and researcher subjects, the notion of misinterpellation opens avenues for conceiving resistance within the breaks in ideology to which all subjects are hailed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attributes and dynamics of the profit rate distribution provide indispensable information on how the economy works. Edith Penrose, in The theory of the growth of the firm¸ took agency, managerial capabilities, heterogeneity and open-endedness as characteristic of the economy. Schumpeter had a similar view. Neoclassical theory, in contrast, envisages convergence to a standard rate of return, invoking inter-industry capital flows and diminishing returns as the main mechanism. I analysed the data on US manufacturing, 1987–2015. There was evidence of convergence, attributable to loss of supra-normal profits in two industries. The features of the distribution confirm Penrose's view. Neoclassical theory fares poorly: the data do not support 'a standard rate of return', and no plausible macro shock exists that could have produced the observed dispersion. The symmetry of the observed distribution indicates that neither market power nor intangible assets play major roles in determining the shape of the profit rate distribution; risk, however, is relevant if reformulated. Intersectoral capital flows were weak, and there was no evidence of diminishing returns. Penrose's conception of heterogeneous managerial capacity refers to a concept of economic power distinct from market power, corresponding to differential ex ante strength; differential profit outcomes represent ex post strength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study is an endeavour to document the pattern of comparative advantage and structural changes of Indian exports with Africa with the help of revealed comparative advantage index and the constant market share model for the period 1980–2021. The results indicate that India possesses a comparative advantage in a large number of export products to markets in Africa. However, most of these exports belong to the category of low-tech and resource-based goods. Considering its abundant labour, it is to be expected for India to have a comparative advantage in these low-skilled and labour-intensive traditional exports. The commodities with maximum advantage in the African market are medicinal and pharmaceutical products followed by sugar, sugar preparations, and honey. In the category of technology-intensive products, India has strengthened its market power only in the export of organic chemicals and dyes, and colouring materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether Chinese soybean importers can keenly grasp the changes of different source countries' market power, will directly affects the safety and cost of soybean import. Based on the analysis of changes in China's soybean import trade structure, this paper utilizes monthly data from January 2009 to December 2021, combines with the residual demand elasticity model, to compare and analyse the market power of the three major source countries. The results show that although the United States is no longer China's largest soybean import country, its market power in China's soybean import market has not been affected, while Argentina's market power is gradually increasing. Although Brazil has grown into the first source of China's soybean imports, it has only weak market influence. In addition, China, as the world's largest buyer, doesn't have market power. China's soybean import price is mainly affected by futures prices, domestic soybean prices, international crude oil prices, Sino-US trade frictions and COVID-19 epidemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we investigate the spillover behaviours of implied volatilities and test the forecasting power of spillover indices. By using a Diebold and Yilmaz's (2012) framework, we capture a better overall picture of the developments of spillover effects and create a series of spillover indices by quantifying the spillover intensity for each rolling time window such that we are able to investigate the forecasting ability of spillover indices on market returns. There are several findings in this study including (1) the spillover indices of implied volatilities not only enable us to describe the spillover effects but also possess strong forecasting power on market returns, (2) implied volatilities which own emotional-related characteristic create stronger spillover mechanisms than spillover of market returns and (3) by observing the time-varying patterns of spillover indices of implied volatilities, we find that the peaks of spillover indices occur during well-known economic events such as the Lehman Brothers' Bankruptcy and Greek debt restructuring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the impact of state’s industrial policy on sectoral capacity utilization and growth in total output in the context of the Korea’s Heavy and Chemical Industry (HCI) promotion (1973–1979). Using a Kalecki-Steindl framework within a two-sector open economy, the study first finds that primary industrial policy instruments—preferential interest rates and export promotion regime—have a positive effect on capacity utilization (aggregate demand) and economic growth, but unbalanced sectoral dependence undermines the effect of industrial policy. Second, the increased market power of firms in the targeted sector has a dual impact on the sectoral capacity, depending on the productivity growth characteristics of each sector. Third, the industrial policy regime is highly susceptible to adverse external price shocks. These findings are consistent with the Korean growth experience during the HCI promotion period in which chaebols (big business groups) flourished, and the economy suffered from stagflation and idle capacity in the final stage of HCI promotion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A well-known stylized fact about the US labour market is the behaviour of the female-to-male unemployment gap over the business cycle – in downturns, female unemployment rises at a slower pace than male unemployment, which reduces the gap between the genders; in upturns, the reverse is observed: men's unemployment falls faster than women's, thus rendering the gap pro-cyclical. In this paper, we model the labour market under a Diamond-Mortensen-Pissarides framework where the labour supply consists of women and men, who differ in their equilibrium (Nash) bargaining agreement over the match's surplus. We show that, in the presence of such asymmetry, a negative aggregate productivity shock leads to a pro-cyclical female-to-male unemployment rate gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study applies the conjectural variations approach to determine whether Ugandan rice traders exercise oligopsony power in the market for domestic rice. The trader margin for milled rice is found to be 10.20% on average. Using an econometric system of four equations, the null hypothesis of competitive behaviour holds at different price elasticities of farm supply, ranging from inelastic to elastic supply. This implies that there is no evidence that rice traders apply oligopsony power when procuring milled rice from farmers. However, since the study does not examine the existence of trader bargaining power, we cannot completely rule out the existence of market power at this node of the value chain. Therefore, future studies should examine trader bargaining power to be able to ultimately determine if there is need to intervene at this segment of rice value chains to ensure competitive behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides evidence regarding the adverse effects of antidumping measures on competitive market strategies. Our empirical model consists of estimating the Lerner index as a mark-up measure. To reach our goal, we use the Orbis database, with firm-level data between 2006 and 2014. On average, our results suggest a positive relationship between antidumping barriers and the increase in firms' market power. Its magnitude is larger for Latin America when compared to other emerging economies. Moreover, the effects on market power persist in the long run. Depending on the set of evaluated countries, it becomes null in the short run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the relationship between market power, as measured by aggregate markups, and income inequality across 34 countries between 1991 and 2016. We find that market power is positively associated with income inequality in developing countries, while the relationship between markups and income inequality in advanced economies is more nuanced and statistically insignificant. Our study reveals that a higher collective bargaining rights mitigate the impact of market power on income inequality, emphasizing the importance of robust worker protection systems for fostering a more equitable labor market environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic inclusion benefits of trade integration between formal and informal markets constitute an increasingly important debate in development studies, especially regarding poverty reduction. Recent international development efforts focus on strengthening informal-to-formal (I2F) links as a win-win developmental strategy to eradicate poverty, while building upon informal-to-informal (I2I) trade relations are seen to preserve poverty. Nevertheless, research comparing these approaches is scarce. This article compares street market vendors' integration into I2F and I2I trading links, assessing their associated economic benefits and market power dynamics. Using mixed methods, we empirically test theoretical hypotheses on a representative sample of Santiago de Chile's street market vendors and follow the trade networks of branded and unbranded street market products through 50 in-depth interviews. The results suggest that street vendors' I2I trade can constitute a highly -specialised, structured and nationwide trade network that can rival the poverty alleviation potential of I2F trade networks. Compared with I2F trade links, I2I networks reduce opportunities for exploitation and allow street vendors to obtain higher income. Consequently, building a more robust articulation of street vendors and informal firms into trade -networks merits more attention in development studies as a potential alternative to I2F strategies when fostering street vendors' economic inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Data ecosystem" companies on the digital market are unique in that they attain market power through their combination of personal data across many markets. Due to strong network effects of personal data, exploited on a conglomerate level, competition has moved beyond competition on the market and even beyond competition for the market: there is now competition for data. Consequently, we must reconsider not only the traditional concept of market power and market definition, but even the competitive analysis of alleged abuses. Therefore, the Commission's singular focus on anti-competitive foreclosure does not do justice to the complex competitive effects of data ecosystems' conduct. Only by fundamentally integrating competitive assessment with personal data protection can we understand data ecosystems and their role in the digital landscape. In order to fully capture the anti-competitive effects and harm done to consumer welfare, we must consider "data ecosystem building" as its own theory of harm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the joint effect of market power and different types of bank efficiency on financial stability across 5 countries within the East African Community. Unlike existing studies which have employed efficiency in a broad way, it is decomposed into five different types, that is, technical, pure technical, scale, cost and revenue efficiency. Using a two-step system GMM on 149 banks with 1,805 observations over the period 2001–2018, empirical findings reveal that the joint effect of market power and bank efficiency is critical on financial stability and the effect varies with the specific type of efficiency being explored. Increased market power is observed to have a direct positive effect on bank stability. With respect to bank efficiency, cost and revenue efficiency have a positive significant effect with bank stability while the effect of technical, pure technical and scale efficiency is insignificant. In overall, concentrated banks with higher cost and revenue efficiency are more stable compared to the inefficient banks. The findings highlight that an eclectic policy to ensure a trade-off between bank concentration and competition should be ensured by the bank regulators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Are new technologies driving us towards dystopia or utopia – or something in between? Marketers not only have a stake in finding out the answer to this question but also a direct (and indirect) influence on determining the answer. This commentary discusses recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics, and how these are influencing marketers, consumers and society by either leading to a dystopian (black magic), utopian (white magic) or 'dualopian' future (grey magic). We argue that the net effect is squarely in the grey and that marketers have a unique power to leverage AI and robotics developments for good. The commentary concludes with 24 research questions forming an agenda for future research under three streams: marketing power, understanding the bias and ethics revisited. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contrast to the conventional wisdom that security is governed exclusively by nation states exercising political authority to generate public security goods, the European Union can also be considered a security state: it governs security indirectly by making rules incentivising and steering the provision of public security goods. To what degree, however, does the EU govern defence markets, shape the trajectory of national defence capabilities, and direct efforts towards European strategic autonomy? This paper traces the EU's attempts to regulate arms production and identifies critical junctures in EU authority as a market rule-maker over the means of force. It finds that market rule-takers—non-state defence firms—are shaped by EU epistemic authority and regulation. Specifically, EU rule-making shapes firm perceptions of relative defence market uncertainty. Firms perceiving future home defense markets as less risky due to regulatory oversight are incentivised to reduce their own current profits by self-funding innovation towards future defence requirements and procurement sales to their home states. By incentivising the non-state production of public security goods with its rule-making and relational market power, the EU is a modern regulatory security state, even in the defence domain where it has little political authority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What has been neglected in much of the existing studies of the influence of seasonal and regional characteristics of agriculture on the market power and national security. This paper constructs a multivariate equations model to investigate the monopoly power of seasonal suppliers and national security in China's soybean market. The results show no relationship between market share and monopoly power; and that CR3 and HHI show China's soybean import market has been the highest oligopoly type, but the model suggest that exporters (the U.S., Brazil and Argentina) have very weak monopoly power and China has no monopsony power; and that the performance of some exporters' soybeans is affected by others, while others are relatively independent in market. This is due to the non-substitutability of the product, the non-substitutability of the buyer and the seller, etc., which causes the mutual dependence of the seller and buyer, and their market power cancel each other out. The seasonality and regionality of soybean production is the root. Considering national security, it is necessary to take the seasonal and regional characteristics of exporters into account to disperse trade risks and oppose monopolisation of international food production and trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the Brazilian PL 2630, so-called "fake news bill," according to platform regulation approaches focused on speech, data, and market power. This law project was introduced in 2020 with the objective to fight disinformation campaigns in digital platforms such as social media and messaging services. After a multistakeholder debate, the latest version of the bill before the 2022 general elections was presented in the Chamber of Deputies. This article argues that the bill takes different stances with regard to those three basic elements. The bill strongly draws on the dimension of speech, establishing requirements for transparency in content moderation following the highest international standards. On data and market power, however, the bill makes no significant progress, with little contribution, for example, to tackling the surveillance-based business model. This way, it does not touch on structural conditions that shape disinformation campaigns, such as the profit motive of digital platforms. It follows a general pattern of platform regulation, leaving structural features untouched and, this way, eventually undermining stronger efforts against online disinformation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The past two decades have witnessed a tremendous increase in the scholarly attention paid to the European Union (EU)'s external relations as well as the nature of the union's role in world politics. With an aim to contribute to the EU-as-a-power debate, this research explores how EU economic and market-related norms and policies have been promoted and received by taking the EU's relations with Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as an empirical case study. Drawing on transnational diffusion literature, this paper seeks to bridge existing scholarly discussions on Normative Power Europe and Market or Regulatory Power Europe, offering a more nuanced understanding of subjects of the EU's externalization, as well as the processes and effectiveness of the EU's diffusion of market-related norms and regulatory approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Western-led institutions of global governance adapt to global power shifts, the question of which countries dominate, and how, increasingly animates scholarship. Yet while attention has shifted from 'Great' to 'Rising' Powers, the underlying focus on market power has changed little. In this article, we shift the focus to alternative forms of power that developing countries can wield in global governance, specifically in highly technical transnational negotiations. Reconceptualising the notion of 'regulatory capacity', we argue that states can overcome limited market power through socio-technical resources: expertise and professional networks. These resources form the basis through which policy claims become authoritative and they enable emerging state coalitions to influence policy-making. To demonstrate this, we analyse developing countries' involvement in standard-setting for international corporate taxation. Specifically, we study the newly established G20/OECD Inclusive Framework, an experiment where more than 140 jurisdictions participate in negotiations that were previously the preserve of OECD states. Based on unique attendance data and interviews with dozens of participants, we perform a detailed analysis of specific policy decisions, interrogating the extent and sources of developing countries' influence. We find that socio-technical resources allow individuals from lower-income countries to achieve narrow yet significant successes, punching above their weight in global governance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We render operational the model outlined by Carter (1990) via the introduction of the research methods necessary for studying the spatial and sectoral (upstream and downstream) benefits of productivity-enhancing innovations within a real interregional input–output framework. As case study we examine the reduction in production costs derived from the adoption of longer and heavier vehicles in freight road transportation. We exploit a new Spanish regional table including a detailed disaggregation of the transportation sector. The productivity gains at the national level, resulting from a 30% reduction in transport costs, amount to 2.95% of the GVA at market prices. Results show that firms operating in this niche market appropriate most of the gross operation surplus (which increases by 10%), consistent with the existence of market power. The remaining transportation sectors see profits slightly worsened, suggesting limited substitution effects. A high regional heterogeneity exists because of the different input–output structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between supplier concentration and R&D investment of Chinese firms using the sample of all A-share listed companies on the Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2008 to 2015. Empirical results present the significant negative relationship between supplier concentration and firms' R&D expenditure. Further analysis indicates that the weaker the firm's market power, the stronger the negative impact of supplier concentration on the firm's R&D investment. This paper enriches corporate R&D investments, supply chains, and market power literature. As developing countries deepen their participation in global supply chain networks and transform through technological upgrading, the findings of this paper have important practical implications for developing country firms to overcome R&D resistance and for policymakers to lead industrial development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We exploit the competition policy in China to test whether product competition affects firm's overcapacity. By introducing the shock of enacting of the Chinese Anti-Monopoly Law, our difference-in-differences estimation shows that the overcapacity of firms with larger market power has a significant decrease. The possible explanations are that the product competitions significantly increase after the monopoly activities and local protectionism are prohibited, which lead to the reduction of zombie firms, and the decline of firms' bank loans and over-investment inefficiency. The effects are more pronounced to stated-owned firms, political connected firms, firms in cities with lower regional marketization and firms under industries with less competition. Overall, this study provides timely policy implications for central regulators concerned with the outcomes of the enforcement for the anti-monopoly policy and the solutions for the overcapacity problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between market power and bank liquidity creation using panel quantile regression methods. Based on annual data from 187 banks between 2007 and 2019, we reveal that the effect of market power on bank liquidity creation varies in different parts of the liquidity creation distribution. Quantile regression results indicate no statistically significant relationship between market power and low-liquidity creation, and the relationship is significantly positive for middle-liquidity creation. However, there is a significant negative association between market power and high-liquidity creation. Multiple robustness analyses confirm our results. Our research contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence that the market power effect is not homogeneous and presenting an interpretation of the debate in prior studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To what extent can the threat of state regulatory or legal action affect an industry's behavior? The question is relevant to a broad range of industries, from energy to technology companies, and is made especially salient by a transatlantic divide in regulatory approaches. We argue that state action can generate large behavioral effects, and use cases from the oil industry to support that claim. During the middle of the twentieth century, the global oil industry was dominated by an oligopoly of international oil companies called the Seven Sisters, including today's ExxonMobil, Chevron, and BP. Despite their great market power, the Seven Sisters chose to keep prices extraordinarily stable at moderate levels. Why did they not raise prices, as the OPEC nations did in the 1970s, or lower prices to destroy their competition? We argue that the Seven Sisters could have manipulated prices in various ways, but they were constrained by political risks. The privileged position of the Seven Sisters required the tolerance, and sometimes the active support, of governments in both the consumer and producer countries. Our findings have implications for the study of oligopolies and antitrust enforcement, and for governance efforts to avoid climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1920 and early 1930s, the German semi-synthetic fibre industry was dominated by a duopoly of two big players. The incumbent firms were not willing to expand their staple fibre capacities to the extent demanded by the new Nazi government, which prepared for autarky and war. Hence the government encouraged other private companies, especially spinning mills, to found eight regional staple fibre plants and protected them against the incumbents who were technologically superior. The Nazis' infant company protection policy enabled the -newcomers to become competitive both in economic and technological terms within a few years. After the war and without protection, these firms flourished on the world market. While the big players left the market, two of the newcomers founded in the second half of the 1930s are today the last European producers of staple fibre. We analyse in detail why companies founded for protectionist reasons by a non-benign government became successful firms competing on the world market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic theory of natural resource exploitation predicts that scarcity crises will not arise because forward-looking resource owners will smooth their extraction over time to maximize their profits. The model providing this result can seem opaque and technical to students, but its intuition can be learned from experience. The author shares a game that provides that experience. Participants play the role of mine owners who must decide how much to extract in each of two periods. In addition to showing how price signals through markets can prevent sudden increases in scarcity, the game also provides lessons about intertemporal choice, market power, information, and property rights. The author provides all materials needed to play the game as is or to customize it for alternative learning outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates the recent trends in labour market power in Italy and assesses the impact of a potential minimum wage using a large sample of manufacturing firms. We show that, despite an average shift of labour market power from companies to workers, monopsony power is still widespread, especially in some sectors and regions. The introduction of a minimum wage would be beneficial to workers and the economy as it reduces the monopsony power of highly productive firms paying low wages; however, it may also have a negative impact, since firms with low wages and low labour productivity may react by reducing the number of their employees or even by exiting the market. Finally, we find that an optimal minimum wage, which minimizes the negative effect and maximizes the positive effect for the economy, ranges between 8.25 and 9.65 euro per hour. [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]

Simultaneous influence of market power structure, advertising and quality efforts on the optimal pricing decisions and performance of a multi-echelon supply chain under uncertainty have received scant attention in the literature. We focus on this gap by examining a serial decentralised three-echelon supply chain consisting of a supplier, a manufacturer and a retailer. The uncertainty associated with customer demand, marginal production costs and effort costs is expressed as linguistic or fuzzy variables. We analyse centralised supply chain to obtain all benchmark parameters. We investigate four decentralised supply chain cases through fuzzy game theoretic approach. We compare among three Stackelberg games with various supply chain leaderships and a vertical Nash. Our key findings are as follows. First, the manufacturer puts least quality effort while retailer puts least advertising effort when they act as Stackelberg leader in a three-echelon supply chain. Second, supplier's per unit price is governed by the channel leadership in three-echelon supply chain while retail prices are less affected by the leadership. We investigate the impact of fuzzy degree of quality and advertising sensitivity on optimal profit distribution among agents. We present numerical analysis to illustrate the importance of the derived theoretical results and discuss additional managerial insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the way in which the large football clubs are increasing their dominance, and whether this is compatible with EU competition law. Various insights from the economic and legal literature have been combined to give a new interpretation of EU competition law. The number of clubs with a realistic chance of winning important prizes has declined in many national markets. As a result, the economic competition has diminished and prices have increased to the detriment of welfare. This development has been reinforced by the joint actions of the top European clubs, such as threatening to start a Super League. Consequently, UEFA has implemented policies that have been particularly helpful for the top clubs. But, the clubs' actions are incompatible with EU competition law, as is the actual creation of a European Super League. If the EU were to enforce the law, the power of the big clubs would be reduced, and UEFA's policies could be based more on the old democratic principles, again. This would lead to more sporting successes for small clubs and to lower prices for the fans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the impact of central bank regulatory policies on market power in Africa. The study presents a representative sample of 52 African economies over the period 2006–2020. The study shows that the individual regulatory policies of the central bank (i.e. monetary and macro-prudential policies) enhance banks' market power. Also, it reveals that central bank regulatory policies are better coordinated, as complements, in achieving greater market power of banks in countries with strong central bank independence (CBI) framework. However, the coordinated policies are substitutes in determining bank's market power in countries with weak CBI framework. The policy implication is that the right policy mix of coordinated central bank regulatory policy framework is important in determining an optimal outcome of bank's market power in both an inclusive central bank (monetary-prudential) policy targeting economies and an independent policy targeting economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a country, the United States spends significantly more on healthcare than other advanced industrialized countries, and Americans have comparably worse health outcomes. Both are developments of the last four decades. In this paper, we look at how change in antitrust and patent law and thus change in market power in the largest four subsectors of healthcare, hospitals, physician groups, prescription drugs, and net medical insurance, have contributed to the increasing cost of medical care in the United States. We show that the annual rent – the degree to which health care is overpriced as a result of market power – was between 2.47 and 4.30 percent of GDP in 2016 – truly a big cost for big medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]