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In bacteria and archaea, tripartite ATP-independent periplasmic (TRAP) transporters uptake essential nutrients. TRAP transporters receive their substrates via a secreted soluble substrate-binding protein. How a sodium ion-driven secondary active transporter is strictly coupled to a substrate-binding protein is poorly understood. Here we report the cryo-EM structure of the sialic acid TRAP transporter SiaQM from Photobacterium profundum at 2.97 Å resolution. SiaM comprises a “transport” domain and a “scaffold” domain, with the transport domain consisting of helical hairpins as seen in the sodium ion-coupled elevator transporter VcINDY. The SiaQ protein forms intimate contacts with SiaM to extend the size of the scaffold domain, suggesting that TRAP transporters may operate as monomers, rather than the typically observed oligomers for elevator-type transporters. We identify the Na+ and sialic acid binding sites in SiaM and demonstrate a strict dependence on the substrate-binding protein SiaP for uptake. We report the SiaP crystal structure that, together with docking studies, suggest the molecular basis for how sialic acid is delivered to the SiaQM transporter complex. We thus propose a model for substrate transport by TRAP proteins, which we describe herein as an ‘elevator-with-an-operator’ mechanism.

Demands for major antitrust reform are coming from all directions: politicians, industrial organization (IO) economists, and antitrust lawyers. While the political, legal, and economic debates vary in important ways, they all boil down to a single question: Do we need a “New” Sherman Act? Progressive IO economists argue that a “crisis” of competition in markets—evidenced by increasing levels of aggregate industry concentration—has resulted in systematic market power across the economy, and that a crisis of institutional credibility in the courts has biased antitrust law in favor of defendants. However, as this Article illustrates, the economic and empirical evidence support neither proffer. Rather than reform based on upon evidence of market failure or a failure of antitrust institutions, Progressive IO economists call for reform based upon the nirvana fallacy—a comparison of the today’s institutions with an imaginary set of perfect institutions guided by omniscient and well-intending economists. But economics is not on the agenda of current proposals for antitrust reform and calls for a “New” Sherman Act threaten to upend the long-standing partnership between law and economics on which the consumer welfare standard is predicated. Without such a partnership, antitrust institutions will struggle to achieve their objective of promoting competition on behalf of Americans.

In bacteria and archaea, tripartite ATP-independent periplasmic (TRAP) transporters uptake essential carboxylate- and sulfonate-containing nutrients into the cytoplasm. Unlike other secondary active transporters, TRAP transporters cannot receive their substrates directly, but do so indirectly via a secreted soluble substrate-binding protein. How a sodium-driven secondary active transporter is strictly coupled to a passenger-carrying substrate-binding domain is poorly understood. Here, we report the cryo-EM structure of the sialic acid TRAP transporter SiaQM from Photobacterium profundum at 2.97 Å resolution. SiaM has 12-TMs that come together to form a “transport” domain and a “scaffold” domain, with the transport domain consisting of helical hairpins as seen in the sodium-coupled elevator transporter VcINDY. Interestingly, the SiaQ protein forms intimate contacts with SiaM to extend the size of the scaffold domain, indicating TRAP transporters may operate as monomers, rather than the typically observed oligomers. We have identified the Na+ and sialic acid binding sites in SiaM and confirmed a strict dependence on the substrate-binding protein SiaP for uptake. We have determined the SiaP crystal structure that, together with co-evolution driven docking studies, provides a molecular basis for how sialic acid is delivered to the SiaQM transporter complex. We conclude that TRAP proteins are conceptually a marriage between an ABC importer and a secondary active transporter, which we describe herein as an ‘elevator-with-an-operator’ mechanism.

Judge Koh handed down a sweeping opinion in May 2019 condemning as antitrust violations many of Qualcomm’s business practices related to the royalty rates it charged to license its SEPs. The district court opinion significantly expands the scope of liability for refusals to deal and for non-predatory pricing behavior, further eroding the longstanding symmetrical approach to antitrust enforcement regardless of the kind of property involved. We find three glaring errors in the district court opinion. First, the court expands the exception to the general rule permitting refusals to deal, as laid out in Aspen Skiing, well beyond the outer boundary of Section 2 by applying it to contracts negotiated by Qualcomm over 20 years ago and by inferring the company was willing to sacrifice profits even in the face of evidence that the change in dealing was implemented to increase short-term profits. Second, the district court accepted a price squeeze theory—characterized by the FTC as a “tax” on OEMs transacting with Qualcomm’s rivals—directly contrary to the Supreme Court’s holding in linkLine. Third, the court erroneously concluded that Qualcomm’s exclusive dealing arrangements with Apple violate the Sherman Act, despite a glaring failure by the FTC to prove substantial foreclosure, contrary to modern antitrust precedent and economic theory, both of which make crystal clear that proof of substantial foreclosure is necessary to showing an anticompetitive effect from exclusive dealing. The district court’s inappropriate extension of antitrust liability in three separate areas of well-settled antitrust doctrine is remarkable and threatens to upend important precedent that has successfully guided business conduct for years. Further, the remedy—aside from putting the nation’s security at risk and potentially undermining U.S. leadership in 5G technology and standard-setting—transforms the role of antitrust courts from adjudicators to central planners, a role for which the Trinko Court expressly stated they are ill suited. The decision invites plaintiffs to use the Sherman Act to reach conduct that has been generally shielded from antitrust liability. That invitation is ill advised and should be rejected by the Ninth Circuit, and if necessary, the Supreme Court.

Multicomponent transporters are used by bacteria to transport a wide range of nutrients. These systems use a substrate-binding protein to bind the nutrient with high affinity and then deliver it to a membrane-bound transporter for uptake. Nutrient uptake pathways are linked to the colonisation potential and pathogenicity of bacteria in humans and may be candidates for antimicrobial targeting. Here we review current research into bacterial multicomponent transport systems, with an emphasis on the interaction at the membrane, as well as new perspectives on the role of lipids and higher oligomers in these complex systems.

We examined environmental activist behaviour as a function of two different forms of environmental identity: identification with nature (i.e., seeing oneself as part of nature, more often referred to as connectedness to nature) and politicized environmental identity (i.e., seeing oneself as a part of a collective struggle to protect the environment). We extend prior work that found politicized environmental identity mediates a relationship between identification with nature and self-reports of environmental activism (Schmitt, Mackay, et al., 2019) by using observed behavioural indicators of environmental activism: taking pro-environmental buttons (Study 1), donating to an environmental organization (Study 2), or writing pro-environmental letters to politicians (Study 3). In Study 2 the relationship between identification with nature and activist behaviour was fully mediated by politicized environmental identity. In Studies 1 and 3, politicized environmental identity partially mediated a relationship between identification with nature and observed activist behaviour. We estimated the mean effect size of the mediation pathways in all three studies using meta-analysis, which supported the mediation model.

We extend social identity models of pro-environmental collective action by expanding on the plausible role of access to cognitive alternatives to the environmental status quo (i.e., the ability of people to imagine what a sustainable relationship with nature would look like). Using a representative Canadian survey on age, gender, and ethnicity (N = 1029) we evaluate the associations between access to environmental cognitive alternatives and politicized environmental identity and willingness to engage in pro-environmental activist behavior. Additionally, we extend research using exclusively self-reported outcomes by giving participants the opportunity to write and sign a pro-environmental letter to the Canadian Minister of the Environment and Climate Change. Our results suggest that envisioning specific ways in which the status quo can be changed is associated with stronger politicized environmental identity, greater willingness to engage in pro-environmental activist behavior, and increased likelihood of writing and signing a pro-environmental letter to the Canadian Minister of the Environment and Climate Change. All methods and analyses follow our preregistration (https://osf.io/b56ry) and all materials and data are openly available (https://osf.io/24yeq/).

We test common sense psychology of intragroup relations whereby people assume that intragroup respect and ingroup prototypicality are positively related. In Study 1a, participants rated a group member as more prototypical if they learned that group member was highly respected rather than disrespected. In Study 1b, participants rated a group member as more respected by other group members if they learned that group member was prototypical rather than unprototypical. As a commonsense psychology of groups, we reasoned that the perceived relationship between prototypicality and intragroup respect would be stronger for cohesive groups compared to incohesive groups. The effect of intragroup respect on perceptions of prototypicality (Study 2a & 2c) and the effect of prototypicality on perceptions of intragroup respect (Study 2b) were generally stronger for participants considering cohesive groups relative to incohesive groups. However, the interaction effect of prototypicality and group cohesion on intragroup respect did fail to replicate in Study 2d. In Studies 3, 4a, and 4b we manipulated the relationship between prototypicality and intragroup respect and found that when these variables were in perceptual harmony participants perceived groups as more cohesive. The results of eight out of nine studies conducted are consistent with the prediction that people make inferences about intragroup respect, prototypicality, and group cohesion in a manner that maintains perceptual harmony.

Bargaining is all around us. Bargaining is how prices are set across a range of economic activities such as between licensors and licensees of intellectual property, employees and employers, content providers and distributors, health insurers and hospitals, and in many intermediate product markets. Recently, bargaining has played a central role in a number of high-profile antitrust matters. In 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice challenged AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner — largely on the basis of a bargaining model. Also, in 2018, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission argued that Qualcomm’s market position in cellular chipsets allowed it to leverage higher royalty rates for its standard essential patents (“SEPs”), in violation of its commitment to license its SEPs on fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (“FRAND”) terms. In this article, we assess the value of economic bargaining models to predict outcomes for both horizontal and vertical mergers and for unilateral conduct. To that end, we first provide an overview of the economics of bargaining models and their primary features, including the vertical GUPPI variant. We then discuss these models in the context of recent antitrust cases and detail the uneven judicial adoption of bargaining models. Next, we examine whether the current judicial reticence is justified. We review a body of emerging scholarship that suggest some caution on the use of methodologies to predict harm based on bargaining models. This suggests that a healthy degree of judicial skepticism is warranted — whether coherently articulated in opinions or not. In conclusion, we offer some policy recommendations for the use of bargaining models, which we believe will lead to a more balanced approach regarding their use in antitrust matters.

Author(s): Barnett, Jonathan; Baye, Michael R; Cooper, James C; Crane, Daniel A; Elzinga, Kenneth G; Epstein, Richard; Garza, Deborah; Hazlett, Thomas W; Hurwitz, Justin Gus; Klein, Benjamin; Klick, Jonathan; Lambert, Thomas A; Lipsky, Tad; Manne, Geoffrey A; Masten, Scott E; Ohlhausen, Maureen; Rill, James; Rybnicek, Jan; Smith, Vernon L; Teece, David; Willig, Robert; Wright, Joshua D; Yun, John M

The judgements of academic experts on the personalities of political figures are affected by ideological homogeneity of raters and the use of measures hindered by embedded political content. As long as these problems persist, the academic expert personality profiling of political figures is a futile enterprise. Editors and reviewers would be wise to require authors to provide evidence of ideological heterogeneity in samples of raters, evidence of objectivity in ratings, and evidence that measures do not have embedded political content.

In two preregistered studies we examine correlates of support for Confederate symbols among White Southerners (Study 1: N = 559) and examine potential negative effects of the widespread removal of Confederate symbols (Study 2: N = 139). In Study 1 we determine that support for Confederate symbols is largely a function of a traditional Southern worldview where cultural notions of industriousness, fairness, discipline, obedience, loyalty, and honor are central. Furthermore, we identify four distinct types of Southerners, including two types that equally support Confederate symbols: Traditionalists and Supremacists. While these groups equally support Confederate symbols, Traditionalists hold non-prejudicial attitudes that do not differ from those who do not support Confederate symbols, whereas Supremacists hold relatively more negative attitudes toward Blacks. These Supremacists are also more willing to engage in activist and radical behavior in support of Confederate monuments relative to Traditionalists. In Study 2 we show that when Traditionalists and Supremacists are exposed to the removal of Confederate symbols, they demonstrate an increased willingness to engage in activist, but not radical, behaviors in support of Confederate monuments, and they display more anger, disgust, and upset emotions. Supremacists, but not Traditionalists, also display hostility in response to the removal of Confederate symbols.

The ‘religion as cause’ argument implies that religious faiths are more inherently prone to violence than ideologies that are secular. Following an evaluation of the scientific literature on religion and violence, we argue that wherever evidence links specific aspects of religion with aggression and violence, these aspects are not unique to religion. Rather, these aspects are religious variants of more general psychological processes. Further, there are numerous aspects of religion that buffer against aggression and violence among its adherents. The most distinct feature of religion, supernaturalism, is not often the focus of researchers of religion and violence. Despite this, the paucity of research that has been conducted on this key feature suggests that supernaturalism is associated with reduced aggression and violence. There appears to be very little support for the notion that there is something uniquely religious that causes violence among followers.

We build on social identity models of environmental collective action by developing the Environmental Cognitive Alternatives Scale (ECAS), which measures the ability to imagine what a sustainable relationship between humans and the rest of nature might look like. In Study 1 (N = 386), we developed the initial scale, and found evidence for its construct validity. The ECAS was associated with other relevant social identity theory variables—perceived (il)legitimacy and (in)stability of the current environmental status quo and engagement in environmental collective action, as well as with other environmental variables including pro-environmental consumer behavior and beliefs about anthropogenic climate change. In Study 2 (N = 393), we confirmed the factor structure of the ECAS, found additional evidence for its construct validity, and found that it was a strong predictor of environmental activist identification, explaining variance beyond extensive control variables including identification with nature, perceived (in)stability and (il)legitimacy, and beliefs about anthropogenic climate change. It also explained additional variance in willingness to engage in environmental collective action behavior beyond even environmental activist identification. Our results suggest that the ability to imagine cognitive alternatives to the environmental status quo might have important implications for whether people engage in pro-environmental collective action to mitigate climate-change and other environmental problems.

Investigations and litigation involving standard-essential patents (SEPs) have been brought around the world. In the last several years, India has drawn attention to itself by raising several novel and controversial concerns regarding SEPs. For example, in 2013 and 2014, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) issued investigation orders against Ericsson, alleging that the company violated its commitments to license on fair, reasonable, and nondiscriminatory (FRAND) terms by imposing discriminatory and “excessive” royalty rates and using Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs). In its investigation order, the CCI stated that “forcing” a party to execute [an] NDA” and “imposing excessive and unfair royalty rates” constitutes “prima facie” abuse of dominance and violation of section 4 of the Indian Competition Act, as does “[i]mposing a jurisdiction clause debarring [licensees] from getting disputes adjudicated in the country where both parties were in business.” Most recently, India’s Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion issued a Discussion Paper on SEPs, which among other things, emphasizes concerns about holdup by patent holders, while omitting any concerns about holdup and holdout by implementers. This chapter analyzes that Discussion Paper, providing guidance based on the approach taken by the United States and Europe, and offers several policy recommendations, including on the availability of injunctive relief; the issuance of a one-size-fits all template for standard-development organizations (SDOs); the imposition of royalty caps or competition sanctions for “excessive pricing,” the use of NDAs and the “ND” prong of FRAND; balancing desires for transparency with needs for confidentiality in licensing; and the use of international arbitration on a portfolio basis as likely the most efficient and realistic means of resolving FRAND disputes.

The ‘religion as cause’ argument implies that religious faiths are more inherently prone to violence than ideologies that are secular. Following an evaluation of the scientific literature on religion and violence, we argue that wherever evidence links specific aspects of religion with aggression and violence, these aspects are not unique to religion. Rather, these aspects are religious variants of more general psychological processes. Further, there are numerous aspects of religion that buffer against aggression and violence among its adherents. The most distinct feature of religion, supernaturalism, is not often the focus of religion and violence researchers. Despite this, the paucity of research that has been conducted on this key feature suggests that it is associated with reduced aggression and violence. There appears very little support for the notion that there is something uniquely religious that causes violence among followers.

This symposium features papers from the third (and final) conference in the George Mason Law School/Microsoft conference series on the law and economics of innovation. The papers focus on the law and economics of online markets. There are, of course, obvious differences between the local grocery store and eBay, and between Google and the local Yellow Pages. The conference was convened to bring together scholars, regulators, policy experts and industry insiders to explore the nature of those differences and their implications, if any, for how online markets are organized and regulated. As reflected in these papers, our understanding of the functioning of online markets can be bolstered by an applied understanding of certain economic issues common to most markets. Most important for online markets among these are the economics of information and advertising, the economics of reputation and anonymity, the role of market norms, contract law and other institutions in governing relationships, the economics of n...

Category management refers generally to the process by which retailers select products to stock, display, promote, advertise, and price within a product category. Category management contracts involve a retailer designating a particular manufacturer as the “category captain”, who has influence over which products in a product category are stocked, as well as how they are displayed, promoted, and priced. Category management contracts have attracted antitrust scrutiny in recent years, exemplified by the Sixth Circuit’s recent decision in Conwood Co. v. United States Tobacco Co., which held that United States Tobacco’s abuse of its position as category captain, exclusionary arrangements, misleading statements and destruction of rivals’ products violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act. Conwood is an especially important candidate for detailed economic and legal analysis for two reasons. The first is that antitrust commentators have almost universally agreed that Conwood is an example of “cheap exclusion” or mor...

Slotting fees, per‐unit‐time payments made by manufacturers to retailers for shelf space, have become increasingly prevalent in grocery retailing. Shelf space contracts are shown to be a consequence of the normal competitive process when retailer shelf space is promotional, in the sense that the shelf space induces profitable incremental individual manufacturer sales without drawing customers from competing stores. In these circumstances, retailer and manufacturer incentives do not coincide with regard to the provision of promotional shelf space, and manufacturers must enter shelf space contracts with retailers. Retailers are compensated for supplying promotional shelf space at least partially with a per‐unit‐time slotting fee when interretailer price competition on the particular product makes compensation with a lower wholesale price a more costly way to generate equilibrium retailer shelf space rents. Our theory implies that slotting will be positively related to manufacturer incremental profi...

RING-domain E3 ligases enhance transfer of ubiquitin to substrate proteins by stabilizing the RING-bound thioester-linked E2∼ubiquitin conjugate in a defined conformation that primes the active site for nucleophilic attack. Here we report that the monomeric RING domains from the human E3 ligases Arkadia and Ark2C bind directly to free ubiquitin with an affinity comparable to that of other dedicated ubiquitin-binding domains. Further work showed that the Ark-like RING domain and the noncovalently bound ubiquitin molecule coordinately stabilize the E2-conjugated ubiquitin (donor ubiquitin) in the 'closed' conformation. Our studies identify the RING domain of Arkadia as a ubiquitin-binding domain and provide insight into a new ubiquitin-dependent mechanism used by monomeric RING domains to activate ubiquitin transfer. This study also suggests how substrates that have been monoubiquitinated could be favored for further ubiquitination.

We explore the capital structure and governance of a mortgage-insuring securitization utility operating with government reinsurance for systemic or “tail” risk. The structure we propose for the replacement of the GSEs focuses on aligning incentives for appropriate pricing and transfer of mortgage risks across the private sector and between the private sector and the government. We present the justification and mechanics of a vintage-based capital structure, and assess the components of the mortgage guarantee fee, whose size we find is most sensitive to the required capital ratio and the expected return on that capital. We discuss the implications of selling off some of the utility’s mortgage credit risk to the capital markets and how the informational value of such transactions may vary with the level of risk transfer. Finally, we explore how mutualization could address incentive misalignments arising out of securitization and government insurance, as well as how the governance structure for such a financial market utility could be designed.

Any Willing Provider and Freedom of Choice laws restrict the ability of managed care entities, including pharmacy benefit managers, to selectively contract with providers. The managed care entities argue this limits their ability to generate cost savings, while proponents of the laws suggest that such selective contracts limit competition, leading to an increase in aggregate costs. We examine the effect of state adoption of such laws on prescription drug expenditures, finding that any willing provider/freedom of choice laws are associated with cost increases of at least 3 percent. These results suggest that these laws are harmful from a spending perspective.

We describe a set of six design principles for the reorganization of the U.S. housing finance system and apply them to one model for replacing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that has so far received frequent mention but little sustained analysis – the lender cooperative utility. We discuss the pros and cons of such a model and propose a method for organizing participation in a mutual loss pool and an explicit, priced government insurance mechanism. We also discuss how these principles and this model are consistent with preserving the “to-be-announced,” or TBA, market – particularly if the fixed-rate mortgage remains a focus of public policy.

This comment was filed with the Department of Justice Antitrust Division on December 31, 2009, as "Comments Regarding Agriculture and Antitrust Enforcement Issues in Our 21st Century Economy" in response to the DOJ/USDA request for public comments for the agencies' joint workshops on antitrust issues in the agricultural sector. Regarding firm size and integration, it must be kept in mind that the agriculture industry in the U.S. has, for good reasons, moved beyond the historic, pastoral image of small family farms operating in quiet isolation, devoid of big business and modern technologies. The genetic traits that give modern seeds their value - traits that confer resistance to herbicide and high yields, for example - are often developed through processes that are technologically-advanced, time- and money-intensive, risky investments, and subject to various layers of regulation, and, at least for some participants in this market, these processes are likely to be more efficiently and effectively conducted within large agribusiness companies having enormous research and development budgets and significant expertise in managing complex business and legal operations. This short comment discusses the implications for industry structure in the US biotech seed industry of the importance of intellectual property and innovation. Contrary to some commentators and the implicit underpinnings of the DOJ/USDA workshops, neither concentration nor typical licensing practices in the industry are cause for concern, and we counsel caution before intervening in this well-functioning and innovative market. From the public record it appears that the impetus for much of today’s antitrust interest in the biotech seed industry boils down to efforts to intervene into business disputes between large and sophisticated parties. The inherent uncertainty regarding the economic consequences of specific conduct, coupled with competitors’ poor incentives and the huge costs of error, counsel strongly against antitrust intervention without strong empirical evidence that the conduct has reduced competition and harmed consumers in the form of higher prices, lower quality, or reduced innovation.

Modern antitrust litigation sometimes involves complex expert economic and econometric analysis. While this boom in the demand for economic analysis and expert testimony has clearly improved the welfare of economists—and schools offering basic economic training to judges—little is known about the empirical effects of economic complexity or judges' economic training on decision-making in antitrust litigation. We use a unique data set on antitrust litigation in district courts during 1996—2006 to examine whether economic complexity impacts decisions in antitrust cases, and thereby provide a novel test of the frequently asserted hypothesis that antitrust analysis has become too complex for generalist judges. We also examine the impact of one institutional response to economic complexity - basic economic training by judges. We find that decisions involving the evaluation of complex economic evidence are significantly more likely to be appealed, and decisions of judges trained in basic economics are significantly less likely to be appealed than are decisions by their untrained counterparts. Our results are robust to a variety of controls, including the type of case, circuit, and the political party of the judge. Our tentative conclusion, based on a revealed preference argument that views a party’s appeal decision as an indication that the district court got the economics wrong, is that there is support for the hypothesis that some antitrust cases are too complicated for generalist judges.

On October 5, 2007, a group of antitrust scholars convened on Chicago's Near North Side to discuss monopolization law. In the course of their freewheeling but fascinating conversation, a number of broad themes emerged. Those themes can best be understood in contrast to a body of antitrust scholarship that was born six miles to the south, at the University of Chicago. Most notably, the North Side discussants demonstrate a hearty confidence in the antitrust enterprise - a confidence that is not shared by Chicago School scholars, who generally advocate a more modest antitrust. As scholars who are more sympathetic to Chicago School views, we are somewhat skeptical. While we applaud many the of the insights and inquiries raised during the conversation, and certainly this sort of discussion in general, our task in this article is to draft a critical analysis of the October 5 conversation. In particular, we critique the North Side discussants' vision of a big antitrust that would place equal emphasis on Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act and would expand private enforcement of Section 2.

This article presents a theoretical framework for understanding terrorism that is grounded in experimental work on social identity and social power. It is suggested that social identity salience and social power may be harnessed to reduce terrorist activity by reducing perceptions of threat from the view of terrorist organizations, by reducing perceived threat of terrorist activity from the view of potential targets, and by addressing distributions of and susceptibility to social power as it relates to acceptability of parochial altruism.

Category management refers generally to the process by which retailers select products to stock, display, promote, advertise, and price within a product category. Category management contracts involve a retailer designating a particular manufacturer as the “category captain”, who has influence over which products in a product category are stocked, as well as how they are displayed, promoted, and priced. Category management contracts have attracted antitrust scrutiny in recent years, exemplified by the Sixth Circuit’s recent decision in Conwood Co. v. United States Tobacco Co., which held that United States Tobacco’s abuse of its position as category captain, exclusionary arrangements, misleading statements and destruction of rivals’ products violated Section 2 of the Sherman Act. Conwood is an especially important candidate for detailed economic and legal analysis for two reasons. The first is that antitrust commentators have almost universally agreed that Conwood is an example of “cheap exclusion” or more generally, a monopolization enforcement action that belongs to an identifiable category of cases involving significant threats to competitive harm without plausible efficiency justifications. The second reason is that Conwood can be viewed as part of a broader trend toward increased scrutiny of distribution contracts that explicitly or implicitly restrict the display, promotion, or sale of rival products by retailers.Our analysis of the facts in Conwood challenges the conventional wisdom that it is an example of “cheap exclusion” and concludes that competitive harm was unlikely. Further, we provide a pro- competitive justification for category management contracts delegating shelf space decisions to the manufacturer as a form of partial exclusive dealing contract which grant a manufacturer access to preferred shelf space but do not completely exclude rivals.

We assessed differences in relationship functioning in physically and in sexually aggressive student men and women. Forty-seven university students in beginning psychology classes completed the Bornstein Relationship Profile Test (RPT) and the Revised Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS2) for partners and for others. The RPT categorizes people on dependency-detachment and yields three subscales: Destructive Overdependence, Dysfunctional Detachment, and Healthy Dependency. The CTS2 measures both the extent of to-partner and to-other aggression and the use of physical and sexual aggression in dealing with conflict. Students who were sexually aggressive toward partners and/or others had lower scores on Bornstein’s Healthy Dependence scale than those who were not sexually aggressive, F(1,43) = 6.57, p = .01.

This comprehensive book provides an extensive overview of the major topics of antitrust law from an economic perspective. Its in-depth treatment and analysis of both the law and economics of antitrust is presented via a collection of interconnected original essays. The contributing authors are among the most influential scholars in antitrust, with a rich diversity of backgrounds. Their entries cover, amongst other issues, predatory pricing, essential facilities, tying, vertical restraints, enforcement, mergers, market power, monopolization standards, and facilitating practices.

Since its emergence in the 1970s, transaction cost economics (TCE) has become a leading approach in the research on contracts, firm organization and strategy, antitrust, marketing, inter-firm collaboration and entrepreneurship. With contributions by leading scholars in economics, law and business administration – including Oliver E. Williamson, recipient of the 2009 Nobel Prize in economics for his development of the transaction cost approach – this volume reviews the latest developments in TCE and applies them to contemporary theoretical and empirical problems.