Assessing Market Power: The Trade-off Between Market Concentration and Multi-Market Participation

This analysis reveals that traditional market power measuresare biased under the conditions of multi-market participationand demand interdependence. Specifically, when complementary(substitutable) demands dominate, traditional market power measuresare biased upward (downward). A similar bias carries over tothe evaluation of mergers. To wit, mergers that simultaneouslyincrease market concentration and multi-market participationcan result in lower prices even in the absence of merger economies.It follows that merger guidelines that place undue emphasison market concentration can lead policymakers to block (approve)mergers that enhance (diminish) consumer welfare.     

NETWORK REGULATION: THE MANY FACES OF ACCESS

Telecommunications regulation has experienced a fundamentalshift from rate regulation to increased reliance on compelledaccess, perhaps best exemplified by the Telecommunications Actof 1996's imposition of no fewer than four new access requirements.Unfortunately, each access requirement is governed by a separateset of rules for determining both the scope and the price ofaccess. The resulting ad hoc regime has created difficult definitionalproblems and opportunities for regulatory arbitrage. In thisarticle we propose a system inspired by the discipline of mathematicsknown as graph theory that integrates all of the different formsof access into a single analytical framework. This system separatesdifferent access regimes into five categories: (1) retail access,(2) wholesale access, (3) interconnection access, (4) platformaccess, and (5) unbundled access. It also provides insightsinto how each type of access complicates the already difficultproblems of network configuration and management and introducesinefficient biases into decisions about network capacity anddesign. The approach we propose also provides insights intothe transaction cost implications of the different types ofaccess. Drawing on the Coasean theory of the firm, our approachexamines the tradeoffs between internal governance costs andthe external transaction costs of providing access to offera theory of network boundaries. This framework shows how accessregulation distorts networks' natural boundaries and providesa basis for evaluating whether private ordering through marketswould lead to more efficient network design.     

DOES ECONOMICS PROVIDE A RELIABLE GUIDE TO REGULATING COMMODITY BUNDLING BY FIRMS? A SURVEY OF THE ECONOMIC LITERATURE

This article surveys the voluminous economic literature on commoditybundling. While bundling has been widely studied, the vast majorityof the literature has focused on theoretical treatments of bundlingthat demonstrate a wide range of reasons why firms might engagein bundling. These papers generally contain restrictive assumptions,including assumptions regarding the existence of monopoly insome markets, and the nature of rivalry in others. The modelscontained in these papers also generally suppress the more obviousand ubiquitous reasons firms may use bundling. Moreover, thesemodels have not been subject to robustness checks, nor havetheir assumptions been tested empirically. This review of theeconomic literature generally confirms the US Solicitor General'sview in 3M v. LePage's regarding the underdeveloped state ofthe economics literature and its position that the US SupremeCourt should defer promulgation of antitrust standards for bundling.While the literature has demonstrated the possibility that bundlingcan generate anticompetitive harm, it does not provide a reliableway to gauge whether the potential for harm would outweigh anydemonstrable benefits from the practice. As a result, the widespreadapplication of the antitrust laws to bundling by firms can generatesignificant error costs by erroneously condemning or deterringefficient business practices. In the future, economists shouldseek to expand their understanding of both the anticompetitiveand procompetitive reasons firms engage in bundling. This willentail studying the reasons why bundling is adopted by firmswithout market power, relaxing the assumption of monopoly intheoretical models, and generating testable hypotheses and thedata to test them.     

Proficiency testing (external quality assessment) of drug detection in oral fluid

Eighteen external quality assessment (proficiency testing) samples were prepared from client specimens collected with the Intercept^® oral fluid collection device and by spiking drug-free oral fluid. Samples were circulated in pairs at quarterly intervals to 13 UK and USA based laboratories for analysis by a panel of OraSure micro-plate Intercept^® enzyme immunoassay kits and hyphenated mass spectrophotometric techniques. During the survey, there was a single case of non-specificity in a false report for methadone. The major errors were of lack of sensitivity relative to the concentration thresholds specified for the immunoassays. The sensitivity for overall ‘present’/‘not found’ reports calculated as true positives/(true positives + false negatives) were for the amfetamine specific assay 50%, methyl-amfetamines 93%, barbiturates 64%, cannabinoids 73%, cocaine and metabolites 100%, benzodiazepines 69%, methadone 95%, opiates 79% (opiates excluding oxycodone 93%), phencyclidine 93% and human gamma-globulin 97%. A small number of the sensitivity errors were attributable to errors in chromatographic confirmation techniques.     

基于进化神经网络的入侵检测模型

当前的入侵检测技术主要有基于规则的误用检测和基于统计的异常检测。本文提出一个基于遗传算法的神经网络入侵检测系统模型，该模型将神经网络与遗传算法结合起来，利用神经网络自学习、自适应的特性，同时克服了神经网络易陷入局部最优，训练速度慢的缺点。该模型具有智能特性，能够较好地识别新的攻击。     

我国青少年社区矫正工作模式的构建

当前，我国的青少年犯罪数量快速增长，且再犯罪率很高，这对青少年社区矫正工作提出了更高的要求。笔者就我国青少年社区矫正的相关情况，运用社会工作的理论，基于“以人为本”的原则，提出一套涵盖青少年社区矫正工作原则、工作方法、矫正资源、矫正工作人员及青少年社区矫正机构的整合模式，以期更好地促进青少年社区矫正工作的开展，使青少年社区矫正对象顺利地融入到主流社会中。     

社会主义民族:天高地阔养族性——中央“12条”与马克思主义民族理论中国化研究之三

本文从族性演化的视角解读中央“十二条”中的第三条。认为:社会主义时期各民族共同繁荣发展,在某种意义上是民族社会的族性因素随着历史演进不断再生并实现总体张扬。社会主义时期各民族间的共同因素不断增多,为族性张扬积累了优势资源,奠定了雄厚的基础。社会主义时期民族特点、民族差异和各民族在经济文化发展上的差距长期存在,正是民族社会族性因素持续演进的客观反映。而对社会主义民族族性再生现象的真切理解,是我们认识社会主义时期的民族问题的一个基本前提。     

大学生社会实践运行机制的研究与探索

社会实践是大学生思想政治教育的重要环节，对大学生健康成长成才具有不可替代的重要作用。建立和完善社会实践活动的运行机制，使社会实践活动成为中国特色的社会主义高等教育的重要组成部分，是摆在高校教育工作者面前的一项重要课题。目前高校社会实践存在着内容单一、流于形式等薄弱环节，难以调动大学生参加社会实践的积极性。高等教育应主动适应经济建设的运行机制，建立社会和学校双向受益及教学、科研和生产相结合的运行机制，为大学生社会实践可持续发展提供保障。     

军事决策过程中的法律运用

军事决策在军事系统内是基础性的军事行为,在军事决策过程中运用法律,可以使军事决策行为符合军队法治的要求,保证军事决策科学正确。军事决策过程中的法律运用分为五个阶段:军事决策目标的法律分析、军事决策制定的法律论证、军事决策选择的法律审核、军事决策执行的法律保障、军事决策责任的法律追究。