Screening markets for cartel detection: collusive markers in the CFD cartel-audit

Coordination Failure Diagnostics (CFD) is a model that analyses real market processes with the help of time pattern analysis and investigates whether they operate efficiently. For competition authorities CFD can be employed to detect illegal covert cartels. The CFD cartel-audit should enable the detection of cartels via characteristic market process patterns. This is based on the assumption that existing cartels cause failures in the observed process patterns. The CFD cartel-audit attempts to draw conclusions from these process patterns in order to find hidden cartels and to engage antitrust agencies into additional more detailed audits.

Mexico: Cartels,corruption and cocaine: A profile of the Gulf cartel

This text constructs a profile of one of Mexico's most powerful organised crime groups, the Gulf cartel. The text analyses the power of the cartel in the international system, the effects globalisation has had on its operations, the threats it poses to the state, and the obstacles the state faces in countering transnational organised crime groups.     

The executive on the battlefield: government amendments and cartel theory in the Chilean Congress

This article argues that cartelised coordination inside Chilean congressional committees is important for understanding the success rates of presidential initiatives. By way of an analysis of the amendment process undertaken both in the Chamber and Senate committees in the Chilean Congress during 2006–10, the authors review the approval patterns of legislative amendments. The analysis suggests two chief findings: coordination between government parties and the executive is crucial for the success of amendment; and the opposition’s success in generating legal transformations depends on the construction of inter-coalition alliances. It is hoped that the perspective offered here will contribute to the current literature on cartel party theory in Latin America.     

Using accounting data in cartel damage calculations: blessing or menace?

Standard methods for calculating cartel-damage rely on data of prices charged and quantity sold. Such data may not easily be available. In this paper, it is shown that accounting data can be used for computing a lower bound for cartel-damage. Previous literature indicates that economic profits can hardly be inferred from accounting data. Therefore, it is shown under which econometrically testable assumptions on accounting costs a meaningful lower bound for cartel-damage can consistently be estimated when using accounting data. However, the aggregation-level and the publication-frequency of accounting data pose a challenge to the estimation of cartel-damage. A further challenge is to appropriately reflect the strength respectively effectiveness of the collusive agreement in the specification of any such estimation.     

From Cali to Rotterdam: Perceptions of Colombian cocaine traffickers on the Dutch port

This article explores thesubjective perceptions of Colombiantraffickers on the port of Rotterdam. Iidentify those factors that, from theirperspective, make Rotterdam (and theNetherlands) a low-risk area for cocaineimport into Europe. It is argued here thatwhile economic factors and human resourceshave a central impact on their keydecisions, law enforcement risks tend to besecondary or to vary very much regardingactor and type of intervention. The articleis based on my recently completedethnographic (PhD) research on Colombiansinvolved in the cocaine business in theNetherlands, and on my current research oncocaine smuggling through the port ofRotterdam.     

Newspaper Structuring of Crime Views: Images of Homicide In Cali,Colombia

The research reported in this paper was supported in part by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the American Philosophical Society, and Tulane University's Center for Latin American Studies. The author gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Gloria Lessan, Cecilia Camacho H., and Fany Ackerman at various stages of this investigation.

Though there is considerable consensus that newspapers distort the crime picture, there is little agreement that the papers structure public ideas about crime. In an effort to investigate that possibility free of the complications created by intervening variables, the present research investigates the influence of Cali, Colombia's major newspaper's presentation of homicide news upon Cali citizens' ideas about that type of crime. Media-related intervening variables are controlled because Cali has no local television stations and because crime news, focusing on homicide, is reported in the same quantity, fashion, and location in the daily newspaper. A sample of Cali residents was surveyed to ascertain whether or not their views of certain homicide characteristics coincided with the image presented by the newspaper. Victimization patterns were found not to influence public ideas about homicide. Public views, in the main, were found related to newspaper coverage of homicide. It is suggested that newspaper reporting, while one of several potential influences on public opinion, should not be considered inconsequential in structuring public ideas about crime. The implications of this finding for future research are examined.     

Capturing Technological Opportunity Via Japan's Star Scientists: Evidence from Japanese Firms' Biotech Patents and Products

Using detailed data on biotechnology in Japan, we find that identifiable collaborations between particular university star scientists and firms have a large positive impact on firms' research productivity, increasing the average firm's biotech patents by 34 percent, products in development by 27 percent, and products on the market by 8 percent as of 1989–1990. However, there is little evidence of geographically localized knowledge spillovers. In early industry formation, star scientists holding tacit knowledge required to practice recombinant DNA (genetic engineering) were of great economic value, leading to incentives motivating their participation in technology transfer. In Japan, the legal and institutional context implies that firm scientists work in the stars' university laboratories in contrast to America where the stars are more likely to work in the firm's labs. As a result, star collaborations in Japan are less localized around their research universities so that the universities' local economic development impact is lessened. Stars' scientific productivity is increased less during collaborations with firms in Japan as compared to the U.S.     

Capturing Crime at the Micro-place: A Spatial Approach to Inform Buffer Size

Journal of Quantitative Criminology - The current study develops a methodology to identify spatially relevant buffer sizes for micro-place evaluation research. It applies this methodology in an...     

Capturing the Regional Economic Benefits of University Technology Transfer: A Case Study

Despite a high concentration of brainpower and federally funded research, some universities have been unable to translate these assets into regionally based economic activity. The author uses an ethnographic method interviewing university officials and academic entrepreneurs in New York City, which has a relatively poor record of local start-up creation. The author finds that universities that view the primary objective of technology transfer as a revenue generator for their institutions generate fewer spin-offs than those that incorporate a local economic development component. Internal advocacy and faculty interest, however, can affect university behavior. The author also finds that academic entrepreneurs with a pre-existing affiliation with the licensing institution are more likely to locate in the area than outsiders utilizing the technology. Entrepreneurs exhibit a distinct locational calculus based on a range of variables including real estate costs, founders’ preference and the geographical proximity of key firm relationships.      

From laboratory to the street: Capturing witness memory using the Self‐Administered Interview

The Self‐Administered Interview (SAI^©) is a tool designed to elicit a comprehensive initial account from witnesses at the scene of an incident or shortly thereafter to inoculate against the loss of information associated with delayed interview. Drawing on the principles of the Cognitive Interview (CI), the SAI^© provides witnesses with a series of instructions and retrieval cues to support recall. Requesting that witnesses complete an SAI^© not only serves to preserve and protect memory but also enables officers to prioritize the allocation of policing resources during the critical early stages of an investigation. The current review traces the development of the SAI^© from a series of laboratory studies through to field trials and integrates our findings with theoretical accounts of human memory. We present new data from trials of the tool in the field and consider future avenues for research and further development of the SAI^©.     

法治追梦路上的灵魂伴侣

2021年12月,我与往常一样,打开2021年第34期《人民司法》,希望在文章里寻求灵感。蓦然间,“审理跨境电商案件的探索与思考”一文赫然入目,兼具文章作者和资深读者双重身份的我,那一刻的欣喜竟有了一种立体的律动。     

论核心卡特尔中的宽恕制度及我国《反垄断法》对其规制和完善

核心卡特尔通过相同的定价、一致的行动、固定的份额来获取高额的利润,给竞争带来重大的危害,但是其隐蔽性强,难以为执法机关所侦破.宽恕制度,通过豁免卡特尔协议成员的方式以鼓励其对卡特尔协议的披露,成为西方国家打击卡特尔的重要武器.我国<反垄断法>虽对宽恕制度做了规制,但尚且不足.仍待完善.     

找准着力点 增强主动性 充分发挥 司法行政工作在维护公平正义促进社会和谐中的积极作用

随着依法治国基本方略的深入实施与社会主义和谐社会的逐步构建，司法行政工作特别是基层工作在党和政府工作中的地位和作用越来越突出。做好新形势下的司法行政工作，对于推动科学发展、维护人民权益、促进社会和谐具有越来越重要的意义。今年以来，我们把贯彻落实周永康同志“五个着力”的重要指示作为推进全省司法行政工作的基本立足点，紧密结合贵州实际.     

Reform from within: the Grendon example

In Salduz v Turkey (27 November 2008, No. 36391/02), the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) stated:

...in order for the right to a fair trial to remain sufficiently ‘practical and effective’… Article 6 § 1 requires that, as a rule, access to a lawyer should be provided as from the first interrogation of a suspect by the police, unless it is demonstrated in the light of the particular circumstances of each case that there are compelling reasons to restrict this right…The rights of the defence will in principle be irretrievably prejudiced when incriminating statements made during police interrogation without access to a lawyer are used for a conviction.