Review of Books on Competition Law and Policy

Books reviewed in this article:
G. Amato, Antitrust and the Bounds of Power: The Dilemma of Liberal Democracy in the History of the Market
S. Anderman, EC Competition Law and Intellectual Property Rights: Regulating Innovation
M. Cini and L. McGowan, Competition Policy in the European Union
European Competition Law Annual, 1997, The Objectives of Competition Policy
M. Furse, Competition Law of the UK and EC
D.J. Gerber, Law and Competition in Twentieth Century Europe: Protecting Prometheus
D.G. Goyder, EC Competition Law
V. Korah, An Introductory Guide to EC Competition Law
L. Ortiz Blanco, European Community Competition Procedure
B.J. Rodger and A. MacCulloch, Competition Law and Policy in the European Community and United Kingdom
W. Sauter, Competition Law and Industrial Policy in the EU     

Fathers' rights, women's losses

Recent international moves to defend the family, protect and enhance the rights of men. For example, state proposals to redefine illegitimacy extend men's rights in marriage to unmarried men. Women are losing the choice to bring up children on our own, or together, without men.The position of men in the family is not based upon equality with women. Fatherhood is not the equivalent of motherhood, nor the support for it. The particular right of fatherhood is the right of men to take up a social position of authority over women and children. This is not an interchangeable position, for fatherhood is accrued solely to men. Social policies which encourage the presence of men in all families, and support the ‘role’ of father, perpetuate sexual inequality and discrimination against women.     

Pubertal Effects on Adjustment in Girls: Moving from Demonstrating Effects to Identifying Pathways

The present investigation examines mediated pathways from pubertal development to changes in depressive affect and aggression. Participants were 100 white girls who were between the ages of 10 and 14 (M=12.13, SD=.80); girls were from well-educated, middle- to upper-middle class families, and attended private schools in a major northeastern urban area. Three aspects of pubertal development were examined: (a) estradiol categories tapping gonadal maturation; (b) dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS) levels indicating adrenal maturation; and (c) pubertal timing (early vs. other). Three potential mediators were also examined: emotional arousal, attention difficulties, and negative life events. Tests of mediated models indicated that early pubertal timing predicted higher emotional arousal which subsequently predicted increased depressive affect. Negative life events, and possibly attention difficulties, mediated the associations of both estradiol category and DHEAS with aggression. These findings highlight the potential for more intensive investigation of gonadal and adrenal processes in explaining affective changes at puberty.

Effects of girls' hormonal status on depressive and aggressive symptoms over the course of one year

Associations between hormonal and physical status and girls' depressive affect, aggressive affect, and delinquent behavior were studied over the course of one year. Seventy-two White girls, aged 10–14 at initial data collection, were seen twice. Endocrinological status (estradiol, luteinizing hormone [LH], folicle stimulating hormone [FSH], testosterone, and dehydroepiandosterone sulfate [DHEAS] at Time 1, physical development (menarche, secondary sexual characteristics) and maturational timing at Times 1 and 2 were used to predict self- and maternal reports of depressive affect, and self-reports of aggressive affect and delinquent behavior at Time 2. It was posited that initial endocrinological status, as represented by hormonal categories derived by Warren and Brooks-Gunn [(1989) Mood and Behavior at Adolescence: Evidence for Hormonal Factors, Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, Vol. 69, pp. 77–83] and reflecting estradiol, LH, and FSH levels, would be associated with affective expression and delinquent behavior one year later. DHEAS, however, was not expected to be associated with affective expression a year later as it is thought to be more indicative of adrenal changes that are in part environmentally mediated. Initial affective expression was hypothesized to account for more of the variation than prior hormonal status. Hormonal categories predicted depressive and aggressive affect a year later, while DHEAS, physical status, and maturational timing did not. Initial hormonal categories were associated with subsequent reports of delinquent behavior, although not after physical status or prior reports of delinquency were entered into the regression. Initial reports of affective expression accounted for a far greater proportion of the variance in aggressive affect and delinquent behavior than did hormonal or physical status.Received Ph.D. from Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota. Research interests include the interpaly among developmental processes during the transitions into and out of adolescence.Received Ph.D. from University of Pennsylvania. Research interests include Girl's psychological adaptation to pubertal change, biosocial aspects of female reproductive events, development of biological and socially at risk children and adolescents.Research interests include: Reproductive endocrinology, anorexia nervosa, neuroendocrinology, adolescence.     

Electoral Rules,Political Competition and Fiscal Expenditures: Regression Discontinuity Evidence from Brazilian Municipalities

We exploit a discontinuity in the rules of Brazilian mayoral elections to investigate whether political competition has a causal impact on fiscal policy choices. In municipalities with fewer than 200,000 voters, mayors are elected under a plurality voting system. In all other municipalities, a runoff election takes place between the top two candidates if neither achieves the majority of votes. Our results suggest that political competition induces more investment and less current expenditures, particularly personnel expenditures. The impact is larger when incumbents can run for re-election, suggesting incentives matter insofar as incumbents can themselves remain in office.     

Is Mindful Parenting Associated with Adolescents’ Well-being in Early and Middle/Late Adolescence? The Mediating Role of Adolescents’ Attachment Representations,Self-Compassion and Mindfulness

There is some evidence that mindful parenting, a parenting approach that involves the practice of bringing mindful awareness to the parent-child relationship, is associated with several positive psychosocial outcomes in adolescents. However, only a few studies have investigated the mechanisms that may underlie that association. This study explores whether the link between mindful parenting and adolescents’ well-being is mediated by adolescents’ attachment representations, self-compassion and mindfulness skills. The sample comprised 563 parent-child dyads (95.6% mothers). Adolescents (61.5% girls) had a mean age of 14.26 years (SD?=?1.66, range?=?12–20). Parents completed a measure of mindful parenting, and adolescents completed measures of attachment representations, self-compassion, mindfulness, and well-being. Mindful parenting was indirectly associated with adolescents’ self-compassion and mindfulness through a more secure perception of the relationship with the parents, and was indirectly associated with adolescents’ well-being through perceived attachment security, self-compassion and mindfulness. The path model was invariant across stages of adolescence but some relations in the model varied across gender. Self-compassion and mindfulness seem to develop within a parent-child relationship characterized by affection, self-regulation, and mindful awareness. These two resources, along with mindful parenting and positive representations of the parent-child relationship, are associated with adolescents’ well-being.     

How Conditioning on Posttreatment Variables Can Ruin Your Experiment and What to Do about It

In principle, experiments offer a straightforward method for social scientists to accurately estimate causal effects. However, scholars often unwittingly distort treatment effect estimates by conditioning on variables that could be affected by their experimental manipulation. Typical examples include controlling for posttreatment variables in statistical models, eliminating observations based on posttreatment criteria, or subsetting the data based on posttreatment variables. Though these modeling choices are intended to address common problems encountered when conducting experiments, they can bias estimates of causal effects. Moreover, problems associated with conditioning on posttreatment variables remain largely unrecognized in the field, which we show frequently publishes experimental studies using these practices in our discipline's most prestigious journals. We demonstrate the severity of experimental posttreatment bias analytically and document the magnitude of the potential distortions it induces using visualizations and reanalyses of real‐world data. We conclude by providing applied researchers with recommendations for best practice.