The first supranational policy in the European Union: Competition policy

Abstract. Competition policy has become a salient issue in the last decade. The purpose of this article is to widen discussion amongst political scientists of an issue that has been dominated by the disciplines of economics and law. The concept of a competition policy is the foundation stone of the entire European Union. It lies at the very heart of efforts to establish a common market and within the EU competition policy arena the decision making powers have laid firmly with the supranational institutions. This article provides an overview of the issue; it traces the constitutive foundations of policy and discusses the functions of the core EU competition policy actors. It is primarily concerned with the European Commission, in particular, DGIV. The paper accounts for DGIV's metamorphosis in the 1980s and the myriad of problems now confronting its procedures and efficiency in the 1990s. Whether these defects can be resolved will ultimately determine the fate of DGIV. Arguments for institutional reform are raging through the European institutions and DGIV provides no exception. The paper concludes with a discussion on the plausibility of the creation of an independent European Competition Office, modelled on the role of the German Federal Cartel Office.     

CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR AND THE GAINS FROM CRIME

A number of economists recently have applied tools of economics to analysis of crime. The resulting models of criminal activity typically postulate that crime is positively related to gains porn crime and inversely related to the probability of punishment. While empirical studies have confirmed this latter effect, the relation between gains from crime and criminal activity has not been satisfactorily examined. This paper specifically tests the empirical relation between criminal behavior and the gains from crime. The unsettling possibility that decreases in the gains from crime my lead to increases in the number of crimes is discussed.     

After Enlargement: Voting Patterns in the Sixth European Parliament

We examined how voting behavior in the European Parliament changed after the European Union added ten new member‐states in 2004. Using roll‐call votes, we compared voting behavior in the first half of the Sixth European Parliament (July 2004‐December 2006) with voting behavior in the previous Parliament (1999–2004). We looked at party cohesion, coalition formation, and the spatial map of voting by members of the European Parliament. We found stable levels of party cohesion and interparty coalitions that formed mainly around the left‐right dimension. Ideological distance between parties was the strongest predictor of coalition preferences. Overall, the enlargement of the European Union in 2004 did not change the way politics works inside the European Parliament. We also looked at the specific case of the controversial Services Directive and found that ideology remained the main predictor of voting behavior, although nationality also played a role.     

To Simulate or NOMINATE?

Carroll et al. (2009) summarize the similarities and differences between the NOMINATE and IDEAL methods of fitting spatial voting models to binary roll‐call data. As those authors note, for the class of problems with which either NOMINATE and the Bayesian quadratic‐normal model can be used, the ideal point estimates almost always coincide, and when they do not, the discrepancy is due to the somewhat arbitrary identification and computational constraints imposed by each method. There are, however, many problems for which the Bayesian quadratic‐normal model can be easily generalized, so as to address a broad array of questions and take advantage of additional data. Given the nature and source of the differences between NOMINATE and the Bayesian approach—as well as the fact that both approaches are approximations of the decision‐making processes being modeled—we believe that it is preferable to choose the more flexible Bayesian approach.     

从东北振兴迈向东北亚大同:试论东北振兴计划与“中韩港”合作

全球化时代的东北振兴不仅具有重要的中国国内经济发展意义,还有重大的国际和地区战略意义,"中韩港"三边合作,对于从东北振兴迈向东北亚大同,具有举足轻重的作用。自上个世纪90年代以来,朝核问题成为影响东北亚和平稳定的主要因素,在六方会谈框架下,中韩双方在维护朝鲜半岛以及东北亚局势的稳定方面积累了合作的经验,两国的经济联系也日益密切。在2008年金融危机背景下,中韩经济均受到不同程度的冲击,中国需要通过拉动内需防止经济发展势头中断,韩国和中国香港特区也需要寻找新的增长空间,而东北振兴计划能够为解决上述矛盾找到出路。中国东部跨越、中部崛起、西部开发都离不开东西和谐、南北合作。"中韩港"在振兴东北问题上的合作如果奏效,有利于吸引更多的国际资本流向该地区,从而为该地区的稳定繁荣打下进一步的基础,为通向东北亚大同创造必要的条件。