Bundled Discounts, Leverage Theory, and Downstream Competition

Under plausible circumstances, a monopolist in one market canuse its control of prices in that market to force competingdownstream buyers to sign tying contracts that will lever itsmonopoly into another market. Specifically, the monopolist ofthe tying good can place each downstream buyer in a prisoner'sdilemma by offering them more favorable pricing on the tyinggood if they sign a requirements-tying contract covering thetied good. Since a buyer benefits on receiving more favorablepricing on the tying good and the competitors do not, and suffersif the competitors receive more favorable pricing on the tyinggood and the buyer does not, buyers will sign the tying contracteven when they would earn higher profits if they all refusedto sign. This enables a monopolist in one market to inefficientlyexclude an entrant in another market.     

Australia's Quest to Enrich Uranium and the Whitlam Government's Loans Affair

The renewed debate about Australia enriching uranium raises issues associated with a previous attempt thirty‐five years ago. The Atomic Energy Commission hatched plans in the mid‐1960s to position Australia as a supplier of enriched fuel, especially to the Japanese market. This would be done using centrifuge technology, a cheaper and more efficient method than that used by the United States. That fact, along with concerns in Washington to restrict the proliferation of nuclear weapons, led to opposition to rival enrichment programs. Whitlam and Connor miscalculated here. Ratifying the Nuclear Non‐proliferation Treaty was not enough to stay opposition to raising a loan designed mainly to give Australia an enrichment program.     

Educational Competency as an Indicator of Occupational Stress for Probation and Parole Officers

Probation and parole officers are assigned the responsibility of supervising convicted criminals in a community setting in such a way that the competing goals of punishment, public safety, offender rehabilitation, and deterrence are achieved. All the while, these tasks are accomplished within the confines of shrinking budgets, large case loads, increasingly high-risk offenders, low occupational prestige, and considerable political and public scrutiny. These competing demands often result in especially high levels of work-related stress. The point of this research is to consider the divergence in occupational stress among probation/parole officers and whether or not they felt educationally prepared for their job. The data for this study were collected during a two-month study period which began on March 15, 2005. Data were collected non-randomly through a national Internet based survey of active probation/parole officers. This study considers a sub-sample of 2, 364 officers from fifteen states. The results show probation/parole officers who feel educationally under-prepared are likely to experience higher levels of occupational stress and more likely to have negative manifestations of stress than those officers who feel well-prepared.     

Opening a window into police internal affairs: Impact of procedural justice reform on third-party attitudes

The study explores the impact of a procedural innovation on justice judgments made by third party observers. The innovation involved the establishment of a review panel with civilian participants to monitor a police department's investigation of allegations of misconduct against its officers. The study distinguishes the impact on racial minority observers from that on racial majority observers. Data suggest that the innovation had a positive, though differing, impact on the justice judgments of both minority and majority observers.