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Book part
Publication date: 9 September 2020

Tom Pettinger

Purpose – The author investigates how those who have engaged in political violence in the UK understand Prevent’s preemptive rationality, and how Prevent conceptualizes the…

Abstract

Purpose – The author investigates how those who have engaged in political violence in the UK understand Prevent’s preemptive rationality, and how Prevent conceptualizes the trajectory toward “terrorism” in relation to the testimony of those who have engaged in “terrorist” violence and were convicted of terrorism offences.

Methodology/Approach – The author takes the assumptions that Prevent makes about risk (from the Prevent Strategy and other documents), and tests these against the testimony of former combatants from “the Troubles.”

Findings – Despite the trajectory toward violence not being considered to differ fundamentally nor demonstrated through evidence to operate differently from one era to the next, the premise of Prevent’s assumptions of the movement into violence and former combatant testimony are entirely foreign to each other.

Originality/Value – Although militants from “the Troubles” (a conflict ending in 1998) and Prevent (established in 2003) are speaking about the same country and narrating their “truth” within five years of each other, the differences in how former combatants and Prevent understand the trajectory toward violence have not been considered. This has remained a significant omission of terrorism scholarship.

Details

Radicalization and Counter-Radicalization
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83982-988-8

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Article
Publication date: 14 May 2018

Korbinian von Blanckenburg

This paper is concerned with the current decision of the European Commission regarding Google’s comparison shopping service (Google Shopping). In 2017, the Commission has fined…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper is concerned with the current decision of the European Commission regarding Google’s comparison shopping service (Google Shopping). In 2017, the Commission has fined Google €2.42 billion for abusing its dominant position as a search engine by giving illegal advantage to Google Shopping. Consequently, Google has to stop its illegal conduct. In particular, the decision requires Google to treat rival comparison shopping services and its own service equally. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the decision from a perspective of two-sided markets. Google Shopping is an integrated service of Google Search and acts as an intermediary between companies, offerings products in the internet and people searching for products in the internet. This complies with the typical conditions of a two-sided market. From the perspective of sellers of goods and services in Europe, Google may be seen as a gatekeeper to the potential customers and thus as an essential facility. In the light of the current decision, this paper provides a possible regulation alternative. It is shown that Google Shopping represents a typical club good, so that welfare-optimising rules must be adhered to. In this context, it should be noted that in the current Google Shopping search results, artificial rivalry is created among sellers so as to ensure maximum willingness to pay for a top listing. The solution proposed in this paper entails a summary score list of all sellers of a particular product, for which a turnover-dependent contribution should be required, instead of a reduced score list, where positions are sold by auctions.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses methods of two-sided markets and public good theory.

Findings

It is shown that Google Shopping represents a typical club good, so that welfare-optimising rules must be adhered to. In this context, it should be noted that in the current Google Shopping search results, artificial rivalry is created among sellers so as to ensure maximum willingness to pay for a top listing. The solution proposed in this paper entails a summary score list of all sellers of a particular product, for which a turnover-dependent contribution should be required, instead of a reduced score list, where positions are sold by auctions.

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, it is the very first paper about the decision of the European Union (06/2017) concerning Google Shopping.

Details

Digital Policy, Regulation and Governance, vol. 20 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-5038

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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 30 April 2020

Ken Miyajima

Determinants of credit growth in Saudi Arabia are investigated.

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Abstract

Purpose

Determinants of credit growth in Saudi Arabia are investigated.

Design/methodology/approach

A panel approach is applied to macroeconomic and bank-level data spanning 2000 ‐15.

Findings

Bank lending is supported by strong bank balance sheet conditions (high capital ratio, and growth of NPL provisioning and deposits), and higher growth of both oil prices and non-oil private sector GDP. Lower bank concentration also helps, likely through greater competition, so does stronger institution. Consistent with the literature, lending by Islamic banks may be more responsive to economic activity. Lending remained robust in 2015 despite oil prices having declined, helped by strong bank balance sheets and as banks reduced their holdings of “excess liquidity”. To support bank lending in the period ahead, bank balance sheets need to remain strong. Fiscal adjustment and a reduced reliance on banks to finance the budget deficit would support credit provision to the private sector.

Originality/value

The paper is first to analyze in detail determinants of bank lending in Saudi Arabia applying a panel approach to bank level data, and draws critical policy implications.

Details

Islamic Economic Studies, vol. 27 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1319-1616

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 11 December 2023

David J. Teece and Henry J. Kahwaty

The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) calls for far-reaching changes to the way economic activity will occur in EU digital markets. Before its remedies are imposed, it is…

Abstract

The European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) calls for far-reaching changes to the way economic activity will occur in EU digital markets. Before its remedies are imposed, it is critical to assess their impacts on individual markets, the digital sector, and the overall European economy. The European Commission (EC) released an Impact Assessment in support of the DMA that purports to evaluate it using cost/benefit analysis.

An economic evaluation of the DMA should consider its full impacts on dynamic competition. The Impact Assessment neither assesses the DMA's impact on dynamic competition in the digital economy nor evaluates the impacts of specific DMA prohibitions and obligations. Instead, it considers benefits in general and largely ignores costs. We study its benefit assessments and find they are based on highly inappropriate methodologies and assumptions. A cost/benefit study using inappropriate methodologies and largely ignoring costs cannot provide a sound policy assessment.

Instead of promoting dynamic competition between platforms, the DMA will likely reinforce existing market structures, ossify market boundaries, and stunt European innovation. The DMA is likely to chill R&D by encouraging free riding on the investments of others, which discourages making those investments. Avoiding harm to innovation is critical because innovation delivers large, positive spillover benefits, driving increases in productivity, employment, wages, and prosperity.

The DMA prioritizes static over dynamic competition, with the potential to harm the European economy. Given this, the Impact Assessment does not demonstrate that the DMA will be beneficial overall, and its implementation must be carefully tailored to alleviate or lessen its potential to harm Europe’s economic performance.

Details

The Economics and Regulation of Digital Markets
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83797-643-0

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Book part
Publication date: 29 August 2018

Michael A. Carrier and Steve D. Shadowen

Brand-name pharmaceutical companies have engaged in a variety of business conduct that has increased price. One of these activities involves “product hopping,” or brand switches…

Abstract

Brand-name pharmaceutical companies have engaged in a variety of business conduct that has increased price. One of these activities involves “product hopping,” or brand switches from one version of a drug to another. The antitrust analysis of product hopping implicates antitrust law, patent law, the Hatch–Waxman Act, and state drug product selection laws, as well as uniquely complicated markets characterized by buyers different from decision makers. As a result, courts have offered inconsistent approaches to product hopping.

In this chapter, we offer a framework that courts and government enforcers can employ to analyze product hopping. The framework is the first to incorporate the characteristics of the pharmaceutical industry. It defines a “product hop” to include instances in which the manufacturer (1) reformulates the product to make the generic nonsubstitutable and (2) encourages doctors to write prescriptions for the reformulated rather than the original product.

When the conduct meets both requirements, our framework offers two stages of analysis. First, we propose two safe harbors to ensure that the vast majority of reformulations will not face antitrust review. Second, the framework examines whether the hop passes the “no-economic-sense” test, determining if the behavior would make economic sense if the hop did not have the effect of impairing generic competition. Showing just how far the courts have veered from justified economic analysis, the test would recommend a different analysis than that used in each of the five product-hopping cases that have been litigated to date, and a different outcome in two of them.

Details

Healthcare Antitrust, Settlements, and the Federal Trade Commission
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-599-9

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Book part
Publication date: 29 August 2018

Paul A. Pautler

The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and…

Abstract

The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.

Details

Healthcare Antitrust, Settlements, and the Federal Trade Commission
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-599-9

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 3 October 2023

Saibal Ghosh

Using cross-country data on the 1,000 largest global banks for 2019, the paper aims to examine the response of bank risk and returns to the pandemic.

Abstract

Purpose

Using cross-country data on the 1,000 largest global banks for 2019, the paper aims to examine the response of bank risk and returns to the pandemic.

Design/methodology/approach

The author employs weighted least squares (WLS) techniques for the purposes of analysis.

Findings

The findings suggest that banks with Islamic windows increased their riskiness in response to the pandemic, although there was not much impact on profitability. Additionally, the author categorizes banks based on certain major characteristics and find that these findings are manifest primarily for well-capitalized and less liquid banks.

Originality/value

Research as to the impact of the pandemic on banks' balance sheets has been an unaddressed area of research. By focusing on a large sample of banks across countries with both Islamic and conventional banking presence, the analysis sheds light on the balance sheet response of banks to the pandemic, an aspect that has not been addressed earlier.

Details

Islamic Economic Studies, vol. 31 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1319-1616

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 1994

Howard Johnson

The law of passing‐off concerns itself primarily with the protection of a trader's goodwill — his customer connection. It has proved itself an expansive tort action, being used to…

Abstract

The law of passing‐off concerns itself primarily with the protection of a trader's goodwill — his customer connection. It has proved itself an expansive tort action, being used to combat a diverse variety of commercial dishonesty and unfair competition. In the leading case of ERVEN WARNINK BV v J. TOWNEND & SONS (HULL) (‘the Advocaat case’) [1980] RPC 31, Lord Diplock observed:

Details

Managerial Law, vol. 36 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0558

Article
Publication date: 1 September 1992

Mark Woolfe

Summarizes legislation which determines specific temperaturerequirements for refrigerated foods in the United Kingdom pre –and post‐1990. Before 1990 there were relatively few…

Abstract

Summarizes legislation which determines specific temperature requirements for refrigerated foods in the United Kingdom pre – and post‐1990. Before 1990 there were relatively few specific national controls, although controls existed for certain animal‐based products such as meat and meat products destined for intra‐Community trade. Post‐1990 came the Food Safety Act 1990 and Food Hygiene (Amendment) Regulations 1990, which have had most effect on the chill chain from production through to retail sale, and in the catering sector. Temperature controls have been strengthened by monitoring and systems of record‐keeping. The other source of legislation has been through the implementation of single European market measures, many of which will come into force on 1 January 1993.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 94 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

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Article
Publication date: 1 February 1991

J. Horton

The Head of the Food Additives Policy Branch of the Ministry ofAgriculture, Fisheries and Food reports progress towards completion of apositive list and conditions of use for…

Abstract

The Head of the Food Additives Policy Branch of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food reports progress towards completion of a positive list and conditions of use for EC‐approved additives: Part I, Sweeteners; Part II, Preservatives, Antioxidants and Other Additives; Part III, Colours. The Part I Sweeteners proposal is already in Council; the Part II proposal can be expected by the end of the year; Part III will follow quickly. The application of these proposed regulations in the particular conditions of the UK food industry is discussed.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 93 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

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