Efficiencies and Antitrust Reconsidered

This research report is based upon the author's testimony before the Subcommittee on Monopolies and Commercial Law, Committee of the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives, on May 11, 1988. Tabulated data from the Bureau of Census and industry publications indicate that seller concentration for grocery stores and supermarkets in local Standard Metropolitan Areas (SMA) markets is increasing. Unless merger enforcement policy is tightened, horizontal mergers will accelerate this trend. This conclusion is based upon two facts: the F.T.C. finds market shares in excess of 50 percent acceptable; and very few of the nations' more than 250 SMA's are now served by such dominant firms. Research on entry barriers and seller concentration-price relationships in grocery retailing, summarized in this report suggest, from the perspective of performance, that federal merger enforcement policy is lax. Recent horizontal mergers affecting 16 SMA markets have produced leading firms with market shares in excess of 50 percent in some markets. Resulting increases in market power, the author estimates, will increase prices in these 16 SMA markets forcing consumers to pay 469 million dollars more for food each year. Policy changes called for include: returning to enforcement policy based upon empirical assessment of industrial organization; eschewing the de facto monopolization standard applied to recent mergers and returning to the incipiency standard of Section 7 of the Clayton Act; and contrary to the recent Monfort decision, allowing competitors, including targets of hostile takeovers, more access to the courts to sue on antitrust grounds to stop mergers.

This paper, taking the directors of listed companies as point of penetration, studies the effects of interlocking directorates on the company’s merger decisions. With a focus on interlocking directorates’ influence on the selection of M & A targets, a Probit regression test was conducted by pairing potential M & A targets to real acquisition sample according to the industry of the real sample. The innovation of this paper lies in the study of whether there is a significant difference in the effect of interlocking directorates through differentiating various M & A modes, including horizontal mergers, vertical mergers and mixed mergers. The empirical analysis concludes that when there are interlocking directorates in merger company and potential target company, it is more likely for the potential target to be the object company. What’s more, by comparison, when the acquiring company and the target company are from different industries, there is greater impact of interlocking directorates, and the effects are stronger in vertical mergers than in mixed mergers and horizontal mergers.

This report examines market power in rail markets in Europe arising from horizontal and vertical mergers in the sector, and is intended to provide a high-level basis for discussion at the round table itself. It presents factual information on horizontal and vertical merger cases involving rail freight operators, highlighting the processes used by competition authorities to determine the circumstances in which such mergers should be approved. It also provides commentary on the economics of these markets and, hence, the likely prospects for their future shape. The topic of the report is timely. The first set of results are available from a preparatory study for the European Commission on whether policy objectives with respect to moving freight onto rail can best be achieved by giving freight more priority on the rail network.

Scientific literacy has been focused on the construction of students’ knowledge to use appropriate and meaningful concepts, critically think, and make balanced, well-informed decisions relevant to their lives. This study presents the effects of integrating socio-scientific issues to enhance the bioethical decision-making skills of biology students. Using a quasi-experimental research design, results of the independent and related samples t-test on the pre- and posttest mean scores of 72 students significantly revealed that integrating socio-scientific issues in biology lessons are useful to enhance their bioethical decision-making skills. Moreover, as socio-scientific issues were integrated in their lessons, students’ classroom interactions and argumentations improved significantly and enabled them to give a positive, more elaborate, and in-depth responses with a wider range of explanations.

Complementary Monopolies and Bargaining

Horizontal mergers, collusion, and stockholder wealth

In his article on mergers and antitrust regulation in the United States, Professor Cohn describes the intricate relationship between the two concepts. Antitrust law is analyzed along the lines of the Sherman Act, the Clayton Act and the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. Furthermore, Professor Cohn frequently refers to relevant jurisprudence in his efforts to clarify the present-day legal situation in the United States with respect to horizontal and vertical mergers. He concludes that merger law in the United States is an amalgam of state and federal law which does not account for a ‘unified set of rules governing mergers’.

The authors article is a contribution to 50 years´ anniversary of signing the Rome Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, to better understanding the European Union, the relationship of the Union and the Member States. The issue of the European Union´s Constitution deadlock including the special issue of the weighting of votes as well as the issue of Poland´s and the Czech Republic´s position on the US offer to install a US led anti-missile system in the two EU Member States : these issues are demonstrating the one crucial identity issue of the relationship of the European Union and its Member States, the relationship of the whole and the parts. Viewing at transdisciplinary comparative reflections on the relationship of the whole and the parts in philosophy, philosophy of economics and in natural science as well as in the law and policy making system of the European Union: the author concludes that the parts do not constitute the whole as an end in itself, they are subject, however, to a functional dialectical role to achieve common objectives, they are bound by the rationalism´s principle of effectiveness which is one of the constitutional essentials of the Treaty establishing the European Union as the legal incorporation of the functional dialectical approach of combining integrative, cooperative and competitive interactions between the Member States. The author has a deeper look at the biology/cytology system of the cell as a complex network of intracellular and extracellular structures the individual components of which are highly interconnected and practice the dynamics of the dialectical relationship of the cell and its structural components of interconnected cooperative and competitive levels of the complex network: ensuring the vitality of the cell and preventing the cell´s intracellular components from losing their independent identity and getting mixed in the cytoplasm. What prevents the smaller Member States of an enlarged European Union from losing identity, from mixing in the “cytoplasm” of the larger European Union: it is the Union´s complex multileveled network system of the functional approach of the dialectical dynamic cooperative and competitive relationship of the Union and the Member States, the whole and the parts, and that dialectical functional relation prevents the enlarged European Union from being dismantled, as well. Part of that system the Membership of which Poland´s Government had signed is the legal and political commitment to respect Treaty obligations: to consult each other within the EU´s Council before undertaking bilateral actions having direct impact on the Common Foreign and Security Policy, to consult within the EU´s Council a common position before consulting the matter within NATO and,actually, before accepting the US offer to install a anti-missile shield in Central Europe.

BIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL EVOLUTION WILUAM R. HAZZARD* As a biologist, I am concerned at the rate and extent ofsocial evolution within my lifetime. A fundamental principle of the Darwinian theory of evolution contends that the survival of the species is promoted by gradual change; a corollary states that dramatic change, even by mutation , is usually disastrous and hence self-limiting, either preventing survival until the age of reproduction or preventing reproduction per se. As a biologist, I also respect the concept that evolution preserves that which is successful; conversely, that which has evolved must be assumed to have the highest probability of success in a given environment. Barring major change in the environment, major change in the species is thus to be avoided. As a biologist, I also contend that social systems are the product of evolution. It is clear, for instance, that the success of certain organisms—for example, bees—has depended on the evolution of complex social systems requiring, for example, extensive and intricate cooperation , expression of dominance and submission, and the restriction of specialized functions to certain individuals. The lessons of comparative biology suggest that such social patterns extend to the primates, clearly including man (and woman). The challenge to biologists has been to determine the complex mechanisms, presumably genetic, which underlie such social evolution.1 In the human species these principles of gradual, genetically controlled evolution are under great contemporary challenge. Clearly the environment, largely because of man's influence, cannot be considered stable. Equally clearly, adaptation to changes in the environment cannot be entrusted entirely to the time-consuming, traditional forces of random , minor genetic change and reproductive superfluity. Nevertheless, * Department of Medicine, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland 21205. 1 These concepts are among those of a relatively new and somewhat controversial discipline , sociobiology [1], recently discussed in [2, 3],© 1983 by The University of Chicago. AU rights reserved. 003 1-5982/84/2701-0368$01 .00 22 I William R. Hazzard · Biological and Social Evolution I contend that radical, rapid change, even in the cause of our greatest national heritage, the pursuit of individual freedom, invites social, even biological, disaster. Proceeding from these arguments, I suggest that those social structures which have evolved to the present should be assumed to have survival value and not be casually abandoned. This translates, for example , into preservation of the family as the basic unit of society. It also translates into respect for traditional roles within the family and careful contemplation ofthe potential impact ofchanges in these roles—notably those related to sex. As a biologist and especially as a gerontologist, I have the greatest respect for (and am more than a little bit envious of) the female of our species. Not only does she retain the premier biological privilege of bearing young, she outlives us men as well. She seems biologically relatively immune to those forces which curtail the longevity of her male counterparts, especially in the contemporary world in which the risks of childbearing have been minimized and raw physical strength relates poorly to survival or even personal success. As a biologist, I therefore suggest that the unique and essential contributions of women not be sacrificed in the blind, fruitless pursuit of complete sexual equality. As one committed to the related fields of gerontology and geriatric medicine (which are almost certain to become the domain principally of women), I am constantly aware of the cruel pressures which beset young women entering these disciplines, pressures from spouse and family, pressures to begin or to defer childbearing , pressures to compete and advance professionally. And I am constantly in awe of these women as they balance and respond successfully to these pressures. Despite the ability of "superwomen" to overcome such stress, I conclude that the survival of our species will be best promoted by retention of relatively traditional roles for most women (and men). To expect men to abandon their traditional roles and assume those traditionally assigned to women on a completely equal basis is unrealistic not only from the standpoint ofsexual politics but also from the biological perspective. The sexes have evolved both biologically and socially over many eons...

The challenging market of automotive industry urges the manufacturers worldwide to benefit from the incredible technological advancements of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0), which is in progress. This revolutionary era flourishes the sensing, processing and integration technologies across the systems, while the machine vision serves as the “eyes” of the cyber-physical systems. This paper systematically provides a comprehensive analysis of the applied machine vision systems in the automotive industry over the last five years and anticipates the technology opportunities and future trends. The conducted analysis reveals that the machine vision technology is mainly employed for quality related purposes. Besides, fruitful advancements have occurred in the other automotive manufacturing domains, yet the horizontal and vertical integration is not a priority in their design. The authors conclude that computer vision systems empowered with self-adjustment capacities should be integrated with existing execution systems to rectify defects in real-time, thus promoting the intelligent system design towards enabling the zero defect manufacturing in human and system level.

Spontaneous ultra-weak photon emission in correlation to inflammatory metabolism and oxidative stress in a mouse model of collagen-induced arthritis

The article briefly outlines key economic principles that are used for merger appraisal in Europe and the US. We consider three most typical cases: horizontal, vertical and conglomerate mergers. We explain the main positive and negative effects that typically arise in each case. We point that the analysis of structural factors (levels of industry concentration and market shares) and barriers to entry can serve only as a starting point of the merger appraisal process. Other indicators such as closeness of competition, countervailing buyer power and customer switching, counter-reactions of rivals, levels of profitability, cost savings are far more important for the analysis of merger effects on consumers and competition. In addition, we describe general economic principles with regards to merger remedies.

The most famous definition of economics among modern academicians and economists is a branch of science which deals with the study of the relationship between limited resources and unlimited wants or desires. Under the shadow of this definition, there are different types of conventional economic systems included relativism, utilitarianism, and universalism, etc. This study has been introduced in the economic world through an evolution process. There is a dominant feeling within the Muslim elites that either Islam is unable to respond to complex contemporary challenges in the fields of trade and economics or its economic concepts are old and outdated. Both of these perceptions are incorrect. The real philosophy, concept, and definition of Islamic economics are based on limiting desires and unlimited resources which are supported by Quran and Hadith. The beauty of Islamic economics is based on limited desires and unlimited resources. This concept of Islamic economics can share the risk of profit and loss in their business. Islamic banks with this revolutionary approach will feel at ease in implementing Shari’ah-based finance and offer risk-sharing products and services.

This paper examines how start-up R&D firms shape organizational boundaries and evolution under the influence of upstream technological uncertainty and internal complementary capabilities. Start-up R&D firms are often located in the upstream industry value chain. Upstream technological uncertainty and internal downstream and fund-raising capabilities may affect their boundaries. This article integrates insights from property rights, complementary capability and real options to explore firm boundary choices, including equity-based property rights sharing (initial public offering (IPO) and equity property-rights shared licensing), and vertical and horizontal boundary expansion (equity property-rights shared vertical or horizontal mergers and acquisitions). We argue that equity property rights sharing may be regarded as a source of fund-raising and partnership incentives to obtain complementary capability for reducing uncertainty. Under high upstream technological uncertainty environment, start-up R&D firms without complementary capabilities may share their minority equity-based property rights to raise capital through an IPO and tend towards minority equity property-rights shared licensing. As technical and internal downstream uncertainty is decreased, R&D firms may shift from vertical integration to complementary horizontal boundary expansion through equity property rights shared mergers (horizontal merger of equals). Furthermore, R&D firms may gradually create their innovation ecosystem to develop into global corporations. The evolution of R&D firm boundary is exemplified by Biogen Idec, Gilead Sciences, and Genentech, the top three biopharmaceutical firms around the world.

Horizontal merger analysis