Economic Sense Research Articles

Attempt to Monopolisation and Digital Markets: Enforcement Gap

Rapid technological development, particularly in the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) sector, has led to a significant change in the industrial structure as well. Regulatory bodies world over are struggling to adjust to these changing scenarios. There is a widespread discussion regarding the need to regulate technology-driven markets such as e-commerce, telecommunication, etc. The practices used by some business giants are going against the neoclassical economic theory that profit maximisation is the goal of every firm. Firms are opting growth over profit. A large number of investigations were opened in India against business giants. Some of them were able to find contraventions of the Competition Act, 2002 (the Act). However, a large number of investigations were closed due to the lack of cognizance of collective dominance in law or inability to prove dominance in the traditional economic sense. It can be seen from the current jurisprudence of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) that there are constraints in handling competition issues in technology-driven industries mainly on account of the extant legal framework which does not recognise the need of assessing an appreciable adverse effect on competition where the dominance of the firm is not apparent. Although, the Act takes into account attempt to cartelisation as a contravention of the Act, it does not envisage an attempt to monopolise as a contravention of the Act. The past and current jurisprudence of the CCI indicates that CCI’s view is also undergoing radical change. This paper discusses the concept of “attempt to monopolise” as given in the Sherman Act and its applicability in the Indian context. The paper reviews the American antitrust literature existing on this subject and analyses the key factors which constitute antitrust violations under the clause “attempt to monopolise”. While the majority view emphasises on proving dangerous probability of success while determining an attempt to monopolise, as per the minority view, “attempt” connotes conduct and not a state of being. Unlawful intent can be inferred from the conduct as a proof of an “attempt”. The law does not require completion of a crime, it requires conduct. Thus, an attempt to monopolise is a conduct offence. This paper argues that borrowing the attempt to monopolise concept from the Sherman Act, 1890 will be helpful for the CCI in handling antitrust cases in technology-driven industries such as e-commerce, telecommunications, transport, etc.
 It will go a long way in achieving competitive markets, increased consumer choice and welfare in the long-run.

Blockchain technology key to veracity in supply chain transaction data

Data are the foundation of the supply chain. However, the modern data stream in a supply chain is based on trust of the actors therein. Blockchain, a form of distributed ledger technology, eliminates the trust requirement of sharing supply chain data and allows each user to maintain an accurate, current copy of the ledger, without fear of data corruption or manipulation by bad actors. This paper reviews the application of blockchain to the management of transaction data in the supply chain. An overview of current blockchain technology will be discussed as well as advantages and disadvantages of the technology when applied to the supply chain. Current uses and research of the blockchain in supply chains will be discussed. There are three basic types of materials that are being explored in supply chain management using blockchain technology. The first is information-based materials and products. The most natural starting place for the blockchain is to replace the documentation and financial instruments. The second is fungible or commodity type materials. These goods are those delivered and consumed automatically, such as energy. The last are luxury, or crucial materials. These are items that are expensive or important enough that the costs of using advanced tracking technology makes economic sense.

Küreselleşmenin Türkiye’de Sivil Toplum-Dış Politika İlişkisine Yansımaları

As a result of globalization, the transformation of the state and civil society relationship in international relations has revealed public diplomacy as an example of soft power as well as traditional diplomacy. Public diplomacy activities carried out by states have become an area in which non-governmental organizations play an active role in time. Turkey was also affected from these developments occurring at national and international level in the world. The internationalization of civil society organizations have started at this point. Especially since the 80’s of neo-liberalism driven by the intensive use of the discourse civil society organizations in Turkey has become more important. Humanitarian aid activities and the development of economic relations have formed the backbone of the discourses and practices that bring civil society to the fore. However, because of the social, political and economic sense due to some differences, NGOs in Turkey does not have the level of activity like the developed societies. NGOs in Turkey ultimately influenced by developments such as globalization, internationalization has been built, but, has not reached the capacity to interfere with foreign policy discourse and construction. But NGO’s are taking an active role particularly in the humanitarian activities and the implementation and promotion of Turkey's foreign policy in the different regions.

Upgrading <em>The L Word: Generation Q</em>

Upgrading <em>The L Word: Generation Q</em>

Self-Preferencing in Markets with Vertically-Integrated Gatekeeper Platforms

The competitive strategies of `gatekeeper' platforms are subject to enhanced scrutiny. For instance, Apple and Google are being accused of charging excessive access fees to app providers and privileging their own apps. Some have argued that such allegations make no economic sense when the platform's business model is to sell devices. In this paper, we build a model in which a gatekeeper device-seller facing potentially saturated demand for its device has the incentive and the ability to exclude from the market third-party suppliers of a service that consumers buy via its devices. Foreclosure is more likely if demand growth for the platform's devices is slow or negative, and can harm consumers if the device-seller's services are inferior to those offered by the third parties.

PREDICTORS THAT LEADS TO SOCIO ECONOMIC SUCCESS OF LOCAL COMMUNITIES

In Malaysia, the infusion of private and public sectors has attributed to the nation’s socio-economic development as strengthen by the need to address the demands and challenges of the local community. These efforts will more likely provide several important ideas that would suffice related and relevant literatures, which will be used to develop a better socio-economic growth in Malaysia. In an economic sense, development entails the transformation of simple subsistence economies into complex monetary economies. In the process, an increase in the proportion of products that are sold or exchanged and a decline in the proportion of consumption may take place concurrently. The purpose of this study is to examine the socio-economic demands and gaps of the local population and to suggest assistance and interventions required. The overall results of this study reveal the challenges faced at the community level in the District of Kuala Lipis in the context of social and economy. This study was carried out via a structured survey throughout the district involving 300 respondents and also complemented with a face-to-face interview carried out with key stakeholders. The study findings were also supported with secondary data compilation of journals, articles and speeches.

Forecasting US Stock Market Returns: A Japanese Candlestick Approach

A Japanese candlestick chart consists of not only the closing price but also the high, low and opening price information. Using the Japanese candlestick, this paper investigates the forecasting power of the shadow in Japanese candlestick chart. Empirical studies performed with the US stock market show that 1) there is a significant Halloween effect in the shadow; 2) shadow is valuable for predicting the stock market returns in both statistical and economic sense; 3) the predictability reported by the shadow can not be explained by either the CAPM model or the Fama-French three-factor model. This paper confirms that predictability of the stock market can be improved if more price information is used.

The Economics and Effectiveness of Advanced Practice Providers Are Decidedly Local Phenomena.

The growth and promulgation of Advanced Practice Providers (APPs) across the entire spectrum of healthcare delivery has been profound, and APPs are increasingly common members of emergency department (ED) care teams. Emergency APP workforce growth is outpacing that of emergency physicians with little to suggest that this trend will subside. The evolution of the deployment of APPs in emergency care has been dramatic; initially, emergency APPs were deployed to lower acuity patients or environments-minor injury and illness and in conjunction with an emergency physician-hence the now antiquated description of APPs as "physician extenders."

Property Theory of Corporate Law

The dominant view of the corporation in legal scholarship is contractarian, one that sees the corporation as a “nexus of contracts” among the various suppliers of inputs to the business, such as investors, creditors, and employees. According to this view, the holders of common stock—those who are traditionally the primary focus of corporate law—are not the owners of the corporation, but just one of many contractual claimants. As a result, the corporation is a free-floating nexus of contracts with no property interests in the corporation itself or its assets. Thus, corporate law is seen as essentially a specialized branch of contract law. The contractarian metaphor has largely persuaded the academy and much of the corporate law bench, evidenced by the regularity in which Delaware courts interpret charter documents as “contracts.” Courts and commentators alike regard corporate law as essentially a set of “off-the-rack” contractual default rules provided by the state. Yet the contractarian metaphor has struggled to account for some of the most fundamental features of corporate law. For example, the nexus of contracts view fails to adequately explain why fiduciary duties attach uniquely to shareholders and not to other contractual claimants on the corporation. Equally important, the nexus of contracts approach also fails to account for the many in rem features of the corporation that contract law could not easily replicate. There is a piece missing in the contractarian account of the corporation. This Article argues that property law provides the missing piece of the contractarian puzzle in demarcating the boundaries of corporate law and explaining the distinctive features of it. In the property theory, the corporation is an ownership structure—a device for turning a messy set of in personam claims into an orderly package of in rem property rights, called “shares.” The in rem structure depersonalizes these rights, allowing them to be divided and transferred without contractual assent and without entangling the personal attributes of the holder. The key to the proprietary nature of this ownership interest is the residual control—voting rights—that solidify the status of common stock as a property interest rather than a contractual interest. The property theory’s assertion that claims on the corporation are a mix of property and contract rights provides traction in otherwise slippery areas of corporate law. If there is a line to be drawn between contract and property, this dividing line identifies the boundaries of distinctively corporate law from contract law. Accordingly, the rationale for shareholder-only fiduciary duties is not primarily that shareholders are the residual claimants in the economic sense, but that they have a residual control right constituting an ownership interest unique among corporate claimants. The property theory of corporate law best explains many features of corporate law and clarifies otherwise murky line drawing exercises in defining the scope of fiduciary duties.

Інститути спільного інвестування в Україні: масштаби і наслідки інвестиційної дисфункції

The development of collective investment institutions (CIIs) in Ukraine is characterized by rather ambiguous and stable trends, which at first glance do not have any objective economic basis. The dynamics of CIIs activities in Ukraine demonstrates their steady invulnerability to the crises in the global and national economy, maintaining positions (in quantity terms) against the background of reduced number of both professional stock market participants and other institutional investors, and despite the decrease in the financial instruments in circulation, and the gradual formation in public consciousness of a neutral negative view of the functioning of the national stock market. The authors' assumption that the key to such institutional viability consists in the tax preferences for the CIIs, which is confirmed by the analysis. It is noted that in this case both the economic sense and the declared "collectivity" of this investment institution are distorted. The use of CIIs solely to ease the tax burden, with gross legal and tax violations creates risks for both the beneficiaries of such tax schemes and for the very existence of the institution. The specificity of "investment areas" outside the stock market, the highly conditional performance of the function of accumulation of investment resources and, correspondingly, the profanation of the CIIs' issuer function, in particular as to the fair distribution of investment income, distortions of the essence of the ideology of collective investment in combination with extremely loyal regulation on the part of the NSSMC all presently call into question the entire possibility of considering CIIs as a full-fledged component of the stock market.

What's wrong with investment apartments? On the construction of a ‘financialized’ rental investment product in Vienna

This article sheds light on the investment-driven construction sector in Vienna and provides a critique of the Austrian rental investment product Vorsorgewohnung (VSW), a tax-saving investment construction primarily aimed at small private investors. Building on ‘new’ new economic sociology and a performative take on markets, the focus is on the social construction and the making of a market around this product. The transformation of housing into an investment product is examined by drawing on the advertising discourse, especially the VSW-market makers' webites. The negative effects of financialized housing production on the micro and urban level are also discussed. Against economic common sense, it is argued that the VSW market is not a ‘natural’ matter of a given demand and supply, but the product of a twofold social construction to which the Austrian state and the local banks make a significant contribution. What appears rational and advantageous from the investors’ individual point of view is, in various ways, a disadvantage for the urban community.

Optimization of load sharing for parallel compressors using a novel hybrid intelligent algorithm

AbstractCompressor stations, which usually consist of multiple compressors in parallel, are installed to power natural gas travel in pipelines. Compressor station optimization, which should be expressed as a mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problem, makes economic sense for the entire gas transmission system. However, it has often been simplified as a nonlinear programming (NLP) or mixed integer linear programming (MILP) problem in previous research. Most of existing solutions are based on discretization and a genetic algorithm (GA). This paper addresses the general MINLP problem for compressor station optimization without simplification; a novel hybrid intelligent algorithm is proposed to solve this problem. The proposed algorithm, DWOA, leverages advantages of the whale optimization algorithm (WOA) and differential evolution (DE). The proposed algorithm can balance exploration and exploitation to find the global optimal solution. An approach to handling constraints is also presented, where the original problem model is reformulated to be continuous by expanding the flow rate range of the compressor. A case study is performed to illustrate the performance of this approach. Results show that the continuous reformulated model is easier to solve, and DWOA produces a satisfactory solution that differs from theoretical results by only 1.61%. In addition, DWOA demonstrates better accuracy and stability than WOA, DE, and DE‐WOA, another hybrid algorithm. Therefore, this solution has the potential to promote comprehensive compressor station optimization.

Determinants of Urban Land Lease Market in an Emerging Economy: Empirical Evidence from Ethiopia

Purpose: The ultimate objective of the study is to examine the determinants of the urban land lease market in an emerging economy with empirical evidence from Ethiopia. Design/Methodology/Approach: A nomothetic methodology with a standardized and quantitative method of data analysis was adopted for this study. The data was gathered from the Mekelle municipality between 2014-2019. The data was analyzed using the pooled ordinary least square technique. The model produced robust relationships and consistent results with previous studies. Findings: The study found both supply and demand-driven factors associated with plot markup price. The findings revealed that plot size, payment period, monthly income, plots accessible to basic services, plot location, land use type, and land lease auctioned period associated positively and significantly with the urban land lease markup price. Auctioneers paid a premium for plots having a larger size, extended payment period, access to basic services, and specified for residential housing. On the other hand, distance, and plot inaccessible to basic services associated negatively and significantly with the urban land lease markup price. Practical Implication: The rapid urbanization in Ethiopia has generated intensified supply and demand-driven challenges for public policy. Hence, the municipality should enhance infrastructure development across all plot locations and exercise strict control of land speculation to increase municipal revenue, and address supply and demand-driven challenges. Moreover, the municipal government should ensure equitable access to urban land by controlling land speculation. Originality/Value: Several studies that have assessed urban land expansion and administration, however, paid less attention to the urban land lease market. Furthermore, in an economic sense, it is crucial to examine the urban land value determinants from both demand and supply side at a time when less attention has been paid thereto in the literature.

To Whom Belongs the Land: Change and Reform on a North Riding Estate, 1889 to 1914

Hugh Charles Fairfax-Cholmeley inherited the Brandsby estate in April 1889. He was squire for 51 years. This is a case study of the social reforms he implemented against the background of the political debate on Land Reform and the increasing economic difficulties experienced by landowners. During Fairfax-Cholmeley’s lifetime the traditional order of landed aristocracy and gentry, which had made good economic, political and social sense for several centuries, was breaking down. For agriculture, the years 1888 to 1914 were mainly years of depression, with falling incomes for farmers, falling rents for landlords and agricultural labour draining to the towns. Income from land declined dramatically. But during that time the sleepy village of Brandsby became a beacon of progress in the locality and around the country, due to its cooperative ventures, instigated and supported by this unusual squire. After the first World War Fairfax-Cholmeley continued to work in the service of agricultural reform in Brandsby and district up to his death in 1940 at the age of 76, through times of increasing hardship.

Economies of Scope for Electricity Storage and Variable Renewables

In this paper, we investigate whether and under which conditions jointly owning a variable renewable source of electricity (VRES) and an electricity storage generates economies of scope in competitive electricity markets. Using a simple stochastic optimization model that assumes frictionless markets, we analytically show that no economic benefit arises from combining the two assets. This finding is in contradiction to large parts of the literature, which claim that it is in the economic interest of owners of VRES to additionally own electricity storage. We also identify circumstances where our argument does not hold and the combination of storage and VRES could theoretically make economic sense on the level of individual agents. In the last part of the paper, we demonstrate in a numerical case study of the German market that even in cases where our theoretical results do not hold, tying together storage and VRES may produce suboptimal results.

Techno-economic feasibility assessment of a solar-biomass-diesel energy system for a remote rural health facility in Nigeria

ABSTRACT This paper explores the feasibility of supplying power to a remote hospital in Vandeikya local government area of Benue state where the facility is strictly run by diesel generator. The average hourly electrical load demand data for the hospital was obtained by measuring electricity consumption from the power house using digital owl meter (CM 199). The annual average insolation for Vandeikya is 4.92 kWh/m2/d obtained from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory database. The simulation was carried out using HOMER Pro (Hybrid Optimization Model for Multiple Energy Resources version 3.13.8). The average hourly electricity load demand data; cost of components and sizes; average annual insolation data, serve as input into the software. The results gave a net present cost (NPC) of ₦718,308,000.00 (Note:$ 1 equals ₦ 386.32 Naira as at 6th July, 2020) as compared to diesel only with a cost of ₦9,060,974,000.00; the lifetime of the project considered is 25 years and an assumed real interest rate of 10% per annum, while the system offers a payback period of 1 year. The optimal system configuration is the system with diesel genset (300 kW), generic 500 kW biogas genset, generic flat plate PV (300 kW), generic 1kWh lead acid, and system converter (300 kW). The system has a yearly excess electricity of 411,771 kWh/yr which can be sold out and has no unmet load. It greatly reduced greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. The hybrid PV/diesel/biomass gasifier system makes economic sense and is technically viable for Mbaakon hospital and those with similar load and weather conditions.

Can Energy Trading be a Solution for Indonesia’s Energy Mix Goal through Solar Energy?

Climate change has gotten more and more serious worldwide. To secure the future for our next generation, we need to change the way we use and consume energy from a cleaner source. In Indonesia, this effort is shown through Presidential Regulation No. 22/2017, or general planning of national energy (RUEN) indicates that Indonesia’s government is targeting 23% of energy mix via solar power. However, today, through various industries and consumers level adoption, it is still hard to achieve. The consumer study by Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) found that the main issues for the adoption in Jabodetabek are due to lack of consumer incentive, lack of clear benefits of electricity reduction, and poor education about how to install solar power on the consumer level. Throughout this paper, the authors are going to propose a way for energy trading to solve such issues from a top-down perspective. It will start from how the current condition at the consumer level is, the potential scenario, stakeholder benefits analysis, potential location case study, to the commercialization through economic analysis. To achieve the goal of incentivizing customer yet still creating economic sense for the potential investors, which we use state-owned electricity company (PLN) as an example to provide alternatives to a larger scale power plant investment, we experiment on multiple profit sharing mechanisms and scenarios. By varying the profit-sharing factor, we get that 35%-65% profit sharing mechanism gives PLN an acceptable payback period and decent profit margin while can still incentivize the customer. From this study on, we can further study the customer buy-in (incentive level) elasticity in correlation with the variation of profit share that is still profitable for the investor or PLN before deciding on the policy.

A New Method for Interindustry Linkage Analysis Based on Demand-Driven and Multisector Input-Output Model and Its Application in China’s Manufacturing and Producer Services

Interindustry linkage analysis is an important interdisciplinary research field of technical economic and complex systems, and the results can be used as critical bases for making strategies and policies of economic development. This study reviews the previous methods for measuring interindustry linkages and their disadvantages and puts forward a new method for interindustry linkage analysis in a complex economic system on the basis of demand-driven and multisector input-output model. Firstly, it makes a further decomposition of the Leontief inverse matrix in the economic sense and decomposes the gross output of one industrial sector or its sub-industries into three components. Then, it analyzes the structural features of output and measures the interindustry linkages between two industrial sectors with three indices: interindustry linkage effect, interindustry linkage contribution, and interindustry linkage coefficient. Compared with the previous measurements, the method in this study has three obvious advantages: it integrates the sectoral internal effect and external linkage effect at the same time; it can not only measure the interindustry linkage effects between two given industrial sectors but also clearly describe the composition ratio of the direct and indirect interindustry linkage effects; and it adopts, respectively, the absolute flow value, relative flow value, and unit relative value to measure the linkages comprehensively. Finally, this study takes China’s input and output in 2017 as an application case to analyze the structural features of output of its manufacturing and producer services and measure the interindustry linkages between them.

Viivikonna – Formation of a Ghost Town Amongst Other East Estonian Oil-Shale Mining and Industrial Town

The central Stalinist urban ensembles in East Estonian oil-shale mining and industrial townsKohtla-Järve, Ahtme, Sompa, Jõhvi, Kukruse, Kiviõli, Kohtla-Nõmme and Sillamäe areprotected by comprehensive plans and regarded as built-up areas of cultural andenvironmental value; Viivikonna, although similar to these towns, does not boast suchpatronage. Compared to other oil-shale mining and industrial towns, Viivikonna has becomea brownfield nearly completely. What could be the reason for such a difference?Someanswers may be found in history (1946–1980). Viivikonna is the only East Estonian oil-shalemining and industrial town that follows urban planning principles and a pattern, establishedby the Department of Architecture of the Estonian SSR, led by Harald Arman, to this day.However, it is necessary to decide the purpose of Viivikonna in the near future: whether partsor whole of the town are worthy of preservation–both in the economic and aesthetic sense.

To retrofit or not? Making energy retrofit decisions through life cycle thinking for Canadian residences

Improving the energy performance of buildings has been a much-discussed topic over the past few decades. With the current focus on climate change mitigation, emissions reduction has also come to the forefront of this discussion. Retrofitting is an option to improve the energy and emissions performance of buildings. However, in the residential building stock, retrofit planning for existing buildings faces many complexities due to variations in climatic conditions and macro-environment as well as the presence of multiple stakeholder groups. Thus, in identifying solutions, it is necessary to take a holistic perspective that covers these different dimensions. In this paper, commonly used building energy retrofits were evaluated through a life cycle thinking approach. The performance of various retrofit options applicable for single family detached housing were evaluated using the HOT2000 energy simulation software package under the varying climatic conditions and energy supply scenarios across Canada. The retrofits were evaluated in terms of the additional investment, energy use and cost reduction achieved over the life cycle, and life cycle emissions reduction. The findings indicate that the provincial energy mix and the heating system of the house (i.e. electric or natural gas) play a major role in determining the effectiveness of a retrofit, and this “effectiveness” changes at different stakeholder levels. However, not all retrofits that reduce emissions make economic sense and vice versa when life cycle thinking comes into play. The findings will be useful for building owners and occupants as well as for policy developers and other decision makers interested in demand side management.