Fair Market Competition Research Articles

How antitrust enforcement affects corporate ESG performance? Evidence from merger review cases in China

Chinese unique treatment of unreported merger cases (which should be reported according to antitrust law) in the context of merger review provides a distinctive and robust control group for the Difference-in-Differences (DID) research method. We employ the DID method to investigate the impact of China’s merger review antitrust enforcement on Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) performance. We find that the implementation of merger review antitrust enforcement suppresses corporate ESG performance, especially with significant effects observed on the Environment (E) and Governance (G) components. Mechanism analysis indicates that antitrust enforcement poses an impact on corporate profits by reducing market concentration and safeguarding fair market competition. This leads to the emergence of corporate financial performance protection behaviors, resulting in a decrease in corporate ESG performance. Heterogeneous analysis finds that the use of structural remedy in the enforcement process and stronger antitrust enforcement will further intensify the inhibitory effect of antitrust enforcement against business concentration on ESG.

Analysis of Green Intellectual Property Issues and Countermeasures from the Perspective of International Law

As an advanced form of productivity driven by green technological innovation, there exists a natural fit and close connection between new quality productivity and green intellectual property rights. Legal protection is the cornerstone of the development of new productivity, in which the comprehensive protection of intellectual property rights is particularly crucial: green intellectual property rights, as a key force to adhere to sustainable development and promote scientific and technological progress and economic growth, has a central role to play in incentivizing environmental protection as the core of independent innovation, thus becoming an indispensable institutional guarantee for the development of new productivity. This institutional guarantee ensures the legitimate rights and interests of innovation achievements, and is a powerful driving force and a long-term solution for the continuous progress of productive forces. At present, the field of intellectual property cooperation is encountering diversified challenges and problems: the unilateralization caused by some developed countries, the rigidity of international rules on intellectual property, the stagnation behind the digital age, and the imbalance in the distribution of existing international benefits of intellectual property, which should be paid close attention to. In order to effectively promote green technological innovation and escort the green intellectual property protection system to a stable and far-reaching future, countries and enterprises should face the current challenges rationally, correctly understand the differences and conflicts between green intellectual property rights and ordinary intellectual property rights, gain a deeper understanding of the existing relevant international law foundations, and promptly solve the green intellectual property rights issues, improve the relevant international conventions and treaties, strengthen the coordination and cooperation of international organizations, and establish a fair and reasonable green technology patent protection mechanism. fair and reasonable patent protection mechanism for green technology. Only when countries join hands to improve the green intellectual property protection mechanism, jointly combat transnational infringement and maintain a fair market competition environment can the legitimate rights and interests of innovators be safeguarded.

Trademark Right Protection in Electronic Commerce: Challenges and Countermeasures

As a vital element of core intellectual property for businesses, trademarks play a crucial role in upholding brand image, safeguarding consumer rights, and fostering fair market competition. This paper aims to delve into the challenges encountered in trademark rights protection within e-commerce based on relevant content from trademark law. It further proposes corresponding legal strategies to address these challenges with the goal of promoting sustained and healthy growth within the e-commerce industry. This study uncovers complexities and covert nature associated with trademark infringement activities in e-commerce, as well as widespread cross-border trade infringements and high costs related to evidence collection and rights protection. Corresponding measures to address these issues are then proposed. The research findings underscore the significance of refining laws and regulations, bolstering international cooperation and judicial assistance efforts, intensifying enforcement measures and penalties, as well as establishing robust mechanisms for protecting rights. This paper holds substantial importance in advancing a healthy environment for e-commerce industry development, maintaining equitable competitive market conditions, safeguarding legitimate rights of trademark holders and consumers, and propelling forward intellectual property protection system construction within the realm of e-commerce.

Digital infrastructure expansion and carbon intensity of small enterprises: Evidence from China

While the growth of digital infrastructure theoretically offers increased opportunities for enterprises, the policy implications may vary depending on the firm size. We utilize the pilot policy of the Broadband China Strategy as an exogenous shock for firms and adopt a unique dataset from the National Tax Survey to investigate the impact of digital infrastructure expansion on the carbon intensity of small enterprises. The results indicate that digital infrastructure expansion leads to a notable increase of 9.04% in small firm's carbon intensity. These results exhibit resilience, withstanding rigorous testing through various robustness checks. This increase is primarily attributed to two channels: the competition effect, which results in a decline in small firm's output, and the change in energy structure, which leads to an increase in small firm's carbon emissions. Heterogeneity analysis reveals a more pronounced increase for small enterprises located in regions with less stringent environmental regulations and in industries with higher degree of market concentration. Our conclusion suggests that the government should pay attention to the survival and development of small enterprises. This entails ensuring fair market competition on digital platforms and preventing the dominant enterprises from abusing their information advantages to jeopardize the interests of small enterprises.

국내 제3보험 시장 관련 경쟁정책 정비의 필요성과 고려사항에 관한 연구

As the use of big data by AI progresses, it is expected that the ultimate customization for individual customers, early response to various risks of actual functions due to diversification of insurance underwriting risks (period, type, etc.), and product composition that matches the cost of each sales channel will be required. In this flow of change, it is necessary to intervene in the policy of the supervisory authority and to revise the specialized supervision law and insurance contract law in order to sell insurance products that meet the needs of consumers through the realization of fair competition in the third-party insurance market. Under these changes, it is necessary for competition policy and supervisory authorities to intervene appropriately in order to realize fair competition in the third-party insurance market so that insurance products that meet the needs of consumers can be sold. Therefore, issues under the Fair Trade Act should be examined in relation to the promotion of competition in the third insurance market. It is necessary to recognize the legality of exchanging information on experience statistics related to insurance rates of third-party insurance products between insurance providers through the exemption from the application of the Fair Trade Act for cartel considering the special characteristics of the insurance industry. Consideration could be given to promoting fair competition through administrative guidance issued by supervisory authorities. In this way, considering the characteristics of the insurance industry, which requires a sufficient amount of information to set reasonable prices for insurance products through actuarial factors, it is possible to consider applying the doctrine of exemption from the Fair Trade Act by considering certain information exchange activities as permissible joint activities. In the current situation where the third insurance market, namely the non-life insurance industry, dominates the market, if a life insurer is unable to use the common system (insurance computer network) operated by the Insurance Development Institute, thereby substantially restricting competition in the future and failing to protect the rights and interests of policyholders, it cannot be ruled out that such behavior may constitute unfair competition among non-life insurers. This leaves open the possibility that the area excluded from the application of the Fair Trade Act to the insurance industry may eventually be reduced. Therefor it is suggested that it is necessary for insurers to cooperate with each other in exchanging information based on administrative guidance such as the Fair Competition Guidelines in the third-party insurance market in order to promote competition.

The Role of Trust and Data Sharing Willingness in Users’ Acceptance of Insurance Telematics

Understanding customers’ attitudes toward insurance telematics can significantly affect knowledge management practices within the insurance industry. This study explores the factors affecting users’ acceptance of insurance telematics. A theoretical adoption model was proposed by extending the technology acceptance model and theory of planned behavior with a priorly proved construct trust and a new construct data sharing willingness (DSW). Trust is built upon perceived usefulness, ease of use, and DSW in this research. The findings display that trust is crucial in increasing a positive feeling toward insurance telematics, which affects users’ acceptance of insurance telematics, along with subjective norms. DSW was found to impact users’ level of trust significantly. Theoretically, these findings imply that trust offers a significant passage for factors influencing consumers’ adoption of technology. Practically, the findings shed light on assisting the auto insurance industry in its digital transformation and designing interventions to improve consumers’ adoption of insurance telematics. The authors also suggest regulators take actions to oversee the technology to ensure customer privacy protection and fair market competition.

The Dilemma and Practice of Anti-monopoly Law Regulation in the Digital Economy Era

The digital economy has emerged as a significant catalyst for worldwide economic expansion. Nevertheless, as the digital economy continues to flourish, the issue of monopoly it brings is becoming more and more important. Certain online platforms engage in predatory pricing and discriminatory practices, undermining fair competition in the market, harming consumer rights and interests, and impeding the healthy growth of the economy. This paper uses the research methods of literature analysis and literature review to explore the theoretical and technical challenges encountered by the anti-monopoly law in the context of the digital economy era, and puts forward proper recommendations for improvement according to its limitations by analyzing the existing anti-monopoly case practices. This study aims to identify effective regulatory measures and recommendations that can offer robust legal protection for the sustainable growth of the digital economy. At the same time, it is anticipated that this study will promote the improvement and development of the anti-monopoly law in the field of digital economy, and contribute wisdom and strength to the construction of a more fair, open and orderly market competition environment.

Enhancing fairness of trading environment: discovering overlapping spammer groups with dynamic co-review graph optimization

Within the thriving e-commerce landscape, some unscrupulous merchants hire spammer groups to post misleading reviews or ratings, aiming to manipulate public perception and disrupt fair market competition. This phenomenon has prompted a heightened research focus on spammer groups detection. In the e-commerce domain, current spammer group detection algorithms can be classified into three categories, i.e., Frequent Item Mining-based, graph-based, and burst-based algorithms. However, existing graph-based algorithms have limitations in that they did not adequately consider the redundant relationships within co-review graphs and neglected to detect overlapping members within spammer groups. To address these issues, we introduce an overlapping spammer group detection algorithm based on deep reinforcement learning named DRL-OSG. First, the algorithm filters out highly suspicious products and gets the set of reviewers who have reviewed these products. Secondly, taking these reviewers as nodes and their co-reviewing relationships as edges, we construct a homogeneous co-reviewing graph. Thirdly, to efficiently identify and handle the redundant relationships that are accidentally formed between ordinary users and spammer group members, we propose the Auto-Sim algorithm, which is a specifically tailored algorithm for dynamic optimization of the co-reviewing graph, allowing for adjustments to the reviewers’ relationship network within the graph. Finally, candidate spammer groups are discovered by using the Ego-Splitting overlapping clustering algorithm, allowing overlapping members to exist in these groups. Then, these groups are refined and ranked to derive the final list of spammer groups. Experimental results based on real-life datasets show that our proposed DRL-OSG algorithm performs better than the baseline algorithms in Precision.

Did Facebook Cheat?: A Test Case of Antitrust Ethics

Citing corporate concentration and lax enforcement since the Reagan era, the Biden administration has declared a new era of aggressive antitrust prosecution, bringing antimonopoly actions against tech giants such as Meta, Google, and Amazon. But what’s so bad about monopoly or corporate concentration? The standard answer appeals to economic consequences, such as higher prices or deadweight losses. This paper offers a different framework. It argues monopolizing can be a form of cheating, which is a wrong that attaches to means, not just ends; an athlete who cheats but loses still does wrong. In particular, this paper argues that certain market-controlling strategies constitute a form of cheating I call ‘structural cheating,’ best illustrated by the metaphor of creating an unlevel playing field: rather than compete fairly on merits such as product quality and price, a firm that acquires rivals biases the market in its favor, thereby entrenching a dominant position that effectively forces would-be competitors to compete uphill. By framing (alleged) antitrust violations as cheating, while using the FTC’s lawsuit against Facebook (now Meta) as a test case, this paper provides a needed corrective to those citing market success as evidence of merit or skill. A further upshot is the structural cheating account better explains the distinctively problematic features of social media market concentration than Heath’s Market Failures Approach. More generally, this paper provides a normative lens for analyzing fair market competition and shows why it’s not only winning or losing that counts in capitalism, but how one plays the game.

Cradle-to-grave environmental and economic sustainability of lime-based plasters manufactured with upcycled materials

The production of CaO for lime-based plaster and render generates 1.2 t CO2/t CaO, consumes 1.78 t CaCO3/t CaO. This research paper examines the environmental and economic performance of upcycling paper mill sludge (PMS) and carbide lime (CL) as replacements for hydrated lime (HL) in lime-based plasters production. For this, a new Cradle-to-Gate industrial-scale inventory is designed, upscaling recent lab-scale innovations, investigating PMS and CL treatment processes, followed by a Cradle-to-Grave scenario analysis. The results show that incorporating CL in the plaster yields better environmental and economic outcomes compared to PMS. The intermediate treatment for CL is cost-effective and has low carbon emissions. The upcycling of CL eliminates 100% of CO2 emissions, while PMS reduces emissions by 11%. The production of the traditional binder HL is more expensive than upcycling PMS (+69%) and CL (+65%), with carbon taxes accounting for 35%, 44% and 15% of production costs, respectively. The effect of an equilibrated carbon price to ensure fair market competition, considering the natural carbonation of lime (carbon credit) is discussed, and the cost assessment reveals a 47% and 54% reduction for upcycled plasters using PMS and CL, respectively, compared to traditional HL.

Downstream Competition and Upstream Innovation: Theory and Evidence from China

Abstract Competition is the catalyst of corporate innovation, which is the foundation of a country’s core competitiveness. From the view of vertical industrial chain, this paper examines how downstream competition affects upstream firms’ innovation output. Given innovation helps reduce the production cost of each product, increasing demand of intermediate products caused by downstream competition enhances the marginal revenue of upstream firms’ innovation, thus leading to an innovation incentive effect. To identify causality, we utilize China’s WTO accession, a quasi-natural experiment, to calculate downstream competition combined with import tariff reduction and input-output table, and then run a difference-in-difference regression. Using the data of Annual Survey of Industrial Firms and State Intellectual Property Office, our results find that downstream competition has a significantly positive impact on upstream firms’ innovation, and this effect is more pronounced in firms with less industry competition, greater initial innovation capacity and weaker financial constraints. Moreover, the number of firms, the degree of industry competition and the scale of intermediate products in the downstream sector increase, confirming the market size channel. In sum, our findings document that downstream competition can motivate upstream firms to innovate through vertical industrial chain, providing some useful insights for China to build a fair market competition environment and promote innovation-driven growth regime.

The social public interest in China's employment anti-discrimination laws and its realisation paths

ABSTRACT Despite its close relationship to employment rights, the concept of the public interest in labour law lacks extensive discussion. Even fewer scholars have studied employment discrimination in China from this perspective, despite China signing many international Conventions and Recommendations related to employment rights. This article analyses the social-based attributes in China's employment anti-discrimination laws, arguing that the laws should prioritise the protection of public interests. It then distils the connotation of the social public interest carried by the laws from the perspectives of legal values, the independence of legal interest, and legislative purposes. Subsequently, this article examines the implementation of the laws at judicial and administrative levels, identifying limitations in individual-oriented approaches and deficiencies in safeguarding the public interest. These limitations and deficiencies primarily manifest in the fact that labour agencies generally do not accept employment discrimination complaints or subtly exclude hiring processes from the scope of administrative enforcement, while courts are accustomed to a private law rationale of compensating for actual losses. Accordingly, this article suggests establishing and maintaining a fair labour market competition order by imposing punitive damages to deter potential discrimination, activating administrative enforcement to rectify past discrimination, and guiding employers to proactively assume social responsibility.

Tower Semiconductor Acquisition: Advancing Intel’s Presence in the Global Market

This paper delves into the economic event surrounding Intel Corporation’s high-profile acquisition of Tower Corporation. It aims to investigate the reasons behind Intel’s decision to acquire Tower, employ the SWOT analysis method to evaluate the event, and examine its impact on relevant stakeholders. The findings indicate that Intel’s acquisition of Tower was driven by objectives such as strengthening business areas, expanding market share, technological innovation and development, and future development strategy. Through the application of SWOT analysis, it becomes evident that the advantages of the acquisition lie in strengthening technical capabilities and expanding business segments, while simultaneously facing challenges such as integration complexities and pressure. The significance of this paper lies in gaining a comprehensive understanding of the strategic motivations and potential impacts associated with corporate acquisitions, thereby providing valuable insights for decision-making processes. The innovation lies in the comprehensive utilization of SWOT analysis to holistically evaluate the acquisition event, enabling a thorough assessment of its various aspects. For government and policymakers, they should strength regulation of corporate takeovers to ensure fair and transparent market competition, provide support and incentives, and strength cooperation to develop common policies and norms. As for enterprises, it is advised that strategic planning and comprehensive consideration should be formulated and carried out when making acquisitions. Also, stakeholders should actively participate in and monitor the process of corporate acquisition discussion and decision-making, and strengthen cooperation to ensure fair competition, maximizing the interests of all parties.

The contagion mechanism and governance strategy of corporate social irresponsibility of Chinese food companies

From a global perspective, the incidents of food fraud are still increasing in recent years, which shows that the food safety issue has not been well addressed. As a major world food exporter and importer, egregious incidents of corporate social irresponsibility (CSI) for domestic food companies were discovered in China. Although the Chinese government has been strengthening the supervision on food companies, the governance effect is not obvious. This research focuses on the governance of the CSI behavior of food companies. As opposed to the existing literature based on Neoclassical economics, this article analyzes food companies' CSI by applying a behavioral economic framework. The system dynamics method is used to analyze the implementation effect of the corresponding governance strategy. Researchers discovered that the short-sighted cognitive bias of food companies is the primary reason for CSI, which results in the self-reinforcing effect and interactive contagion effect. Under the current imperfect institutional environment, these effects will be further amplified to present a crisis of collective irresponsibility. This study provides timely evidence and significant regulatory implications for the ongoing food safety crisis in China. In order to control the contagion of CSI in the food industry, the government should increase its sanctions on irresponsible food companies from the short-term perspective. The government should also establish a fair and standardized market competition order and improve the information disclosure mechanisms and third-party governance mechanisms in the long term. These actions will contribute to a more comprehensive research perspective on food safety governance and, additionally, and to develop more targeted strategic tools for the government to regulate the food market. Our insights can also provide a reference for other countries and industries facing similar challenges.

Cybersecurity in Business: A Case Study of DiDi

Big data has substantially improved the efficiency of information collection and processing (Fadhil et al., 2021). (Fadhil, S. A., Kadhim, L. E. and Abdurazaq, S. G. (2021) ‘Protection measurements of computer network information security for big data’, Journal of Discrete Mathematical Sciences and Cryptography, Vol. 24, No. 7, pages 1959–1965, doi: 10. 1080/09720529.2021.1959996). Nevertheless, the transparentizing and openization of information could also increase the risk of disclosure of personal information and business secrets, leading to various illegal and criminal activities (Lim et al., 2018). (Lim, S., Woo, J., Lee, J. and Huh, S. -Y. (2018) ‘Consumer valuation of personal information in the age of big data’, Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, Vol. 69, No. 1, pages 60–71, doi: 10.1002/asi.23915). This paper adopts qualitative analysis and single-case study to investigate the approaches and outcomes of network information collection. It is found that many e-commerce platforms utilize big data technologies to collect, screen and process customer information. Yet, the collected customer information might be maliciously used by others to infringe on personal privacy, result in property damage and loss, trigger unhealthy market competition, and hinder economic development (Taylor, 2017). ((Taylor, I. (2017) ‘Data collection, counterterrorism and the right to privacy’, Politics, Philosophy & Economics, Vol. 16, No. 3, pages 326–346, doi: 10.1177/ 1470594X17715249). Thus, this paper recommends that the application of big data should have a legal boundary. It needs to be strictly defined and regulated to facilitate its positive role in protecting cybersecurity and promoting fair market competition. Big data, business secret, cybersecurity, data right, e-commerce platform, information processing, legal boundary, market competition, network platform, personal privacy

THE IMPLICATIONS OF THE NEW EU FOREIGN SUBSIDIES REGULATION AND ITS DRAFT IMPLEMENTING REGULATION FOR INVESTORS AND BENEFICIARIES

This article examines the notification obligations according to the draft implementing regulation of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation (“FSR”), which was implemented by the European Parliament and the Council on January 12, 2023. The draft implementing regulation establishes an extensive notification system for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) cases and public procurement, including tenders. The article outlines the main notification obligations and the required data that must be submitted to the Commission under the FSR and its draft implementing regulation.The FSR came into effect on January 12, 2023, and will be applicable starting from July 12, 2023. As of October 12, 2023, companies are required to notify the Commission of mergers and participation in public procurement procedures when the relevant thresholds are met.The purpose of this article is to examine the FSR and its Draft Implementing Regulation, which aim to address potential distortions in the EU internal market caused by subsidies from third countries to companies operating within the EU.The analysis in this article is based on a review of the FSR and its Draft Implementing Regulation, and relevant legal sources. The article also considers the consultation period of the European Commission and feedback received from companies and stakeholders during the development of the draft implementing regulation. The methodology involves a detailed examination of the provisions, definitions, and notification requirements outlined in the FSR and its draft implementing regulation. The draft implementing regulation of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation presents new compliance and reporting requirements for companies operating within the EU, aiming to address potential distortions in the EU market caused by foreign subsidies. While the specific legal challenges can vary, companies and beneficiaries should be prepared for the new obligations and requirements. These include ensuring compliance, understanding the subsidy assessment criteria, cooperating with authorities during investigations, balancing transparency with the protection of confidential information, and potentially addressing legal challenges or disputes.The implementation of the Foreign Subsidies Regulation represents a significant step in regulating third country subsidies and promoting fair competition in the EU internal market.

Will falling domestic labor compensation share really be improved when global trade slowdown?

The participation of Global Value Chains (GVCs) in the world’s major economies has changed from rising to falling since 2010. Based on GVCs income, SDA method and multiple panel regression, this paper explores the cross-cycle effect, mechanism and persistence paths of GVCs participation on domestic labor compensation share in 51 economies from 2000 to 2018. The paper concludes that the overall effect of participating in GVCs on domestic labor compensation share is negative. However, forward participation in GVCs perform better than backward GVCs participation in stabilizing domestic labor compensation share. Capital-biased technological progress and availability of overseas labor are conditions under which the GVCs participation undermines domestic labor compensation share. This paper propose to seize the opportunity to increase the labor compensation share through measures and policies, such as promoting fair competition in domestic market, servitization of industrial structure and the establishment of relational value chains.

Appraisal of existing evidences of competition law and policy: Bilateral legislative developments of Sino-Pak

Developing nations use contemporary competition laws based on international models for reasons ranging from achieving international legitimacy to achieving domestic economic objectives. Although passing such laws gives these nations competition regimes more legitimacy, doing so does not guarantee that their economic goals will be met unless the laws are also effectively implemented. Comparative legal scholarship suggests that effective enforcement requires, among other things, a positive link between the passed laws and the nation's pre-existing legal systems in light of development economics. The globalization of national competition laws, particularly the application of international soft law, is responsible for the existence of modern competition law. Secondly, the competition regimes in Pakistan and China face a number of long-term difficulties, many of which are the product of globalization, which must be addressed as soon as possible. In order to examine the aims and objectives, this study employs qualitative data analysis. The results of this research suggest that for both nations to successfully implement competition law, innovation and unconventionality are required. Although the goal of competition law is to prevent anti-competitive activities and practices by promoting fair and open market competition, this goal is achieved through protecting consumers from businesses' use of unfair business practices. Because of this, the act encourages the formation of agreements that limit and restrict market dominance. In addition, the law specifies how investigations, acquisitions, mergers, penalties, leniency, and other aspects of law enforcement should be handled. As a result, this law can be seen as extremely important for regulating firms while maintaining consumer and producer welfare. It eventually supports economic growth and social justice. As a result, Voluntary adherence to competition law, rules, and regulations is essential since doing so would significantly lower the societal costs of enforcing the law.

Перспективы китайско-российского сотрудничества в сфере газонабжения

Cooperation between China and Russia in energy area is an important cornerstone of cooperation between the two countries and a positive force for maintaining global energy security. The total volume of gas supply by 2030 will be at least 98 billion cubic meters plus 100 million tons of liquefied natural gas. The article refers to the market reforms of China’s natural gas market. A fair market competition mechanism has been implemented in natural gas exploration, production, and import. The article reviews the Chinese model of X+1+X marketization in the gas supply market. Conclusions are drawn on the positive trend of gas supply between the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China and on the necessity of joint legal research in order to develop the legal regulation of gas supply.

Potential of Traditional Markets in Improving The Economy of Muslim Traders (Case Study in Pasar Rabu, Galing District, Sambas Regency)

ABSTRACT
 This study seeks to analyze and qualitatively descriptive of the potential of the Wednesday Market in Galing District, Sambas Regency, and how the market can improve the economy of Muslim traders. Data collection techniques in the form of observation, interviews, and documentation. While the primary data source is Muslim traders and the secondary data source is the Head of Galing Village. The data validity techniques used are triangulation techniques and continuous observation techniques. The results of the study revealed that the traditional market which is a type of weekly market in the Galing District has the potential to improve the economy of traders, especially Muslim traders because Pasar Rabu has met the analysis criteria in determining market potential, namely meeting the needs and desires of the community, having clear market segmentation, meet targets, added value, product life span and fair market competition. Supporting and inhibiting factors for traders in improving the economy at Pasar Rabu, namely: Supporting Factors: Adequate human resources and well-managed natural resources, the ability to use technology and capital resources, and the level of security that is maintained. Inhibiting factors: lack of government attention, unavailability of infrastructure needed by traders, and global inflation.