Computing abuse related damages in the case of new entry: An illustration for the Directory Enquiry Services market

A number of European countries, among which the UK and Spain, have opened up their Directory Enquiry Services (DQs, or 118AB) market to competition. We analyse the Spanish case, where both local and foreign firms challenged the incumbent as of April 2003. We argue that the incumbent had the ability to abuse its dominant position, and that it was a perfectly rational strategy. In short,the incumbent raised its rivals' costs directly by providing an inferior quality version of the (essential) input, namely the incumbent's subscribers' database. We illustrate how it is possible to quantify the effect of abuse in situation were the entrant has no previous history in the market. To do this, we use the UK experience to construct the relevant counterfactual, that is the "but for abuse" scenario. After controlling for relative prices and advertising intensity, we find that one of the foreign entrants achieved a Spanish market share of only half of what it would have been in the absence of abuse.

Vertical Differentiation and Entry Deterrence: A Reconsideration

In this work we emphasize why market coverage should be considered endogenous for a correct analysis of entry deterrence in vertical differentiation models and discuss the implications of this endogeneity for that analysis. We consider contexts without quality costs and also contexts with convex fixed quality costs.

Entry into motherhood: The effect of wages

Using the ECHP, we explored the determinants of having the first child in Spain. Our main goal was to study the relation between female wages and the decision to enter motherhood. Since the offered wage of non-working women is not observed, we estimate it and impute a potential wage to each woman (working and non-working). This potential wage enable us to investigate the effect of wages (the opportunity cost of time non-worked and dedicated to children) on the decision to have the first child, for both workers and non-workers. Contrary to previous results, we found that female wages are positively related to the likelihood of having the first child. This result suggests that the income effect overcomes the substitution effect when non-participants opportunity cost is also taken into account.

A Supply Function Competition Model for the Spanish Wholesale Electricity Market

We model the Spanish wholesale market as a multiplant linear supply function competition model. According to the theory, the larger generators should have supply curves for each plant which are to the left of the supply curves of plants owned by smaller generators. We test this prediction for fuel plants using data from the Spanish Market Operator (OMEL) from May 2001 to December 2003. Our results indicate that the prediction of the model holds.

Ca2+ Influx and Tyrosine Kinases Trigger Bordetella Adenylate Cyclase Toxin (ACT) Endocytosis. Cell Physiology and Expression of the CD11b/CD18 Integrin Major Determinants of the Entry Route

Humans infected with Bordetella pertussis, the whooping cough bacterium, show evidences of impaired host defenses. This pathogenic bacterium produces a unique adenylate cyclase toxin (ACT) which enters human phagocytes and catalyzes the unregulated formation of cAMP, hampering important bactericidal functions of these immune cells that eventually cause cell death by apoptosis and/or necrosis. Additionally, ACT permeabilizes cells through pore formation in the target cell membrane. Recently, we demonstrated that ACT is internalised into macrophages together with other membrane components, such as the integrin CD11b/CD18 (CR3), its receptor in these immune cells, and GM1. The goal of this study was to determine whether ACT uptake is restricted to receptor-bearing macrophages or on the contrary may also take place into cells devoid of receptor and gain more insights on the signalling involved. Here, we show that ACT is rapidly eliminated from the cell membrane of either CR3-positive as negative cells, though through different entry routes, which depends in part, on the target cell physiology and characteristics. ACT-induced Ca2+ influx and activation of non-receptor Tyr kinases into the target cell appear to be common master denominators in the different endocytic strategies activated by this toxin. Very importantly, we show that, upon incubation with ACT, target cells are capable of repairing the cell membrane, which suggests the mounting of an anti-toxin cell repair-response, very likely involving the toxin elimination from the cell surface.

Imperfect Competition

Para quien es de utilidad: •Alumnos de Tª Microeconómica IV, curso 3º LE. •Alumnos de las asignaturas de Tª de Juegos y Organización Industrial del Máster en Economía: Instrumentos del Análisis Económico. Estas notas sobre competencia imperfecta están dedicadas al estudio de estructuras de mercado caracterizadas por la existencia de poder de mercado. Se estudia en primer lugar el monopolio, dedicando una atención especial a los diferentes tipos de discriminación de precios. A continuación se presenta la Tª de juegos no cooperativos y se muestra su utilidad para analizar diferentes fenómenos económicos caracterizados por la interdependencia estratégica. Finalmente, se estudian diferentes modelos de competencia oligopolística y la estabilidad de los acuerdos colusivos.

On the economics of the "meeting competition defense" under the Robinson-Patman Act

Documento de trabajo

Análisis de la fabricación de las tijas de una motocicleta de competición. Prototipo

[ES]Este trabajo fin de grado, TFG en adelante, consiste en el análisis de la fabricación de las tijas de una motocicleta de competición Motostudent. Se trata de conseguir fabricar las tijas de una manera óptima, tanto en que su material como el proceso de fabricación sea el más adecuado para su función siendo, además, lo más económico posible. Para llevar a cabo este trabajo es necesario conocer las cualidades que una tija debe cubrir en una motocicleta de competición. A partir de dichas cualidades se selecciona el material idóneo de entre otros muchos, estudiando las propiedades fiscas, químicas y mecánicas de cada uno de ellos. También se hará un estudio de dos alternativas de fabricación posibles, electroerosión y arranque de viruta con herramienta, para a posteriori elegir la más indicada. La idea no es construir un diseño final para la fabricación, sino un prototipo sobre el cual hacer las pruebas oportunas y posteriormente realizar cambios y mejoras para posteriores ediciones. El presente proyecto marcará las pautas de diseño y el proceso a seguir durante la fabricación de las tijas que el equipo representante de la Escuela técnica superior de Bilbao, ETSIB en adelante, empleará en la futura competición.

Modelling Lipid Competition Dynamics in Heterogeneous Protocell Populations

Recent experimental work in the field of synthetic protocell biology has shown that prebiotic vesicles are able to 'steal' lipids from each other. This phenomenon is driven purely by asymmetries in the physical state or composition of the vesicle membranes, and, when lipid resource is limited, translates directly into competition amongst the vesicles. Such a scenario is interesting from an origins of life perspective because a rudimentary form of cell-level selection emerges. To sharpen intuition about possible mechanisms underlying this behaviour, experimental work must be complemented with theoretical modelling. The aim of this paper is to provide a coarse-grain mathematical model of protocell lipid competition. Our model is capable of reproducing, often quantitatively, results from core experimental papers that reported distinct types vesicle competition. Additionally, we make some predictions untested in the lab, and develop a general numerical method for quickly solving the equilibrium point of a model vesicle population.

El precio de la gasolina en España: distribución con restricciones verticales

[ES] Hemos realizado un análisis estructural del mercado de la gasolina en España para conocer la manera en la que se establecen los precios de la gasolina en comparación con los de la Unión Europea. Para ello analizamos la cadena de valor de las empresas más destacadas del mercado, así como las distintas barreras de entrada que limitan la competencia. Por último, destacamos las restricciones verticales que estas imponen a sus distribuidores minorista y su incidencia en el precio final del producto.

Sportsmanship rating scale in tennis competition with young players

World Conference on Psychology and Sociology 2012