Unveiling Fairness for the Consumer:The Law, Economics and Justice of Expanded Arbitration

In recent years, the US Supreme Court has rather controversially extended the ambit of the Federal Arbitration Act to extend arbitration’s reach into, inter alia¸ consumer matters, with the consequence that consumers are often (and unbeknownst to them) denied remedies which would otherwise be available. Such denied remedies include recourse to class action proceedings, effective denial of punitive damages, access to discovery and the ability to resolve the matter in a convenient forum.

The court’s extension of arbitration’s ambit is controversial. Attempts to overturn this extension have been made in Congress, but to no avail. In contrast to American law, European consumer law looks at pre-dispute agreements to arbitrate directed at consumers with extreme suspicion, and does so on the grounds of fairness. In contrast, some argue that pre-dispute agreements in consumer (and employment) matters are consumer welfare enhancing: they decrease the costs of doing business, which is then passed on to the consumer. This Article examines these latter claims from both an economic and normative perspective.

The economic analysis of these arguments shows that their assumptions do not hold. Rather than being productive of consumer surplus, the use of arbitration is likely to have the opposite effect. The industries from which the recent Supreme Court cases originated not only do not exhibit the industrial structure assumed by the proponents of expanded arbitration, but are also industries which exhibit features that facilitate consumer welfare reducing collusion.

The normative analysis addresses the fairness concerns. It is explicitly based upon John Rawls’ notion of “justice as fairness,” which can provide a lens to evaluate social institutions. This Rawlsian analysis considers the use of extended arbitration in consumer matters in the light of the earlier economic results. It suggests that the asymmetries present in the contractual allocation of rights serve as prima facie evidence that such arbitration–induced exclusions are prima facie unjust/unfair. However, as asymmetry is only a prima facie test, a generalized criticism of the arbitration exclusions (of the sort found in Congress and underlying the European regime) is overbroad.

The Economics of Total War and Reconstruction, 1914-1922

This chapter features a discussion of the economy and mobilization for the First World War. The authors analyse the implications and cost of total war, concluding with an examination of its contradictory legacies. In studying the war’s impact on Germany in particular, the chapter provides an in-depth look at the consequences of war on Europe’s strongest pre-war economy, without the complications of separating out the issues of a developing country, which can mimic those faced in wartime. The economic challenges that warring parties faced during the war included mobilization, warfare, labour shortage, impaired domestic economic activity, restricted international trade, a systematic redistribution of resources towards the war economy, food rationing, the predictable emergence of black markets, and a drop in living standards. The authors also discuss strategies to meet the significant financial demands associated with the war, and its tumultuous economic and political aftermath.

Technological Learning in Developing Countries

Technological learning refers to the learning processes involved in improving the productive capabilities of an enterprise, sector or economy to enable it to produce higher quality goods or services with increasing levels of efficiency. Approaches to the study of technological learning include case studies of particular countries, sectors and firms; measures of export sophistication; and composite indicators of innovation and competitiveness. The present review draws on these approaches to provide an overview of the policies and practices that have been successful in different regions (East-Asia and Latin America) ; contexts (import substitution and liberalization) ; sectors (pulp and paper, IT services, electronics and passenger cars); and firms (Embrear and Lenovo). While it is clear that there is strong complementarity between domestic technological capability and the ability to absorb foreign technology, there is no simple policy recipe which is appropriate for all times, industries or places. Technological learning builds on and is shaped by what is already known. It requires time, space and resources all of which are influenced by the wider domestic and international context. The current international context is challenging but countries and firms have to find ways of moving forward despite the limited strategy space.

Demand response to improved walking infrastructure: A study into the economics of walking and health behaviour change

Walking is the most common form of moderate‐intensity physical activity among adults, is widely accessible and especially appealing to obese people. Most often policy makers are interested in valuing the effect on walking of changes in some characteristics of a neighbourhood, the demand response for walking, of infrastructure changes. A positive demand response to improvements in the walking environment could help meet the public health target of 150 minutes of at least moderate‐intensity physical activity per week. We model walking in an individual’s local neighbourhood as a ‘weak complement’ to the characteristics of the neighbourhood itself. Walking is affected by neighbourhood
characteristics, substitutes, and individual’s characteristics, including their opportunity cost of time.  Using compensating variation, we assess the economic benefits of walking and how walking behaviour is affected by improvements to the neighbourhood.  Using a sample of 1,209 respondents surveyed over a 12 month period (Feb 2010‐Jan 2011) in East Belfast, United Kingdom, we find that a policy that increased walkability and people’s perception of access to shops and facilities  would lead to an increase in walking of about 36 minutes/person/week, valued at £13.65/person/week. When focusing on inactive residents, a policy that improved the walkability of the area would lead to guidelines for physical activity being reached by only 12.8% of the population who are currently inactive. Additional interventions would therefore be needed to encourage inactive residents to
achieve the recommended levels of physical activity, as it appears that interventions that improve the walkability of an area are particularly effective in increasing walking among already active citizens, and, among the inactive ones, the best response is found among healthier, younger and wealthier citizens.

Investigation into the effect of molybdenum-site substitution on the performance of Sr2Fe1.5Mo0.5O6-δ for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells

In this paper, niobium doping is evaluated as a means of enhancing the electrochemical performance of a Sr₂Fe_1.5Mo_0.5O_6-δ (SFM) perovskite structure cathode material for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs) applications. As the radius of Nb approximates that of Mo and exhibits +4/+5 mixed valences, its substitution is expected to improve material performance. A series of Sr₂Fe_1.5Mo_0.5-xNb_xO_6-δ (x = 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20) cathode materials are prepared and the phase structure, chemical compatibility, microstructure, electrical conductivity, polarization resistance and power generation are systematically characterized. Among the series of samples, Sr₂Fe_1.5Mo_0.4Nb_0.10O_6-δ (SFMNb_0.10) exhibits the highest conductivity value of 30 S cm^-1 at 550°C, and the lowest area specific resistance of 0.068 Ω cm² at 800°C. Furthermore, an anode-supported single cell incorporating a SFMNb_0.10 cathode presents a maximum power density of 1102 mW cm^-2 at 800°C. Furthermore no obvious performance degradation is observed over 15 h at 750°C with wet H₂(3% H₂O) as fuel and ambient air as the oxidant. These results demonstrate that SFMNb shows great promise as a novel cathode material for IT-SOFCs.

Investigation into the effect of Fe-site substitution on the performance of Sr2Fe1.5Mo0.5O6-δ anodes for SOFCs

Ni-substituted Sr₂Fe_1.5-xNi_xMo_0.5O_6-δ (SFNM) materials have been investigated as anode catalysts for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells. Reduced samples (x = 0.05 and 0.1) maintained the initial perovskite structure after reduction in H₂, while metallic nickel particles were detected on the grain surface for x = 0.2 and 0.3 using transmission electron microscopy. Temperature programmed reduction results indicate that the stable temperature for SFNM samples under reduction conditions decreases with Ni content. In addition, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis suggests that the incorporation of Ni affects the conductivity of SFNM through changing the ratios of Fe³⁺/Fe²⁺ and Mo⁶⁺/Mo⁵⁺. Sr₂Fe_1.4Ni_0.1Mo_0.5O_6-δ shows the highest electrical conductivity of 20.6 S cm^-1 at 800 °C in H₂. The performance of this anode was further tested with electrolyte-supported cells, giving 380 mW cm^-2 at 750 °C in H₂, hence demonstrating that Ni doping in the B-site is beneficial for Sr₂Fe_1.5Mo_0.5O_6-δ anode performance.