Does banning price discrimination promote entry? The answer to this question has important public policy ramifications. Banning price discrimination would be beneficial to consumers if doing so always promoted competition. It seems that an incumbent who is serving multiple markets is likely to respond more aggressively to entry in any given market if price discrimination is allowed than if it i...

As millions of immigrants moved to Hong Kong (HK) from China in the recent decades, large amount of residential housings were built in the early years and a substantial proportion of those buildings used asbestos-containing materials (ACMs). Since the number of new cases of ARDs diagnosed has increased year by year since 1990's, the remarkable increase of incidences had drawn the attention of t...

This paper is the final part in a series of four on the dynamics of two coupled, parametrically driven pendulums. In the previous three parts (Banning and van der Weele, Mode competition in a system of two parametrically driven pendulums; the Hamiltonian case, Physica A 220 (1995) 485-533; Banning et al., Mode competition in a system of two parametrically driven pendulums; the dissipative case,...

Ransomware attacks are becoming increasingly pervasive and disruptive. Not only they shutting down (or at least “holding up”) businesses local governments all around the country, disrupting institutions in many sectors of U.S. economy — from school systems, to medical facilities, critical elements energy infrastructure as well food supply chain. also growing more frequent ransom demands exorbit...

Favorable attitudes towards tobacco control policies can facilitate their implementation and success. We examined attitudes toward four potential U.S. Federal tobacco regulations (banning menthol from cigarettes, reducing nicotine levels in cigarettes, banning candy and fruit flavored electronic cigarettes, and banning candy and fruit flavored little cigars and cigarillos) and associations with...

BACKGROUND Thailand is internationally renowned for its stringent tobacco control measures. In Thailand, a regulation banning smoking in air-conditioned hotel lobbies was issued in late 2006, causing substantial apprehension within the hospitality industry. A survey of tourists' attitudes toward the ban was conducted. METHODS A cross-sectional survey of 5550 travellers staying in various hote...

This note, which analyzes the central role of women’s health in the debate over the limits of abortion rights, explores the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision in Stenberg v. Carhart to invalidate a Nebraska statute banning partial birth abortion. Specifically, this note questions whether the Court’s decision in Stenberg effectively requires that all future statutes banning partial bir...

Can two-way trade in similar products lead to lower welfare than if such trade was banned? Theory answers yes. To empirically investigate this proposition we examine Swedish imports of bottled water. Assuming one-shot (Bertrand and Cournot) competition, we can use the estimates from a structural model of demand to uncover marginal costs. We simulate the effect on consumer and producer surplus o...