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The Bureau of Economics in the Federal Trade Commission has a three-part role in the Agency and the strength of its functions changed over time depending on the preferences and ideology of the FTC’s leaders, developments in the field of economics, and the tenor of the times. The over-riding current role is to provide well considered, unbiased economic advice regarding antitrust and consumer protection law enforcement cases to the legal staff and the Commission. The second role, which long ago was primary, is to provide reports on investigations of various industries to the public and public officials. This role was more recently called research or “policy R&D”. A third role is to advocate for competition and markets both domestically and internationally. As a practical matter, the provision of economic advice to the FTC and to the legal staff has required that the economists wear “two hats,” helping the legal staff investigate cases and provide evidence to support law enforcement cases while also providing advice to the legal bureaus and to the Commission on which cases to pursue (thus providing “a second set of eyes” to evaluate cases). There is sometimes a tension in those functions because building a case is not the same as evaluating a case. Economists and the Bureau of Economics have provided such services to the FTC for over 100 years proving that a sub-organization can survive while playing roles that sometimes conflict. Such a life is not, however, always easy or fun.

Many jurisdictions fine illegal cartels using penalty guidelines that presume an arbitrary 10% overcharge. This article surveys more than 700 published economic studies and judicial decisions that contain 2,041 quantitative estimates of overcharges of hard-core cartels. The primary findings are: (1) the median average long-run overcharge for all types of cartels over all time periods is 23.0%; (2) the mean average is at least 49%; (3) overcharges reached their zenith in 1891–1945 and have trended downward ever since; (4) 6% of the cartel episodes are zero; (5) median overcharges of international-membership cartels are 38% higher than those of domestic cartels; (6) convicted cartels are on average 19% more effective at raising prices as unpunished cartels; (7) bid-rigging conduct displays 25% lower markups than price-fixing cartels; (8) contemporary cartels targeted by class actions have higher overcharges; and (9) when cartels operate at peak effectiveness, price changes are 60–80% higher than the whole episode. Historical penalty guidelines aimed at optimally deterring cartels are likely to be too low.

COVID-19 has had remarkable impacts in rural America. Although the onset of the pandemic was in urban areas, it quickly spread to rural areas and ultimately resulted in higher mortality rates for rural populations. Due to this and other associated impacts, the pandemic has resulted in mental health issues across rural America. In this chapter, the authors first describe the state of rural America pre-pandemic, then detail the overall and mental health impacts of the pandemic on rural people. Following this, the authors report results of a case study on COVID-19 in the rural America West and conclude with recommended steps for addressing the unfolding crisis. Many of the steps the authors can take to improve rural mental health following the pandemic have long-been necessary. However, given the impacts of COVID-19, they are now needed more than ever.

In this paper, stochastic optimisation and risk estimation techniques are applied to the problem of hydroelectric generator design. Optimisation results from deterministic simulations can involve considerable risks due to unavoidable variations in system properties as well as environmental conditions. Therefore, stochastic simulation is used to include the effects of parameter scatter and noise effects in the computer models. This allows the evaluation of the scatter in performance and thus an assessment of reliability and quality of the simulated system.

This monograph contains abstracts from the 2005 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, 6‐7th September 2005

Purpose: Blockchain technology has exploded in popularity in the social economy over the years. Because blockchain technology offers so many advantages, it was first employed for Bitcoin transactions. The interaction between blockchain technology and financial industries will grow more personal and interwoven with the introduction of Bitcoin. As the value of blockchain technology became evident, more financial companies began to test its use in monetary operations. Numerous financial companies have been experimenting with blockchain technology to reduce the transactional costs and to improve the efficiency of operations, specifically in the domain of financial notes, cross-border payments, and asset-backed securitisation. Blockchain will have a broad range of applications in the financial industry shortly.

Methodology: Through financial tools and methods, trust may result in successful businesses. In the long term, blockchain technology is generally a significant source of the finance industry revolution. It allows you to create immutable transaction histories available to everyone on the network. A blockchain system consists of a sequence of blocks connected by a connection to the block before each block. Each block comprises more than one transaction representing changes in the ownership of assets on the ledger. A consensus procedure is employed to add new blocks to the existing chain, in which members of the public blockchain confirm that transactions are accurate.

Findings: Blockchain technology is still in its infancy. The challenges of sustainability, privacy, secrecy, and latency, among others, have surfaced. Financial markets must get a deeper grasp of Blockchain to provide trustworthy alternatives.

Significance: The book chapter highlights the architecture, protocols, and applications of Blockchain Technology. The chapter will also enlighten the readers about the challenges and solutions of Blockchain Technology in the Financial Market. Moreover, the chapter also discusses the future research scope of Blockchain Technology in the Financial Market.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the links between knowledge risks, organizational performance and knowledge-intensive firms (KIFs)' sustainability.

A questionnaire was administered with a sample of 427 respondents from Lebanon. The gathered data were analyzed using SEM approach.

The empirical evidence confirms the potential role of knowledge risks in reducing the sustainability of firms. Furthermore, organizational performance was revealed to partially mediate the relationship between knowledge risks and sustainability.

The study's findings inspire managers of KIFs to use effective knowledge management practices to mitigate potential knowledge risks.

Knowledge risks and knowledge risk management are still unexplored in the literature. This paper is a pioneering study that advances the knowledge management field by emphasizing the significance of knowledge risks and their influence on the performance and sustainability of KIFs in Lebanon, a country with a culture distinct from that of Western contexts.

This study aims to assess the following question: “which information processing approach, formalization or centralization, responds to procurement complexity and how does this affect procurement performance in knowledge-intensive procurements?”

This study draws on a survey of 294 Project Managers with recent experience of knowledge-intensive procurement. It uses AMOS version 21 to perform confirmatory factor analysis and structural modeling to assess the hypotheses.

The findings suggest that procurement complexity directly encourages formalization and that formalization has significant, positive effects on procurement performance. Centralization, on the other hand, appears not to respond to procurement complexity and has negligible effects on procurement performance.

Drawing on information processing theory, this study highlights the importance of two information management approaches in knowledge-intensive procurement, and that such procurement situations share similarities with new product development and other innovation-rich, team-based activities. Knowledge-intensive procurement situations, therefore, require different information management practices than other types of procurement.

The findings suggest that procurement complexity directly encourages formalization and that formalization has significant, positive effects on procurement performance. Centralization, on the other hand, appears not to respond to procurement complexity and has negligible effects on procurement performance.

The study is the first to examine information management approaches (formalization and centralization) in knowledge-intensive procurement as responses to project complexity, and as contributors to procurement performance.

Tourism is an area with poor statistical coverage. In most countries, only frequency for the hotel trade are monthly published, while results for self‐catering accommodation, camping etc., as well as for branches of economic activity which are mainly dependent on day visitors, are lacking. No statistics are compiled about demand for special tourist transport, sport/culture/entertainment or gastronomy. Furthermore, there are no data on developments in monetary terms. In some countries and tourist areas, new instruments have therefore been introduced to document tourism developments faster, more comprehensively and taking a broader view. This article is based on a recently concluded study on instruments used in monitoring the tourism market (Schmid 2003). A reporting system was set up using a panel in which businesses in branches of economic activity of relevance to tourism can participate. These businesses report some key indicators each month and can, in return, compare their results anonymously with the average for the corresponding branch. Their data are then used to make projections. In the test phase, monthly physical and monetary indicators were calculated for accommodation, restaurants/catering transport and sport/culture/entertainment. It was proved that a voluntary reporting system can work and provide a positive cost‐benefit ratio for participants. The stock of tourist data can be supplemented and made easily accessible. However, difficulties remain in the holiday home sector. Moreover, the results are approximate projections and not exact, full‐scale surveys.

The purpose of this paper is to study the transformation of some macropollutants including hydrocarbons, surfactants and metals in Milan west sewer basin. The study is part of a wider research (named SWARMNET and proposed by Politecnico di Milano and Metropolitana Milanese S.p.A and has been classified as fundable by the Ministry of Education, University and Research of Italy), aiming at installing a monitoring system for measurement of accidental discharge of pollutants from industrial activities and real-time protection of the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) by avoiding dangerous discharges entering the sewers. Good effluent and waste sludge quality allow safe agricultural reuse of both streams. Other objectives include food safety, lower treatment costs and reduction of pollution of soil, surface and groundwater.

The west basin of Milan sewer network, discharging to San Rocco WWTP was considered. Among 700 industries, 16 have been selected for their specific characteristics and/or high industrial pollution load. A quality model was coupled with a hydraulic model to evaluate the effect of pollutants transport in the network.

Heavy metals, surfactants and hydrocarbons have different behavior from biodegradable domestic sewage and can be modeled as conservative matter conveyed by advection only. Results show that the concentration values of these macropollutants at the inlet of the WWTP are below the Italian standard values with the exception of Cadmium and Mercury. These heavy metals should be considered in the planned sampling campaign.

This study will estimate environmental benefits and both methodology and monitoring techniques can be extended to other cities in Italy and Europe.