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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.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate magneto-mechanical coupling occurring in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems. The authors study influence of the strength of the background field on the coupling of mechanically isolated, conductive cylindrical structures and the so-called shields. This coupling has a strong impact on frequency-dependent thermal losses occurring in the shield structures which are of high importance in MRI systems.

In the investigations, numerical methods are applied. First, finite element methods taking into account the full magneto-mechanical coupling are used to investigate the coupled physical phenomena. As these calculations may be time-consuming, several approximate predictive methods are derived. Modal expansion factors and participation factors are based on combinations of structural eigenmode calculations and eddy current calculations using Biot–Savart representations of the dynamic gradient field. In addition, a parallelism factor expressed in terms of the shield vibrations is defined to measure the coupling between the distinct cylinders.

It is found that the strength of the background field strongly influences the coupling of the distinct shields, which strongly increases the parallelism of the shield vibrations. Furthermore, modal expansion and participation factors are significantly influenced, caused by frequency shifts due to magnetic stiffening and increased magnetic coupling.

The current work is limited to the modal expansions of a single shield. This needs to be extended in the future as comparison of modal expansion factors and finite element simulation indicate.

The defined factors estimating parallelism and modal participation in magneto-mechanical coupling are original work and studied for the first time.

A new method for the numerical computation of the dynamic behaviour of electro‐dynamic loudspeakers is presented. The numerical scheme, based on the finite element method (FEM), allows the simulation of coupled magnetic, mechanical and acoustic fields. The obtained simulation results are in good agreement with measured data.

In this paper, an efficient magnetomechanical calculation scheme based on the finite element method is presented. This scheme is used for the precise forecast of the dynamical behavior of a clinical magnetic resonance imaging scanner. The validity of the computer simulations has been verified by means of appropriate measurements. Application examples include the optimization of the superconducting magnet regarding the eddy currents and vibrations in its cryostat.

A recently developed calculation scheme for the numerical computation of the load‐controlled acoustic noise of power transformers is presented. This modeling scheme allows the precise and efficient computation of the coupled electromagnetic, mechanical and acoustic fields. The equations are solved using the finite element method (FEM) as well as the boundary element method (BEM), resulting in a separation of the acoustic‐magnetomechanical calculation of the winding vibrations resp. the acoustic‐mechanical computation of the tank vibrations (using FEM) and the calculation of the acoustic free‐field radiation (using BEM). The validity of the computer simulations has been verified by means of appropriate measurements. Simulated and measured values for winding and tank surface vibrations as well as the sound power level of the loaded transformer are found to be in good agreement.

This paper surveys published economic studies and judicial decisions that contain 1,040 quantitative estimates of overcharges of hard-core cartels. The primary finding is that the median long-run overcharge for all types of cartels over all time periods is 25.0%:18.8% for domestic cartels and 31.0% for international cartels. Cartel overcharges are positively skewed, pushing the mean overcharge for all successful cartels to 43.4%. Convicted cartels are on average as equally effective at raising prices as unpunished cartels, but bid-rigging conduct does display somewhat lower mark-ups than price-fixing cartels. These findings suggest that optimal deterrence requires that monetary penalties ought to be increased.

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.

The focus of this paper is on the efficient numerical computation of 3D electromagnetic field problems by using the finite element (FE) and multigrid (MG) methods. The magnetic vector potential is used as the field variable and the discretization is performed by Lagrange (nodal) as well as Ne´de´lec (edge) finite elements. The resulting system of equations is solved by applying a preconditioned conjugate gradient (PCG) method with an adapted algebraic multigrid (AMG) as well as an appropriate geometric MG preconditioner.

Die Ausführung der Verträge über den Gemeinsamen Markt wird für alle Wirtschaftsbereiche in den beteiligten sechs Ländern von erheblicher Bedeutung sein. Diese Feststellung scheint zu einem Zeitpunkt, in dem die EWG bereits Realität geworden ist, und angesichts der Tatsache, dass in fast allen Branchen schon Vorkehrungen zur Anpassung an die neue Markt‐situation getroffen wurden, ohne weiteres gerechtfertigt zu sein.