Analysis of gambier monopoly index in West Sumatra Province

Gambier production in Indonesia comes from smallholder plantations. West Sumatra Province is the leading producer of gambier, with a supply of around 80-90 per cent of the total national gambier production. Based on empirical data, when the selling price of gambier exports increases or fluctuates, the selling price of gambier farmers does not increase as much as the price increase at the level of exporter traders. This condition creates marketing inefficiency. The monopoly index (MPI) is one way to measure marketing efficiency based on the performance of each marketing agency. In this regard, the current business environment is also affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. This study analyzed the monopoly level on the Gambier marketing channel in West Sumatra during the covid 19 pandemic. A survey was conducted in this study. The type of data used in this research is cross-section data. Respondents in this study were gambier farmers, gambier traders, and gambier exporters in Padang City, Lima Puluh Kota, and Pesisir Selatan Regency. The analytical method used in this study is using the Lerner index. Based on the analysis of the monopoly index, it is known that exporters have an enormous monopoly index value compared to other marketing institutions, where the collecting trader has a monopoly index of 4.84, inter-regional traders have 2.09, and exporters have 12.81 MDI. These values showed that exporters dominate gambier marketing in West Sumatra Province. The strong position of exporters in determining prices and marketing gambier is also influenced by cooperation with inter-regional traders (IRT).

From Big Ag to Big Finance: a market network approach to power in agriculture

Critics charge that agriculture has reached an unsustainable level of consolidation and expropriation, as exemplified by the supply-chain breakdown of the COVID-19 pandemic. Simultaneously, advocates suggest the current system serves consumers well by keeping prices low and access to choices high. At the center of this debate rests a disagreement over how to compute market power to identify monopolies and oligopolies. We propose a method to study power across different sectors by using Social Network Analysis (SNA) to analyze key players, the presence of core-periphery structures, and agricultural consolidation. We test our market network approach to power through an analysis of the top ten pork powerhouses. We find that Big Finance is closely tied to Big Ag, and that key players limit the capacity for more peripheral actors, like growers, equipment producers, and regional banks, to engage in the network. We identify system level risk of collapse and suggest pathways for reform.

CAPITALISM AND THE SYSTEM OF PATENT MONOPOLIES WERE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE TO THE TRIPS WAIVER

An interview with Fatima Hassan, a South-African human rights lawyer and founder of the Health Justice Initiative, is presented. Among other things, Hassan discusses how the African continent has positioned itself in the fight for access to vaccines, considering a context of global inequality highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the main challenges to the proposal led by South Africa and India for a temporary patent waiver for COVID technologies such as vaccines and drugs to address health emergencies such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, and the need to highlight the systemic problem of inequality that the pandemic and the protectionism surrounding vaccines have exposed.

Listed public–private enterprises: stock market information, agency costs and productive efficiency outcomes

Purpose>This paper addresses the social value of commercial enterprises that are jointly owned by a government and private sector investors and where the shares are listed on a stock exchange: thus, “listed public–private enterprises” (LPPEs). The theoretical part of the paper addresses how differences in ownership patterns influence the behavior and performance of LPPEs.Design/methodology/approach>We develop a conceptual taxonomy, drawing on the empirical evidence on the behavior and performance of public–private hybrid enterprises and on the application of agency theory to that evidence. The taxonomy discussion predicts how different ownership patterns affect enterprise productive efficiency and the ability of governments to achieve social goals through LPPEs. We review the empirical literature on government enterprise ownership and on the concentration of private share ownership to deduce how these matter for owner and managerial behavior and productive efficiency. We review the literature that considers the informational content that listing of an enterprise's shares on a stock exchange can provide to enterprise owners, managers and other domestic audiences with a policy interest. We employ a social welfare perspective to derive policy implications as to when the LPPE governance structure is most appropriate.Findings>We show how the monitoring and performance weaknesses of state ownership are offset by some private ownership, particularly when combined with listing on a stock exchange. We demonstrate the effects of different governance structures on enterprise productive efficiency. We find that the LPPE structure is particularly appropriate as an alternative to nationalization or to full privatization and regulation of natural monopoly public utilities, and as an alternative to full private ownership and taxation of non-renewable natural resource extractive enterprises.Originality/value>This paper explicitly addresses the question of why and how the combination of government ownership, private investor ownership and listing on an exchange is socially valuable in providing information on productive efficiency to governments.

Tobacco Farming, Addiction, Promotion of Gender Equality, Well-being and Monopoly of the Indian Market

Women's land rights are still suppressed in India because men hold most of the land, and men decide what crops to grow. Tobacco use and farming are both detriments to one's health. It causes cancer, and cancer treatment is unavailable in the majority of India's remote areas. On the other hand, tobacco is grown in remote regions of India, and cancer hospitals are concentrated in major cities. There are eight states in India's north-eastern region, but only one cancer treatment facility in Guwahati, Assam. There is a need for new cancer hospitals in the north-eastern part of the country, where there is just one cancer hospital for eight states. Mindfulness training and tobacco harmful effects awareness education should be integrated into the educational curriculum and community centres. The school curriculum should include more mindfulness and psychoeducation about tobacco's detrimental effects. The pandemic situation in India and elsewhere make any community-based response difficult right now. Some parts of India, such as A&I Island, the North-Eastern region of India, and J&K, lack high-speed internet connectivity;therefore, radio, television, audio CDs, audio files, recorded videos, reading materials, and cell phones may be the best ways to reach out. Internetbased outreach is another option. A non-governmental organisation (NGO) or other organisation would be required to create regional language reading material, audio files, and video files. Given the global pandemic crisis, such programmes must be put in place as soon as possible. A team of specialists, regional language experts, local cultural experts, and volunteers would be needed to achieve these objectives.

Bilingual Special Issue in English and Spanish: Gender, Social Inclusion, and Entrepreneurship: Women's Struggles in the Private and Public Sectors Meeting Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) #5

According to Anker (1997), employment discrimination can cause mismatches between skills and jobs, which affects the efficiency of markets. [...]this special issue contributes to expanding and deepening labour discrimination, specifically in closing gaps in salary and gender segmentation in the labour market that are the leading causes of gender inequity. Evidence from India" by Krishna M * "Entrepreneurial Competencies in Graduate Students from Mexico: A Gender Perspective" by Eduardo R. Díaz * "Social Inclusion, Equality, Leadership, and Diversity, to attain Sustainable Development Goal 5 in Indian Banking Industry" by Surjit Singha and Sivarethinamohan R. * "Diverging women on mommy track to career track" by Sunaina Arora and Dr. Neeraj Kumari * "Tobacco Farming, Addiction, Promotion of Gender Equality, Well-being and monopoly of the Indian Market" by Ranjit Singha and Dr Yogesh Kanna * "An empirical analysis of life satisfaction in adolescent development in high- and middleincome countries" by Amirreza Kazemikhasragh This special issue tries to respond and close gaps in the literature. [...]this special issue presents an unprecedented collaboration of researchers with the common goal of promoting business management and moving towards the economic empowerment of women and eradicating gender segregation in labour markets.

China's Global Monopoly on Rare-Earth Elements

This article delivers a novel economic analysis of US dependence on China for rare-earth elements and sheds lights on how Western nations may exploit "limit pricing" to break China's global monopoly in rare-earth element production and refinement. This analytical framework, supported by a comprehensive literature review, the application of microeconomic and industrial organization concepts, and two case-study scenarios, provides several policy recommendations to address an important foreign policy challenge for the United States.

Transforming China's Industrial Innovation in the New Era*

Chinese high-tech industry is going through a period of profound change. Since 2017, the U.S. government, first under the Trump administration, has waged a trade war against China, using punitive tariffs and export controls to target some of the largest Chinese high-tech companies. The underlying assumption of this U.S. trade policy, which has been maintained by the Biden administration, is that the rise of Chinese high-tech industry is primarily driven by "forced technology transfer," with Chinese government policy using the leverage of China's economic growth to compel foreign companies to transfer advanced technologies to Chinese firms.1 Under this assumption, the U.S. government can contain China's high-tech ambitions by using trade policy to cut off access of leading Chinese firms to advanced technologies developed in the United States. Since 2018, the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has added hundreds of Chinese organizations and individuals to the so-called Entity List, usually on the rationale of restricting them from engaging in activities "contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States. Since late 2020, the Chinese government has organized a concerted campaign to transform the ecosystem for innovation. In November 2020, the regulators began their moves by asking Alibaba, once the poster child of China's booming Internet economy, to cancel the initial public offering (IPO) of its fintech subsidiary Ant Group, citing systematic risks and privacy concerns for its lucrative consumer loans business.6 Since then, the regulators have taken a series of actions, including anti-monopoly investigations, heavy fines, and new privacy regulations, to rein in the country's large Internet platform companies, such as Alibaba, Tencent, Didi, and Meituan, from abusing their technology and market positions to exploit consumers and workers.

THE BRIGHT SIDE OF THE COVID WAR

Przedmiot badań: Efekty pandemii COVID-19 są porównywalne do średnich rozmiarów wojny światowej z dwoma milionami ofiar i milionami bezrobotnych. Szok pandemii nieuchronnie prowadzi do radykalnych rozwiązań w zakresie biotechnologii, która odnotowała ogromne postępy w ciągu 6-8 miesięcy zamiast 5 lat. W ciągu ostatnich 20 lat, pomimo spektakularnych innowacji, kraje wysoko rozwinięte nie zmieniły zasadniczo sposobów produkcji i świadczenia usług, a zamiast tego stworzyły niezwykle bogate międzynarodowe monopole. Cel badawczy: Głównym celem badawczym jest wyciągnięcie wniosków z pandemii Covid-19 w zakresie jej wpływu na gospodarkę światową. Analizujemy różne, raczej pozytywne aspekty postpandemicznej rzeczywistości, zwłaszcza w odniesieniu do przyspieszonego postępu technicznego i innowacji powodowanych przez kryzys społeczno-gospodarczy, bezrobocie i ogromne straty istnień ludzkich w trakcie pandemii. Metoda badawcza: Zastosowano metodę syntezy wielu wiarygodnych źródeł statystycznych. Dokonano interdyscyplinarnej analizy z punktu widzenia makroekonomii, nauk politycznych i socjologii. Wyniki: Dzisiaj stagnacja w zakresie wzrostu wydajności lat 2000. powoli dobiega końca. Jesteśmy świadkami narodzin wielkich wynalazków w dziedzinie zwalczania chorób, "produkcji" mięsa, taksówek bez kierowcy, algorytmów sztucznej inteligencji (AI), drastycznych spadków cen wytwarzania odnawialnej energii. Innymi słowy, w czasie mrocznych dni pandemii Covid-19 na horyzoncie widzimy wielkie odkrycia prowadzące do szybkiego społecznego i gospodarczego rozwoju. Stagnacja wydajności pracy w latach 2000. zbliża się do końca. Pfizer i Moderna opracowały szczepionki przeciw Covid-19 w ciągu kilku miesięcy zamiast wielu lat.Alternate :Background: The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic are comparable to a medium-size war with 2 million victims and hundreds of millions of people unemployed. The shock of the pandemic has inevitably led to radical solutions, e.g., biotechnology advances occurred in 6-8 months instead of 5 years or more. During the last 20 years, in spite of spectacular innovations, developed countries did not really change how they offer services and produce goods;rather, they created extremely rich multinational monopolies. Research purpose: The main purpose is to look at the post-Covid-19 world economy. We discuss rather positively different aspects of the post-pandemic reality, especially the accelerated technological progress and innovations pushed by the social and economic crisis, unemployment, and the huge losses of human lives during the pandemic. Pfizer and Moderna have developed a Covid-19 vaccine in months instead of years. Methods: An academic synthesis of the multitude of reliable data sources. A multidisciplinary overview from the point of view of macroeconomics, political science, and sociology. Conclusions: We are witnessing the birth of great innovations to treat diseases and to "grow" meat. There are driverless taxis, the best AI natural language algorithm to date, and a significant drop in the prices of renewable energy. In other words, in the dark days of Covid-19, we can see on the horizon a new era of great discoveries leading to faster economic and social development.

Wielding power in multiparty negotiations: the impact of communication medium and assertiveness

PurposeThe medium negotiators choose for communication will influence both process and outcome. To understand how medium influences power expression, this paper aims to compare value claiming by asymmetrically powerful negotiators, using face-to-face and computer-mediated messaging across two studies. Following up on long-standing conjectures from prominent coalition researchers, the authors also directly tested the role of the apex negotiator's personality in coalition formation and value expropriation.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted two laboratory experiments which manipulated communication medium (computer-mediated vs face-to-face) in three- and four-person bargaining. They also varied asymmetry of power so the apex negotiator either could not be left out of a winning coalition (Study 1) or could be (Study 2). The authors measured trait assertiveness along with multiple indicators of hard bargaining behavior.FindingsCommunicating using instant messages via a computer interface facilitated value claiming for powerful negotiators across both studies. Trait assertiveness correlated with hard bargaining behavior in both studies. An index of hard bargaining behavior mediated the effect of assertiveness on value expropriation but only in the context where the powerful negotiator held a genuine monopoly over coalitions.Originality/valueThe authors contribute to the literature on multiparty negotiations by demonstrating persistent media effects on power utilization and by finally confirming the conjectures of prominent coalition researchers regarding personality. Though personality traits generate consistent effects on behavior, their influence on negotiation outcomes depends on the power structure. Negotiation theory needs to incorporate structural and situational factors in modelling effects of enduring traits. Negotiation research should move beyond a rigid focus on dyads.