Commodity futures markets are often thought of as good examples of perfectly competitive markets. However, there are many commodities that are produced in concentrated industries and traded on large commodity exchanges. Nickel, aluminum, lead, zinc, tin, oil, and coffee are some examples. This thesis examines the effects of concentrated production on output and prices in these markets. The analysis includes the possibility that firms can trade futures contracts for their output and also store their output. A dynamic model is developed that examines how a duopoly could use futures trading and storage strategically to affect outcomes in subsequent periods. I examine futures trading for a perishable good and storage with no futures trading separately in order to highlight the potential stategic use of these activities on their own. I also analyse a model in which both futures trading and storage are allowed. I show that both futures positions and storage would be used strategically by the duopolists, in contrast to the results of previous work that used two-period models only. By allowing for uncertainty in the form of demand and cost shocks, the solution to the model can be used to provide some implications for correlations among industry level variables. These correlations are examined for the world lead, zinc, and copper industries. Weak support for the model is found, however, estimation of the vector auotregression implied by the model suggests the model in its present form is unable to fit the data very well.

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The Japanese vegetable market is characterized by a general tendency towards the concentration of production by region. Amongst all vegetables, potato production has the highest level of concentration. Eighty-six percent of the total market quantity is accounted for by Hokkaido, the largest production prefecture amongst the 47 prefectures in Japan. The Herfindahl Index for prefectures in the Japanese potato market was 0.74 in 1994, indicating that the fewness of producers was equivalent to a market where total output was shared equally by only 1.35 producers. Under this highly concentrated situation, existence of monopolistic power, or more generally, oligopolistic power, of the large scale producers can be suspected. / In this thesis, the level of competition in the Japanese Potato market was evaluated employing conjectural variations analysis based on a monthly data for 1989 to 1995 to reveal the nature of the market. Four wholesale markets, in four large consumption areas, and eight production areas in differ ent geographical locations in were analyzed. / The conclusion from the results of the empirical analysis is that, despite the high level of concentration in production, all producing regions including the dominant producer, Hokkaido, seem to have behaved competitively. / One implication for the competitive behavior of these large producers is the imperative to maintain their share in the market against potential competitors, resulting in price setting close to the marginal cost.

Arbitrating of competition law claims has generated a substantial tension between the policies served by promoting international arbitration and those protected by the national competition law. Despite the legal tension and unpredictability associated with arbitrating competition law issues, the arbitrator should, in principle, resolve such issues. This study analyses the main concerns when arbitrating competition law issues, such as jurisdiction, choice of law and, in particular, the position of national jurisdiction regarding the enforcement of the award conflicting national competition law. / This study proposes the functional approach to choice of law problems according to which the arbitrator will decide on the applicable competition law bearing in mind the content of mandatory norm, its connection with a dispute and the consequences of its application and non-application. In that regard, this thesis will examine how an arbitrator should address the extraterritorial effect of the competition law. The study will suggest that if the competition law policies of states connected with a dispute serve opposing and conflicting goals, the arbitrator should, in order to preserve his/her neutral function refuse to decide whose competition policy is "better" and should consequently decline jurisdiction.

Heterothallic, facultatively sexual populations are vulnerable to the loss of a mating type by natural selection during periods of asexual reproduction. Experiments are described which demonstrate a competitive difference between the mating types of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a unicellular green alga with two isogamous mating types, mt + and mt $-.$ When grown vegetatively under phototrophic (light) conditions, mt + outcompetes mt $-.$ Assays of the growth parameters of isolated spores suggest that mt + has a higher growth rate than mt $-$ in the light, and that mt $-$ has a higher growth rate than mt + in heterotrophic (dark) growth conditions. / A literature review shows that sampling from natural populations of heterothallic, facultatively sexual species often yields only one mating type or significantly skewed mating-type distributions. This indicates that competition between mating types and the consequent loss of one mating type may be common in these populations. / A discussion of current theories on the evolution of heterothallism as well as the results of a simulation model reveal that heterothallism will spread if any fitness reduction is suffered by in-crossing homothallic individuals. However, fitness differences between the heterothallic alleles allow the invasion of a homothallic allele into a heterothallic population. / The implications of mating type competition on the maintenance and distribution of heterothallic populations in nature are discussed. It is argued that heterothallic, facultatively sexual populations commonly lose the potential for sex because of the loss of one mating-type allele. The prediction is made that homothallism is more common among facultatively sexual organisms than it is among obligately sexual organisms.

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China does not comply with its WTO obligations except in principle and experiences the problem that the incumbent carrier may use technical and commercial mechanisms to maintain market dominance. This is possible because of weaknesses in the Chinese interconnection regulations and difficulties in the application of Chinese anti-competition law to interconnection. The thesis aims to provide a model for interconnection that may be used to deal with the present market dominance in the Chinese interconnection service market. In order to achieve this aim, the thesis identifies the weaknesses in the Chinese interconnection regulations which may be utilized by the incumbent carrier to impede fair competition in the interconnection service market by comparing the Chinese regulations, and the relevant regulations in the WTO Reference Paper and the relevant U.S. interconnection regulations. On the other hand, the thesis also assesses the application of Chinese anti-competition law to interconnection. Consequently the thesis consists of two main parts. Part I includes chapter two, three, four and five. This part focuses on identifying the disadvantages in the present interconnection principles in force in China, technical conditions of interconnection and interconnection charges, and sets out the remedies that will be useful in preventing the incumbent carrier from using technical and commercial mechanisms to maintain market dominance. Part II covers chapter six and seven. This part focuses on the application of Chinese anti-competition law to interconnection, and provides a way to fine-tune the possible disputes rose in interconnection from the perspective of Chinese Anti-monopoly Law.

Confronted with an increasing diversity of social and global challenges, innovation competitions become an increasingly important tool to spur innovation amongst entrepreneurs. Based on a case study on three finalists of the Wendy Schmidt Oil Clean-Up XChallenge, this thesis aims to investigate what factors motivate entrepreneurs to take part in an innovation competition. Due to the fact that four years after the closure of the challenge nine out of ten finalists were still actively in the oil clean-up business, the authors further investigate on what the main motivational factors for continuing business after participation in an innovation competition are. Data was collected via in-depth interviews and analysed by applying the model of entrepreneurial motivation by Naffiziger, Hornsby and Kuratko (1994) as well as Gimeno, Folta, Cooper and Woo’s (1997) threshold model. Further, the authors conducted a case study on the finalists of the Wendy Schmidt Oil Clean-Up XChallenge, which was an innovation competition, initiated by the XPrize Foundation in 2010. The competition was a reaction to the BP oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010 and aimed for finding better and more efficient oil clean-up solutions. Ten finalists were selected to test their inventions at one of the world’s largest testing facilities for oil spill clean-up technology. The findings suggest that the motivators for participation in an innovation competition include a desire for increased publicity and reputation, as well as the opportunity to test the technology. It was also found that factors such as the goal of the organisation and the perception of one’s product and business idea play key roles in the decision to participate in an innovation competition. Furthermore, the research shows that the business environment and a need for achievement influence the decision to partake. With regards to the motivational factors that encourage sustained entrepreneurship after participating in an innovation competition, it was found that the correlation between expectations, both regarding the outcome and the implementation process, upon entering the competition and the actual outcome, does not have a large impact upon whether operations are continued after the innovation competition has ended. Instead, it was found that the main motives for continuing operations are a strong psychic attachment to the business, as well as high costs of switching to another area of commerce.

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