Reflections on the ‘Just Price’ in Times of Crisis (with Reference to Coronavirus … but not only)

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-314
Author(s):  
Emiliano Marchisio
Keyword(s):  
Main Issue ◽  
Private Firms ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Free Markets ◽  
Price Increases ◽  
Price Adjustments ◽  
Systemic Level ◽  
Just Price ◽  
Relative Scarcity ◽  
Level Of Analysis

Abstract The debate about the ‘just price’ has ancient origin and returns forcefully to the scene when, in the event of crises of various kinds, there is a rapid and significant increase in prices of given goods or services. The main issue is whether price increases of such a nature could, or should, be considered illicit and ground the issue of sanctions against the firms increasing prices, thus focusing on a macro-systemic level of analysis. The central part of the article reviews different theories on what a ‘just price’ should be and focuses on the idea that a price is ‘just’ when it functions as an index of relative scarcity in free markets. It is claimed that such a function deserves protection by Italian and EU law. Therefore price adjustments in response to shocks cannot and should not be considered illegal: it is unacceptable to sanction private firms by attributing them the wrong of not having substituted themselves, at their own expense, for the exercise of a public function (that of making sure that price increases do not put at risk solidarity and other constitutional principles).

scholarly journals PRICE INCREASES DURING THE PANDEMIA AND EU COMPETITION LAW

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emiliano Marchisio
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Competition Law ◽  
Private Firms ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
Free Markets ◽  
Price Increases ◽  
Price Adjustments ◽  
Eu Competition Law ◽  
Just Price ◽  
Relative Scarcity

The debate about the “just price” has ancient origin and returns forcefully to the scene when, in the event of crises of various kinds, there is a rapid and significant increase in prices of given goods or services. In this article it is examined the problem of whether price increases of such a nature could, or should, be considered illicit under EU competition law. The central part of the article reviews different theories on what a “just price” should be and focuses on the idea that a price is “just” when it functions as index of relative scarcity in free markets. It is claimed that such a function deserves protection by EU law. Therefore, price adjustments in response to shocks cannot and should not be considered illegal: it is unacceptable to sanction private firms by attributing them the wrong of not having substituted, at their own expense, for the exercise of a public function (that of making sure that price increases do not put at risk solidarity and other constitutional principles).

Rosenau's adaptive behaviour approach – a critique

1981 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Smith
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Systems Analysis ◽  
Political System ◽  
State Level ◽  
The State ◽  
Adaptive Behaviour ◽  
Systemic Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Level Of Analysis

With the widespread usage of systems analysis in political science over the last twenty years it is axiomatic that the problem of adaptation has been a recurring theme in the literature. At the level of the individual political system this concern has been germane to the work of Easton, the structural functionalists and the developmental/modernization writers. In International Politics writing, the problem of adaptation is central to both the applications of systems theory, at whatever level of analysis (for example Kaplan, Rosecrance at the systemic level, and Hanrieder and Modelski at the state level) and the less overtly theoretical works which still emphasize the importance of a state adapting to its environment.

scholarly journals Research on the Impact of the Price Adjustment of Refined Oil on Air Quality: Taking Hebei Province as an Example

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 72
Author(s):  
Ting Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Air Quality ◽  
Hebei Province ◽  
Oil Price ◽  
Price Adjustment ◽  
Chinese Government ◽  
Fuel Quality ◽  
Refined Oil ◽  
Price Increases ◽  
Price Adjustments ◽  
The Impact

With marketization of the refined oil price, the Chinese government still uses price adjustments of refined oil to control air pollution. In this paper, an event study analysis is used to investigate the impact of refined oil price adjustment on air quality of eleven cities in Hebei Province. It is found that the impact of increases in refined oil price is larger than the impact of decreases. This implies an improvement of air quality. And the higher the price increases, the larger the impact is on air quality. Hoverer, refined oil price adjustments are generally not too large, it suggests that suspension of price adjustment of refined oil is not a viable method to improve the air quality. Other policies such as raising vehicle emission standards and fuel quality may be considered.

scholarly journals Patterns and Determinants of Price Changes: Analysing Individual Consumer Prices in Austria

2011 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 336-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabio Rumler ◽  
Alfred Stiglbauer ◽  
Josef Baumgartner
Keyword(s):  
Price Change ◽  
Consumer Price Index ◽  
Probit Model ◽  
Average Frequency ◽  
Price Changes ◽  
Price Increases ◽  
Price Adjustments ◽  
Consumer Prices ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Positive Effect

Abstract We provide empirical evidence on the degree and characteristics of price stickiness in Austria by estimating the average frequency of price changes and the duration of price spells from a large dataset of individual price records collected for the computation of the Austrian consumer price index. The mean (median) duration of price spells in Austria amounts to 14 (11) months, but there is considerable heterogeneity across sectors and products. We find that price increases occur only slightly more often than price decreases. For both directions, the average magnitude of price changes is quite large (11% and 14%, respectively). The introduction of the euro cash in January 2002 led to more frequent but, on average, smaller price adjustments than usual. Estimating the probability of a price change in a panel probit model, we find a small but positive effect of the price spell duration on the incidence of price changes. Furthermore, product-specific inflation, the size and the sign of the last price change and the period of the euro introduction significantly affect the probability of a price change.

scholarly journals Teaching gender within International Relations: Experiences from a Brazilian University Classroom

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vânia Carvalho Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Middle East ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
The World ◽  
Systemic Level ◽  
State Relations ◽  
The University ◽  
Level Of Analysis

In this article I propose to reflect upon my classroom experiences and didactical practices teaching gender and international relations (IR) at the University of Brasília. The empirical examples will be drawn from two undergraduate courses: theory of international relations and international relations of the Middle East. The main issue that I am addressing in this article is the students’resistance to the study of gender within IR. Part of the problem rests within the structure of the mainstream discipline as the latter tends to over focus on the systemic level of analysis, a theoretical abstraction that renders women (and people in general) invisible. Given that IR students typically become our future diplomats and civil servants, training in foreign policy must not be allowed to rest on depersonalised state relations, which will at best deliver unidirectional and simplistic views of the world. To that end, I propose a set of topics, literature and pedagogical practices of how to mainstream gender into a general IR discipline. The main points underlying this proposal are to emotionally engage students by carefully selecting which IR topics to study and to decrease the level of abstraction by utilizing real-life up-to-date case studies and examples.

scholarly journals Neoclassical realism: Realism for the 21st century

2017 ◽  
Vol 69 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 227-246
Author(s):  
Vladimir Trapara
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
International Relations ◽  
21St Century ◽  
Neoclassical Realism ◽  
Unit Level ◽  
Systemic Level ◽  
Classical Realism ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Level Of Analysis

The author deals with neoclassical realism, the approach which emerged within the realist school of thought about international relations during the nineties of the last century. The goal of the paper is to consider the establishment and development of the approach during this decade and later in the 21st century, in order to show that it improved the realist school of thought and thus responded to the challenge that the end of the Cold War posed to it. This improvement consists of an integration of systemic level of analysis, on which neorealism insists, with unit level, from which classical realism and other IR schools of thought start. The author illustrates the application of neoclassical realism on the research of the topics relevant for the 21st century through the examples of several significant titles within the approach, but also citing his own application of the approach.

Essentials of EU Law

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
August Reinisch
Keyword(s):  
Eu Law
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