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PurposePrivate labels (PLs) have flowed into a wide range of categories and continue to expand especially in the mass channel. This paper aims to investigate the optimal PL sourcing strategy for a retailer and the impact of different sourcing strategies on the interaction between the upstream national brand (NB) manufacturer and the downstream retailer in a dyadic supply chain.Design/methodology/approachThe authors develop a game-theoretic model that allows for vertical differentiation, where a retailer may choose between two types of PL sourcing strategies, i.e. fringe and NB manufacturer sourcing (NBMS). Under fringe manufacturer sourcing, the procurement cost is low but the PL recognition is also low. There exists a group of loyal consumers who only choose the NB. Under NBMS, the procurement cost is high but the loyal consumers may switch between two products. The channel members engage in a three-stage sequential game and the authors analyze the subgame perfect equilibrium by comparing the retailer's best profits in the two subgames, i.e. fringe and NBMS.FindingsThe model shows that the retailer inclines to source from the NB manufacturer if the size of the loyal consumer group is relatively large, which provides a rationale for the existence of NBMS. It is also shown that the NB quality plays a positive role on NBMS. As the NB quality becomes higher, the retailer is more likely to procure the PL from the NB manufacturer instead of the fringe manufacturer. In addition, both channel members can be better off and more consumer surplus is provided by expanding the market under NBMS. Overall, sourcing from the NB manufacturer may improve channel profit, consumer welfare and social welfare.Originality/valueThe research contributes to explaining why the practice of sourcing PLs from NB manufacturers is widely adopted by retailers and can help retailers to make appropriate PL sourcing strategies under various circumstances.

There has been an increasing demand for analytics and research related to cross-cutting and horizontal issues in Canada, such as in the domains of housing, aging and immigration. Very often policy makers and stakeholders are posing a full spectrum of questions around a specific topic, requiring multidisciplinary evidence and data. Statistics Canada has a long history of record linkage. Over the past decade, the number of record linkage projects has increased exponentially. Several established platforms have been developed to facilitate linkage – Canadian Employer and Employer Database which brings together tax and employment records from both employees and employers; the Social Data Linkage Environment created to support linkages at the individuals level across a broad spectrum of social data (health, justice, education, socio-economic); and the Linkable File Environment for business data.
The breadth of our data holdings married with record linkage capabilities allows the creation of data sets that crosses disciplines and areas or research. This presentation will showcase the innovative data integration approaches that Statistics Canada has advanced to meet the inter-disciplinary data needs.
Statistics Canada are pioneering in some innovative linkages across various domains to help answer cross-cutting questions. For example, Longitudinal Administrative Databank linking longitudinal tax records to numerous other data files including tax records of spouses and children in the household, longitudinal Immigration Database linkage key and health records, is used to study economic impact of hospitalization, as well as better understand health outcomes of immigrants by various dimensions including socio-economic status. Other examples include the pilot projects linking Canadian Financial Capability Survey to tax records, to gauge the relationship between financial literacy and annual retirement savings behavior and Intergenerational Income Database being linked to Census to understand socio-economic factors affecting the intergenerational mobility.
Rapid growth in data availability for research also poses new challenges on IM/IT, governance, access, capacity building, etc. As Statistics Canada has moved on a path of modernization, data integration is key to the development of new data sources to fill information gaps as we move forward.

Market manipulation is an illegal practice that enables a person can profit from practices that artificially raise or lower the prices of an instrument in the financial markets. Its prohibition is based on the 2003 Market Abuse Directive in the EU. The current market manipulation regime was broadly considered as a big success except for enforcement and supervisory inconsistencies in the Member States at the initial. A review of the market manipulation regime began at the end of 2007, which became quickly incorporated into the wider EU crisis-era reform program. A number of weaknesses of current regime have been identified, which include regulatory gaps caused by the development of trading venues and financial products, regulatory gaps concerning cross-border and cross-markets manipulation (particular commodity markets), legal uncertainty as a result of various implementation, and inefficient supervision and enforcement. On 12 June 2014, a new regulatory package of market abuse, Market Abuse Regulation and Directive on criminal sanctions for market abuse, has been adopted. And several changes will be made concerning the EU market manipulation regime. A wider scope of the regime and a new prohibition of attempted market manipulation will ensure the prevention of market manipulation at large. The AMPs will be subject to strict scrutiny of ESMA to reduce divergences in implementation. In order to enhance efficiency of supervision and enforcement, powers of national competent authorities will be strengthened, ESMA is imposed more power to settle disagreement between national regulators, and the administrative and criminal sanctioning regimes are both further harmonized. In addition, the protection of fundamental rights is stressed by the new market manipulation regime, and some measures are provided to guarantee its realization. Further, the success EU market manipulation regime could be of significant reference to China, helping China to refine its immature regime.

Issues at the top of global and national policy agendas, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate emergency, and energy and cost of living crises, are illustrating the interconnectivity of the economy, society, and the environment. Moreover, it is clear, that impacts of these issues are not uniformly felt across societies. Greater granularity of information is required to address inequalities. As a result, policy makers are taking a more holistic view of issues to address the interlinkages across domains. This is driving the demand for Statistics Canada to provide statistical insights that address these cross-cutting policy issues and provide more granular information across multiple domains.
Linked data are necessary for understanding the interrelated nature of these issues and the scope of their impact. For example, recent Canadian research based on linked data has shown that COVID-19 led to changes in work arrangements that have implications for public transit use and greenhouse gas emissions. The employer-employee linked administrative data augmented with a further linkage to census data provide opportunities for Canadian researchers to produce multidimensional insights on a portrait of racialized groups and immigrants including refugees' presence in the Canadian economy, their sociodemographic characteristics, and their performance over time relative to other Canadians, particularly post the COVID pandemic.
Rapid growth in data availability for research also poses new challenges ranging from technical issues needed for the feasibility of data linkage to stewardship issues related to governance, access, and oversight. The presentation will also discuss the lessons learned and reflections from the Canadian experiences.