Welfare aspects of industrial markets

The present volume of essays on industrial organization, which are based on conferences held at Nijenrode and Brussels, differs considerably from its predecessor. Even more than in the first volume the essays demonstrate the broad scope of industrial organization analysis. Besides the traditional topics such as economies of scale, monopoly and competition policy, there are essays on methodology, on stagflation, and on the relationship between industrial struc­ ture and international trade and trade policies. The latter topics are of growing importance. The issue of restructuring industries and the question of whether free trade or some measure of protection is more appropriate are topics of increasing relevance today (and will no doubt continue to be in future years as well). The problem of persistent inflation which other essays address is also of major concern. Apart from being broad in scope and venturing into new fields, this volume is also controversial. Its central feature is a debate about welfare aspects. Here, more than in pure analysis, economists tend to entertain different points of view. One of the participants in the Nijenrode conference, Professor John Blair, who died in December 1976 and whom we honour as having been an active promoter of this kind of meeting, wrote to the editors shortly before his death to say that the first volume had succeeded very well in acquainting the reader with the results of empirical investigations, notably on trends and levels of concentration.

Contenu

One Theoretical and Statistical Questions in Industrial Organization.- I. Theory comes to industrial organization.- 1. Introduction.- 2. The role theory has played in industrial organization.- 3. Uncertainty and interpretation of evidence in industrial organization.- 4. Certainty through uncertainty.- 5. Coherent theory for industrial organization.- II. The dominant firm in relation to market structure.- 1. The firm and its setting.- 2. Several implications.- 3. Conclusion.- III. The ownership and control of industry.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Previous studies.- 3. A critique of the conventional view.- 4. Recent studies.- 5. Ownership and control of the 'Top 250' UK firms.- 6. The stages of corporate control.- 7. The behaviour consequences of types of control.- 8. Historical case-studies.- 9. Conclusion.- Two Stagflation and Industrial Structure.- IV. Inflation and competition.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Relating monopolization to inflation.- 3. Price rigidity and inflation.- 4. Price rigidity and competition.- 5. Price fluctuation and stability of relative prices.- 6. The phenomenon of specialization or division of labour.- 7. Specialization and risk.- 8. Ruinous competition.- 9. Price competition.- 10. Vertical integration.- 11. Price flexibility and anti-inflationary policies.- 12. Conclusion.- V. Oligopoly and inflation.- 1. Introduction.- 2. A theoretical approach.- 3. Applying the analysis to present-day reality.- VI. Stagflation problems in a workers' self-management socialist economy: the Yugoslav case.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Decisions on employment problems.- 3. Policies to promote growth and employment.- 4. Conclusion.- Three The International Economy and Industrial Organization.- VII. International trade and industrial organization: some statistical evidence.- 1. Trade structure and industrial structure in the USA.- 2. Trade and market power in the UK.- 3. Summary and conclusions.- VIII. Large industrial firms of the Atlantic community: production methods, asset finance, profitability, and growth.- 1. Introduction.- 2. The data.- 3. Statistical results.- 4. Implications.- 5. Conclusion.- IX. Import quotas and industrial performance.- 1. Some representative US import quotas.- 2. The political economy of protectionism: a case study of steel.- 3. Imports, injury and relief: the question of standards.- 4. Import quotas and industry performance.- 5. Conclusion.- X. UK industry and the world economy: a case of de-industrialization?.- 1. The phenomenon known as 'de-industrialization'.- 2. The effects of foreign competition on domestic manufacturing industry.- 3. Ways in which participation in the international economy could lead to deindustrialization.- 4. The de-industrialization of the UK economy.- 5. The nature and extent of the decline in UK manufacturing industry.- 6. Trends in the UK's price competitiveness and trading position.- 7. Implications of the above analysis.- Four Monopoly and Economies of Scale.- XI. Monopoly welfare gains and the costs of decentralization.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Literature review.- 3. Williamson's trade-off approach.- 4. The importance of economies of scale.- 5. Empirical estimates of economies of scale.- 6. The model.- 7. Numerical computations and results.- 8. Some further empirical observations.- 9. Qualifications and conclusions.- XII. Economies as an antitrust defense revisited.- 1. Operationality.- 2. Tradeoff analysis.- 3. Monopoly rent transformation.- 4. Transactional efficiencies.- 5. Public policy.- 6. Conclusions.- XIII. Economies of scale, industrial structure and efficiency: the brewing industry in nine nations.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Structure comparisons.- 3. Economies of scale.- 4. Scale economies and technical efficiency.- 5. Scale economies and competition.- 6. Summary.- XIV. Economies of scale and technological change: an international comparison of blast furnace technology.- 1. Introduction.- 2. The blast furnace process.- 3. An international comparison of the development of average practice in blast furnaces 1950-1973.- 4. Cost implications of differences in raw material input requirements.- 5. Calculation of total cost differences.- 6. Some conclusions.- Five Industrial Policies.- XV. An investigation into the effectiveness of a capital market sanction on poor performance.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Capital market discipline.- 3. Data and method of assessment.- 4. Profitability and survival ability of firms.- 5. Difficulty of recognizing survival potential in low performance firms.- 6. Examining propositions on takeover and bankruptcy.- 7. First conclusions.- 8. Implications of ownership and of firms in declining industries.- 9. Implications of this examination of poorly performing firms.- XVI. The abolition of cartels and structural change in the United Kingdom.- 1. The post-war legislation.- 2. Implementation 1948-1956.- 3. Conclusions on cartel investigations.- 4. The Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1956.- 5. Action on agreements.- 6. The effects of abandonment.- 7. The present study.- 8. Regression results.- 9. Conclusion.- XVII. The regulation and control of public utility prices: British experience 1960-1975.- 1. Developments in normative price theory.- 2. Policy framework for the nationalized industries in Britain.- 3. Management of the economy via the nationalized industries.- 4. Conclusions.- XVIII. French antitrust legislation: an exercise in futility.- 1. Prohibited agreements.- 2. Exemptions.- 3. The Commission's recommendations.- 4. Overall appraisal of the current system and policy implications.- Index/.