Modigliani's and Sylos Labini's Contributions to Oligopoly Theory
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GEORGE J. STIGLER Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, 1101 East 58Th Street, Chicago, Ill
THE PROCESS AND PROGRESS OF ECONOMICS Nobel Memorial Lecture, 8 December, 1982 by GEORGE J. STIGLER Graduate School of Business, University of Chicago, 1101 East 58th Street, Chicago, Ill. 60637, USA In the work on the economics of information which I began twenty some years ago, I started with an example: how does one find the seller of automobiles who is offering a given model at the lowest price? Does it pay to search more, the more frequently one purchases an automobile, and does it ever pay to search out a large number of potential sellers? The study of the search for trading partners and prices and qualities has now been deepened and widened by the work of scores of skilled economic theorists. I propose on this occasion to address the same kinds of questions to an entirely different market: the market for new ideas in economic science. Most economists enter this market in new ideas, let me emphasize, in order to obtain ideas and methods for the applications they are making of economics to the thousand problems with which they are occupied: these economists are not the suppliers of new ideas but only demanders. Their problem is comparable to that of the automobile buyer: to find a reliable vehicle. Indeed, they usually end up by buying a used, and therefore tested, idea. Those economists who seek to engage in research on the new ideas of the science - to refute or confirm or develop or displace them - are in a sense both buyers and sellers of new ideas. They seek to develop new ideas and persuade the science to accept them, but they also are following clues and promises and explorations in the current or preceding ideas of the science. -
Antitrust: Discussion of Ideas Among Legislators and Who Has to Follow the Law
1 ANTITRUST: DISCUSSION OF IDEAS AMONG LEGISLATORS AND WHO HAS TO FOLLOW THE LAW XVIe colloque Charles Gide. 14-16 abril 2016 Strasbourg, France Author: Ana Rosado. Complutense University of Madrid, Spain [email protected] Abstract The internalization of market transactions was the strategy of the majority of American companies at the end of the nineteenth century in order to increase the productivity and to reduce costs. Until 1880 the biggest American firms internalized suppliers and since 1890 included distribution, at the same time, the entrepreneurs amassed impressive fortunes. As a result the problem of trust became a moral issue, supported by the fact that society wealth has been transferred from customers to richest men. In this context a few debates took place among the American economists: first, a theoretical debate referred to prevention of monopolization of industry; second debate about the convenience of reform of the institutions and the origins of the FTC, and finally the control of economy by states. In this paper we tried to shade light about the economic arguments for and against to restrain the power of big American companies. Keywords: Antitrust, American History of Economic Thought, Markets Imperfections, Competition and Law. JEL code: B-21; K-21; D-43 2 I. INTRODUCTION At the end of the XIX century American firms shaped their structure into multidivisional companies and some of them became trusts. Many authors began to be worried about the size that these companies had reached; one of these authors was John Bates Clark. Indeed, he gave his name to the prelude price for the Nobel Prize for Economics. -
Paolo Sylos Labini, 1920-2005
Revue d'économie industrielle 118 | 2e trimestre 2007 Paolo Sylos Labini Paolo Sylos Labini, 1920-2005 Alessandro Roncaglia Édition électronique URL : http://journals.openedition.org/rei/1313 DOI : 10.4000/rei.1313 ISSN : 1773-0198 Éditeur De Boeck Supérieur Édition imprimée Date de publication : 15 juin 2007 Pagination : 9-28 ISSN : 0154-3229 Référence électronique Alessandro Roncaglia, « Paolo Sylos Labini, 1920-2005 », Revue d'économie industrielle [En ligne], 118 | 2e trimestre 2007, mis en ligne le 15 juillet 2009, consulté le 30 avril 2019. URL : http:// journals.openedition.org/rei/1313 ; DOI : 10.4000/rei.1313 © Revue d’économie industrielle Alessandro RONCAGLIA (*) PAOLO SYLOS LABINI, 1920-2005 (1) Mots-clés: Biographie, oligopole, formes de marché, politique économique, dynamique économique, histoire de la pensée économique. Key words: Biography, Oligopoly, Market Forms, Economic Policy, Economic Dynamics, History of Economic Thought. « conomists around the world, from Cambridge to Cambridge and Osaka to Omaha, admire you for a lifetime of Schumpeterian innova- Etion, Keynesian brilliance, Ricardian rigor, and Smithian realism ». Lorsque Paul Samuelson écrivit cette phrase dans son message destiné aux participants à la présentation du recueil d’essais offerts à Paolo Sylos Labini le jour de son soixante-dixième anniversaire (2), il entendait souligner l’estime dont jouissait hors de son pays et parmi ses collègues universitaires le grand économiste italien disparu le 7 décembre 2005. En Italie, Sylos Labini n’était pas seulement le maître reconnu de générations successives d’économistes; il était aussi un homme public universellement estimé – et redouté – pour la rigueur morale et le souci du concret qui caractérisaient ses interventions dans le débat politique. -
Paolo Sylos Labini As a Historian of Economics
Pier Luigi PORTA University of Milano-Bicocca PAOLO SYLOS LABINI AS A HISTORIAN OF ECONOMICS Mots-clés : Histoire de la pensée économique, dynamique économique, économie classique Key words : History of Economic Thought, Economic Dynamics, Classical Economics aolo Sylos Labini was not a historian of economic thought in the proper sense. However it is well-known that he belonged to a generation of P Italian economists who continued to consider a serious study of the his - tory of the discipline as an important part of their research work as economists. In this paper, I propose to bring out the special characters of Paolo Sylos Labini’s experience concerning his work on the history of the discipline. In doing this I shall draw from my own reading of some of his works and from a number of personal contacts and discussions I had with him during the last twenty-five years of his life. PAOLO SYLOS LABINI : A SCHUMPETERIAN SCHOLAR Schumpeter, probably the greatest theorist of economic dynamics and the greatest historian of economics in the XX th century, has enjoyed immense popularity in Italy. Paolo Sylos Labini’s own indebtment to Schumpeter is generally well-known and his experience is full of interest (see Sylos Labini, 1994b). It should be put in context however, as it is not an isolated case in the Italian experience. My first occasion of a personal contact with Paolo Sylos Labini came twenty- five years ago, in 1982, when I ventured to launch the idea of a Conference cele - brating the hundredth anniversary of Schumpeter’s birth. -
From BNL-QR to PSL-QR: the History (1947-2007) and Prospects of a Journal
PSL Quarterly Review, vol. 61 nn.. 244-247 (2008), 3-32 From BNL-QR to PSL-QR: the history (1947-2007) and prospects of a journal ALESSANDRO RONCAGLIA1 1. A new start This special issue opens a new stage in the history of our journal. While undergoing internal restructuring, the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNP-Paribas Group) agreed to transfer ownership of the journal and its Italian counterpart, Moneta e Credito, to the Associazione Paolo Sylos Labini, while retaining a connection through sponsorship. This understandably implies a change in the name of the journal, from BNL Quarterly Review to PSL Quarterly Review. Thanks to these choices on the part of Banca Nazionale del Lavoro and the Associazione Paolo Sylos Labini it is possible to keep two journals with a long and prestigious history alive, while maintaining intact their orientation towards scientific research and debate in the field of economic theory and policy, with specific but not exclusive attention to monetary and financial issues and with no preconceived choice of field among the different schools of thought. As in the past, selection of articles submitted for publication will take place through the anonymous refereeing system. And as in the past, too, the two journals will retain wide margins of reciprocal independence, with – at least for the moment – sections of book reviews and annotated book listing in Moneta e Credito only, and simultaneous publication in English and Italian only for a few articles. As a guarantee of continuity, the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro requested, and the Associazione Sylos Labini gladly accepted, confirmation of the editor, who has been a student of Paolo Sylos Labini and among the founders of the Associazione; moreover, the Associazione 1 Department of Social, Economic, Actuarial and Demographic Studies, Sapienza Università di Roma, and Associazione Paolo Sylos Labini. -
United States Competition Policy in Crisis: 1890-1955 Herbert Hovenkamp
University of Minnesota Law School Scholarship Repository Minnesota Law Review 2009 United States Competition Policy in Crisis: 1890-1955 Herbert Hovenkamp Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Hovenkamp, Herbert, "United States Competition Policy in Crisis: 1890-1955" (2009). Minnesota Law Review. 483. https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlr/483 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Minnesota Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Minnesota Law Review collection by an authorized administrator of the Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Article United States Competition Policy in Crisis: 1890-1955 Herbert Hovenkampt INTRODUCTION: HISTORICAL EXPLANATION AND THE MARGINALIST REVOLUTION The history of legal policy toward the economy in the United States has emphasized interest group clashes that led to regula- tory legislation.' This is also true of the history of competition policy. 2 Many historians see regulatory history as little more than a political process in which well-organized, dominant interest groups obtain political advantage and protect their particular in- dustry from competition, typically at the expense of consumers.3 t Ben V. & Dorothy Willie Professor, University of Iowa College of Law. Thanks to Christina Bohannan for commenting on a draft. Copyright 0 2009 by Herbert Hovenkamp. 1. See, e.g., WILLIAM J. NOVAK, THE PEOPLE'S WELFARE: LAW AND REGULA- TION IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA 83-84 (1996); THE REGULATED ECONO- MY: A HISTORICAL APPROACH TO POLITICAL ECONOMY 12-22 (Claudia Goldin & Gary D. -
Microfilmed 1996 Information to Users
UMI MICROFILMED 1996 INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note wilt indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Bach original is also photographed in one exposure and is included in reduced form at the back of the book. Photographs included in the original manuscript have been reproduced xerographically in this copy. Higher quality 6" x 9" black and white photographic prints are available for any photographs or illustrations appearing in this copy for an additional charge. Contact UMI directly to order. UMI A Bell & Howell Information Company 300 North Zed> Road, Ann Aibor MI 48106-1346 USA 313/761-4700 800/321-0600 LESSONS FOR THE DESIGN OF INTERCONNECTION PRICING POLICY IN THE TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY: A POLICY LEARNING APPROACH DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Hyon Kun Kwok, B.A., M.P.A. -
“On a Level with Dentists”? Reflections on the Evolution of Industrial Organization
"On a Level with Dentists?" Reflections on the Evolution of Industrial Organization The MIT Faculty has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters. Citation Schmalensee, Richard. “‘On a Level with Dentists?’ Reflections on the Evolution of Industrial Organization.” Review of Industrial Organization 41.3 (2012): 157–179. As Published http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1007/s11151-012-9356-6 Publisher Springer-Verlag Version Author's final manuscript Citable link http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/75827 Terms of Use Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Detailed Terms http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ June 2012 “On a level with dentists”? Reflections on the Evolution of Industrial Organization Richard Schmalensee∗ Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1. Introduction In 1930, writing about “Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren,” Keynes (1930, p. 373) opined that “If economists could manage to get themselves thought of as humble, competent people on a level with dentists, that would be splendid!” In this essay I offer some observations on the evolution of industrial organization economics and consider at the end whether its practitioners have come to deserve to pass Keynes’ test. I use the word “evolution” rather than “progress” or “development” deliberately. Just as predator and prey evolve together in natural systems, and evolution there is about adaptation, not species-by-species improvement, so problems addressed and tools employed evolve together in intellectual fields. In fields of economics, methods of analysis are shaped over time both by developments in related fields – mutations, if you will – and in response to the changing problems with which the field is concerned. -
Why Law, Economics, and Organization?
29 Sep 2005 19:13 AR AR258-LS01-16.tex XMLPublishSM(2004/02/24) P1: KUV 10.1146/annurev.lawsocsci.1.031805.111122 Annu. Rev. Law Soc. Sci. 2005. 1:369–96 doi: 10.1146/annurev.lawsocsci.1.031805.111122 Copyright c 2005 by Annual Reviews. All rights reserved First published online as a Review in Advance on August 19, 2005 WHY LAW,ECONOMICS, AND ORGANIZATION? Oliver E. Williamson Walter A. Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720; email: [email protected] KeyWords governance, transaction costs, law school teaching ■ Abstract This review shows that a combined law, economics, and organization theory approach leads to different and deeper understandings of the purposes served by complex contract and economic organization. The business firm for these purposes is described not in technological terms (as a production function) but in organizational terms (as an alternative mode of governance). Firm and market are thus examined comparatively with respect to their capacities to organize transactions, which differ in their complexity, so as to economize on transaction costs. The predictive theory of economic organization that results has numerous ramifications for public policy toward business and for teaching and research in the law schools. INTRODUCTION Whereas law and economics began as the application of economic reasoning to antitrust and regulation, it has since been expanded to bring economic analysis to bear (in varying degree) on every facet of the law school curriculum. Occasional dissents notwithstanding, law and economics is widely regarded as a success story. I concur with this favorable assessment but would observe that economic anal- ysis comes in more than one flavor. -
A Century of Economic and Legal Thinking
Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 14, Number 1—Winter 2000—Pages 43–60 Antitrust Policy: A Century of Economic and Legal Thinking William E. Kovacic and Carl Shapiro assage of the Sherman Act in the United States in 1890 set the stage for a century of jurisprudence regarding monopoly, cartels, and oligopoly. P Among American statutes that regulate commerce, the Sherman Act is unequaled in its generality. The Act outlawed “every contract, combination or conspiracy in restraint of trade” and “monopolization” and treated violations as crimes. By these open-ended commands, Congress gave federal judges extraordi- nary power to draw lines between acceptable cooperation and illegal collusion, between vigorous competition and unlawful monopolization. By enlisting the courts to elaborate the Sherman Act’s broad commands, Congress also gave economists a singular opportunity to shape competition policy. Because the statute’s vital terms directly implicated economic concepts, their interpretation inevitably would invite contributions from economists. What emerged is a convergence of economics and law without parallel in public oversight of business. As economic learning changed, the contours of antitrust doctrine and enforcement policy eventually would shift, as well.1 This article follows the evolution of thinking about competition since 1890 as 1 In State Oil Co. v. Khan (118 S. Ct. 275, 284 [1997]), the Supreme Court emphasized the trend in its previous antitrust decisions of recognizing and adapting to changed circumstances and lessons of accumulated experience. The degree of professional acceptance and empirical verification that eco- nomic theories must achieve before they are relied upon in the courtroom remains an issue of debate within the courts. -
Modigliani's and Sylos Labini's Contributions to Oligopoly Theory
A Service of Leibniz-Informationszentrum econstor Wirtschaft Leibniz Information Centre Make Your Publications Visible. zbw for Economics Rancan, Antonella Working Paper The Origin of the Sylos Postulate: Modigliani's and Sylos Labini's Contributions to Oligopoly Theory CHOPE Working Paper, No. 2012-08 Provided in Cooperation with: Center for the History of Political Economy at Duke University Suggested Citation: Rancan, Antonella (2012) : The Origin of the Sylos Postulate: Modigliani's and Sylos Labini's Contributions to Oligopoly Theory, CHOPE Working Paper, No. 2012-08, Duke University, Center for the History of Political Economy (CHOPE), Durham, NC This Version is available at: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/149690 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Terms of use: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. personal and scholarly purposes. Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle You are not to copy documents for public or commercial Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen. publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, If the documents have been made available under an Open gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort Content Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence. www.econstor.eu The Origin of the Sylos Postulate: Modigliani’s and Sylos Labini’s Contributions to Oligopoly Theory by Antonella Rancan CHOPE Working Paper No. -
Nature and Essence of the Firm
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Munich Personal RePEc Archive MPRA Munich Personal RePEc Archive The (new) nature and essence of the firm Christos Pitelis and David Teece 2009 Online at https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/24317/ MPRA Paper No. 24317, posted 11. August 2010 11:04 UTC The (New) Nature and Essence of the Firm Christos N. Pitelis Director, Centre for International Business and Management (CIBAM), Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, CB2 1AG, UK, Tel: +44 (0) 1223 339619, Fax: +44 (0) 1223 766815, Email: [email protected] and David J. Teece Institute of Management, Innovation and Organization Haas School of Business University of California, Berkeley Berkeley, CA, 94720 Tel: +1 (510) 642-1075, Fax: +1 (510) 642-2826 Email: [email protected] DRAFT – NOT TO BE QUOTED January 20, 2009 We are grateful to Editors Alfonso Gambardella and Maurizio Zollo and an anonymous reviewer for encouragement and useful comments. Errors are ours. 1 Abstract Extant explanations of the nature and scope of firms, such as transaction costs, property rights, metering and “resources” can be integrated into a more general (capability based) theory of the nature and essence of the firm that recognizes the importance to the firm of creating (and capturing) value from innovation. We note that the appropriability of returns from creative and innovative activity often requires the entrepreneurial creation and co-creation of markets. Accordingly, market failure and transaction costs approaches need to be revamped to capture the essence of entrepreneurial and managerial activity that extends beyond the mere exercise of authority.