Alternative Theories of Competition

The history of policymaking has been dominated by two rival assumptions about markets. Those who have advocated Keynesian-type policies have generally based their arguments on the claim that markets are imperfectly competitive. On the other hand laissez faire advocates have argued the opposite by claiming that in fact free market policies will eliminate "market imperfections" and reinvigorate perfect competition. The goal of this book is to enter into this important debate by raising critical questions about the nature of market competition.

Drawing on the insights of the classical political economists, Schumpeter, Hayek, the Oxford Economists' Research Group (OERG) and others, the authors in this book challenge this perfect versus imperfect competition dichotomy in both theoretical and empirical terms. There are important differences between the theoretical perspectives of several authors in the broad alternative theoretical tradition defined by this book; nevertheless, a unifying theme throughout this volume is that competition is conceptualized as a dynamic disequilibrium process rather than the static equilibrium state of conventional theory. For almost all the others the growth of firm is consistent with a heightened degree of competitiveness, as both Marx and Schumpeter emphasized, and not a lowered one as in the conventional 'monopoly capital' view.

Autorentext

Patrick L. Mason, Jamee K. Moudud, Cyrus Bina

Inhalt

Foreward John Weeds Introduction 1. The Fallacy of Competition: Markets and the Movement of Capital John Weeks 2. The Hidden History of Competition and its Implications Jamee K. Moudud 3. Synthetic Competition, Global Oil, and the Cult of Monopoly Cyrus Bina 4. Catallactic Competition, Business Organization, and Market Order Jack High 5. Schumpeterian Competition J. Stanley Metcalfe 6. The Theory of Innovative Enterprise: Methodology, Ideology, and Institutions William Lazonick 7. Competition, Going Enterprise, and Economic Activity Frederic S. Lee 8. Sraffa, the General Rate of Profit, and the Theory of the Firm: A Conjectural Approach Scott Carter and Andrés Lazzarini 9. Explaining Long Term Exchange Rate Behavior in the United States and Japan Anwar Shaikh and Rania Antonopoulos 10. Components of Differential Profitability in a Classical/Marxian Theory of Competition: A Case Study of Turkish Manufacturing Serdal Bahçe and Benan Eres 11. Classical Competition and Regulating Capital: Theory and Empirical Evidence Lefteris Tsoulfidis and Persefoni Tsaliki 12. Are Mega-Corps Competitive? Some Empirical Tests of Business Competition John Sarich and Jason Hecht