Creating Competitive Markets

Since the 1930s when the government began active regulation, US agriculture has undergone a revolution in productivity. Sally Clarke explains how government activity, from support for research to price supports and farm credit programs, created a climate favorable to rapid gains in productivity. Farmers in the Corn Belt delayed purchases of the tractor, the most important agricultural technology, despite the cost savings it promised. Tractor purchases required large sums of cash at a time when families faced unstable prices and unattractive credit markets. The New Deal inadvertently changed this investment climate. Regulation stabilized prices, introduced new sources of credit, and caused tool manufacturers and private creditors to revise their business strategies. Competitive farmers took advantage of these new conditions to invest in expensive technology and achieve new gains in productivity.

The explosive growth of the Atlantic slave trade in the second half of the seventeenth century made the international trade in Africans one of the world's largest industries. This book explores the operation of that industry in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, focusing on the market behaviour of the Royal African Company - the largest English company engaged in the slave trade - and the sugar planters of the Caribbean, who were the trade's principal customers in English America. A richly detailed portrayal of the slave trade to English America emerges, one that shows it to have been a highly competitive and efficient transatlantic market. In revealing the existence of sophisticated and complex market behaviour in this early period of black slavery in the New World, the book adds to our understanding of the development of large-scale competitive markets, as well as to our knowledge of the efficiency of resource allocation in early English America.

In a world where customers are fickle and markets change overnight, you need to be ready to move rapidly when opportunities or threats arise - and that means knowing what your business is good at, and what it isn't. This book helps you to understand your organisation's potential, its capabilities and limitations, so when new challenges appear, you'll know how to manage your resources effectively to take advantage of them. It will show you how to build a more sustainable competitive advantage by revealing the techniques that underlie your firm's strategy, and explain how to improve and manage these resources to reinforce your strengths and ameliorate your weaknesses. Written for managers of small to medium sized businesses and industry consultants, this book also forms part of a three-volume set covering business strategy, performance, and competencies. Supporting material is available online at www.cambridge.org/9780521750301.

During the 1990s, US antitrust policy began to take greater account of economic theories that emphasize the critical role of innovation and change in the competitive process. Several high-profile antitrust cases have focused on dynamic innovation issues as much as or more than static economic efficiency. But does dynamic competition furnish a new rationale for activist antitrust, or a new reason for government to leave markets alone? In this volume, more than a dozen leading scholars with extensive antitrust experience explore this question in the context of the Microsoft case, merger policy, and intellectual property law.

This 2000 text applies modern advances in game theory to the analysis of competition policy and develops some of the theoretical and policy concerns associated with the pioneering work of Louis Phlips. Containing contributions by leading scholars from Europe and North America, this book observes a common theme in the relationship between the regulatory regime and market structure. Since the inception of the new industrial organization, economists have developed a better understanding of how real-world markets operate. These results have particular relevance to the design and application of anti-trust policy. Analyses indicate that picking the most competitive framework in the short run may be detrimental to competition and welfare in the long run, concentrating the attention of policy makers on the impact on the long-run market structure. This book provides essential reading for graduate students of industrial and managerial economics as well as researchers and policy makers.

The theory of competition has held a central place in economic analysis since Adam Smith. This book, written by one of the most distinguished of contemporary economic theorists, reports on a major research program to provide strategic foundations for the theory of perfect competition. Beginning with a concise survey of how the theory of competition has evolved, Gale makes extensive and rigorous use of dynamic matching and bargaining models to provide a more complete description of how a competitive equlibrium is achieved. Whereas economists have made use of a macroscopic description of markets in which certain behavioral characteristics, such as price-taking behavior, are taken for granted, Gale uses game theory to re-evaluate this assumption, beginning with individual agents and modelling their strategic interaction. A strategic foundation for competitive equilibrium shows how such interaction leads to competitive, price-taking behavior. Essential reading for graduate courses in game

The theory of competition has held a central place in economic analysis since Adam Smith. This book, written by one of the most distinguished of contemporary economic theorists, reports on a major research program to provide strategic foundations for the theory of perfect competition. Beginning with a concise survey of how the theory of competition has evolved, Gale makes extensive and rigorous use of dynamic matching and bargaining models to provide a more complete description of how a competitive equlibrium is achieved. Whereas economists have made use of a macroscopic description of markets in which certain behavioral characteristics, such as price-taking behavior, are taken for granted, Gale uses game theory to re-evaluate this assumption, beginning with individual agents and modelling their strategic interaction. A strategic foundation for competitive equilibrium shows how such interaction leads to competitive, price-taking behavior. Essential reading for graduate courses in game

Competing on Internet time means competitive advantage can be won and lost overnight. In this penetrating analysis of strategy-making and product innovation in the dynamic markets of commercial cybers

The international market for tourism and hospitality products is becoming increasingly dynamic and competitive. Globalization, deregulated labour markets and changing demographics all contribute to t

This 1999 book studies the implications of macroeconomic complementarities for aggregate behavior. The presentation is intended to introduce PhD students into this sub-field of macroeconomics and to serve as a reference for more advanced scholars. The initial sections of the book cover the basic framework of complementarities and provide a discussion of the experimental evidence on the outcome of coordination games. The subsequent sections of the book investigate applications of these ideas for macroeconomics. The topics Professor Cooper explores include: economies with production complementarities, search models, imperfectly competitive product markets, models of timing and delay and the role of government in resolving and creating coordination problems. The presentation goes into detail on a few models and uses them as a structure to integrate related literature. The discussion brings together theory and quantitative analysis.

This 1999 book studies the implications of macroeconomic complementarities for aggregate behavior. The presentation is intended to introduce PhD students into this sub-field of macroeconomics and to serve as a reference for more advanced scholars. The initial sections of the book cover the basic framework of complementarities and provide a discussion of the experimental evidence on the outcome of coordination games. The subsequent sections of the book investigate applications of these ideas for macroeconomics. The topics Professor Cooper explores include: economies with production complementarities, search models, imperfectly competitive product markets, models of timing and delay and the role of government in resolving and creating coordination problems. The presentation goes into detail on a few models and uses them as a structure to integrate related literature. The discussion brings together theory and quantitative analysis.

Votes without Leverage re-examines a long-standing puzzle in women's electoral politics. Namely why the increasing importance of women's votes throughout the 1920s did not imply increasing success for the lobbying efforts of women's organizations during the same period. Applying recent theoretical developments in the political economy of institutions and electoral behavior, Professor Harvey argues that female disenfranchisement prior to 1920 created incentives for leaders of women's organizations to invest in the pursuit of suffrage as a first step to achieving other policy benefits for women. When the battle over the right to vote was finally won, those leaders then required time to adapt their organizations to pursue a broader legislative agenda through conventional electoral politics. During this time, however, the major party organizations were able to initiate their own electoral mobilization of women, giving the parties significant advantages in imperfectly competitive markets fo

Votes without Leverage re-examines a long-standing puzzle in women's electoral politics. Namely why the increasing importance of women's votes throughout the 1920s did not imply increasing success for the lobbying efforts of women's organizations during the same period. Applying recent theoretical developments in the political economy of institutions and electoral behavior, Professor Harvey argues that female disenfranchisement prior to 1920 created incentives for leaders of women's organizations to invest in the pursuit of suffrage as a first step to achieving other policy benefits for women. When the battle over the right to vote was finally won, those leaders then required time to adapt their organizations to pursue a broader legislative agenda through conventional electoral politics. During this time, however, the major party organizations were able to initiate their own electoral mobilization of women, giving the parties significant advantages in imperfectly competitive markets fo

Nonlinear Modelling of High Frequency Financial Time Series Edited by Christian Dunis and Bin Zhou In the competitive and risky environment of today's financial markets, daily prices and models based

Technological innovation is said to be breaking down borders. The internet, the explosion of globalised financial markets, increased foreign direct investment by transnational corporations - all are portrayed as evidence of a global market in which the nation state is little more than an anachronism. Yet some economies have proved more innovative and dynamic than others, and there seems no reason to believe that these differences in national economic performance will become a thing of the past. On the contrary, as many of the chapters in this book argue, with a global market, any competitive advantage is likely to bring larger rewards, and government action aimed at enhancing the competitive advantage of firms becomes more rather than less important. It is within this context that technological globalisation is analysed in this book.

Technological innovation is said to be breaking down borders. The internet, the explosion of globalised financial markets, increased foreign direct investment by transnational corporations - all are portrayed as evidence of a global market in which the nation state is little more than an anachronism. Yet some economies have proved more innovative and dynamic than others, and there seems no reason to believe that these differences in national economic performance will become a thing of the past. On the contrary, as many of the chapters in this book argue, with a global market, any competitive advantage is likely to bring larger rewards, and government action aimed at enhancing the competitive advantage of firms becomes more rather than less important. It is within this context that technological globalisation is analysed in this book.

This book extends recent theories of incomplete markets to investigate empirically the appropriate balance between the market and the state in the trade relations between developed and developing countries. The conclusion is that in an ideal world government intervention in foreign exchange and trade is necessary in developing countries in the early stages and inevitably decreases as development occurs. Rationing of foreign exchange prevents a 'soft currency distortion' that commonly afflicts developing countries and can turn comparative advantage trade into competitive devaluation trade, with severe losses of income and welfare. Yotopoulos finds that the level of underdevelopment narrowly circumscribes and conditions the extent to which free-market, free-trade, laissez-faire can be beneficial, contrary to the mainstream policy paradigm as currently applied. The analysis and tests draw on empirical research from seventy countries and four extended country studies to confirm the usefuln

To survive in globally competitive markets manufacturers are going to have to develop a system for mass customization of products. This valuable resource is designed to prepare readers for the future

This book investigates the causes, course and consequences of the shift in West German chemical technology from a coal to a petroleum basis between 1945 and 1961. It examines the historical underpinnings of the technological culture of the German chemical industry; changing political and economic constraints on technological decision-making in the post-war period; and the actual decision-making process within five individual firms. By addressing a wide variety of broader issues - including the origins and impact of the division of Germany; the effects of the Wirtschaftswunder, or economic miracle; European integration; and the changing role of the West German Federal Republic in the international political order - this book explains how West German industry regained and then retained a competitive position in world markets.

Many have described the Japanese competitive success in information technology; very few have explained it. This book advances our understanding by developing the concept of the Japanese Innovation System - an arrangement consisting of competing and cooperating private companies, government policy-makers and researchers, and universities. It will be of interest to all teachers, students and policy-makers interested in technological competition. An important part of the explanation of Japanese success relates to the ability to create innovations and to continually improve and update products and processes. This book shows that equally important has been the foresight of the Japanese in creating innovations for the distant future where problems of uncertainty are even more pronounced.

Economists have in recent years found the theory of games to be an attractive route for exploring imperfectly competitive markets. In this collection of articles, some of the best minds in contemporar

This book takes a different approach to traditional price theory and to the analysis of imperfect competition. It represented a breakthrough in the development of a 'new' microeconomic theory. Increasingly, it has been recognized that the perfectly competitive paradigm is inappropriate to the explanation of pricing behaviour in many 'real life' markets characterized by a significant separation between producers and consumers. The spatial perspective adopted by the authors provides a natural separation of markets, but provides as well a powerful analogy for apparently nonspatial issues such as product differentiation, pricing over time, problems of storage and transportation, and the economics of intraindustry trade and of the multinational enterprise. A major concern of The Economics of Imperfect Competition: A Spatial Approach is to make these analogies explicit by applying this spatial analysis to a wide variety of nonspatial problems.

Published as a tribute to the memory of Elisha Pazner, this book contains a collection of essays providing a comprehensive view of the design and evaluation of economic mechanisms, written and edited by the major contributors to the field. Amongst the topics included are bargaining theory and the economics of competitive bidding. The surveys are preceded by 'A Perspective', by Leo Hurwicz which contains a systematic account of the development of the literature on mechanism design, and this provides a context for both the surveys and the six published papers authored or co-authored by Elisha Pazner that complete the book and demonstrate Pazner's interest in and contribution to the study of economic mechanisms. Leonid Hurwitcz is the Nobel Prize Winner 2007 for The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, along with colleagues Eric Maskin and Roger Myerson, for his work on the effectiveness of markets.

This book addresses one of the major theoretical issues that underlies, implicitly or explicitly, some recurrent controversies in macroeconomics - namely, whether a competitive monetary economy has built-in mechanisms that are strong enough to remove excess demands and supplies on all markets, through an automatic adjustment of the price system. Jean-Michel Grandmont sheds light on this complex subject by using the analytical techniques of general equilibrium theory alongside the methods of monetary analysis. The book warns against the indiscriminate use of the rational expectations hypothesis when approaching this topic, and conversely stresses the common-sense observation that short-run learning processes are among the most important characteristics of economic agents. Grandmont argues that such processes are deserving of careful theoretical study, and the result is a clear and rigorous analysis of all the issues involved.

The powerful theorems of welfare economics operate under a range of assumptions. Two of the most significant are the existence of competitive markets for all goods and services – including futures mar

The emerging possibilities of information technology and data communication, the globalization of markets, and the ongoing specialization of firms have paved the way for network enterprises as an orga

This book helps students to develop a critical understanding of the service business scenarios and strategies used in marketing for emerging markets. The case studies presented focus on creating, comm

In a world where the only certainty is uncertainty, the one reliable source of lasting competitive advantage is knowledge. The best companies survive by consistently creating new knowledge, dissemina

Originally published in 1996. In order to increase exports and expand profits, U. S. manufacturers must be able to adapt to changing competitive pressures. This book presents methods to quantify compe

The founders of a respected Silicon Valley advisory firm study legendary category-creating companies and reveal a groundbreaking discipline called category design. Winning today isn’t about beating th

Guides you through the process of creating counterintuitive strategies, such as treating competitors as collaborators, timing market entry, and targeting narrow niches before big customer segments. Wh

In competitive markets, a company’s tangible – i.e. physical and financial – assets play only a modest part in generating the overall value of the business. In fact, value for shareholders is generate

Companies are becoming more and more aware of the competitive advantage that can be realised through effective sourcing. The trend towards more outsourcing and effective supply chain management shows

Why dissenters can be an organization's most valuable asset and how to transform dissent into innovationInnovation is essential to competitive survival in today's global marketplace. But in the majori

Most companies know that long-term success does not hinge on any single product but on a continuous stream of value-rich products that target growth markets. Yet many firms inexplicably develop one pr

"Innovate" and "create" are mantras for today's companies that hope to gain a competitive edge and prosper in the coming years. But once firms take up the entrepreneurial challenge, how can they turn

As job markets become more competitive and many western economies experience recession, young people are one of the groups that suffer most. This important collection examines many of the most pressin

The world continues to ride a wave of turmoil, challenging leaders like never before. New laws, competitive markets and the need to respond to the demands of corporate boards and stockholders unnerve

The management of intangible resources like competence, relationships, brands, processes and systems is of vital importance to creating and maintaining competitive advantage in Business. With technolo