Title:
Competition, diversity and economic performance
Author:
Tisdell, C. A. (Clement Allan)
ISBN:
9781847207463
Personal Author:
Publication Information:
Cheltenham : Edward Elgar, 2013.
Physical Description:
xiii, 317 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
General Note:
Formerly CIP.
Contents:
Machine generated contents note: 1.The role of competition and diversity in economic performance: an overview -- 1.1.Introduction -- 1.2.General themes in the book -- 1.3.An outline of the topics covered in each chapter of this book -- 1.4.Concluding comments -- 2.Concepts of economic competition and performance in context -- 2.1.Introduction -- 2.2.Competition and economic efficiency: the relationships -- 2.3.Competition and productive efficiency: some extensions of the concepts -- 2.4.The structural approach to competition policy -- 2.5.Approaches to competition policy other than the structure-conduct-performance approach -- 2.6.Concluding observations -- 3.Diversity of consumers, product innovation and economic performance -- 3.1.Introduction -- 3.2.Types of attributes of consumers of significance for dynamic economic performance -- 3.3.The role of consumer diversity in product innovation -- 3.4.Some product-cycle and other dynamic perspectives --
Contents note continued: 3.5.Associations between diversity of consumers' preferences for product differentiation and the supply of product variety -- 3.6.Conclusion -- 4.Schumpeter and the dynamics of capitalism: the driving force of business innovation -- 4.1.Introduction -- 4.2.Schumpeter, Darwinian-type theories of economic evolution and ideal market structures -- 4.3.Schumpeter, Marx and the evolution of capitalism and industrial structure -- 4.4.Major issues not addressed by Schumpeter -- 4.5.Concluding comments -- 5.Reasons for business diversity and their economic importance -- 5.1.Introduction -- 5.2.Business diversity in a stationary (static) economic state -- 5.3.Business diversity in dynamic (as well as in some further static) situations: preliminary observations -- 5.4.Some quantitative aspects of economic performance and business diversity -- 5.5.Market rivalry, innovation and diversity -- 5.6.Conclusions --
Contents note continued: 6.Diversity and the evolution of competitive economic systems -- 6.1.Introduction -- 6.2.Some background observations -- 6.3.Production efficiency frontiers and business diversity -- 6.4.Market competition, efficiency, performance and diversity -- 6.5.Further observations on increasing industrial uniformity and development dynamics -- 6.6.Concluding comments -- 7.Competition, diversity, evolution and sustainability: are there lessons from ecology? -- 7.1.Introduction -- 7.2.Concepts of competition in economics and ecology -- 7.3.Mechanisms of evolutionary change -- 7.4.More on the links between optimization, competition and evolution -- 7.5.Intraspecific competition (scramble and contest) and the dependence of the survival of populations on diversity of fitness -- 7.6.Evolution of a new industry and changes from mutualism to competition between firms -- 7.7.Conclusions and policy consequences --
Contents note continued: 8.Market niches, competition and economic performance: more clues from ecology? -- 8.1.Introduction -- 8.2.Concepts of the niche in everyday use, in ecology, in economics and business management -- 8.3.Origins of market niches and their relationships to competition and economic efficiency -- 8.4.Consequences of market niches for long-term economic growth and development -- 8.5.Economic niches and diversity of commodities -- 8.6.Relevance of this analysis to the economic globalization debate -- 8.7.Concluding comments -- 9.Market impediments, restrained reactions and market dynamics -- 9.1.Introduction -- 9.2.Market stabilization resulting from non-profit maximizing behaviours -- 9.3.More on market dynamics and damped or restrained market reactions -- 9.4.Market transaction costs and market dynamics -- 9.5.Knowledge as a factor in market dynamics and performance -- 9.6.Conclusion --
Contents note continued: 10.Variations in the fitness of firms, dynamic economic performance, and vulnerability -- 10.1.Introduction -- 10.2.Variation in economic fitness of price-taking firms and the dynamic performance of markets -- 10.3.Scale economies, market extension and economic vulnerability -- 10.4.Other factors increasing industrial vulnerability in modern economies -- 10.5.Are there similar findings in ecology to those above? -- 10.6.Conclusions -- 11.More on differences in the fitness of firms, market selection and product variety -- 11.1.Introduction -- 11.2.Economies of scale, variations in economic fitness and sorting failures -- 11.3.Hotelling's market stability theory, niches and product variety -- 11.4.The view of Broda and Weinstein that globalization increases product variety and economic welfare -- 11.5.Does reduced product variety always reduce economic welfare? -- 11.6.Conclusions --
Contents note continued: 12.Using market mechanisms (for example, contracting out) for the efficient public provision of commodities -- 12.1.Introduction -- 12.2.Contracting out of the supply of publicly funded commodities -- 12.3.Insecure public employment contracts - greater contestability of public employment -- 12.4.User charges for publicly provided commodities -- 12.5.Performance budgeting and accounting: limits to rationalism in public administration -- 12.6.Competitive mechanisms for allocating public funds for research: are they efficient? -- 12.7.Concluding observations -- 13.Using markets and market-like mechanisms to manage a multidivisional business efficiently -- 13.1.Introduction -- 13.2.Make-or-buy decisions (contracting out), the existence of firms and business performance -- 13.3.Transfer pricing as a means for managing multidivisional firms -- 13.4.Optimal transfer pricing and the worth of a business division when market transaction costs are important --
Contents note continued: 13.5.Optimal transfer pricing (supposing significant market transaction costs) may retard desirable technological progress -- 13.6.Discussion and conclusion -- 14.Business partnerships, cooperation and the enhancement of economic performance -- 14.1.Introduction -- 14.2.Concepts of the firm as a decision-making unit and the firm's connection with markets -- 14.3.Economic advantages and disadvantages of interfirm cooperation -- 14.4.Processes and influences on the formation of business partnerships and the development of cooperation -- 14.5.Sharing the economic benefits from business cooperation - general observations -- 14.6.The gains to business partners of sharing and providing knowledge of economic value -- 14.7.Observations about some different institutional forms of economic cooperation -- 14.8.Networks, information flows and coordination of business activity -- 14.9.Concluding comments.
Abstract:
This thought-provoking book explores the influences of market competition and diverse behaviours of economic agents on economic performance, particularly dynamic economic performance. Clem Tisdell illustrates - within evolutionary, dynamic and static contexts - how diversity can improve or impede economic performance. He addresses the fact the role of diversity in improving economic performance has been neglected by economic theorists by making economic diversity a focal point of economic analysis. In particular, special attention is given to the value of economic diversity and economic imperfections in improving the performance of economic processes in particular identified situations. Limitations of using market-like mechanisms for managing public bodies and business firms are discussed and the value of business cooperation (economic mutualism) as a means for improving economic performance is examined. It is also observed that as economies develop, different forms of economic competition and business cooperation evolve.