The political economy of monopoly and competition: A critique of monopoly and stagnation theory

This paper examines critically the Kaleckian theory of monopoly capitalism proposed by Cowling (1982). The supply side of the model is shown to be incapable of providing an aggregate degree of monopoly and the neglect of inter-sectoral competition is highlighted. On the demand side, there is little indication of the source of stagnationary tendencies; it is the emphasis on collusion over conflict which underpins stagnation. The model is characterised by its emphasis on distribution and exchange at the expense of production relations, and is an inadequate representation of ‘monopoly capitalism’.     

An analysis of the intra-firm sales activities of Japanese multinational enterprises in the United States: 1977 to 1989

This paper examines the activities of the largest Japanese multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in the United States by looking at data on exports, imports, and intra-firm trade between the Japanese subsidiaries in the United States and their parent and other foreign groups. It also examines how much of the domestic sales in the United States are accounted for by local production of the Japanese subsidiaries. Sales data provide an indication of the advantages of being multinational, which are mirrored in the growth of the post-investment sales of overseas units (both manufacturing and non-manufacturing). Data on the flows and stocks of foreign direct investment (FDI) represent the initial decisions to undertake FDI and largely ignore the learning effects of having overseas production.The authors are from the City University of Hong Kong and NORTACK Software Limited. We would like to thank the Editor, Dr Leung Hing-Man, the anonymous referees, and Don Daly, Wendy Dobson, Hiroaki Izumi, Terutomo Ozawa, Alan M Rugman and Rob Tran for their helpful comments. All errors and omissions, however, remain the responsibility of the authors.     

Technology adoption, learning spillovers, and the optimal duration of patent-based monopolies

The paper analyses an often overlooked aspect of the patent system, namely, that a monopoly franchise for production of a new good could lead to a second-best welfare optimum event when there was no future prospect of inventions being induced by the patent. It is shown that a paten may improve economic welfare relative to a regime of competitive supply when there are learning externalities or ‘spillovers’ from experience in the process of production. Comparative statics show that stronger learning effects at low levels of experience tend to strengthen the case for ex post grant of a monopoly franchise.     

The impact of international intra-firm trade on domestic concentration ratios

This paper examines the impact of intra-firm foreign trade on domestic concentration ratios and the interchangeability of trade-adjusted concentration ratios in structure-performance studies. Due to data limitations, previous efforts to adjust domestic concentration ratios have not incorporated the possibility that the largest domestic producers could also be importing the product into the domestic market. Foreign trade adjustments, both intra-firm trade by the leading firms and foreign trade in general, had a relatively small effect upon concentration in the majority of industries; however, approximately 20 industries were identified where foreign, trade is a potentially important competitive factor. Concerning the interchangeability of the estimated concent cation ratios, the results suggested that the measures were interchangeable in linear models, but were not interchangeable in log-linear models.     

Consumer information,labelling and international trade in agri-food products

The focus of the World Trade Organization is establishing limits on governments’ ability to impose trade barriers in response to producers’ requests for protection. In recent years, however, requests for protection from imports has increasingly come from consumers over issues ranging from animal welfare concerns, employment of child labour, the use of growth hormones, differing environmental standards and GM foods. The current international trade regime is ill-suited to deal with consumer-based protectionism. This paper develops a model that explicitly incorporates consumer concerns into an international trade model and compares the result with the standard treatment. Further, using the model incorporating consumer concerns, a labelling policy for imports is compared to an import embargo. The labelling policy is found to be superior to an embargo. Implications are drawn for future trade negotiations pertaining to sanitary and phytosanitary measures and technical barriers to trade.     

Inter-firm Collaboration and Learning: The Case of the Japanese Automobile Industry

This paper investigates the effect of intra-firm Research and Development expenditure and inter-firm collaboration on firm performance. It is proposed that R&D expenditures enable a company to improve knowledge and assimilate the exchange of information within non-routine collaboration activities. The hypotheses are tested by an empirical study on inter-firm technical collaboration in Japanese Automobile firms during the years 1975–1995, using the method of first-order auto-regression on a panel data set. The findings indicate that R&D expenditure increases performance, but do not allow clear conclusions on the effects of collaborations.     

Demand for coffee in Sweden: The role of prices, preferences and market power

There is a widespread belief that consumer coffee prices are high relative to bean prices and that lower consumer prices would lead to substantial increases in bean exports from Third-World countries. This issue is evaluated by analysing how retail prices, preferences and market power influence coffee demand in Sweden. A demand function is estimated for the period 1968–2002 and used, together with information on import prices of coffee beans, to simulate an oligopoly model. This approach gives estimates of the maximum average degree of market power and shows how coffee demand would react to reductions in marginal cost to its minimum level. The maximum level of market power is found to be low, but it generates large spreads between consumer and bean prices because the price elasticity has low absolute values. Moreover, the impact of a price decrease would be small because long-run coffee demand is dominated by changes in the population structure in combination with different preferences across age groups. Hence, a change to perfect competition would only have a negligible effect on bean imports.     

制度倾斜、低技术锁定与中国经济增长

本文试图回答熊彼特创造性破坏理论在中国为何难以成立的问题。通过建立垄断企业与非垄断企业的博弈模型,我们证明了:对垄断厂商在制度与政策上的倾斜,会削弱非垄断企业进行创新的动力。进一步地,这会使得非垄断企业减少研发人员投入并增大其成为垄断厂商中间制品生产者的概率,同时使垄断厂商成为创新主导者的概率增大,于是创新对经济增长的贡献减少,最终使得经济增长主要是通过资本投入实现。在上述情况下,内生性的技术创新出现的频率会大大降低。这正是中国特色低技术锁定存在的根本性因素。     

垄断行业的效率、改革与规制重构——转型经济中的经验与教训研讨会观点综述

行政垄断的判定与垄断程度的测度需要一个完善的标准。实证表明,行政垄断造成了巨大的经济效率损失,而消除行政垄断只能分步骤有序进行。竞争政策的设计应结合本国国情,竞争政策的目标也应该是多元的,同时需要构建完善的反垄断体系。垄断行业的改革应根据行业自身特点与市场空间来确定其市场化的程度和规制的程度,需要系统设计改革时序,重构并建立科学的规制体系。     

制度环境、激励结构与垄断行业收入规范

文章将转轨经济条件下制度及经济环境随机变动的因素引入分析中,并将收入合同作为管制者与经营者之间策略互动的一个内生结果。特定制度环境导致的垄断厂商经营者面临不确定性的扩大以及国有产权下管制者与经营者贴现因子的差异使我国垄断行业厂商经营者有更大的动力攫取制度设计中的信息租金。认为在垄断性行业改革中更多的强调绩效考核及引入专家式监管对我国垄断性行业收入规范改革有着重要的作用。     

董事市场供给会影响董事会独立性吗——基于中国上市公司的实证分析

独立董事选择过程的不可观测性使得独立董事的选择机制一直被忽视,独立董事的来源在很大程度上决定了其作用的有效性。以揭开独立董事选择机制的"黑箱"为目的,通过构造董事市场供给指数的方式,我们发现,市场供给对董事会独立性产生重要影响。本地市场供给对非国有和竞争行业的公司董事会独立性的影响显著大于国有和垄断行业的公司,中心市场的辐射效应却与此相反,即辐射效应对国有、垄断和大规模的公司董事会独立性影响更大;在剔除强制性需求之后,市场供给对董事会独立性自主性需求的影响与总需求的影响基本一致。本文首次揭开了独立董事的选聘"黑箱",并为解决董事会内生性提供了新方法。     

Regional trade,government policy and food security: Recent evidence from Zambia

Given heavy dependence on rainfed maize production, countries in East and Southern Africa must routinely cope with pronounced production and consumption volatility in their primary food staple. Typical policy responses include increased food aid flows, government commercial imports and stock releases, and tight controls on private sector trade. This paper examines recent evidence from Zambia, using a simple economic model to assess the likely impact of maize production shocks on the domestic maize price and on staple food consumption under alternative policy regimes. In addition to an array of public policy instruments, the analysis evaluates the impact of two key private sector responses in moderating food consumption volatility – private cross-border maize trade and consumer substitution of an alternate food staple (cassava) for maize. The analysis suggests that, given a favorable policy environment, private imports and increased cassava consumption together could fill roughly two-thirds of the maize consumption shortfall facing vulnerable households during drought years.     

行政垄断制度选择的一般分析框架——以我国电信业行政垄断制度的动态变迁为例

行政垄断是政府机构利用行政权力对竞争进行限制和排斥，会造成资源配置扭曲、社会福利损失、收入分配不均以及地方保护和区域市场分割等问题。但现实中行政垄断是客观并普遍存在的．在特定的经济环境中．行政垄断作为资源配置的一种手段发挥了市场调节无法实现的作用。本文借鉴新比较经济学的社会制度选择分析框架，建立了行政垄断制度选择的一般分析框架．并以此来重新思考行政垄断制度选择问题．最后应用该一般分析框架分析我国电信产业行政垄断制度的动态变迁过程。为我国行政垄断制度的改革提供一个一般分析框架和相应的理论指导乃本文目的之所在。     

中国参与全球生产链的技术溢出效应分析

全球生产链背景下的中国进口和外资表现出两个典型化特征:一是全部进口中中间产品占比非常高;二是在华外资企业对进口依赖程度高并且具有很强的外向型特征。这些特征影响了进口和外资这两大渠道对中国企业的技术溢出效果。本文的实证研究发现,中间产品进口对内资企业没有产生理想的技术溢出,且拉大了外资、内资企业间的技术差距;外资企业对进口依赖度越小,其技术溢出效果越好,且进口依赖度和外资数量的技术溢出效果存在正的交互作用;外资企业出口导向特征越明显,技术溢出效果越差。     

Doing R&D and/or Importing Technologies: The Critical Importance of Firm Size in Taiwan’s Manufacturing Industries

We analyze the relationship between firm size and innovation inputs in Taiwan. Two inputs are considered: R&D and technology imports. Building on an existing theoretical framework, we test this relationship by estimating bivariate Tobit models in twenty 2-digit industries, using a panel of 27,754 firms observed from 1992 to 1995. We find that, in all industries, R&D intensity and/or technology imports intensity depend strongly on firm size, following an “inverted-U” pattern. Moreover, we find that most industries are only “mildly Schumpeterian”. Finally, our results provide some empirical evidence for complementarity between R&D and technology imports in the innovation process.     

Conduct in a Banking Monopoly

Extending previous empirical work on concentrated markets, this paper appliesa Rosse–Panzar revenue test to quarterly data from a monopoly bank. The testrejects the hypotheses of static monopoly pricing or perfectly contestablepricing. Other tests suggest that the bank was in long-run equilibrium duringthe sample period and did not exhibit particular forms of expense-preferencebehavior. Possible interpretations of the bank's conduct include limit pricingto deter entry or an objective other than maximizing static profit. The resultsraise new questions about conduct among monopoly banks or in declining markets.     

Oligopoly intermediation,relative rivalry and market conduct

We consider two firms that compete against each other jointly in upstream and downstream markets under two pricing games: Purchasing to stock (PTS), in which firms select input prices prior to setting consumer prices; and purchasing to order (PTO), in which firms sell forward contracts to consumers prior to selecting input prices. The antitrust implications of the model depend on the relative degree of oligopoly rivalry in the upstream and downstream markets. Firms strategically precommit to setting prices in the less rivalrous market, which serves to soften competition in the more rivalrous market, resulting in anticompetitive effects. Bertrand prices emerge in equilibrium when the markets are equally rivalrous, while Cournot outcomes arise with upstream monopsony or downstream monopoly markets. The slope of firm reaction functions depends on relative rivalry, a feature we use to derive testable hypotheses for antitrust analysis of a wide variety of industry practices.     

基于行业数据的新型工业节能减排效率与技术创新研究

本文构建一种基于生产率的新型节能减排指数,测度2007～2013年我国36个工业行业的节能减排效率,并重点分析企业自主创新、国内创新溢出和国外技术引进对工业节能减排效率的影响。研究发现：我国战略性新兴产业、高新技术产业节能减排效率普遍较高,资源、资本、劳动密集型行业节能减排效率普遍较低;企业自主创新对高效率行业作用更明显,国外技术引进对低效率行业影响更突出,国内创新溢出对各行业效率的影响力度基本一致;环境规制、行业企业规模等也是影响节能减排效率的因素之一。     

The Effects of Global Competition on Total Factor Productivity in U.S. Manufacturing

This paper utilizes an instrumental variables approach to investigate the relationship between growth in total factor productivity and growth in imports and exports. Empirical models are based on a sample of Census years covering the period 1977–1992, with 1986 substituted for Census year 1987. The most important finding is that export growth positively impacts growth in total factor productivity for the pooled model and for every year of the sample. Growth in imports has a positive impact on TFP for the pooled model and in two of four sample years.     

自主研发、技术引进与区域创新发展——基于人力资本视角的实证考察

本文基于2001~2015年我国30省市的面板数据,建立以人力资本为门限变量,以自主研发、技术引进为门限依赖变量的面板门限模型,从人力资本视角实证分析了自主研发、技术引进对区域创新能力的非线性影响效应。结果表明：自主研发、技术引进与区域创新能力之间存在着显著的以人力资本为门限变量的单门限效应。当人力资本水平低于门限值时,自主研发对区域创新能力的影响不显著,而技术引进能显著地促进区域创新能力的提高;当人力资本水平高于门限值时,自主研发、技术引进均能显著地提高区域创新能力,且自主研发比技术引进更能促进区域创新能力的提高。从目前人力资本水平来看,我国大部分省份已具备从技术引进向自主研发模式转变的人力资本基础。