THEORIES OF MONOPOLY CAPITALISM

Abstract. This article presents a survey of theories of monopoly capitalism. The defining characteristic of monopoly capitalism is that developed capitalist economies are seen as essentially dominated by firms which operate in oligopolistic industries. It discusses in chronological order the contributions of Hilferding, Lenin, Kalecki, Steindl, Baran and Sweezy, and Cowling to the monopoly capitalism approach. By drawing out some common features of the authors discussed we arrive at an implicit view of the nature of theories of monopoly capitalism. The macroeconomic aspects of monopoly capitalism are discussed with emphasis on the implications for the level of economic activity. A further section discusses the international aspects of the monopoly capital approach. The final section of the paper reviews criticisms of the theories of monopoly capitalism with concentration on those advanced from a Marxist perspective.     

网络效应与自然垄断产业的分拆：以电信业为例

针对我国自然垄断产业的分拆改革有两种相反观点,这些观点大多是从自然垄断产业的规模经济性、范围经济性及成本次可加性等特征来展开论述的。文章试图从自然垄断产业的网络效应出发,认为对待这些自然垄断产业的分拆改革应慎行。改革的关键在于引入替代品竞争和企业改制。     

基于供需平衡的卷烟零售户合理化布局规划探讨

目前国内大多数卷烟专卖部门在卷烟零售网点布局规划中所普遍使用的规划听证方案存在较大误差,不利于卷烟市场的健康稳定持续发展。卷烟专卖管理部门应该通过普查和抽样调查获得当地卷烟消费情况的基本数据,并在此基础上结合卷烟供应状况得出各辖区卷烟供需差异,通过对数据和当地实际情况进行分析计算解决该地区是否应该新增持证烟草专卖零售户以及具体增加户数的问题。     

Risk,rent seeking and the social cost of monopoly power

Some recent empirical studies that have estimated the social cost of monopoly power have included in these estimates observed monopoly rents as a proxy for the unobserved value of the resources expended by rent seekers. This has involved adding these estimates of resources wasted by rent seekers to estimates of deadweight welfare loss triangles so as to produce an overall estimate of the social cost of monopoly. The present paper points out that each firm seeking a monopoly rent flow not only may be uncertain about obtaining the flow but also about retaining it in future periods. It is shown that this is likely to cause the proportion of the rent flow converted into social cost to be well below 100% regardless of whether the rent sought is small relative to initial wealth and regardless of whether rent seekers are risk-neutral or risk-averse. These findings demonstrate that large errors are likely to be made in monopoly welfare loss studies if observed monopoly rents continue to be employed as a measure of the value of resources used in rent-seeking activities.     

Rent-seeking in a unionised monopoly

A unionised monopoly firm, benefitting from some kind of anti-competitive regulation, and its corresponding trade union have a common interest in spending resources to protect the monopoly rents created by the regulation. In the present paper, a situation in which the unionised monopoly is challenged by a consumer organisation fighting for deregulation is analysed as a standard Tullock rent-seeking contest. With unequal sharing of monopoly rents, the free-riding incentives among the rent-defending players turn out to be overwhelming, in the sense that the unique Nash equilibrium is characterised by zero effort contribution by the player with the lower valuation of the contested prize. This implies that being “strong”, in terms of bargaining strength, is not necessarily an advantage for neither player in a unionised monopoly that is threatened by deregulation. Received: June 2000 / accepted: January 2001     

技术标准中的知识产权垄断和反垄断问题

技术标准化与知识产权结合的必要性已在业界达成共识,两者的结合带来了巨大的经济利益,但是也产生了一系列的垄断后果。为了规避这些垄断后果及其带来的负面影响,文章介绍了反垄断对策并对相关垄断问题进行法律规制的设想进行了探讨。     

反垄断与行业管制的体制冲突与改革路径

中国垄断性行业具有"三重垄断"交织在一起的特点,理顺反垄断机构和行业管制机构之间的职权配置和法律关系就成为关键.反垄断机构和行业管制机构之间的协调运行的核心原则是依法行政和职能分离,反垄断机构与行业管制机构分权合作的多元执法体制是中国反垄断与行业管制混合体制的模式选择,并确立反垄断法的优先适用.     

制定成本会计准则的必要性——基于价格管制和政府采购的视角

文章运用垄断价格管制理论和福利经济学相关理论分析了当前出现垄断行业的"三高"以及政府采购成本偏高的现象,指出成本会计准则的制定是对垄断行业进行价格管制的前提,同时成本会计准则的制定必将有利于对政府采购成本实行有效控制,最后就如何制定成本会计准则提出了一些建议。     

亚马逊开放物流背后的阴影

电商企业在疯狂"烧钱"之后的尴尬,也呼吁其亟需从"做规模"向"做赢利"的转变。3月29日,亚马逊中国宣布,正式推出"全球开店"业务,即亚马逊的物流系统向国内众多电商中小企业开放,为更多的中小型企业提供国际化电子商务解决方案。亚马逊中国称,此举是欲借助其完整的     

Process innovation and the persistence of monopoly with labour-managed firms

The issue of the persistence of monopoly when at least one labour-managed firm takes part in an auction for a cost-reducing innovation is tackled in this paper. It is shown that (i) when the incumbent is a profit-maximizing firm while the entrant is a labour-managed firm, monopoly persists; (ii) when both firms are labour-managed, monopoly persists only if the technology initially employed by the incumbent is highly inefficient as compared to the new one; and, finally, (iii) when the incumbent is labour-managed while the outsider is a profit seeking agent, then entry always occurs and monopoly changes hands. Received: 3 July 1997 / Accepted: 16 February 1998     

涉烟情报网络社会化体系构建研究

涉烟情报信息在卷烟打假破网中地位可谓举足轻重,没有情报信息做支撑,卷烟打假破网工作可以说是寸步难行。从长远来看,通过政府、烟草社区、专业情报员、社会大众几个层面平台来挖掘涉烟信息,从而更好地实行烟草专卖管理,是一种行之有效的专卖管理举措,这也是烟草专卖情报网络从单一性向多元化转变的一项重要内容,值得探索,值得研究。     

Regulating a Manager‐controlled Natural Monopoly with Unknown Costs

We study the regulation of a manager‐controlled natural monopoly with unknown costs, borrowing from Baron and Myerson (BM) (1982), where the monopoly is controlled by the owner. We consider the case where the regulator can tax the owner as well as the case where she cannot. We find that the optimal price schedule generally lies below the one in the BM model and that it can be as low as the marginal cost if the compensation parameter is sufficiently small and the regulator cannot tax the monopoly owner. We also identify the cases where the monopoly owner prefers to delegate the control to a manager. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Investment decisions in finite-lived monopolies

This paper studies the value and optimal timing for investment in finite-lived monopolies, extending the literature on real option games by considering the cases of random and certain-lived monopolies. Under these settings, firms face the risk of demonopolization, that can occur as a random or a certain event. We show that these new settings produce significantly different results when compared to the canonical monopolistic and duopolistic models. In a certain-lived monopoly, the leader invests sooner than in a duopoly if there is a risk of being preempted, and later than in a monopoly if the leader role is pre-assigned. In a random-lived monopoly, entry occurs somewhere between the duopoly and monopoly cases. Higher uncertainty delays investment in all cases.     

西方国家应用规制理论的经验对规制我国垄断行业收入分配行为的启示

近年,垄断行业职工收入畸高,严重偏离市场规律,已成为我国收入分配领域的一个敏感突出而亟待解决的社会问题。但在较长时期内,想通过破除行政垄断、解决"所有者缺位"问题这两个途径来解决垄断行业收入分配问题是不可行的,改革政府监管才是解决垄断行业收入分配问题的现实选择。     

Consumption and price effects of state-run liquor monopolies

Uniform pricing policies practiced by state monopoly liquor systems are not consistent with a stated objective of revenue-maximization from liquor sales. If some residents in a monopoly state buy alcoholic beverages in neighboring, lower-priced states, the monopoly state could increase revenues by lowering prices in the appropriate border counties. The empirical analysis looks at Ohio and finds that residents tend to purchase fewer and less expensive bottles of liquor in state-run stores which border states with lower liquor prices. The result is several million dollars a year of lost revenue to Ohio.     

数字信息产品的定价机理研究

本文在系统分析数字信息产品的市场结构特点的基础上,分别给出了此种产品在两种垄断性市场结构中不同的定价模型,并分析模型在实际中的应用。     

反价格垄断法律的国际比较及启示

对价格垄断的法律体系进行国际比较,并结合中国反价格垄断法律体系的特点,梳理出前者对完善我国反价格垄断法律体系的立法启示与执法借鉴。     

烟草专卖管理及服务关系的妥善处理研究

烟草专卖制度是我国对烟草产业管理的一项重要制度。烟草制度的进一步完善对烟草专卖行业的服务也有了新的要求。只有与时俱进,摒弃一切不良作风,才能更好的为卷烟零售户服务。     

The Nature of Corruption Deterrence in a Competitive Media Sector

This paper compares the deterrence provided by a competitive media sector towards government induced corruption with that of a media monopoly in a setting where the media might raise both true as well as false allegations of corruption. It finds that competition’s impact on corruption deterrence is not necessarily better than a monopoly but rather hinges on a delicate balance between government’s kickback from corruption and the media’s potential benefit from exposure. While the paper does identify conditions in which a competitive media sector would improve upon the deterrence provided by a monopoly, it also find conditions under which it would do no better than a monopoly and in some situations its strategic response could be even worse especially when it intensifies effort towards justifying false allegations.     

Rent seeking and the value of time

This paper focuses on the question of how rivals’ rent-seeking expenditures and investment expenditures are affected by the temporal dimension of those cash flows as well as the timing of the cash flow of monopoly rents. The paper applies methods from statistical reliability theory to derive five propositions establishing the conditions that must be satisfied if the rivals apportion their rent seeking and investment expenditures to maximize their certainty equivalents of the monopoly rent. The propositions explicate the responses of the rivals to changes in economic parameters characterizing the rent-seeking contest such as a change in the duration of the monopoly rent cash flow or a change in the number of rivals.