The control of monopoly and restrictive practices is an important part of economic policy. The book discusses the general problem of monopoly in modern industry and examines the evolution of British policy towards monopoly and restrictive practices during the 20th century. Comparable studies with European countries and the USA are also included.

The Japanese government is becoming less involved in shaping industrial policy - but what does this imply for the openness of Japanese markets to foreign competition?;In an extensive study of "post-development" Japan, Ulrike Schaede argues that, contrary to what many have suggested, the reduced role of government regulation may not result in more open markets. Instead, as has happened throughout Japanese history, deregulation and the recession of the 1990s have once again led Japanese trade associations to assume important regulatory functions of their own. They do this through "self-regulation" - setting and enforcing the rules of trade for their industries, independent from the government. As a result, many Japanese markets are now effectively governed by incumbent firms, in particular in terms of structuring the distribution system. As the record of post-war antitrust enforcement reveals, Japan's antitrust system considers most activities of self-regulation, other than outright price-fixing, as legal.

**Winner of the UALE Book Award 2021** Amazon is the most powerful corporation on the planet and its CEO, Jeff Bezos, has become the richest person in history, and one of the few people to profit from a global pandemic. Its dominance has reshaped the global economy itself: we live in the age of 'Amazon Capitalism'. 'One-click' instant consumerism and its immense variety of products has made Amazon a worldwide household name, with over 60% of US households subscribing to Amazon Prime. In turn, these subscribers are surveilled by the corporation. Amazon is also one of the world's largest logistics companies, resulting in weakened unions and lowered labor standards. The company has also become the largest provider of cloud-computing services and home surveillance systems, not to mention the ubiquitous Alexa. With cutting-edge analyses, this book looks at the many dark facets of the corporation, including automation, surveillance, tech work, workers' struggles, algorithmic challenges, the disruption of local democracy and much more. The Cost of Free Shipping shows how Amazon represents a fundamental shift in global capitalism that we should name, interrogate and be primed to resist.

A manifesto for our times.
--Thomas Frank, "Wall Street Journal"

Barry C. Lynn, one of the most original and surprising students of the American economy, paints a genuinely alarming picture: most of our public debates about globalization, competitiveness, creative destruction, and risky finance are nothing more than a cover for the widespread consolidation of power in nearly every imaginable sector of the American economy.

"Cornered" strips the camouflage from the secret world of twenty-first-century monopolies-neofeudalist empires whose sheer size, vast resources, and immense political power enable the people who control to direct virtually every major industry in America in an increasingly authoritarian manner. Lynn reveals how these massive juggernauts, which would have been illegal just thirty years ago, came into being, how they have destroyed or devoured their competition, and how they collude with one another to maintain their power and create the illusion of open, competitive markets.

A confluence of small government zealotry and misguided efficient market theories has lead to a complete dismantling of government oversight of industry. Has that brought us the promised economic utopia? Just the opposite. For decades, the dominant elite has used the federal government to all but encourage companies to buy one another up, outsource all their production, and make their profits by leveraging their complete power over the market itself. Lynn makes clear it will take more than a lawsuit or two to overthrow America's corporatist oligarchy and restore a model of capitalism that protects our rights as property holders and citizens, and the independence of our Republic.Details how regular citizens can join together to beat the great powers, and how to do so by relearning the real history and language of our democratic republic.Includes stories of real people and real industries that show how monopolies threaten independent businesses, squelch innovation, degrade the quality and safety of products, destabilize vital industrial and financial systems, and destroy the fabric of democracyExplores monopoly power across a wide array of industries, including appliances, auto parts, beer, eyeglasses, medical supplies, pet food, surfboards, vitamins, and more.Demonstrates how the drive for ""always lower prices"" makes your job disappear, puts your small business out of business, and turns dreams of entrepreneurial success into impossible fantasies

Lynn is that rarest of creatures, a journalist whose theoretical writings are taken very seriously by the top policymakers and economic thinkers in Washington and around the world. His work has been compared already to John Kenneth Galbraith and Peter Drucker. "The Washington Post" called Lynn's last book-on globalization-""Tom Friedman for grownups."" "Cornered" is essential reading for anyone who cares about America and its future.

The 2002 Supplement includes:

• A revised chapter on Contingency and Emergency Public Affairs.
• New chapters on such topics as Making your Data Collection Meaningful, Sales for Non-Profits, Strategic Leadership of Volunteer Organizations in an International Context, and Organizational Culture and Not-for-Profit Organizations.

Dynamic oligopolistic competition has implications both for the strategic management of firms and for the design of an effective competition policy. Consequently, the present book considers the issue from a private and social perspective. It discusses the potential pro- and anticollusive effects of long-term business strategies, especially for cooperation and reinvestment in production, financing and management compensation, in markets with fluctuating demand. The method of supergame theory is applied to integrate long-run decisions and different types of demand into the analysis. Aside from its contributions to the theoretical literature, the book provides valuable insights into the design of competition policy. The observed development of prices is an indicator of the extent of collusion in the market and can thereby be used to assess antitrust regulation in certain business areas, and to focus the resources of competition authorities on markets where conditions are conducive to collusion.

In August 1981, Music Television-now popularly known as MTV-was launched. Within a matter of years it revitalized a struggling record industry; made the careers of leading pop stars like Madonna, Boy George, Cyndi Lauper, and Duran Duran; infiltrated traditional network television and the movie industry; revolutionized the advertising industry; and stimulated purchases in several markets, most notably fashion apparel. The reach of MTV has proven long and profitable. In this book, Jack Banks examines the historical development of music video as a commodity and analyzes the existing structures within which music video is produced, distributed, and exhibited on its premier music channel, MTV. Who controls MTV? What part do record companies play in the financing and production of music video? How do the power brokers in the business affect the ideological content of music video? Given the tight sphere of influence within the music industry, what are the future trends for music video and for artistic freedom of expression? Banks tackles these questions in an intelligent, lively, and sophisticated investigation into one of the most influential media enterprises of our society.

This book, first published in 1928, was written at a time when the tendency in industry was towards the formation of large combines. With competition growing as markets and methods of communication grew, many manufacturers considered their only option was to unite in self-defence, setting up a movement that restrictive legislation was unable to check. This book analyses the proper relations between monopolistic combines and the State, and was the first to examine the German experience of organised monopoly, and the means used to prevent it from becoming a mere protection for inefficient producers.

Human Rights after Corporate Personhood offers a rich overview of current debates, and seeks to transcend the "outrage response" often found in public discourse and corporate legal theory. Through original and innovative analyses, the volume offers an alternative account of corporate juridical personality and its relation to the human, one that departs from accounts offered by public law. In addition, it explores opportunities for the application of legal personality to assist progressive projects, including, but not limited to, environmental justice, animal rights, and Indigenous land claims. Presented accessibly for the benefit of non-specialist readers, the volume offers original arguments and draws on eclectic sources, from law and poetry to fiction and film. At the same time, it is firmly grounded in legal scholarship and, thus, serves as an essential reference for scholars, students, lawmakers, and anyone seeking a better understanding of the interface between corporations and the law in the twenty-first century.

Celebrating the 150th anniversary of Cournot's work, which Mark Blaug has characterized as .."a book that for sheer originality and boldness of conception has no equal in the history of economics thought," this volume focuses on the properties and uses of Cournot's model of competition among the few. While there are many issues that Cournot explored in researches into the mathematical principles of the theory of wealth, the topic that he is most readily associated with--and which now is also enjoying a revival--is his model of oligopolistic interaction among firms. This revivial of interest in Cournot's model is due largely to increased emphasis by economists on capturing elements of imperfect competition and strategic behavior.

Modern antitrust, an outgrowth of industrial organization, has grown from a nineteenth-century American issue aimed at economic phenomena - but derived from mixed political and legal origins - to a more global concern. Highly publicized legal cases involving corporations such as Microsoft, General Electric, Eastman Kodak and Toys 'R' Us have made us increasingly aware of how important and influential economists are in the area of modern antitrust law. Contributions in this book, by internationally-renowned authors, aim to increase the awareness and understanding of the work of economists in antitrust law. The contributions derive not just from academic analysis of industrial organization issues, but also from the authors' work in dozens of antitrust legal proceedings on behalf of the government, private plaintiffs and private defendants. Topics covered include the role of economists in issues of antitrust liability, market power, market definition and, finally, the effect of economists on antitrust - and vice versa.

The 1980s have seen advances in linking the analyses of foreign trade with industrial organization and exploring the impact of imperfect competition on international trade flows. The contributors in this volume look into questions related to this, such as the theories of intra-industry trade, the nature of gains from trade, the part played by scale economies and the arguments for intervention, economic integration and product differentiation. The general picture advances trade theory with respect to the Heckscher-Ohlin paradigm.

The UK has pioneered the introduction of competition into previously monopolistic utility industries. Competition has been introduced progressively, starting with BT, and continuing with the gas and electricity industries, where it is to be completed during 1998. In water, competition has so far been restricted to new developments, and it is said that it will be phased in once the initial franchises expire. These radical policy innovations have been controversial, and raise significant generic problems concerned with market design, regulation, corporate strategy and income distribution. The lessons from the UK provide an essential input into liberalization throughout the world, as well as helping to shape the transitional arrangements already in place in the UK. This volume brings together independent experts with the specialist regulators to provide a comprehensive analysis of the issues. The common themes are drawn together in the introduction. The volume will be essential reading for utility companies, regulators, politicians and policy advisors.

During the second half of the twentieth century, competition policy has been accorded an increasingly prominent role in the policy portfolios of industrialized nations. Since the late 1940s, when twenty-three nations ratified the first General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), tariff barriers have been progressively reduced throughout much of the industrialized world. The final Uruguay Round negotiations extended GATT's reach to agriculture, services, and intellectual property and clarified policies toward other aspects of trade. While great progress has been made, much remains to be done to integrate the world economy in the 21st century. In this book, part of the Brookings Integrating National Economies series, F. M. Scherer explores the three-way interaction among competition policy, national trading and investment strategies, and international trade policies. Focusing on four nations - the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan - he surveys the evolution over two centuries of national trading and competition policies and the points at which they come in conflict. Attempts to harmonize them through multilateral institutions, such as the European Union, are examined. The principal intersections between competition and trade policies are analyzed in depth. Scherer shows how export and import cartels have effects similar to traditional tariff barriers and how restraints implemented to settle trade disputes induce cartelization. Also investigated are the substantially different rules governing price discrimination under trade laws and competition policy, how vertical restraints such as exclusive dealing and resale price maintenance serve as import barriers, and theconflict between industrial policy and competition policy goals as nations choose whether to encourage or restrict mergers. Scherer offers recommendations for substantive and procedural improvements at the interface between trade and competition policies. He proposes a new set of international competition policy institutions that combat avoidable restraints while respecting the need for national sovereignty.

Monopolies or market power are usually considered to be an economic threat to markets and consumers. This book examines the theory, effectiveness and regulation of monopolies across the globe. The authors present topical research on monopolies, including the natural monopoly and third party access of the Swedish district heating market; the causes of market power; and, collusion and regulation in an electricity spot market and a study of the stability and efficiency of vertical collaboration networks from a microeconomic viewpoint.

The goal of antitrust advocates is to increase the role of competition, assure that competition works in the interests of consumers, and challenge abuses of concentrated economic power in the American and world economy. Antitrust policies were first enacted during the great robber baron era of American economic history. Men, such as Rockefeller and Carnegie, were forced to split up their companies that monopolised the oil and steel industries of America. Ever since that time, antitrust policies have worked to avoid similar situations. These policies cannot always be effective because of developing circumstances. This book presents studies of different antitrust policies and how they adapt to a rapidly changing economic landscape.

The negotiation of the Canada-U.S. Free Trade agreement in 1985-88 initiated a period of substantially increased North American, and later, global economic integration. However, events since the election of Donald Trump in 2016 have created the potential for major policy shifts arising from NAFTA's renegotiation and continuing political uncertainties in the United States and with Canada's other major trading partners. Navigating a Changing World draws together scholars from both countries to examine Canada-U.S. policy relations, the evolution of various processes for regulating market and human movements across national borders, and the specific application of these dynamics to a cross-section of policy fields with significant implications for Canadian public policy. It explores the impact of territorial institutions and extra-territorial forces - institutional, economic, and technological, among others - on interactions across national borders, both within North America and, where relevant, in broader economic relationships affecting the movement of goods, services, people, and capital. Above all, Navigating a Changing World represents the first major study to address Canada's international policy relations within and beyond North America since the elections of Justin Trudeau in 2015 and Donald Trump in 2016 and the renegotiation of NAFTA.