The Dynamics of Industrial Competition describes the internal dynamics of industries using new and unique longitudinal data that make it possible to track firms over time. It provides a comprehensive picture of a number of aspects of firm turnover in North America that arise from the competitive process - the entry and the exit of firms, the growth and the decline of incumbent firms, and the merger process. Instantaneous and cumulative measures of market dynamics are provided. Since the forces contributing to competition are varied and industries are affected by heterogeneous forces, different aspects of firm turnover are considered in order to provide a comprehensive overview of the competitive process. Entry is divided into that portion coming from the creation of new plants and that portion arising from the acquisition of existing firms. Differences are drawn between the effects of related and unrelated acquisitions and between the effects of take-overs made by domestic and foreign firms. Differences between large- and small-firm activity are also investigated. The effects of turnover on productivity, efficiency, wage rates, and profitability are extensively model led. Using various measures of firm turnover to proxy the amount of competition, the study examines and contextualizes the relationship between industry performance and the intensity of the competitive process.

The Dynamics of Industrial Competition provides the first extensive quantitative examination of the processes associated with competition: entry and exit, mergers, growth and decline of incumbent firms. It uses a unique data base to investigate phenomena that have rarely been measured and even more rarely set side by side so as to provide a comprehensive picture of the intensity of competition and its effects on productivity, efficiency and profitability. It will be of interest to all social scientists who are concerned with the workings of markets--economists, political scientists, government specialists, as well as antitrust lawyers.