The Market Power of Technology

The Market Power of Technology PDF Author: Mordecai Kurz
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231556527
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
Since the 1980s, the United States has regressed to a level of economic inequality not seen since the Gilded Age in the late nineteenth century. At the same time, technological innovation has transformed society, and a core priority of public policy has been promoting innovation. What is the relationship between economic inequality and technological change? Mordecai Kurz develops a comprehensive integrated theory of the dynamics of market power and income inequality. He shows that technological innovations are not simply sources of growth and progress: they sow the seeds of market power. In a free market economy with intellectual property rights, firms’ control over technology enables them to expand, attain monopoly power, and earn exorbitant profits. Competition among innovators does not eliminate market power because technological competition is different from standard competition; it results in only one or two winners. Kurz provides a pioneering analysis grounded on quantifying technological market power and its effects on inequality, innovation, and economic growth. He outlines what causes market power to rise and fall and details its macroeconomic and distributional consequences. Kurz demonstrates that technological market power tends to rise, increasing inequality of income and wealth. Unchecked inequality threatens the foundations of democracy: public policy is the only counterbalancing force that can restrain corporate power, attain more egalitarian distribution of wealth, and make democracy compatible with capitalism. Presenting a new paradigm for understanding today’s vast inequalities, this book offers detailed proposals to redress them by restricting corporate mergers and acquisitions, reforming patent law, improving the balance of power in the labor market, increasing taxation, promoting upward mobility, and stabilizing the middle class.

The Market Power of Technology

The Market Power of Technology PDF Author: Mordecai Kurz
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231556527
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 456

Get Book Here

Book Description
Since the 1980s, the United States has regressed to a level of economic inequality not seen since the Gilded Age in the late nineteenth century. At the same time, technological innovation has transformed society, and a core priority of public policy has been promoting innovation. What is the relationship between economic inequality and technological change? Mordecai Kurz develops a comprehensive integrated theory of the dynamics of market power and income inequality. He shows that technological innovations are not simply sources of growth and progress: they sow the seeds of market power. In a free market economy with intellectual property rights, firms’ control over technology enables them to expand, attain monopoly power, and earn exorbitant profits. Competition among innovators does not eliminate market power because technological competition is different from standard competition; it results in only one or two winners. Kurz provides a pioneering analysis grounded on quantifying technological market power and its effects on inequality, innovation, and economic growth. He outlines what causes market power to rise and fall and details its macroeconomic and distributional consequences. Kurz demonstrates that technological market power tends to rise, increasing inequality of income and wealth. Unchecked inequality threatens the foundations of democracy: public policy is the only counterbalancing force that can restrain corporate power, attain more egalitarian distribution of wealth, and make democracy compatible with capitalism. Presenting a new paradigm for understanding today’s vast inequalities, this book offers detailed proposals to redress them by restricting corporate mergers and acquisitions, reforming patent law, improving the balance of power in the labor market, increasing taxation, promoting upward mobility, and stabilizing the middle class.

Innovation Matters

Innovation Matters PDF Author: Richard J. Gilbert
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 026235862X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
A proposal for moving from price-centric to innovation-centric competition policy, reviewing theory and available evidence on economic incentives for innovation. Competition policy and antitrust enforcement have traditionally focused on prices rather than innovation. Economic theory shows the ways that price competition benefits consumers, and courts, antitrust agencies, and economists have developed tools for the quantitative evaluation of price impacts. Antitrust law does not preclude interventions to encourage innovation, but over time the interpretation of the laws has raised obstacles to enforcement policies for innovation. In this book, economist Richard Gilbert proposes a shift from price-centric to innovation-centric competition policy. Antitrust enforcement should be concerned with protecting incentives for innovation and preserving opportunities for dynamic, rather than static, competition. In a high-technology economy, Gilbert argues, innovation matters.

The Profit Paradox

The Profit Paradox PDF Author: Jan Eeckhout
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691224293
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
A pioneering account of the surging global tide of market power—and how it stifles workers around the world In an era of technological progress and easy communication, it might seem reasonable to assume that the world’s working people have never had it so good. But wages are stagnant and prices are rising, so that everything from a bottle of beer to a prosthetic hip costs more. Economist Jan Eeckhout shows how this is due to a small number of companies exploiting an unbridled rise in market power—the ability to set prices higher than they could in a properly functioning competitive marketplace. Drawing on his own groundbreaking research and telling the stories of common workers throughout, he demonstrates how market power has suffocated the world of work, and how, without better mechanisms to ensure competition, it could lead to disastrous market corrections and political turmoil. The Profit Paradox describes how, over the past forty years, a handful of companies have reaped most of the rewards of technological advancements—acquiring rivals, securing huge profits, and creating brutally unequal outcomes for workers. Instead of passing on the benefits of better technologies to consumers through lower prices, these “superstar” companies leverage new technologies to charge even higher prices. The consequences are already immense, from unnecessarily high prices for virtually everything, to fewer startups that can compete, to rising inequality and stagnating wages for most workers, to severely limited social mobility. A provocative investigation into how market power hurts average working people, The Profit Paradox also offers concrete solutions for fixing the problem and restoring a healthy economy.

The Technology Trap

The Technology Trap PDF Author: Carl Benedikt Frey
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691210799
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 488

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Book Description
From the Industrial Revolution to the age of artificial intelligence, Carl Benedikt Frey offers a sweeping account of the history of technological progress and how it has radically shifted the distribution of economic and political power among society's members. As the author shows, the Industrial Revolution created unprecedented wealth and prosperity over the long run, but the immediate consequences of mechanization were devastating for large swaths of the population.These trends broadly mirror those in our current age of automation. But, just as the Industrial Revolution eventually brought about extraordinary benefits for society, artificial intelligence systems have the potential to do the same. Benedikt Frey demonstrates that in the midst of another technological revolution, the lessons of the past can help us to more effectively face the present. --From publisher description.

Markets for Power

Markets for Power PDF Author: Paul L. Joskow
Publisher: MIT Press (MA)
ISBN: 9780262600187
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 269

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Book Description
This timely study evaluates four generic proposals for allowing free market forces toreplace government regulation in the electric power industry and concludes that none of thederegulation alternatives considered represents a panacea for the performance failures associatedwith things as they are now. It proposes a balanced program of regulatory reform and deregulationthat promises to improve industry performance in the short run, resolve uncertainties about thecosts and benefits of deregulation, and positions the industry for more extensive deregulation inthe long run should interim experimentation with deregulation, structural, and regulatory reformsmake it desirable.The book integrates modern microeconomic theory with a comprehensive analysis ofthe economic, technical, and institutional characteristics of modern electrical power systems. Itemphasizes that casual analogies to successful deregulation efforts in other sectors of the economyare an inadequate and potentially misleading basis for public policy in the electric power industry,which has economic and technical characteristics that are quite different from those in otherderegulated industries.Paul L. Joskow is Professor of Economics at MIT, author of ControllingHospital Costs (MIT Press 1981) and coauthor with Martin L. Baughman and Dilip P. Kamat of ElectricPower in the United States (MIT Press 1979). Richard Schmalensee, also at MIT, is Professor ofApplied Economics, author of The Economics of Advertising and The Control of Natural Monopolies, andeditor of The MIT Press Series, Regulation of Economic Activity.

The Market Experience

The Market Experience PDF Author: Robert E. Lane
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521407373
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 644

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Book Description
Robert Lane offers evidence that the major premises of market economics are mistaken.

Standardization Research in Information Technology: New Perspectives

Standardization Research in Information Technology: New Perspectives PDF Author: Jakobs, Kai
Publisher: IGI Global
ISBN: 159904563X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
Standardization has the potential to shape, expand, and create markets. Information technology has undergone a rapid transformation in the application of standards in practice, and recent developments have augmented the need for the divulgence of supplementary research. Standardization Research in Information Technology: New Perspectives amasses cutting-edge research on the application of standards in the market, covering topics such as corporate standardization, linguistic qualities of international standards, the role of individuals in standardization, and the development, use, application, and influence of information technology in standardization techniques.

The Market Masters

The Market Masters PDF Author: Kirk Kazanjian
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0471731099
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
Twenty leading money minds reveal how to prosper in today's volatile markets What strategies have made Wall Street's top investors so successful? What are their biggest mistakes and proudest accomplishments? How do they invest their own money? And what are the keys to finding the best stocks and bonds? This enlightening book features one-on-one interviews with 20 of the world's leading mutual fund managers representing a variety of different styles-from growth gurus, value masters, bond wizards, and international globetrotters to specialists in such market sectors as technology, healthcare, financial services, and real estate. All have demonstrated track records that consistently outperform the competition. These managers speak frankly about their strategies for beating the market in good times and bad, along with their predictions for the future and exclusive lists of favorite investments for the coming years. Kirk Kazanjian (Mountain View, CA) is an experienced investment and personal finance author. He has written more than 20 books, including Wizards of Wall Street and Value Investing with the Masters. Kazanjian is a former award-winning television news anchor and business reporter whose stories appeared on CNN and ABC stations across the country. In addition to running his own investment company, he was an executive at several leading financial firms, including American Century Investments. He is regularly interviewed by CNBC, CNNfn, and Bloomberg, and has been featured in numerous business and investment publications.

Representing High Tech Companies

Representing High Tech Companies PDF Author: Gary M. Lawrence
Publisher: Law Journal Press
ISBN: 9781588520852
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 1434

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Book Description
This book discusses financing and documenting joint ventures and early-stage strategic partnerships; devising workable nondisclosure agreements and managing an intellectual property portfolio.

The Profit Paradox

The Profit Paradox PDF Author: Jan Eeckhout
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691241716
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
A pioneering account of the surging global tide of market power—and how it stifles workers around the world In an era of technological progress and easy communication, it might seem reasonable to assume that the world’s working people have never had it so good. But wages are stagnant and prices are rising, so that everything from a bottle of beer to a prosthetic hip costs more. Economist Jan Eeckhout shows how this is due to a small number of companies exploiting an unbridled rise in market power—the ability to set prices higher than they could in a properly functioning competitive marketplace. Drawing on his own groundbreaking research and telling the stories of common workers throughout, he demonstrates how market power has suffocated the world of work, and how, without better mechanisms to ensure competition, it could lead to disastrous market corrections and political turmoil. The Profit Paradox describes how, over the past forty years, a handful of companies have reaped most of the rewards of technological advancements—acquiring rivals, securing huge profits, and creating brutally unequal outcomes for workers. Instead of passing on the benefits of better technologies to consumers through lower prices, these “superstar” companies leverage new technologies to charge even higher prices. The consequences are already immense, from unnecessarily high prices for virtually everything, to fewer startups that can compete, to rising inequality and stagnating wages for most workers, to severely limited social mobility. A provocative investigation into how market power hurts average working people, The Profit Paradox also offers concrete solutions for fixing the problem and restoring a healthy economy.