IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbioec/v4y2002i2p109-133.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On the Optimality of the Competitive Process: Kimura's Theorem and Market Dynamics

Author

Listed:
  • J. Metcalfe

Abstract

This paper considers the optimality properties of a market economy in terms of three propositions that evaluate the outcomes of and the process of competition between a population of firms working within a given economic environment. We show that when firms differ in more than one competitive characteristic then competition does not select in general the most efficient firm nor does it always result in increases in the average efficiency with which resources are utilized. Drawing upon a theorem of Kimura, however, we show that competition has the property of maximizing the rate of change of the average selective characteristics in the population. We conclude that a more nuanced appraisal of the institutions of the competitive process is surely necessary. From an evolutionary standpoint, the outcomes of competition are always contingent on the nature of the selection environment and the characteristics of the whole population of firms that are being selected. Copyright Kluwer Academic Publishers 2002

Suggested Citation

  • J. Metcalfe, 2002. "On the Optimality of the Competitive Process: Kimura's Theorem and Market Dynamics," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 109-133, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbioec:v:4:y:2002:i:2:p:109-133
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1021143303818
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1023/A:1021143303818
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1023/A:1021143303818?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. R. G. Lipsey & Kelvin Lancaster, 1956. "The General Theory of Second Best," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 24(1), pages 11-32.
    2. John Foster & J. Stanley Metcalfe (ed.), 2001. "Frontiers of Evolutionary Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 2234.
    3. Martin Currie & Stan Metcalfe, 2001. "Firm routines, customer switching and market selection under duopoly," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 433-456.
    4. Cohen, Wesley M & Malerba, Franco, 2001. "Is the Tendency to Variation a Chief Cause of Progress?," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 10(3), pages 587-608, September.
    5. Elias Khalil, 2000. "Survival of the Most Foolish of Fools: The Limits of Evolutionary Selection Theory," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 2(3), pages 203-220, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Janet Landa, 2012. "Gordon Tullock’s contributions to bioeconomics," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 203-210, July.
    2. Christos N. Pitelis, 2011. "Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Integration," Chapters, in: Miroslav N. Jovanović (ed.), International Handbook on the Economics of Integration, Volume III, chapter 1, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Werner Hölzl, 2015. "Sunk costs and the speed of market selection," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 323-344, April.
    4. Christos N. Pitelis, 2009. "The Sustainable Competitive Advantage and Catching-up of Nations: FDI, Clusters and the Liability (Asset) of Smallness," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 49(1), pages 95-120, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emmanuel Petrakis & Panagiotis Skartados, 2022. "Vertical Opportunism, Bargaining, and Share-Based Agreements," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 60(4), pages 549-565, June.
    2. Jonathan M. Lee, 2015. "The Impact of Heterogeneous NOx Regulations on Distributed Electricity Generation in U.S. Manufacturing," Working Papers 15-12, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    3. Fabiola Baltar & Sonia de Coulon, 2014. "Dynamics Of The Entrepreneurial Process: The Innovative Entrepreneur And The Strategic Decisions," Review of Business and Finance Studies, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 5(1), pages 69-81.
    4. Sergio Turner, 2004. "Pareto Improving Taxation in Incomplete Markets," Econometric Society 2004 Latin American Meetings 310, Econometric Society.
    5. Bhardwaj, Chandan & Axsen, Jonn & Kern, Florian & McCollum, David, 2020. "Why have multiple climate policies for light-duty vehicles? Policy mix rationales, interactions and research gaps," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 309-326.
    6. Brian Loasby, 2001. "Forum `Knowledge, Evolution and the Theory of the Firm' – Introduction," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 5(3), pages 275-285, September.
    7. Kala Krishna & Abhiroop Mukhopadhyay & Cemile Yavas, 2005. "Trade with Labor Market Distortions and Heterogeneous Labor: Why Trade Can Hurt," Contributions to Economics, in: Günter S. Heiduk & Kar-yiu Wong (ed.), WTO and World Trade, pages 65-83, Springer.
    8. Richter, Wolfram F., 2009. "Taxing education in Ramsey's tradition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(11-12), pages 1254-1260, December.
    9. Hakim Hammadou & Claire Papaix, 2015. "Policy packages for modal shift and CO2 reduction in Lille, France," Working Papers 1501, Chaire Economie du climat.
    10. Michael Bates & Michael Dinerstein & Andrew C. Johnston & Isaac Sorkin, 2022. "Teacher Labor Market Equilibrium and Student Achievement," CESifo Working Paper Series 9551, CESifo.
    11. Sanz Labrador, Ismael & Sanz-Sanz, José Félix, 2013. "Política fiscal y crecimiento económico: consideraciones microeconómicas y relaciones macroeconómicas," Macroeconomía del Desarrollo 5367, Naciones Unidas Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL).
    12. Juan Carlos De Pablo, 2001. "Ideas, intereses y valores," CEMA Working Papers: Serie Documentos de Trabajo. 196, Universidad del CEMA.
    13. Eduardo Dávila & Ansgar Walther, 2021. "Corrective Regulation with Imperfect Instruments," NBER Working Papers 29160, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Morrison, Alan & Lóránth, Gyöngyi, 2009. "Internal Reporting Systems, Compensation Contracts, and Bank Regulation," CEPR Discussion Papers 7155, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. Venables, Anthony & Duranton, Gilles, 2018. "Place-Based Policies for Development," CEPR Discussion Papers 12889, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Johannesen, Niels, 2022. "The global minimum tax," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    17. Frewer, Geoff, 1985. "Optimal Destabilisation, Active Learning, and the Choice of Step Length in Policy Reform," Economic Research Papers 269230, University of Warwick - Department of Economics.
    18. Tulla Antoni F., 2019. "Sustainable Rural Development Requires Value-Added Activities Linked with Comparative Advantage: The Case of the Catalan Pyrenees," European Countryside, Sciendo, vol. 11(2), pages 229-256, June.
    19. Rabah Amir & Giuseppe Feo, 2014. "Endogenous timing in a mixed duopoly," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 43(3), pages 629-658, August.
    20. Bonnet, Odran & Chapelle, Guillaume & Trannoy, Alain & Wasmer, Etienne, 2021. "Land is back, it should be taxed, it can be taxed," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:jbioec:v:4:y:2002:i:2:p:109-133. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.