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Cost-Minimizing Number of Firms and Determination of Industry Structure

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  • William J. Baumol
  • Dietrich Fischer

Abstract

I. Introduction, 439.—II. Least-cost number of firms in a multiproduct industry, 441.—III. Shape of the M locus: economic interpretation, 446.—IV. Regions in which some specified number of firms may be optimal, 450.—V. Scale of demand and cost-minimizing market form, 454.—VI. The single-product case, 455.—VII. Conclusion, 460.—Appendix A: Proof of Theorem Ib, 462.—Appendix B: Proof of Theorem 3, 464.

Suggested Citation

  • William J. Baumol & Dietrich Fischer, 1978. "Cost-Minimizing Number of Firms and Determination of Industry Structure," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 92(3), pages 439-467.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:qjecon:v:92:y:1978:i:3:p:439-467.
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    Cited by:

    1. Philippe Jehiel, 1999. "Information Aggregation and Communication in Organizations," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 45(5), pages 659-669, May.
    2. Subhash C. Ray & Shilpa Sethia, 2022. "Nonparametric measurement of potential gains from mergers: an additive decomposition and application to Indian bank mergers," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 115-130, April.
    3. Sandler, Todd & Tschirhart, John T, 1980. "The Economic Theory of Clubs: An Evaluative Survey," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 18(4), pages 1481-1521, December.
    4. Cesaroni, Giovanni, 2018. "Industry cost efficiency in data envelopment analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 37-43.
    5. Natsuko Iwasaki & Barry Seldon & Victor Tremblay, 2008. "Brewing Wars of Attrition for Profit (and Concentration)," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 33(4), pages 263-279, December.
    6. Thijs Raa, 2011. "Benchmarking and industry performance," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 285-292, December.
    7. Gunnar Eliasson & Magnus Henrekson, 2004. "William J. Baumol: An Entrepreneurial Economist on the Economics of Entrepreneurship," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 23(1), pages 1-7, August.
    8. Ioannis Kessides & Li Tang, 2010. "Sunk Costs, Market Contestability, and the Size Distribution of Firms," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 37(3), pages 215-236, November.
    9. Marianne Fischman & Emeric Lendjel, 2010. "Comment expliquer la permanence de l'artisanat dans le transport fluvial de marchandises ?," Post-Print halshs-00582556, HAL.
    10. Pierre Dupraz, 1997. "La spécialisation des exploitations agricoles : changements techniques et prix des facteurs," Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, INRA Department of Economics, vol. 45, pages 93-122.
    11. Marianne Fischman & Emeric Lendjel, 2010. "Comment expliquer la permanence de l'artisanat dans le transport fluvial de marchandises ?," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00582556, HAL.
    12. William James Adams & Bruno Crépon & David Encaoua, 1992. "Choix technologiques et stratégies de dissuasion d'entrée," Économie et Prévision, Programme National Persée, vol. 102(1), pages 27-36.
    13. Subhash C. Ray & Shilpa Sethia, 2023. "A State-Level Resource Allocation Model for Emission Reduction and Efficiency Improvement in Thermal Power Plants," Working papers 2023-08, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
    14. Ray, Subhash C. & Walden, John & Chen, Lei, 2021. "Economic measures of capacity utilization: A nonparametric short-run cost function analysis," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 293(1), pages 375-387.

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