IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izapps/pp146.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

New Technology and Increasing Returns: The End of the Antitrust Century?

Author

Listed:
  • Basu, Kaushik

    (World Bank)

Abstract

The advance of digital technology is changing the nature of markets, enhancing the capacity of corporations to extract more consumers' surplus and lower the wages paid to workers. The rise of new technology has also diminished the efficacy of traditional laws to regulate firms and corporations. This is best illustrated by antitrust laws. With the new technology, there is greater returns to scale in production, and further, it is possible to have different components of the same final good be produced by different firms in faraway places. Unlike in earlier times the n firms in one industry, say the automobile industry, would all be producing cars, now the n firms in that industry produce n different parts of the product, thereby getting enormous returns to scale. Such markets are described as vertically serrated markets and their equilibria are characterized. Traditional antitrust law does not apply to these markets because the high returns to scale are natural and not artificially induced. This compels us to look for novel ways to regulate such markets. This paper discusses, in particular, laws that compel firms to have widely dispersed share holdings.

Suggested Citation

  • Basu, Kaushik, 2019. "New Technology and Increasing Returns: The End of the Antitrust Century?," IZA Policy Papers 146, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
  • Handle: RePEc:iza:izapps:pp146
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/pp146.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alan B. Krueger & Orley Ashenfelter, 2022. "Theory and Evidence on Employer Collusion in the Franchise Sector," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 57(S), pages 324-348.
    2. Jevons, William Stanley, 1871. "The Theory of Political Economy," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number jevons1871.
    3. Dani Rodrik, 2018. "Populism and the economics of globalization," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 1(1), pages 12-33, June.
    4. David H. Autor & Lawrence F. Katz & Alan B. Krueger, 1998. "Computing Inequality: Have Computers Changed the Labor Market?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(4), pages 1169-1213.
    5. Dixit, Avinash, 1980. "The Role of Investment in Entry-Deterrence," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 90(357), pages 95-106, March.
    6. Basu, Kaushik, 2016. "Globalization of labor markets and the growth prospects of nations," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 656-669.
    7. Nirvikar Singh & Xavier Vives, 1984. "Price and Quantity Competition in a Differentiated Duopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(4), pages 546-554, Winter.
    8. Basu, Kaushik, 2018. "The rise of Trump and an agenda for regulatory reform," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 546-558.
    9. Young, Allyn A., 1928. "Increasing Returns and Economic Progress," History of Economic Thought Articles, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, vol. 38, pages 527-542.
    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. Richard Sturn, 2021. "Der Staat heute: Marktversagen und die Voraussetzungen öffentlicher Handlungsfähigkeit," Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft - WuG, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik, vol. 47(1), pages 15-39.
    2. Richard Sturn, 2020. "Präventive Handlungsfähigkeit des Staates im 21. Jahrhundert [Public Agency Capabilities and Transformational Challenges of the 21st Century]," Wirtschaftsdienst, Springer;ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 100(7), pages 531-537, July.

    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. Basu, Kaushik, 2018. "The rise of Trump and an agenda for regulatory reform," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 546-558.
    2. Bert Minne & Marc van der Steeg & Dinand Webbink, 2008. "Skill gaps in the EU: role for education and training policies," CPB Document 162, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    3. Nakamura, Yasuhiko, 2014. "Capacity choice in a duopoly with a consumer-friendly firm and an absolute profit-maximizing firm," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 105-117.
    4. Gouranga Gopal Das & Sugata Marjit, 2018. "Skill, Innovation and Wage Inequality: Can Immigrants be the Trump Card?," CESifo Working Paper Series 7082, CESifo.
    5. Dermot Leahy & J. Peter Neary, 2021. "When the threat is stronger than the execution: trade and welfare under oligopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(3), pages 471-495, September.
    6. Young Lee & Jeong Hun Oh & Hwan-Joo Seo, 2002. "Digital Divide and Growth Gap: A Cumulative Relationship," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2002-88, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    7. Krishnendu Ghosh Dastidar & Makoto Yano, 2021. "Corruption, market quality, and entry deterrence in emerging economies," International Journal of Economic Theory, The International Society for Economic Theory, vol. 17(1), pages 101-117, March.
    8. David Simpson, 2013. "The Rediscovery of Classical Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 15080, March.
    9. Jacopo Bizzotto & Toomas Hinnosaar & Adrien Vigier, 2022. "The Limits of Commitment," Working Papers 202206, Oslo Metropolitan University, Oslo Business School.
    10. Yoshihiro Tomaru & Yasuhiko Nakamura & Masayuki Saito, 2009. "Capacity Choice in a Mixed Duopoly with Managerial Delegation," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 29(3), pages 1904-1924.
    11. DongJoon Lee & Joonghwa Oh, 2022. "Strategic commitments of downstream investment firms," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 2098-2107, September.
    12. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899, November.
    13. Richard Walker, 2005. "Superstars and Renaissance Men: Specialization, Market Size and the Income Distribution," CEP Discussion Papers dp0707, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    14. Sandro Shelegia, 2012. "Is the Competitor of my Competitor also my Competitor?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(4), pages 927-963, December.
    15. Krishnan S. Anand & Karan Girotra, 2007. "The Strategic Perils of Delayed Differentiation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(5), pages 697-712, May.
    16. Jinyoung Lee & Gyu Ho Wang, 2007. "The Comparison of Entry Deterrence Between Cournot And Bertrand Competition," Korean Economic Review, Korean Economic Association, vol. 23, pages 33-48.
    17. Titan Alon, 2018. "Earning More by Doing Less: Human Capital Specialization and the College Wage Premium," 2018 Meeting Papers 497, Society for Economic Dynamics.
    18. Lisa Planer-Friedrich & Marco Sahm, 2020. "Strategic corporate social responsibility, imperfect competition, and market concentration," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 129(1), pages 79-101, January.
    19. Jacopo Bizzotto & Toomas Hinnosaar & Adrien Vigier, 2022. "The Limits of Limited Commitment," Papers 2205.05546, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2024.
    20. Yang, Shu-Jung Sunny & Anderson, Edward James, 2014. "Competition through capacity investment under asymmetric existing capacities and costs," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 237(1), pages 217-230.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    antitrust law; share distribution; technological advance; labor demand;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F63 - International Economics - - Economic Impacts of Globalization - - - Economic Development
    • K21 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Antitrust Law
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:iza:izapps:pp146. 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: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    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.