IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/8232.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Markets and Multiunit Firms from an American Historical Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Sukkoo Kim

Abstract

The expansion of markets and industrialization greatly increased the benefits of specialization in the U.S. economy. However, since the benefits of specialization can only be realized through trade, specialization significantly increases the volume of market transactions in the economy. The analysis presented in this paper suggests that a better understanding of the historical changes in the nature of market transactions costs, especially those related to information, is likely to provide considerable insights on the rise of the modern business enterprise and a richer understanding of the industrial organization of the U.S. economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Sukkoo Kim, 2001. "Markets and Multiunit Firms from an American Historical Perspective," NBER Working Papers 8232, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:8232
    Note: DAE
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w8232.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sokoloff, Kenneth L., 1988. "Inventive Activity in Early Industrial America: Evidence From Patent Records, 1790–1846," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(4), pages 813-850, December.
    2. Schmalensee, Richard, 1978. "A Model of Advertising and Product Quality," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(3), pages 485-503, June.
    3. Nelson, Phillip, 1970. "Information and Consumer Behavior," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 78(2), pages 311-329, March-Apr.
    4. Klein, Benjamin & Leffler, Keith B, 1981. "The Role of Market Forces in Assuring Contractual Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 89(4), pages 615-641, August.
    5. Libecap, Gary D, 1992. "The Rise of the Chicago Packers and the Origins of Meat Inspection and Antitrust," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 30(2), pages 242-262, April.
    6. Sokoloff, Kenneth L., 1984. "Investment in Fixed and Working Capital During Early Industrialization: Evidence from U. S. Manufacturing Firms," The Journal of Economic History, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(2), pages 545-556, June.
    7. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    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. Danielle Galliano & Nicolas Souli�, 2012. "Organizational and Spatial Determinants of the Multi-unit Firm: Evidence from French Industry," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(7), pages 907-926, October.
    2. Kapás, Judit, 2007. "Hogyan fejlődik a vállalat?. A fizikai és a társadalmi technológia kölcsönhatásos evolúciós folyamata [How do firms develop?. The mutual evolutionary process of physical and social technology]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(1), pages 49-66.
    3. Marc Law & Gary D. Libecap, 2006. "The Determinants of Progressive Era Reform. The Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906," NBER Chapters, in: Corruption and Reform: Lessons from America's Economic History, pages 319-342, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Zeynep K. Hansen & Marc T. Law, 2008. "The Political Economy of Truth-in-Advertising Regulation during the Progressive Era," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(2), pages 251-269, May.
    5. Mokyr, Joel, 2001. "The rise and fall of the factory system: technology, firms, and households since the industrial revolution," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 55(1), pages 1-45, December.

    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. Zeynep K. Hansen & Marc T. Law, 2008. "The Political Economy of Truth-in-Advertising Regulation during the Progressive Era," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(2), pages 251-269, May.
    2. Carsten Fink & Beata Smarzynska Javorcik & Mariana Spatareanu, 2005. "Income-Related Biases in International Trade: What Do Trademark Registration Data Tell Us?," Review of World Economics (Weltwirtschaftliches Archiv), Springer;Institut für Weltwirtschaft (Kiel Institute for the World Economy), vol. 141(1), pages 79-103, April.
    3. Jie Bai, 2016. "Melons as Lemons: Asymmetric Information, Consumer Learning and Seller Reputation," Natural Field Experiments 00540, The Field Experiments Website.
    4. Grolleau, Gilles & Caswell, Julie A., 2006. "Interaction Between Food Attributes in Markets: The Case of Environmental Labeling," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 31(3), pages 1-14, December.
    5. Steinrücken, Torsten, 2001. "Der Markt für politische Zitronen," Ilmenau Economics Discussion Papers 20, Ilmenau University of Technology, Institute of Economics.
    6. Mark W. Nichols, 1998. "Advertising and Quality in the U.S. Market for Automobiles," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 64(4), pages 922-939, April.
    7. repec:eee:labchp:v:2:y:1986:i:c:p:789-848 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Carol J. Simon, 1986. "Investor Information and the Performance of New Issues," UCLA Economics Working Papers 413, UCLA Department of Economics.
    9. Arfini, Filippo, 1999. "The value of typical products : the case of Prosciutto di Parma and Parmigiano Reggiano cheese," 67th Seminar, October 28-30, 1999, LeMans, France 241032, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    10. Georg Meran & Reimund Schwarze, 2010. "Can minimum prices assure the quality of professional services?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 171-199, October.
    11. Chuthaporn Ngokkuen & Ulrike Grote, 2012. "Challenges and opportunities for protecting geographical indications in Thailand," Asia-Pacific Development Journal, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), vol. 19(2), pages 93-123, December.
    12. Ernst, Holger & Wickede, Anje, 1999. "Einflußfaktoren auf die Glaubwürdigkeit kundenorientierter Produkt-Vorankündigungen: Ein signaltheoretischer Ansatz," Manuskripte aus den Instituten für Betriebswirtschaftslehre der Universität Kiel 515, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, Institut für Betriebswirtschaftslehre.
    13. Manuel Gonzalez-Diaz & Marta Fernandez Barcala & Benito Arrunada, 2003. "Quality assurance mechanisms in agrifood: the case of the Spanish fresh meat sector," International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 2(3/4), pages 361-382.
    14. Giovanni Anania & Rosanna Nisticò, 2004. "Public Regulation as a Substitute for Trust in Quality Food Markets: What if the Trust Substitute cannot be Fully Trusted?," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 160(4), pages 681-701, December.
    15. Belleflamme,Paul & Peitz,Martin, 2015. "Industrial Organization," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107687899, September.
    16. Haucap, Justus & Wey, Christian & Barmbold, Jens, 2000. "Location costs, product quality and implicit franchise contracts," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(1), pages 69-87, October.
    17. McQuade, Timothy & Salant, Stephen W. & Winfree, Jason, 2016. "Markets with untraceable goods of unknown quality: Beyond the small-country case," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 112-119.
    18. Bagwell, Kyle & Ramey, Garey, 1993. "Advertising as Information: Matching Products to Buyers," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 2(2), pages 199-243, Summer.
    19. Amanda S. King & John T. King & Michael Reksulak, 2017. "Signaling for access to high-demand markets: evidence from the US motion picture industry," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 41(4), pages 441-465, November.
    20. Mishra, Debi P., 2013. "Firms’ strategic response to service uncertainty: An empirical signaling study," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 21(3), pages 187-197.
    21. Ralston, Roy W., 2003. "The effects of customer service, branding, and price on the perceived value of local telephone service," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 201-213, March.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • N0 - Economic History - - General
    • L2 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior

    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:nbr:nberwo:8232. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.