Publisher's Synopsis
A major concern of industrial economics is market power, the ability of firms to set prices above the competitive level. One of the main purposes of this book is to analyse market power from different perspectives. In particular, its implications (in terms of welfare, firm diversification etc), relationship with concentration, game theoretic explanation and efficiency hypothesis (Chicago School?s view) are considered explicitly. Procedures for analysing the efficiency of a merger and welfare are investigated. Various issues on concentration and efficiency are discussed elaborately. In the context of a structure?conduct?performance paradigm, the theoretical as well as empirical aspect of issues like profitability?concentration relationship, contestability, entry of firms and entry barriers are explored. Alternative attempts to generate size distribution of firms are examined in detail. Several topics on policy matters are also considered. All technical terms and mathematical results are supplemented by intuitive explanations.
