Regarding Nathan's synthesis, one reason why Sherman may have been right as well as Shaikh et al. Consider the automobile industry in the 50's and 60s. Very little competition occurred. Studebaker, Hudson, & American Motors survived at the margin with the support of the Big Three to reduce the threat of antitrust.
With international competition, which heated up later, the monopolistic profits evaporated. Intellectual property rights tightened to protect some key industries from such foreign competition as the US economy heated up. On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 4:30 PM, nathan tankus <[email protected]> wrote: > Jim said... > > "Howard Sherman's research suggests persistent differences between > profit rates between sectors, while Shaikh, Glick, and others see the > differences as transitory. I think the latter research has been better > (partly because it came later), but it's possible that there was a > period during the 1950s and 1960s when there was a persistent > difference in profit rates between sectors." > > This seems like a misinterpretation to me. Shaikh et al haven't argued > (to my knowledge) that the profit rates actually equalize: they argue > that there is a tendency to equalization that is constantly blocked by > factors such as technological change, shifts in the social division of > labor, restrictions on capital flows etc. I'm agnostic on whether they > are right or not although I think they are correct that imperfect, > monopolisticly competitive, monopoly capital etc theories are bunk. > > On that note I recently received a copy of Alternative Theories of > Competition: Challenges to the Orthodoxy to review. > > http://www.amazon.com/Alternative-Theories-Competition-Challenges-Orthodoxy/dp/0415686873 > > -- > -Nathan Tankus > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 530 898 5321 fax 530 898 5901 http://michaelperelman.wordpress.com _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
