Competition's New Clothes
20 Short Cases on Rivalry Between Firms

Twenty revealing tales of real-life rivalry between firms in diverse industries, including wine, skiing, opera, video games and cruise liners.

François Lévêque (Author)

9781108473590, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 7 February 2019

220 pages, 2 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.7 x 1.5 cm, 0.48 kg

'An extremely engaging book that teaches almost everything you would want to know about competition and markets through the use of a diverse set of real world 'stories'. Perfect competition, to monopolist competition, to oligopoly, to monopoly, to innovation. Stories about casinos, toys, wine, breakfast cereals, soccer, ride hailing services, and more. The book is hard to put down which is saying something about n book about microeconomics.' Paul L. Joskow, Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics, Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Lévêque recounts twenty revealing tales of real-life rivalry between firms across diverse industries, including wine, skiing, opera, video games and cruise liners. These entertaining and insightful narratives are informed by recent advances in economics, factoring in the many forces driving competition, including globalization and innovation. Divided into four sections, the book covers competition and the market; competition and variety; competition through innovation; and competition and equality. Read together, these stories also serve as building blocks to address the issue of whether competition between firms has entered a new era of increased intensity. This book will appeal to anyone, from company executives to consumers, who are interested in the economics of contemporary industry and want to incorporate a grasp of competition into their everyday decision-making. This book can also be used as a supplementary text in courses in microeconomics, business economics and industrial organisation.

Introduction
Part I. Competition and Market: 1. Three ski lessons for budding economists
2. Containers conquering the world
3. Casinos and one-armed bandits
4. The great game of international gas
5. The glamorous shipping market
6. Intermezzo: the Earth is not that flat
Part II. Competition and Differentiation: 7. Coca-Cola versus Pepsi: the war is over
8. A cruise in a gilded cage
9. Lego's winning game
10. Breakfast cereals invading space
11. Four wine-economics tasting sessions
12. Intermezzo: no end of differentiation
Part III. Competition and Innovation: 13. Uberizing the razor
14. Coaches, BlaBlaCar and trains
15. Apple versus Google, season one
16. Apple versus Google, season two
17. Super Mario can die, but like Nintendo he has several lives
18. Intermezzo, on a theme of disruptive innovation
Part IV. Competition and Redistribution: 19. Bidding for soccer TV rights
20. For and against fixed retail book prices
21. Gyms running on empty
22. Phantom economics at the opera
23. Uber, or forget about taxis and drivers for a while
24. Intermezzo on the redistributive effects of competition
Conclusion. The changing face of competition today.

Subject Areas: Organizational theory & behaviour [KJU], Business competition [KJF], Economics of industrial organisation [KCD], Globalization [JFFS]