The Dynamics of Company Profits

An international comparison of company profitability using time-series data based on both a firm and industry level.

Dennis C. Mueller (Edited by)

9780521022293, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 November 2005

228 pages
22.4 x 15 x 1.5 cm, 0.329 kg

Do company profits eventually converge on a common, competitive level? How long does the convergence process take? This book seeks to answer these questions through a comparison of company profitability using time-series data compiled at the firm level and at the industry level in Canada, France, Japan, Sweden, West Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The emphasis is on long-run, dynamic processes, and the perspective is that of Joseph Schumpeter, with profits converging, if at all, to competitive levels only in the long run. The basic methodology of the book is presented in one chapter, with the subsequent chapters focusing on results for individual countries. A summary chapter presenting major resolutions and their implications concludes the book.

1. Profits and the process of competition Dennis C. Mueller
2. Modelling persistent profitability Paul A. Geroski
3. The persistence of profits in the United States Dennis C. Mueller
4. The persistence of profits in US manufacturing industries Ioannis Kessides
5. The persistence of profitability in Canada R. Shyam Khemani and D. M. Shapiro
6. Persistence of corporate profits in the Federal Republic of Germany Joachim Schwalbach and Talat Mahmood
7. The persistence of profits in France Frederic Jenny and Andre-Paul Weber
8. The persistence of profits in Japan Hiroyuki Odagiri and Hideki Yamawaki
9. The persistence of profits in the UK John Cubbin and Paul A. Geroski
10. The persistence of profits: international comparison Hiroyuki Odagiri and Hideki Yamawaki
11. The persistence of profits in perspective Paul A. Geroski and Dennis C. Mueller.

Subject Areas: Labour economics [KCF]