The Great Merger Movement in American Business, 1895–1904

Naomi R. Lamoreaux (Author)

9780521357654, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 29 April 1988

224 pages
22.8 x 15.8 x 1.4 cm, 0.34 kg

Review of the paperback: 'This book is a model of good economic history and of good scholarship. Professor Lamoreaux has beautifully balanced a thorough reading of the history of the period with a plausible economic theory of the events and presented them in a readable and persuasive manner. I am certain that this will become the standard work on the great merger wave of the late nineteenth century.' Journal of Economic Literature

Between 1895 and 1904 a great wave of mergers swept through the manufacturing sector of the United States' economy. This book explores the causes of the mergers, arguing that there was nothing natural or inevitable about turn-of-the-century combinations. Despite this conclusion, the author does not accept the view that they were necessarily a threat to competition. She shows that most of these consolidations were less efficient that the new rivals that appeared almost immediately, and they quickly lost their positions of market dominance. More over, in most of those few cases where consolidations proved to be more efficient, the nation was better off for their formation. Some exceptions occurred, however, and in these instances anti-trust policy should have had a significant role to play. Unfortunately, the peculiar division of power and authority that characterizes the Federal system of government prevented an effective policy from emerging. Ironically, anti-trust policy proved much more effective against small firms in relatively competitive industries than large firms in oligopolistic ones.

Acknowledgments
List of tables and figures
1. Introduction
2. Product differentiation, mass production, and the urge to merge: competitive strategies and collusion in the late nineteenth century
3. High fixed costs and rapid expansion: a model of price warfare and two examples
4. Quantitative and qualitative evidence on the great merger movement
5. What changed? the impact of consolidations on competitive behaviour
6. The great merger movement and antitrust policy
7. Conclusion
Bibliographical essay
Index.

Subject Areas: History of the Americas [HBJK]