The Megacorp and Oligopoly
Micro Foundations of Macro Dynamics

This book provides an explanation of the inflation which has bedeviled economic policy in the West since the end of World War II.

Alfred S. Eichner (Author)

9780521068611, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 10 July 2008

380 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm, 0.56 kg

This book provides both an explanation of the inflation which has bedeviled economic policy in the West since the end of World War II and a micro-economic theory to purge Keynesian models of the Walrasian strain derived from Marshall's Principles. By focusing on what is taken to be the representative business firm of the twentieth century - the large corporation or megacorp - the microeconomic model presented in the book reverses the usual assumptions of economic analysis. Instead of assuming the existence of firms with no control over prices, the book examines how the megacorp uses its pricing power to finance its own internal rate of growth. The result is a determinant model of how prices are set under the sort of oligopolistic conditions which prevail in most modern industries throughout the world.

1. Introduction
2. The nature of the megacorp
3. The pricing decision
4. Extensions of the basic model
5. The distribution of income
6. Micro and macro
7. Conventional policy instruments
8. Toward social control.

Subject Areas: Economic theory & philosophy [KCA]