The Market Power of Technology: Understanding the Second Gilded Age

Mordecai Kurz

Published by Columbia University Press 2023

The Market Power of Technology

Understanding the Second Gilded Age

Mordecai Kurz

https://doi.org/10.7312/kurz20652

Overview
Contents

About this book

Mordecai Kurz develops a comprehensive integrated theory of the dynamics of market power and income inequality. He shows that technological innovations are not simply sources of growth and progress: they sow the seeds of market power. Technological market power tends to rise, increasing inequality of income and wealth.

Author / Editor information

Mordecai Kurz is Joan Kenney Professor of Economics Emeritus at Stanford University. His books include Public Investment, the Rate of Return, and Optimal Fiscal Policy (with Kenneth J. Arrow, 1970) and Endogenous Economic Fluctuations: Studies in the Theory of Rational Beliefs (1997), and he has published widely across many fields of economic theory.

Reviews

Nicholas S. Vonortas, editor of Science and Public Policy:
In an era of dominance of IT firms, a sector which has been long known for its strong tendency for monopolization, The Market Power of Technology provides important reasoning and substantiation of how this increasing industrial concentration goes hand in hand with the income inequalities of our time.

Dani Rodrik, Harvard University:
Economists tend to believe the market power enjoyed by innovators is a necessary evil. Mordecai Kurz shows that the resulting monopolies are neither temporary nor a minor hindrance. Kurz has written a book that is rigorous in its theoretical and empirical underpinnings, yet radical in its policy implications. This is a hugely important book that goes right to the core of the central contradictions of our current economic system.

Sir Angus Deaton, Princeton University:
We live in a time of unparalleled technical innovation that ought to be bringing unparalleled and widespread prosperity. Mordecai Kurz gives us a clear, eloquent, and impassioned account of what has gone wrong and how we can fix it. This book is a key contribution to one of today’s most important intellectual and policy debates.

Sir Partha Dasgupta, University of Cambridge:
Starting with the simple idea that established firms can use their technological innovations to deter entry, Kurz constructs an account of the rise in wealth inequality in modern societies. Beautifully blending analytical reasoning with empirical evidence, the book offers a picture of contemporary macroeconomic growth and development that is at once novel and convincing. This is economics at its best.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Table of Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Preface Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Suggested Nontechnical Reading of the Book Publicly Available Download PDF	xvii
Introduction: Why We Are in a Second Gilded Age and What We Can Do About It Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1. The Nexus of Market Power, Technology, and Public Policy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	43
2. Economic Growth Under the Effect of Market Power Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
3. Monopoly Wealth and Intangible Capital Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
4. Determinants of Market Power in the United States, 1889–2017 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	153
5. The Effect of Market Power on the Diffusion of Innovations Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
6. Market Power and Asset Prices, 1950–2019 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
7. R&D and Technological Competition Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	261
8. Policy Reform Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	313
9. Policy to Restrain the Expansion of Market Power Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	329
10. Taxation, Public Investments, and Redistribution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	367
Concluding Remarks Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	401
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	405
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	425

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Illustrations
- Other: 49 b&w figures

eBook

Published: January 3, 2023
ISBN: 9780231556521