History
People are always difficult to avoid choice in two difficulties, and it is not true for Marshall in the 19th century British economist. The head of this Cambridge School is in the interpretation of the price mechanism, but the contradiction between the two, the opposite economy and the competitive vitality, it looks like a contradiction. Is it necessary to pursue a large-scale economy and would rather stifle competition? Or to sacrifice the economy in order to maintain competition? Marshall left this century problem to future generations. After that, surrounded by this problem, economists launched a lasting debate and gradually formed a new economic theory - Industrial Organization Theory.
Economics Center topic is the configuration of resources
how to make the limited economic resources to meet the needs of humans. Classical economics's open nasal ancestors Adam Smith believe that people pursue their own interests is like an invisible hand, dominating people, financial, things and other resources in various industrial movements, so that social needs and social production are equalized. Make the utilization of resources tend to reasonably, which is the principle of "unknown hands" in Western economics.
Marshall Conflict Theory (3)
Specifically
How is a limited economic resource to achieve the most reasonable allocation? Western economics believes It is the price and competition for this big or competition. The price and the price of the price are like a signal, indicating which product production, which industry department has too much resource allocation or deficiencies. Excessive allocation, excess production, price fell, no profit map; no deficiencies are in short supply, price increase, profit. In this way, under the guidance of price mechanisms, competition to pursue personal interests will transfer resources from a non-profit map, and turn into a profit-rich department, thus reaching the reasonable allocation of resources in the industrial, making social production and society. Demand is equilibrium.
At the same time, there is still a labor productivity between the laborers producing the same commodity, which in turn performs the difference in production cost. Then, the lower cost can sell products at a lower price, win more customer and market share, so that it can be further expanded, accounting for more resources. Instead, those who have a higher cost will lose their customers in the competition, lose the market, and eventually lose resources in their hands. This price and competition can also assign resources to producers with higher efficiency. Since the guidance of price mechanism is automatic, there is no need for any people, and therefore, as long as it maintains a full competition, economic resources will eventually reach optimal. It is based on this idea that Western economics believe that freedom competition is the original economic activity and economic progress. This creed later passed Marshall's packaging and interpretation, which was more perfect and seductive, so today, people still compete for freedom as economics's first priority.
Economics is the end of a guiding how people make choice, making choices must, first because there are too many temptations in the real world. In the second half of the 19th century, the hurricane swept throughout the world, causing the rapid expansion of enterprises to become possible in technology and substances. So, people have begun to temporarily attacked the scale economy. The so-called scale economy, popularity is the benefits of mass production, which is actually referring to savings, benefits or benefits. Research on economics shows that many industrial sectors have the characteristics of scale, that is, as the economy expands, the average cost of its unit output is constantly decreasing, the more production, the lower the average cost. In this industrial industry, there is a little more competition with many companies, every family is produced, no one is not enough, the average cost is high, but it is better to give all the production to a few, or even a family. Enterprises, let it go to the horsepower, how much is the need to produce, and minimize the average cost.
instance
Taking long distance call as an example
If many companies are allowed to compete, they can lay each other-inlant communication network, which will undoubtedly lead to huge waste of economic resources. Let one of the companies to expand the scale, handle all the business to it, but it is beneficial to the whole society. It has an unbeatable significance to improve the economic benefits of a large scale, and even the entire national economy. According to the 1959 British scholar Maxi and Silbus on the automotive industry, when the annual volume of a model increased from 1,000 units to 100,000, the unit cost will drop by 55%. After the Second World War, especially in the past ten years, the international enterprises have grown in the wind, an important reason is to pursue a scale economy.
Unfortunately, the market size of each industry is not unlimited. When a limited market size and enterprise pursuing size economic action, it will inevitably lead to increasingly concentrated production, and the number of companies Continuously decrease. It is eventually possible to form a monopoly of a monopoly, thus making it a power for human manipulation. Even in a few companies account for most of the monopoly markets produced in a certain industry, they can often control the price, distort market configuration resources in order to avoid two defeats in the competition, and can often control the price of this industry. mechanism.
, such as the production capacity of a certain industry, excessive production capacity, "If the market mechanism has fully played a role, some resources should be withdrawn from the industry, but due to market monopoly, the freedom Enterprises in monopoly positions may have to limit production, maintaining fixed prices, so that these companies are safe and sound, and there is no resource movement in the case of indulgence, and the equipment is idle. This is obviously a huge waste. Conversely, if a certain industry has insufficient production capacity, monopoly oligarchs have been set up by setting various barriers, preventing the inflow of resources and the emergence of new enterprises, thus enjoying excess profits. In this way, once the monopoly prices are formed, the price competition between the enterprises does not exist, and the market status of monopolistic enterprises will be relatively stable. The pressure of competition is greatly reduced, and the driving force for the pursuit of technological progress will be weakened accordingly. Lenin has raised a very vivid example in his "Imperialism is the highest stage of capitalism", "There is an Owen in the United States invented a bottle machine that causing a bottle industry, German bottle plant master Carter bought Owens's patent, but the inventory put it back and not "."
One sentence, the benefits of mass production is mouth-watering, but the results of the pursuit of scale often lead to the development of monopoly. It will make the price mechanism lose its role, the market configuration mechanism of resources is distorted, and the original power of free competition This economic development is killed, and the whole economic activity has lost their vitality. This is the contradiction between the economy and competition, which is the first to be unspeakable by Marshall in his famous "economic principle", so the last person said that this contradiction is "Marshall conflict".
Overcome the way
has long-term
economists to overcome the "Marshall Conflict" has made unremitting exploration. In 1940, the British economist Clark put forward the concept of effective competition. In his view, the so-called effective competition is an effective coordination of scale economy and market competition, thereby forming a competitive pattern conducive to long-term balance. However, Clark did not discuss objective conditions and measurement of effective competition.
Three standards
Wang Junhao, Wang Junhao, on the basis of summing up the research results of the former, put forward effective competition:
first, Effective competition is a competition that competition has greater than competitive costs;
second, effective competition is a moderate competition, that is, the competition between competition and excessive competition;
third, Effective competition meets the requirements of scale economies, competitive enterprises production scale is in a moderate scale, ie between minimum economic scale and maximum economic scale.
In summary, effective competition is to take into account the economy and market competitive vitality, effective competition is a combination of moderate scale and moderate competition. Effective competition is an effective way to overcome the "Marshall conflict".
Related Books
In 1932, Bailei and Mines have published a book of "Modern Shares and Private Property", detailed analysis of American monopoly industries and oligarchs in the 1920s The actual situation of the monopoly industry, and the development of the shares is more likely to concentrate on the big business, thus causing economic concentration and other issues, and provides many important reference value for research results for the formation of an industrial organization theory system. .
In 1933, Zhang Bolun, a professor of Harvard, Harvard University, and Mrs. Robinson, a professor of the University of Cambridge, published a respective monopoly competition theory and "incomplete competition economics", and put forward the tradition The so-called monopoly competition theory of free competition concepts.