Competition's New Clothes
Competition's New Clothes
Lévêque recounts twenty revealing tales of real-life rivalry between firms across diverse industries, including wine, skiing, opera, video games and cruise liners. These entertaining and insightful narratives are informed by recent advances in economics, factoring in the many forces driving competition, including globalization and innovation. Divided into four sections, the book covers competition and the market; competition and variety; competition through innovation; and competition and equality. Read together, these stories also serve as building blocks to address the issue of whether competition between firms has entered a new era of increased intensity. This book will appeal to anyone, from company executives to consumers, who are interested in the economics of contemporary industry and want to incorporate a grasp of competition into their everyday decision-making. This book can also be used as a supplementary text in courses in microeconomics, business economics and industrial organisation.
- Contains twenty real-life cases, told with entertaining verve
- Takes an objective view on the effects of competition on the marketplace
- Considers the development of competition, and how it is driven, especially by globalization and innovation
Reviews & endorsements
'What has economics to say about skis, shipping, soccer and cereals? A great deal, as Lévêque shows in this addictively appealing book. Lévêque draws on the brilliant insights and evidence that leading economists studying industries and markets have amassed over the past forty years to lay out the various workings of competition in different industries. Falling transport costs, innovation and the digital revolution have transformed the world of industry and commerce. This book may do for industrial organization what Freakonomics did for the economics of the 'Hidden Side of Everything'.' David Newbury, Emeritus Professor and Director of The Energy Policy Research Group (EPRG), University of Cambridge
'Through a variety of beautifully crafted and comprehensively documented case-studies, François Lévêque illuminates the theory of market competition and proves wrong all those who claim that economics is a dismal science. Competition's New Clothes is a must-read for anyone interested in the inner workings of modern markets, and an ideal companion book for the teaching of microeconomics, business economics and industrial organization.' Paul Belleflamme, Université catholique de Louvain
'An extremely engaging book that teaches almost everything you would want to know about competition and markets through the use of a diverse set of real world 'stories'. Perfect competition, to monopolist competition, to oligopoly, to monopoly, to innovation. Stories about casinos, toys, wine, breakfast cereals, soccer, ride hailing services, and more. The book is hard to put down which is saying something about n book about microeconomics.' Paul L. Joskow, Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics, Emeritus, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Product details
February 2019Paperback
9781108461917
220 pages
228 × 151 × 11 mm
0.37kg
2 b/w illus.
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Part I. Competition and Market:
- 1. Three ski lessons for budding economists
- 2. Containers conquering the world
- 3. Casinos and one-armed bandits
- 4. The great game of international gas
- 5. The glamorous shipping market
- 6. Intermezzo: the Earth is not that flat
- Part II. Competition and Differentiation:
- 7. Coca-Cola versus Pepsi: the war is over
- 8. A cruise in a gilded cage
- 9. Lego's winning game
- 10. Breakfast cereals invading space
- 11. Four wine-economics tasting sessions
- 12. Intermezzo: no end of differentiation
- Part III. Competition and Innovation:
- 13. Uberizing the razor
- 14. Coaches, BlaBlaCar and trains
- 15. Apple versus Google, season one
- 16. Apple versus Google, season two
- 17. Super Mario can die, but like Nintendo he has several lives
- 18. Intermezzo, on a theme of disruptive innovation
- Part IV. Competition and Redistribution:
- 19. Bidding for soccer TV rights
- 20. For and against fixed retail book prices
- 21. Gyms running on empty
- 22. Phantom economics at the opera
- 23. Uber, or forget about taxis and drivers for a while
- 24. Intermezzo on the redistributive effects of competition
- Conclusion. The changing face of competition today.
