(OPE-L) more on barriers to entry

From: gerald_a_levy (gerald_a_levy@MSN.COM)
Date: Thu Jan 29 2004 - 10:04:47 EST


"What is a Barrier to Entry?" by R. Preston McAfee, Hugo M.
Mialon, and Michael A. Williams discuss the history of this
concept.  Although Donald H. Wallace in the _Papers and 
Proceedings of the 48th Meeting of the AEA_ (March, 1936)
suggested that "barriers to free entry ... needs thorough study",
Joe S. Bain defined and  explained this concept in _Barriers to 
New  Competition_ (1956).  

McAfee, Mialon and Williams go on to list seven 'principal'
definitions of barrier to entry.  A review of these definitions is 
revealing to the extent that the authors demonstrate that this 
expression has been used variously  by different authors.  
Some of these definitions are more closely linked to marginalist 
theory than others.  This is consistent with the point I suggested
in yesterday's post.

(the paper is supposedly available in pdf format online, but
I couldn't get content when II tried to open it.  However, there
is a back door way of accessing the paper:  you can 'google'
under the authors or title of the paper and click on 'cached')

Other subjects linked to barriers to entry that do not have their
origin in classical of Marxian theory include oligopolies,  product 
differentiation, non-price competition, price leadership, etc.  All 
of these topics,  I believe, need to be integrated within a more 
developed Marxian theory of competition.  Such a theory need not 
make any concessions to marginalism but rather recognizes and 
explains the evolution of capitalist competition since the time of 
Marx.   

In solidarity, Jerry


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