Description
Book SynopsisMordecai 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.
Trade ReviewStarting 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. -- Sir Partha Dasgupta, University of Cambridge
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 Angus Deaton, Princeton 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. -- Dani Rodrik, Harvard University
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. -- Nicholas S. Vonortas, editor of
Science and Public PolicyA book that is worth reading and evaluating. -- David A. Teich * Forbes *
Table of ContentsPreface
Suggested Nontechnical Reading of the Book
Introduction: Why We Are in a Second Gilded Age and What We Can Do About It
1. The Nexus of Market Power, Technology, and Public Policy
2. Economic Growth Under the Effect of Market Power
3. Monopoly Wealth and Intangible Capital
4. Determinants of Market Power in the United States, 1889–2017
5. The Effect of Market Power on the Diffusion of Innovations
6. Market Power and Asset Prices, 1950–2019
7. R&D and Technological Competition
8. Policy Reform
9. Policy to Restrain the Expansion of Market Power
10. Taxation, Public Investments, and Redistribution
Concluding Remarks
Bibliography
Index
