Markets from Networks: Socioeconomic Models of Production - Couverture rigide

White, Harrison C.

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0691088713 ISBN 13 : 9780691088716

Editeur : Princeton University Press, 2001

Synopsis

Arguing that most economists use overly abstract models of how the economy operates, Harrison White seeks a richer, more empirically based alternative. In doing so, he offers a more lucid, generalized treatment of the market models described in his earlier work in order to show how any given market is situated in a broader exchange economy. White argues that the key to economic action is that producers seek market niches to maximize profit and minimize competition. As they do so, they base production decisions not only on anticipated costs from suppliers and anticipated demand from buyers, but also by looking at their competitors. White asserts that producers act less in response to actual demand than by anticipating it: they gauge where competitors have found demand and thus determine what they can do that is similar and yet different enough to give themselves a special niche. Building on these and related insights, White creates new mathematical models of how the economy works and how the interaction of its sectors creates mutual protection from the uncertainties of business. These models provide new ways of accounting for profits, prices, market shares, and other vital economic phenomena. He shows, for example, that prices are determined by the coalescing of local variables rather than set in terms of averages as implied by the "law" of supply and demand. The model of "pure" competition favored by economics is deficient, he concludes, as it fails to account for the varied circumstances of particular industries.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Harrison White is Giddings Professor of Sociology at Columbia University. He is the author of Chains of Opportunity: System Models of Mobility in Organizations and Identity and Control: A Structural Theory of Social Action (Princeton).

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Princeton University Press
• Date d'édition: 2001
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0691088713
• ISBN 13: 9780691088716
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 416
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible