American Economic Review
ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)
Monopoly Rights: A Barrier to Riches
American Economic Review
vol. 89,
no. 5, December 1999
(pp. 1216–1233)
Abstract
Our thesis is that poor countries are poor because they employ arrangements for which the equilibrium outcomes are characterized by inferior technologies being used, and being used inefficiently. In this paper, we analyze the consequences of one such arrangement. In each industry, the arrangement enables a coalition of factor suppliers to be the monopoly seller of its input services to all firms using a particular production process. We find that eliminating this monopoly arrangement could well increase output by roughly a factor of 3 without any increase in inputs.Citation
Parente, Stephen, L., and Edward C. Prescott. 1999. "Monopoly Rights: A Barrier to Riches." American Economic Review, 89 (5): 1216–1233. DOI: 10.1257/aer.89.5.1216JEL Classification
- O11 Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
- O14 Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
- O33 Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes