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Competition and Entrepreneurship

Stressing verbal logic rather than mathematics, Israel M. Kirzner provides at once a thorough critique of contemporary price theory, an essay on the theory of entrepreneurship, and an essay on the theory of competition. Competition and Entrepreneurship offers a new appraisal of quality competition, of selling effort, and of the fundamental weaknesses of contemporary welfare economics.

Kirzner’s book establishes a theory of the market and the price system which differs from orthodox price theory. He sees orthodox price theory as explaining the configuration of prices and quantities that satisfied the conditions for equilibrium. Mr. Kirzner argues that "it is more useful to look to price theory to help understand how the decisions of individual participants in the market interact to generate the market forces which compel changes in prices, outputs, and methods of production and in the allocation of resources."

Although Competition and Entrepreneurship is primarily concerned with the operation of the market economy, Kirzner’s insights can be applied to crucial aspects of centrally planned economic systems as well. In the analysis of these processes, Kirzner clearly shows that the rediscovery of the entrepreneur must emerge as a step of major importance.

256 pages | 5.25 x 8 | © 1978

Economics and Business: Economics--General Theory and Principles

Table of Contents

Preface
1. Market Process Versus Market Equilibrium
The Market System and the Theory of the Market
The Task of Price Theory
Two Views
Competition and Entrepreneurship
The Market Process
Competition in the Market Process
Entrepreneurship in the Market Process
The Producer and the Market Process
Monopoly and the Market Process
The Entrepreneur as Monopolist
The Producer and His Choice of Product
Equilibrium Economics, Entrepreneurship, and Competition
 
2. The Entrepreneur
The Nature of Entrepreneurship
Decision-making and Economizing
The Entrepreneur in the Market
The Producer as Entrepreneur
Entrepreneurial Profits
Entrepreneurship, Ownership, and the Firm
Ownership, Entrepreneurship, and the Corporate Firm
A Hypothetical Example
The Corporate Firm Once Again
Entrepreneurship and Knowledge
Entrepreneurship and the Equilibrating Process
Entrepreneurship in the Literature
Misesian Entrepreneurship
 
3. Competition and Monopoly
Competition: A Situation or a Process?
Entrepreneurship and Competition
The Meaning of Monopoly
The Two Notions of Monopoly Compared
The Theory of Monopolistic Competition
Some Remarks on the Notion of the Industry
Schumpeter, Creative Destruction of the Competitive Process
Entrepreneurship as a Route to a Monopoly Position
 
4. Selling Costs, Quality, and Competition
On the Product as an Economic Variable
Production Costs and Selling Costs
Selling Costs, Consumer Knowledge, and Entrepreneurial Alertness
Advertising, Consumer Knowledge, and the Economics of Information
Advertising, Information, and Persuasion
Advertising, Selling Effort, and Competition
Waste, Consumer Sovereignty, and Advertising
Buying Effort, Factor Quality, and Entrepreneurial Symmetry

5. The Long Run and the Short
The Long and the Short Run in the Literature
On Sunk Costs and the Short Run
Costs, Profits, and Decisions
Entrepreneurial Decisions, the Long Run and the Short
Some Additional Cases
Further Observations on Long-run Competition and Short-run Monopoly
 
6. Competition, Welfare, and Coordination
The Fundamental Flow in Welfare Economics
Knowledge, Coordination, and Entrepreneurship
The Coordinating Process
The Role of Profits
Resource Misallocation, Transaction Costs, and Entrepreneurship
Nirvana, Transaction Costs, and Coordination
The "Wastes" of Competition
Long-run and Short-run Evaluations

Index

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