The paper decomposes the determinants of firm survival into firm and product (industry) attributes. Industry attributes, we hypothesize, encompass primarily exogenous variables that exert their influence both over time and across markets. These consist mainly of the characteristics of demand and...

The paper examines historical changes in the duration of the interval between the commercial introduction of a new product and the time when entry by later competitors begins. The paper begins by examining a priori reasons why the duration of this interval in the U.S. economy may either expand...

The paper focuses on the relation of competition to changes in productivity. Specifically, it compares the experience of AT&T Long Lines, operating in an increasingly competitive market, with that of eight local telephone monopolies. Both the estimation of total factor productivity growth and...

The study focuses on forecasts of cost savings from merger based on an analysis of economies of scale for eight U.S. telephone companies providing mainly local service. Based on data for the period 1951-91, we conclude that cost savings from mergers and economies of scale are unlikely for large...

The study seeks to explain the attrition rate of new manufacturing plants in the United States in terms of three vectors of variables. The first explains how survival of the fittest proceeds through learning by firms (plants) about their own relative efficiency. The second explains how...

The paper deals with the question of why most investment is made on old rather than on new plants, notwithstanding the greater flexibility in the choice of inputs that new plants offer. It explains the phenomenon in the context of a dynamic programming model with multiple classes of capital...

This paper examines learning by doing in the context of a production function in which the other arguments are labor, human capital, physical capital, and vintage as a proxy for embodied technical change in physical capital. Learning is further decomposed into organization learning, capital...