Where average fixed costs are large compared to marginal costs, competition will drive industry into bankruptcy. During the last century, the chaos that competition created within the railroad industry caused many prominent U.S. economists to reject the market in favor of trusts, cartels, and...

Joseph A. Schumpeter's celebrated theory of creative destruction was anticipated by David Wells's Recent Economic Changes (1989). In some respects, Wells's treatment is superior to that of Schumpeter. Unlike Schumpeter, who believed that monopolistic competition could maximize economic growth,...

Economists of virtually all schools of thought regard Adam Smith sympathetically. This article explores Adam Smith's authoritarian side, showing the close connection between Smith's notion of appropriate behavior and the prevailing economic organization. This article explores how this dimension...