A Schumpeterian view of the Great Merger Movement in American manufacturing

Donald J. Smythe ()
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Donald J. Smythe: California Western School of Law, San Diego, CA, USA.

Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, 2010, vol. 4, issue 2, 141-170

Abstract: This paper offers a Schumpeterian view of the Great Merger Movement in the American manufacturing industries, which occurred from 1895 to 1904. From this perspective, the Great Merger Movement was a response to competitive pressures associated with a number of significant technological innovations which occurred at the end of the nineteenth century. Because the implementation of these innovations required large capital investments, and because the returns to the investments would have been highly uncertain if they had been made competitively, firms at the turn of the twentieth century sought to restrain competition. Since the uncertainty precluded cooperating at arms-length, cooperation was internalized through horizontal consolidations. The consolidations in turn increased the size of the capital investments undertaken to implement the technological innovations. The theory is supported with historical evidence about the technological environment and industrial conditions at the turn of the twentieth century, and an econometric model is tested using data from the Twelfth and Thirteenth Censuses of Manufactures.

Keywords: Great Merger Movement; Technological change; Market power; Schumpeterian hypothesis; Antitrust (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K20 L10 L40 N61 O30 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:afc:cliome:v:4:y:2010:i:2:p:141-170

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