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Economies Of Scale Of The System

Posted on:2004-11-20Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:P LiFull Text:PDF
GTID:1116360122466851Subject:Political economy
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Economic studies on the scale economies may dates back to rather early time, while most of the existing literature on this regard attached too much concentration to the impacts of technology on the output size of production activity, it should be pointed out that technology constitutes only one of the factors that may affect the scale economies, besides which there are other factors such as the market environment and the social economic institutions etc., which also affect the occurrence and fulfillment of the scale economies. It is not possible to have a complete comprehension on the scale economies without taking these factors into consideration. This thesis takes the institutional perspective, with the theory of labor division, to inquire into the scale economies in the various economic activities. The analysis ranges from the property rights system to the organization and management system and overall economic system of a country, with economic system at various levels such as plants, corporate firms, industries and regions covered, to reveal the intrinsic mechanism in the formation of the scale economies.The thesis consists of six chapters, which may be structurally divided into three parts. Part I consists of chapter 1 where the fundamental problems relating to the scale economies are discussed upon a literature review on the subject. This part provides the theoretical foundation for the whole thesis. Part II consists of chapter 2 to 5, which is the main content of the thesis. This part analyses the occurrence and fulfillment of the scale economies at different levels, such as at the plant level, the corporate firm level, the industrial level and the regional level respectively. Part III includes chapter 6, which summarizes the aforesaid parts and draws up some conclusions thereby.The major content of each chapter is highlighted as follows:Chapter 1 presents an overall review on the existing literature concerning the theory of scale economies. The chapter starts from a brief summary of the major points of view on the scale economies held by Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Allyn Young, Alfred Marshall and the neo-classical economists, as well as the neo-institutional economists. This is followed by a definition of the scale economies and a classification of the major types on different levels of economic activities. The existence scale economies is explained by some major factors, which may be classified into three: technology, institutions and market. Upon these factors a working model is built for further analysis. Finally, this chapter also discusses the impacts of economic institutions on the scale economies where the role of labor division on the economic institutionsas well as the scale economies is further discussed.Chapter 2 focuses on the scale economies in the plant system. The plant system resulted from various changes in the social and economic institutions during the era of the Industrial Revolution. This chapter departs from an analysis on the profile of social and economic institutions when the plant system emerged, covering the role of industrial capital in the early capitalist institutions, the development of the trade unions and the plant system, the historical significance of the simple work cooperation the manufacturing mills, the changes and implications of the financial system, as well as the state's policy intervention in the industrialization process in the name of mercantilism. These are followed by a depiction on the characters and sizes of the early plants in the era of industrial revolution where the scale economies is accounted for by the property rights system and the organization management system of the early plants.Chapter 3 concerns the scale economies on the corporate firm level. The chapter begins at a discussion on the origin of corporate company, which shows that changes in the corporate structure of property rights system lead to development of the scale economies. As the problem of corporate governance design arises along with the development of corporate...
Keywords/Search Tags:scale economies, economic institutions, Theory of labor division
PDF Full Text Request
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