TY - JOUR A1 - Panhans, Matthew T. A1 - Schumacher, Reinhard T1 - Theory in closer contact with industrial life BT - American institutional economists on competition theory and policy JF - Journal of institutional economics N2 - This paper investigates the views on competition theory and policy of the American institutional economists during the first half of the 20th century. These perspectives contrasted with those of contemporary neoclassical and later mainstream economic approaches. We identify three distinct dimensions to an institutionalist perspective on competition. First, institutionalist approaches focused on describing industry details, so as to bring theory into closer contact with reality. Second, institutionalists emphasized that while competition was sometimes beneficial, it could also be disruptive. Third, institutionalists had a broad view of the objectives of competition policy that extended beyond effects on consumer welfare. Consequently, institutionalists advocated for a wide range of policies to enhance competition, including industrial self-regulation, broad stakeholder representation within corporations, and direct governmental regulations. Their experimental attitude implied that policy would always be evolving, and antitrust enforcement might be only one stage in the development toward a regime of industrial regulation. KW - Competition KW - economic thought KW - industrial organization KW - institutional KW - economics KW - institutionalism KW - public policy Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1017/S1744137421000357 SN - 1744-1374 SN - 1744-1382 VL - 17 IS - 5 SP - 781 EP - 798 PB - Cambridge Univ. Press CY - Cambridge ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Sorge, Arndt A1 - Streeck, Wolfgang T1 - Diversified quality production revisited BT - its contribution to German socio-economic performance over time JF - Socio-economic review N2 - We revisit the concept of Diversified Quality Production (DQP), which we introduced about 30 years ago. Our purpose is to examine the extent to which the concept can still be considered tenable for describing and explaining the development of the interaction between the political economy and concepts of production, notably in Germany. First, we show why and in which ways DQP was more heterogeneous than we had originally understood. Then, on the basis of evidence with respect to political, business, and economic changes in Germany, we show that DQP Mark I, a regime by and large characteristic of the 1980s, turned into DQP Mark II. In the process, major ‘complementarities’ disappeared between the late 1980s and now—mainly the complementarity between production modes on the one hand and industrial relations and economic regulation on the other. While the latter exhibit greater change, business strategies and production organization show more continuity, which helps explain how Germany maintained economic performance after the mid-2000s, more than other countries in Europe. Conceptually, our most important result is that the complementarities emphasized in political economy are historically relative and limited, so that they should not be postulated as stable configurations. KW - production concepts KW - manufacturing KW - diversified quality production KW - industrial organization KW - industrial relations KW - industrial restructuring KW - globalization KW - skills KW - Germany Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwy022 SN - 1475-1461 SN - 1475-147X VL - 16 IS - 3 SP - 587 EP - 612 PB - Oxford Univ. Press CY - Oxford ER -