Date of Award

1-1-2019

Document Type

Masters Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Organizational Unit

College of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences, Economics

First Advisor

Markus P. Schneider, Ph.D.

Second Advisor

Johnathan Sciarcon, Ph.D.

Third Advisor

Peter Ho, Ph.D.

Fourth Advisor

Juan Carlos Lopez, Ph.D.

Keywords

Chicago, Competition, Concentration, Distribution, Kalecki, Monopoly

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify the role that long-run industry concentration plays in determining the distribution of income, particularly in the past four decades in the United States, as well as examining how industry concentration has developed during that period. The paper is especially focused on the fall in labor’s share of income. First, I examine current literature regarding trends in industry concentration and its relation to the distribution of income. Next, I examine the historical impact of the Chicago School of Economics on this subject, focusing on the school of thought’s propositions regarding industry concentration, their anti-regulation bent more generally, and their impact on industry concentration throughout the past four decades, especially in the United States judiciary. Finally, I propose an alternative, post-Keynesian theoretical framework to the neoclassical, micro-foundations-driven one used by the Chicago School and other mainstream economists: a theory of concentration and distribution in the tradition of Michal Kalecki and Josef Steindl, which I argue is a much more realistic and descriptive way of thinking about the issues of competition and concentration in industry and their relation to the distribution of income

Publication Statement

Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

Rights Holder

Henry Aaron Dobbs

Provenance

Received from ProQuest

File Format

application/pdf

Language

en

File Size

90 p.

Discipline

Economics, Economic theory

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