The profit paradox
how thriving firms threaten the future of work
- ISBN: 9780691214474
- Editorial: Princeton University Press
- Fecha de la edición: 2021
- Lugar de la edición: Princeton. Estados Unidos de Norteamérica
- Encuadernación: Cartoné
- Medidas: 24 cm
- Nº Pág.: 326
- Idiomas: Inglés
In an era of technological progress and easy communication, it might seem reasonable to assume that the world’s working people have never had it so good. But wages are stagnant and prices are rising, so that everything from a bottle of beer to a prosthetic hip costs more. Economist Jan Eeckhout shows how this is due to a small number of companies exploiting an unbridled rise in market power—the ability to set prices higher than they could in a properly functioning competitive marketplace. Drawing on his own groundbreaking research and telling the stories of common workers throughout, he demonstrates how market power has suffocated the world of work, and how, without better mechanisms to ensure competition, it could lead to disastrous market corrections and political turmoil.
The Profit Paradox describes how, over the past forty years, a handful of companies have reaped most of the rewards of technological advancements—acquiring rivals, securing huge profits, and creating brutally unequal outcomes for workers. Instead of passing on the benefits of better technologies to consumers through lower prices, these “superstar” companies leverage new technologies to charge even higher prices. The consequences are already immense, from unnecessarily high prices for virtually everything, to fewer startups that can compete, to rising inequality and stagnating wages for most workers, to severely limited social mobility.
A provocative investigation into how market power hurts average working people, The Profit Paradox also offers concrete solutions for fixing the problem and restoring a healthy economy.
PART I. THE ORIGINS OF MARKET POWER 21
2 The Art of Managing the Moat 23
3 Technological Change and Superiority 42
PART II. THE HARMFUL CONSEQUENCES OF MARKET POWER 69
4 A Falling Tide Lowers All Boats 71
5 Economy of Stars 95
6 Unequal We Stand 115
7 The Gold Watch Myth 143
8 Rich Suburbanite, Poor Suburbanite 154
PART III. THE FUTURE OF WORK AND FINDING SOLUTIONS 173
9 Plenty of Reasons to Be Optimistic 175
10 The Future of Work 205
11 The Quest for Facts 216
12 Putting the Trust Back into Antitrust 234
Epilogue 275