The Economics of Competitive Enterprise: Selected Essays of P.W.S. Andrews (Economists of the Twentieth Century)

P.W.S. Andrews was a pioneer of fieldwork-based analysis of the behaviour of firms and of the normal cost/mark-up approach to pricing in oligopolistic markets, as well as a significant participant in debates about competition policy during the 1950s and '60s. This book includes essays and papers which are central to an understanding of Andrews's work. It begins with an example of his case study work and continues with chapters on costs and price setting, the theories of the firm and competitive analysis, investment behaviour and aspects of competition in retail trade as well as essays on the methodology of industrial economics. Including previously unpublished material, such as a critique of the development of price theory, this volume offers an insight into the process of economic discourse since 1945. It also includes an extensive introductory essay by Frederick Lee as well as an epilogue by Peter Earl on the legacy of Andrews's industrial economics. This text should be of interest to a range of readers in economics departments and business schools, including microeconomic analysts, industrial economists, historians of economic thought and marketing theorists.