Armen Alchian has helped found several schools of economic thought and is the founder of the UCLA tradition in economics and one of the most influential voices in the areas of market structure, property rights, and the theory of the firm.
Author(s): Armen A. Alchian
Publisher: Liberty Fund Inc.
Year: 2006
Language: English
Pages: 859
Front cover
Contents
Introduction
Introduction to Economic Forces at Work (Ronald H. Coase)
Principles of Professional Advancement
PART 1 UNCERTAINTY AND INFORMATION COSTS
Uncertainty, Evolution and Economic Theory
Biological Analogies in the Theory of the Firm: Comment
Review of The Investment Decision
The Meaning of Utility Measurement
Information Costs, Pricing and Resource Unemployment
What Is the Best System?
Market Value Effects of Take-Overs? An All-or-Nothing Tender of Conjectures
Information, Martingales and Prices
Why Money?
Trading Stamps
There Really Is a Free Service
Why Brand Names?
The Chef, Gourmet and Gourmand
PART 2 COST
Costs and Outputs
Cost
Reliability of Progress Curves in Airframe Production
PART 3 THE SOURCE AND MEASUREMENT OF INFLATION
On a Correct Measure of Inflation
Be Wary of the CPI Commission Report!
There's Only 1 Cause for Inflation
Problems of Rising Prices
PART 4 EFFECTS OF INFLATION
Effects of Inflation
Redistribution of Wealth Through Inflation
More Evidence on Inflation-Caused Wealth Redistribution
Inflation and Distribution of Income and Wealth
Effects of Inflation upon Stock Prices
How the Government Gains from Inflation
The Meaning and Validity of the Inflation-Induced Lag
Real Wages in the North During the Civil War: Mitchell's Data Reinterpreted
PART 5 PRICE CONTROLS
Review of the Council of Economic Advisers' 1972 Report: A Comment
An Introduction to Confusion
Abbott and Costello in Washington
There's Gas in Your Future
Oil Decontrol Windfall: Magical or Real?
Energy Economics
It's Easy to End Gas Shortage
To Be Fair, Let Each Solve His Own Fuel Crisis
PART 6 SEMANTICS AND METHODS
The Economics of Power
Summary Notes on Misleading Economic Jargon
Words: Musical or Meaningful?
Rent
Allocative Efficiency with Edgeworth-Bowley Boxes
The Rate of Interest, Fisher's Rate of Return over Costs and Keynes' Internal Rate of Return
Linear Progress Curves Are Illusions
Linear Progress Curves Are Not Illusions
Why the Learning Curve Is Convex on Double Log Scale
Review of Dynamic Equipment Policy
Meanings and Uses of Equations and Models
Review of Essays in Economics and Econometrics: A Volume in Honor of Harold Hotelling
Economic Replacement Policy
Acknowledgments
Summary
Contents
1. Introduction
2. Elements of the Replacement Problem
3. Mathematical Formulation
4. Specific Assumptions, Forecasts, and Computations
5. Illustration of Procedure
6. Some Issues Common to All Applications
Appendixes (abridged)
Analysis Procedures
20. Principles of Statistical Analysis
21. Univariate Analysis
22. Bivariate Analysis
23. Multivariate Analysis
Authors Cited
Subject Index
Back cover
