Book Reviews

• Author: Corwin D. Edwards
• Published date: 01 December 1974
• Date: 01 December 1974
• DOI: 10.1177/0003603X7401900416
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

BOOK REVIEWS 897

Dennis Swann, Denis

P.

O'Brien, W.

Peter

J.

Maunder,

and

W.

Stewart

Howe, Competition in British Industry: Re-

strictive Practices Legislation in Theory and Practice,

London:

George Allen

and

Unwin (1974), 232 pp., £4.20

hard

cover, £2.50

soft

cover.

The

core of

this

excellent volume (pp. 144-214) consists

of

an

analysis of

the

impact

of

the

United

Kingdom's re-

strictive

business

practice

law, an

appraisal

of

it

derived

from

this

analysis,

and

recommendations

for

its

amendment

and

extension.

The

volume

has

been

enlarged

by including a

good

though

brief

history

of the development of

restrictive

business combinations in

Britain

and

of

British

policy

toward

them

(pp. 25-63); a

brief

but

illuminating

account of

the

content

and

interpretation

of

the

post-war

statutes

(pp.

64-

91);

a

short

critique of the 1973 legislation (pp. 215-223),

written

in 1971 when

the

draft

law was

pending

as a

bill;

and

an

analysis of

the

economic

theory

of competition policy

(pp. 92-143).

The

theoretical analysis,

the

book's second

principal

theme, consists

both

of a critique

that

denies the adequacy

of existing theories of competition

policy-static

optimality,

Schumpeterian

emphasis upon change,

and

Clarkian

analysis

of workable

competition-and

of a

tentative

formulation of

competitive

welfare

economies.

The

latter

is conceived as

maximization of

output

under

conditions of oligopoly in

the

light

of static, dynamic,

and

"X"

efficiency, subject to con-

straints

that

take account of consumer choice, income dis-

tribution,

concentration of power,

and

"conservation"

(the

latter

being

broadly

conceived as

preservation

of non-quanti-

fiable social values).

This

view of

welfare

is

regarded,

though

not

emphasized, as a

basis

for

appraisals

of

the

impact

of

the

existing

policy.

The

analysis of

the

impact of

the

law' summarizes

and

generalizes

the

findings of case studies

in

acompanion volume

(Competition in British Industry: Case Studies of the

Ef-

fects of Restrictive Practices, £5).

It-is

based

upon studies