Issues in Industrial Economics

This collection of essays spans more than two decades of work. The topics covered range from the application of econometric analysis to assessing the impact of external changes on firm behaviour, to discursive evaluations of how markets work using and updating the praxeological approach of Austrian economics. The author's stance, as economic theory has advanced, is shown to have shifted from a dogmatic antitrust position to the more agnostic position of arguing that consumers are the best judges of how the goods and services they buy should be produced. The studies reported on have been conducted in the US, the UK, Australia and South Africa. Industries examined range from unit trusts to pharmaceuticals, newspapers and gold mining. The book is aimed at specialists, whether an academic, government industrial policy-maker, corporate economist, senior marketing manager, corporate strategist or advanced undergraduate. "W. Duncan Reekie is Bradlow Professor of Industrial Economics and Dean of Commerce, University of the Witwatersrand. He founded the journal "Managerial and decision economics" and was the editor for ten years.
He qualified at the Universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde and has held Professorships in Toronto, Belfast and New York.".