Edith Penrose

The Patent Controversy in the Nineteenth Century

The patent system has lately been subjected to investigations by committees of Congress, and reforms have been proposed to meet some of the most serious criticisms. In recent publications commenting on these discussions it has been suggested that opposition to the patent system is a new development. A writer of a “history of the patent monopoly†asserted that “there never has been, until the present time, any criticism of this type of exclusive privilege,†and he attributed the allegedly new attitude to “modern witch-hunters,†“hungry aspirants to public office,†and, by innuendo, to enemies of all private property.

The Growth of the Firm—A Case Study: The Hercules Powder Company

Growth is governed by a creative and dynamic interaction between a firms productive resources and its market opportunities. Available resources limit expansion; unused resources (including technological and entrepreneurial) stimulate and largely determine the direction of expansion. While product demand may exert a predominant short-term influence, over the long term any distinction between “supply” and “demand” determinants of growth becomes arbitrary.

Oil and International relations

Oil is a highly political commodity and has more than once taken the centre of the stage in international affairs. This is not surprising in view of its importance in industry and transportation as well as for military activities. Mesopotamian oil was a crucial consideration in a number of the political settlements in the Middle East after the First World War, with the French, British and Americans playing the leading roles, just before that war the British navy had converted to oil, and Britain considered the security of her oil supplies to be an important objective of foreign policy. She had no domestic production. In the 1920s the United States began to fear that her oil reserves were becoming dangerously depleted and she also felt that her security as well as her prosperity depended on obtaining control of oil abroad. The United States sought access to oil concessions in the Middle East, and the diplomatic skirmishes were sharp as the British and Dutch tried to keep her out, not merely from the Middle East, but from south-eastern Asia as well, where production was dominated by the Dutch. Thus oil was an important source of controversy in the foreign policy of a number of countries in the inter-war period.

ECONOMIC LIBERALIZATION: OPENNESS AND INTEGRATION — BUT WHAT KIND?

In advanced industrial economies… managerial hierarchies have gained an increasing advantage over market mechanisms or multilateral negotiations in coordinating the flow of goods, monitoring economic activities, and allocating resources… By the time the United States entered World War I management decisions had replaced coordination by market forces in many of the most critical sectors of the economy. The result might be termed managerial capitalism. (Chandler and Daems, 1980: 5, 6) … the decision-taking nexus of the MNE in the late 1980s has come to resemble the central nervousd system of a much larger group of interdependent but less formally governed activities, whose function is primarily to advance the global competitive strategy and position of the core organization … There are several implications of the new style MNEs… First they cause us to reappraise our thinking about the nature, function and boundaries of firms and markets… Second, they cast doubt on the usefulness of some of our existing clas...

Aspects of Development and Underdevelopment.

Joan Robinson shows how the economic mechanisms that produce wealth in the midst of growing misery can be understood. For this purpose she uses the classical theory of accumulation and the modern theory of international trade and finance. Her simple but penetrating analysis illuminates the problems of poverty, accumulation, industrialization and trade, while exposing misleading conceptions of the Third World. Throughout the book, general principles are demonstrated with particular examples, making those principles both clearer and more relevant. The books conclusion is that the economic problems of the Third World remain rooted in deep-seated political conflicts of national and international interests.