Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-04T19:26:52.915Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Reconsideration of the Theory of Non-Linear Scale Effects

The Sources of Varying Returns to, and Economies of, Scale

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2018

Richard G. Lipsey
Affiliation:
Simon Fraser University, British Columbia

Summary

The main thrust of this Element is a critical assessment of the theory and evidence concerning the sources of scale effects. It is argued that the analysis of static scale effects is important because scale effects are embedding in our world, and new technologies associated with an evolving economy often allow their exploitation when they cannot be exploited in less technically advanced and smaller economies. So, although static equilibrium theory is not a good vehicle for studying economic growth, showing how scale effects operate when output varies with given technology helps us to understand the scale effects that occur when output rises as a result of economic growth, even though that is typically driven by technological change.
Get access
Type
Element
Information
Online ISBN: 9781108555029
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication: 22 March 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Primary Sources

Abraham-Frois, G. 2008. ‘Average and Marginal Cost’. In Darity, William A. Jr., ed., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (2nd Edition). Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA.Google Scholar
Ammer, C. and Ammer, D.S.. 1984. Dictionary of Business and Economics (Revised and Expanded Edition). London: The Free Press.Google Scholar
Bain, J.S. 1968. ‘Economies of Scale’. In Stills, D.L., ed., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. New York, NY: Gale.Google Scholar
Bannock, G., Baxter, R. and Davies, R.. 1984. Penguin Dictionary of Economics (3rd Edition). Harmondsworth, Middlesex; New York, NY: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Bannock, G., Baxter, R. and Davies, R.. 2003. Penguin Dictionary of Economics (7th Edition). London; New York, NY: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Barbosa-Filho, N.H. 2008. ‘Verdoorn’s Law’. In Darity, William A. Jr., ed., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (2nd Edition). Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA.Google Scholar
Baumol, W.J. 2008. ‘Indivisibilities’. In Durlaf, S.N. and Blume, L., eds., The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (2nd Edition). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Becattinni, G. 2008. ‘Internal Economies’. In Durlaf, S.N. and Blume, L., eds., The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (2nd Edition). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Becker, G. 1999. ‘Pecuniary Economies’. In McAuliffe, R.E., ed., The Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Managerial Economics. Oxford: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.Google Scholar
Black, J., Hashimzade, N. and Myles, G.. 2012. A Dictionary of Economics (4th Edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bohm, P. 2008. ‘External Economies’. In Durlaf, S.N. and Blume, L., eds., The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (2nd Edition). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Brush, B.C. 1994. ‘Economies of Scale’. In Greenwald, D., ed., The Mcgraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Economics (2nd Edition). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, Inc.Google Scholar
Calhoun, C. 2002. Dictionary of the Social Sciences. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Carlaw, K. and Lipsey, Richard G.. 2008a. ‘Returns to Scale’. In Darity, William A. Jr., ed., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (2nd Edition). Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA.Google Scholar
Carlaw, K. and Lipsey, Richard G.. 2008b. ‘Returns to Scale, Asymmetric’. In Darity, William A Jr., ed., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (2nd Edition). Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA.Google Scholar
Case, K.E., Fair, R.C. and Oster, S.M.. 2012. Principles of Economics (10th Edition). New York, NY: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Cowell, F.A. 2006. Microeconomics: Principles and Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Eatwell, J. 2008. ‘Returns to Scale’. In Durlaf, S.N. and Blume, L., eds., The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (2nd Edition). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Feiwel, G.R. and Feiwel, I.. 1997. ‘Production and Cost Functions’. in Magill, F.N., ed., International Encyclopedia of Economics. Chicago: Salem Press Inc.Google Scholar
Frank, R.H. 2008. Microeconomics and Behavior (7th Edition). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.Google Scholar
Frank, R.H. and Bernake, B.S.. 2009. Principles of Microeconomics (4th Edition). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.Google Scholar
Farrell, M.J. 1997. ‘Economies and Diseconomies of Scale’. In Magill, F.N., ed., International Encyclopedia of Economics. Chicago: Salem Press Inc.Google Scholar
Frevert, P. 1997. ‘Returns to Scale’. In Magill, F.N., ed., International Encyclopedia of Economics. Chicago: Salem Press Inc.Google Scholar
Graaff, J.d.V. 1987. ‘Pecuniary and Non-pecuniary Economies’. In Eatwell, J., Milgate, M., and Newman, P., eds., The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (1st Edition). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Gravelle, H. and Rees, R.. 1992. Microeconomics (2nd Edition). London, UK: Longman.Google Scholar
Henderson, J.M. 1994. ‘Production Function’. In Greenwald, D., ed., The Mcgraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Economics (2nd Edition). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, Inc.Google Scholar
Jackson, D. 1996. ‘Economies of Scale’. In Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds., The Social Science Encyclopedia (2nd Edition). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Jorgenson, D. 2008. ‘Production Functions’. In Durlauf, S.N. and Blume, L.E. eds., The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (2nd Edition). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Krugman, P. and Wells, R.. 2009. Microeconomics (2nd Edition). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.Google Scholar
Mankiw, N.G. 2006. Principles of Microeconomics (4th Edition). Mason, OH: Thomson South-Western.Google Scholar
McAffee, R.P. 2006. Introduction to Economic Analysis. Open-source, retrieved from www.mcafee.cc/Introecon/IEA2007.pdf.Google Scholar
McAuliffe, R.E. 1999. ‘Production Functions’. In McAuliffe, R.E., ed., The Blackwell Encyclopedic Dictionary of Managerial Economics. Oxford: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.Google Scholar
McConnell, C.R., Brue, S.L and Flynn, S.M.. 2012. Microeconomics: Principles, Problems, and Policies (19th Edition). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.Google Scholar
Parkin, M., Powell, M. and Mathews, K.. 2005. Economics (6th Edition). Essex: Pearson Education Ltd.Google Scholar
Pass, C., Lowes, B. and Davies, L.. 2005. Collins Dictionary of Economics. London: Collins.Google Scholar
Pearce, D.W. 1992. The MIT Dictionary of Modern Economics (4th Edition). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Perloff, J.M. 2012. Microeconomics (6th Edition). Boston, MA: Pearson Education Inc.Google Scholar
Pindyck, R.S. and Rubinfeld, D.L.. 2009. Microeconomics (7th Edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Pratten, C. 2004. ‘Economies of Scale’. In Kuper, Adam, ed., Social Science Encyclopedia (3rd Edition). New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Rutherford, D. 2000. Routledge Dictionary of Economics. Cornwall: TJ International Ltd.Google Scholar
Seldon, A. and Pennance, F.G.. 1976. Everyman’s Dictionary of Economics. London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd.Google Scholar
Setterfield, M. 2001. ‘Increasing Returns to Scale’. In O’Hara, P., ed., Encyclopedia of Political Economy. London; New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Shim, J.K. and Siegal, J.G.. 1995. Wiley Dictionary of Economics. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Silvestre, J. 1987. ‘Economies and Diseconomies of Scale’. In Eatwell, J., Milgate, M. and Newman, P., eds., The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (1st Edition). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Sloman, J. 2006. Economics (6th Edition). Essex: Pearson Education Ltd.Google Scholar
Smith, V.L. 1968. ‘Production’. In Sills, D.L., ed.., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. New York, NY: Gale.Google Scholar
Stockfisch, J.A. 1968. ‘External Economies and Diseconomies’. In Sills, D.L., ed., International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. New York, NY: Gale.Google Scholar
Varian, H.R. 1992. Microeconomic Analysis (3rd Edition). London; New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company Inc.Google Scholar
Vassilakas, S. 1987. ‘Increasing Returns to Scale’. In Eatwell, J., Milgate, M. and Newman, P., eds., The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics (1st Edition). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar

Secondary Sources

Baumol, W.J., 1977. Economic Theory and Operations Analysis. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Binger, B.R. and Hoffman, E.. 1988. Microeconomics with Calculus. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Company.Google Scholar
DeSerpa, A.C. 1985. Microeconomic Theory: Issues and Applications. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, Inc.Google Scholar
Eaton, B.C., Eaton, D.F. and Allen, D.W.. 2012. Microeconomics: Theory with Applications (3rd Edition). Toronto: Pearson Canada.Google Scholar
Griffiths, A. and Wall, S.. 2000. Intermediate Microeconomics: Theory and Applications. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.Google Scholar
Hirshleifer, J., Glazer, A. and Hirshleifer, D.. 2005. Price Theory and Applications: Decisions, Markets, and Information (7th Edition). Cambridge; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jehle, G.A. and Reny, P.J.. 2001. Advanced Microeconomic Theory (2nd Edition). New York, NY: Addison Wesley.Google Scholar
Kamerschen, D.R. and Valentine, L.M.. 1977. Intermediate Microeconomic Theory. Cincinnati, OH: South-Western Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Mahanty, A.K. 1980. Intermediate Micro-Economics with Applications. New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Mansfield, E. 1979. Microeconomics: Theory and Applications (3rd Edition). New York, NY: Norton.Google Scholar
Miller, R.L. 1978. Intermediate Microeconomics: Theory, Issues, and Applications. McGraw-Hill Inc.Google Scholar
Nicholson, W. 1979. Intermediate Microeconomics and Its Applications. Hinsdale, IL: The Dryden Press.Google Scholar
Quirk, J.P. 1987. Intermediate Microeconomics. Chicago: Science Research Associated Inc.Google Scholar
Sher, W. and Pinola, R.. 1986. Modern Microeconomic Theory. New York, NY: Elsevier Science Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Shone, R. 1981. Applications in Intermediate Microeconomics. Oxford: Wiley.Google Scholar
Adams, James. 1991. Flying Buttresses, Entropy and O-Rings: The World of an Engineer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Arthur, W. Brian. 1994. Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Bain, J.S. 1954. ‘Economies of Scale, Concentration, and the Condition of Entry in Twenty Manufacturing Industries’. The American Economic Review 44(1): 1539.Google Scholar
Bain, J.S. 1956. ‘Barriers to Competition: Their Character and Consequences in Manufacturing Industries’. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blaug, M. 1978. Economic Theory in Retrospect (3rd Edition). Cambridge; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bobzin, Hagen. 1998. Indivisibilities: Microeconomic Theory with Respect to Indivisible Goods and Factors. New York, NY: Physica-VerlagGoogle Scholar
Cardwell, D.S.L. 1995. The Norton History of Technology. New York, NY: Norton.Google Scholar
Cardwell, D.S.L.. 1971. From Watt to Clausius: The Rise of Thermodynamics in the Early Industrial Age. London: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Chandra, Ramesh and Sandilands, Roger. 2006. ‘The Role of Pecuniary External Economies and Economies of Scale in the Theory of Increasing Returns’, Review of Political Economy 18 (2): 193–208.Google Scholar
Chandra, Ramesh and Sandilands, Roger. 2009. ‘Reply ot Roy Grieve on Increasing Returns’. Review of Political Economy 21(4): 655–64.Google Scholar
Carlaw, Kennith I. 2004. ‘Uncertainty and Complementarity Lead to Increasing Returns to Durability’. Journal or Economic Behaviour and Organization 53(2): 261–82.Google Scholar
Carlaw, Kennith I. and Lipsey, Richard G.. 2003. ‘Productivity, Technology and Economic Growth: What Is the Relationship?Journal of Economic Surveys 17(3): 457–95.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carlaw, Kennith I. and Lipsey, Richard G.. 2004. ‘Total Factor Productivity and the Measurement of Technological Change’. The Canadian Journal of Economics 31(4): 1118–50.Google Scholar
Carlaw, Kennith I. and Lipsey, Richard G.. 2011. ‘Sustained Endogenous Growth Driven by Structured and Evolving General Purpose Technologies’. Journal of Evolutionary Economics 21(4): 563–93.Google Scholar
Chandler Alfred, D. 1990. Scale and Scope: The Dynamics of Industrial Capitalism. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.Google Scholar
Eaton, B. Curtis and Lipsey, Richard G.. 1977. ‘The Introduction of Space into the Neo-Classical Model of Value Theory’. In Artis, M.J. and Nobay, A.R., eds., Studies in Modern Economics. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Eaton, B. Curtis and Lipsey, Richard G.. 1997. On the Foundations of Monopolistic Competition and Economic Geography: The Selected Essays of B. Curtis Eaton and Richard G. Lipsey. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.Google Scholar
Grieve, Roy H. 2010. ‘Pecuniary External Economies, Economies of Scale and Increasing Returns: A Note of Dissent’. Review of Political Economy 22(1): 127–40.Google Scholar
Hirschman, A. 1958. The Strategy of Economic Development. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hiscock, Eric C. 1965. Cruising Under Sail. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kaldor, N. 1972. ‘On the Irrelevance of Equilibrium Economics’. The Economic Journal 82(328): 1237–55.Google Scholar
Koopmans, T.C. 1957. Three Essays on the State of Economic Science. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.Google Scholar
Krugman, Paul. ‘The Fall and Rise of Development Economics’. http://web.mit.edu/krugman/www/dishpan.html.Google Scholar
Lipsey, Richard G. 2009. ‘Some Legacies of Robbins’ An Essay on the Nature and Significance of Economic Science. Economica (Special issue Robbins’s Essay at 75) 76(1): 845–56.Google Scholar
Lipsey, Richard G., Carlaw, Kenneth and Bekar, Clifford, 2005. Economic Transformations: General Purpose Technologies and Long-Term Economic Growth. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Morroni, M. (1992). Production Process and Technical Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Mokyr, Joel 1990. The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Murphy, R.A., Shleifer, A. and Vishny, R.. 1989. ‘Industrialisation and the Big Push’. Journal of Political Economy 97(5): 1003–26.Google Scholar
Romer, Paul. 1990. ‘Endogenous Technological Change’. Journal of Political Economy 98(5): S71102.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Nathan. 1982. Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Rosenberg, Nathan and Birdzell, L.K.. 1986. How the West Grew Rich. New York, NY: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Viner, Jacob. 1931. ‘Cost Curves and Supply Curves’. Reprinted in Stigler, George and Boulding, Kenneth, eds., AEA Readings in Price Theory. London: George Allen and Unwin.Google Scholar
Young, A. Allyn. 1928. ‘Increasing Returns and Economic Progress’. The Economic Journal 38(152): 527–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save element to Kindle

To save this element to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

A Reconsideration of the Theory of Non-Linear Scale Effects
  • Richard G. Lipsey, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
  • Online ISBN: 9781108555029
Available formats
×

Save element to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

A Reconsideration of the Theory of Non-Linear Scale Effects
  • Richard G. Lipsey, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
  • Online ISBN: 9781108555029
Available formats
×

Save element to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

A Reconsideration of the Theory of Non-Linear Scale Effects
  • Richard G. Lipsey, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
  • Online ISBN: 9781108555029
Available formats
×