Big is beautiful : debunking the myth of small business / Robert D. Atkinson and Michael Lind.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Atkinson, Robert D., author.

Lind, Michael, 1962- author.

Contributor:

John Lammey Stewart Memorial Library Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Big business--United States--History.

Big business.

Employee fringe benefits.

Business enterprises--Size.

Econometric models.

Small business.

History.

United States.

Small business--United States--History.

Business enterprises--Size--United States--Econometric models.

Business enterprises.

Employee fringe benefits--United States--Costs.

Physical Description:

ix, 352 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2018]

Summary:

"In public discourse in the United States, small businesses are lauded as drivers of the economy and keys to economic growth, while "big business" is often vilified. Even in the face of evidence that larger firms are proven to be more likely to stimulate economic growth, American public policy favors small businesses through measures such as lowering taxes or regulatory requirements for firms under a certain number of employees. The authors trace the anti-big business sentiment back to its roots in the early founding of our nation. While the Jeffersonian ideal of every citizen being self-employed made sense for a pre-industrial agrarian society, changes in technology have led to significant economies of scale for big businesses. Now, we see that countries with more self-employed workers are also more likely to be in poverty (think of emerging economies where everyone is an entrepreneur, and compare it to the compensation and benefits packages available to employees of large firms in more advanced economies). Rather than simply taking the opposite view that "bigger is better," the authors argue that a modern capitalist society has room for businesses of all sizes and that we should not be privileging one type of business over another due to size alone, especially when our perception of who creates jobs and grows the economy does not track with reality"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Part I. History and present trends. Belittled : how small became beautiful

Why business got big : a brief history

Understanding US firm size and dynamics

Part II. The advantages of size. The bigger the better : the economics of firm size

Small business job creation : myth versus reality

The myth of the genius in the garage : big innovation

Small business in a big world

Part III. Politics and policy. A republic, if you can keep it : big business and democracy

The strange career of antitrust

Brandeis is back : the fall and rise of the antimonopoly tradition

Has big business gotten too big?

Small business cronyism : policies favoring small business

Living with giants.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 269-333) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the John Lammey Stewart Memorial Library Fund.

ISBN:

9780262037709

026203770X

OCLC:

1002291344

Publisher Number:

99978965705