Competition in the U.S. man-made fibers industry since 1948.

摘要

This work extends Markham's earlier study, Competition in the Rayon Industry, to all U.S. man-made fibers through the mid-1980s.;A complex of heterogeneous industries with price inelastic products, differentiated firms, and enduring entry barriers was found. Four firm market concentration ratios signalled the potential presence of oligopoly power unmitigated by rivalry with other, man-made or natural, fibers. The industry remains a natural monopoly. However, market entry, imports, decreasing emphasis on non-price rivalry, and customers' bargaining strength and skill constrain whatever oligopoly power exists. Ineffective protection, owing to lack of enforcement, had by the early 1980s opened all major U.S. end-use market sectors to imports.;Detailed costs were established for each major man-made fiber by process and product forms across all commercial plant sizes. Marginal costs were found constant over a significant capacity utilization range but rise steeply outside it.;Short-run prices remain administered but were found to be rigid, rather than flexible, near cyclical troughs. Average list price exceeds average effective price by some 40% as a results of discounts. Interaction of discounts across fibers sold by the same producer plus prolonged contingent liability for downstream goods renders indeterminate every specific product's effective price.;Although not yet workably competitive, the U.S. man-made fibers industry seems to be tending toward workability under pressure from: imports; the difficulty of sustaining innovation; erosion of producers' brand strength; the relative ease of vying on price; and transition from a growth to a mature or declining product life-cycle stage by the non-cellulosic and cellulosic portions of the industry, respectively.;In sum, almost all main conclusions were diametrically opposite to Markham's earlier ones.