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The Rise, Fall, and Legacy of the Structure-Conduct-Performance Paradigm

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  • Panhans, Matthew T.

Abstract

In 1982, Joe Bain was designated a Distinguished Fellow of the AEA, with an accompanying statement referring to him as “the undisputed father of modern Industrial Organization Economics.” The Structure-Conduct-Performance paradigm that Bain developed and deployed had been the core framework of industrial organization for two decades, and had a significant impact on competition policy from the 1950s through the 1970s. And yet by the time of Bain’s designation as a Distinguished Fellow, industrial organization was shifting away from SCP and instead relying on a foundation of game theory. This essay considers what made the SCP framework so influential in the United States, what shortcomings economists identified in the framework during the shift to the “new IO” in the late 1970s, and what lasting contributions the SCP research program made.

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  • Panhans, Matthew T., 2023. "The Rise, Fall, and Legacy of the Structure-Conduct-Performance Paradigm," SocArXiv dvm3e, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:socarx:dvm3e
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/dvm3e
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    References listed on IDEAS

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