Robert T. Averitt

Robert T. Averitt (born c. 1936) is an American economist, and Professor Emeritus of Economics at Smith College, known for his 1968 book The Dual Economy.

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Quotes edit

The Dual Economy, 1968 edit

Robert T. Averitt. The Dual Economy. W.W. Norton, 1968

Center firms differ from periphery firms in terms of economic size, organizational structure, industrial location, factor endowment, time perspective, and market concentration.
- p. 1

The new economy [or "center economy"] is composed of firms large in size and influence. Its organizations are corporate and bureaucratic; its production processes are vertically integrated through ownership and control of critical raw material suppliers and product distributors; its activities are diversified into many industries, regions, and nations... Firms in the large economy serve national and international markets, using technologically progressive systems of production and distribution…
- p. 7

The other economy [or "periphery economy"] is populated by relatively small firms. These enterprises are the ones usually dominated by a single individual or family. The firm's sales are realized in restricted markets. Profits and retained ... Techniques of production and marketing are rarely as up to date as those in the center.
- p. 7

[[The largest corporations] present a spongy target to possible attacks by environmental enemies. Their strongest protection against future threat comes from having successfully met past threats. When the demand for a major commodity falters, center firms can concentrate their energies on other products while experimenting with new lines. When a new technology portends revolutionary potential for home industries, center firms use their financial and technical resources to embrace it. If raw material prices began to rise, center firms can integrate backward, and supply themselves. When rising labor costs pose a substantial threat, automation, cybernation or self-service may provide long-run relief, depending on the industry. Expensive production labor must now contend with easily financed capital substitution in industries where center firms dwell.
- p. 16 ; As cited in Howard E. Aldrich (2008), Organizations and Environments, p. 155

Given a choice between efficiency and employment, most economists favor efficiency.
- p. 127

Quotes about Robert T. Averitt edit

In recent years economists and historians have increasingly turned their attention to modern economic institutions. Economists such as Edward S. Mason, A. D. H. Kaplan, John Kenneth Galbraith, Oliver E. Williamson, William J. Baumol, Robin L. Marris, Edith T. Penrose, Robert T. Averitt, and R. Joseph Monsen, following the pioneering work of Adolph A. Berle, Jr., and Gardiner C. Means, have studied the operations and actions of modern business enterprise. They have not attempted, however, to examine its historical development, nor has their work yet had a major impact on economic theory. The firm remains essentially a unit of production, and the theory of the firm a theory of production.
- Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. The Visible Hand (1977) p. 5.