Scale Economies in the UK

英国的规模经济

• 批准号: ES/V003364/1
• 负责人: Anthony Savagar
• 金额: $ 30.59万
• 依托单位: University of Kent
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FV003364%2F1
• 关键词: Scale; Economies; UK

Economies of scale represent the extent to which a larger business can produce at lower cost. A firm may have increasing, constant or decreasing returns. Increasing returns mean production is cheaper at a larger scale. Constant returns mean there is no difference in production costs for small and large firms. Decreasing returns mean production is more costly at a larger scale. Economies of scale are notoriously inconvenient - a textbook model plus scale economies is mathematically messy - yet Adam Smith's famous example of division of labour in a pin factory (see the illustration on a £20 note) conveys the fundamental nature of scale effects in economics. Despite this, economists frequently assume scale effects do not exist, which until recently seemed empirically plausible, but a recent resurgence in the study of aggregate market power brings their role back into focus.In this project we seek to measure scale economies across all sectors of the UK economy using big-data at the firm-level. Most recent studies of scale economies in the UK date back over twenty years, and were focused on a small number of firms in specific sectors, namely manufacturing which has diminished in aggregate importance. New data availability allows us to study scale economies across all sectors and document their evolution over the last 20 years.We are interested in measuring scale economies because they effect two variables of interest in the UK at the moment: productivity and market power. Productivity determines the output that can be produced from a given amount of inputs, and crucially is proxy for standards of living. Market power determines a firms ability to set its own price without threat of losing business to a competitor. Existing research shows the UK has very low productivity, whilst emerging research suggests market power is growing. Scale economies neatly link the two concepts and make measuring productivity and determining the social costs of market power considerably more challenging. If it is the case that scale economies are increasing, this could explain rising market power. Furthermore it would be consistent with the observation that the structure of the UK economy has reallocated to sectors that are highly invested in intangible assets that have scaling and network effects that may enhance returns to scale.

规模经济是指规模较大的企业能够以较低成本生产的程度。一个公司可能有递增的、不变的或递减的收益。收益递增意味着大规模生产更便宜。固定回报意味着小型和大型企业的生产成本没有差异。回报率的下降意味着更大规模的生产成本更高。规模经济是出了名的不方便--教科书上的模型加上规模经济在数学上是混乱的--然而亚当·斯密著名的别针工厂劳动分工的例子（见20英镑纸币上的插图）传达了经济学中规模效应的基本性质。尽管如此，经济学家经常假设规模效应不存在，直到最近，这在经验上似乎是合理的，但最近对总市场力量的研究的复苏使其作用再次成为焦点。在本项目中，我们试图使用企业层面的大数据来衡量英国经济所有部门的规模经济。英国最近对规模经济的研究可以追溯到20多年前，主要集中在特定行业的少数公司，即制造业，其总体重要性已经下降。新的数据使我们能够研究所有行业的规模经济，并记录它们在过去20年的演变。我们对衡量规模经济感兴趣，因为它们影响了英国目前感兴趣的两个变量：生产力和市场力量。生产率决定了一定数量的投入所能产生的产出，而且至关重要的是，它代表着生活水平。市场支配力决定了一个公司在不把生意输给竞争对手的情况下确定自己价格的能力。现有的研究表明，英国的生产率非常低，而新兴的研究表明，市场力量正在增长。规模经济巧妙地将这两个概念联系起来，使衡量生产力和确定市场力量的社会成本更具挑战性。如果规模经济正在增加，这可以解释市场力量的上升。此外，这与英国经济结构已重新分配给高度投资于无形资产的部门的观察结果是一致的，这些无形资产具有规模效应和网络效应，可能会提高规模回报。