Edward Chamberlin

Edward H. Chamberlin (May 181899-1967) was an American economist. He was born in La Conner, Washington.

Chamberlin studied first at the University of Iowa (where he was influenced by Frank H. Knight), then pursued graduate-level studies at the University of Michigan, eventually receiving his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1927.

For most of his career Edward Chamberlin taught economics at Harvard (1937-1967). He made significant contributions to microeconomics, particularly on competition theory and consumer choice, and their connection to prices. Edward Chamberlin coined the term "product differentiation" to describe how a supplier may be able to charge a greater amount for a product than perfect competition would allow.

His most significant contribution was the theory of monopolistic competition. Chamberlin published his book The Theory of Monopolistic Competition in 1933, the same year that Joan Robinson published her book on the same topic: The Economics of Imperfect Competition, so these two economists can be regarded as the parents of the modern study of imperfect competition.

Major Works

• "Duopoly: Values where sellers are few," 1929, QJE
• Theory of Monopolistic Competition, 1933
• "Advertising Costs and Equilibrium," 1944, RES
• "Proportionality, Divisibility and Economics of Scale," 1948, QJE
• "An Experimental Imperfect Market," 1948, JPE
• "Product Heterogeneity and Public Policy," 1950, AER
• Monopolistic Competition Revisited, 1951
• "Impact of Recent Monopoly Theory on the Schumpeterian System," 1951, REStat
• "Full Cost and Monopolistic Competition," 1952, EJ
• "The Product as an Economic Variable," 1953, QJE
• "Some Aspects of Nonprice Competition," 1954, in Huegy, editor, Role and Nature of Competition
• "Measuring the Degree of Monopoly and Competition," 1954, in Chamberlin, editor, Monopoly and Competition and their Regulation
• "The Monopoly Power of Labor," 1957, in Wright, editor, Impact of the Union
• "On the Origin of Oligopoly," 1957, EJ
• Towards a More General Theory of Value, 1957

External link

• A brief bio of Chamberlin

Credits

New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article in accordance with New World Encyclopedia standards. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Credit is due under the terms of this license that can reference both the New World Encyclopedia contributors and the selfless volunteer contributors of the Wikimedia Foundation. To cite this article click here for a list of acceptable citing formats.The history of earlier contributions by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here:

• Edward_Chamberlin  ^history

The history of this article since it was imported to New World Encyclopedia:

• History of "Edward Chamberlin"

Note: Some restrictions may apply to use of individual images which are separately licensed.