Gardiner Means. 1931. "The Growth in the Relative Importance of the Large Corporation in American Life." American Economic Review, 21, pp. 10-42, p. 10 "Between 1909 and 1927 the assets of the 200 largest [corporations] increased more than twice as fast as the assets of other non-financial corporations .... If recent rates of growth were to continue, 80% of non-financial wealth would be in the hands of 200 corporations by 1950."
Castells, Manuel. 1980. The Economic Crisis and American Society (Princeton Princeton University Press). 144: He give concentration ratios. 1968. 1.5 million firms. 94% of the firms (with less than $1 million worth of assets) owned only 9% of total capital. .1% of all (with assets greater than $250 million) owned 55% of all assets. Largest 200 corporations held 60% of manufacturing assets in 1969; they held 68% in 1950 (mistake?) Top 100 corporations in 1969 held 48% of assets; only 40% in 1950. According to Gardener Means, in 1962 50 industrial firms holding 26% of capital, 20 corporations, 25% of capital; 10 corporations, 18%; 5, 12%. Largest 500 corporations. take 80% after tax profits; 50, 1/2; 10, 30%" see Charles Anderson, The Political Economy of Social Class. 144: Banking concentration. 1970, 50 largest commercial banks, 48% of banking assets; (39% in 1960). 6 NY banks, 1/6 of all assets in 1971. ##
Dugger, William M. 1985. "The Shortcomings of Concentration Ratios in the Conglomerate Age: New Sources and Uses of Corporate Power." Journal of Economic Issues, 19: 2 (June): pp. 343-53. 345: Although concentration ration may not be increasing, concentration of corporate power is. Corporations with assets greater than $250 million are less than 0.1% of all tax returns in 1980, yet account for 2/3 of corporate income. In manufacturing, largest 200 corporations increased their share of assets form 53% in 1955 to 61% in 1982. They increased their share of value added from 30% in 1947 to 44% in 1977. Census Bureau's multiple industry companies in 1977 represented more slightly more than 0.5% of all companies surveyed by the Bureau, but they accounted for 49% of all employees, 57% of total payrolls, 52% of sales and receipts.
david landes wrote:
>
>
> A query from Doug
> Orr>----------------------------------
>
> >Please respond to dorr at ewu.edu, not
> to the list.
> >Thanks,
> >Doug Orr
> >
> > In Heilbroner's old principles book
> he had a great chapter on "the real
> >world," which came before any
> discussion of theory. I still
> structure
> >my courses that way. One piece that I
> got from the last edition of that
> >book is hopelessly out of date, but I
> still use it because it is so
> >effective.
> >
> > Lots of books have the breakdown of
> businesses into proprietorships,
> >partnerships, and corps and give
> numbers of firms and size of sales,
> and
> >then note that corps dominate sales.
> What Heilbroner did was to focus
> >on the control of decision making by
> focusing on the ownership of assets
> >by type of business and demonstrated
> that in 1982 3600 corps with assets
> >over $250 million owned 80% of all
> tangeble assets in the US economy.
> >3600 out of 19.5 M firms means that
> 0.02% of firms own and control 80%
> >of the economy. This makes students
> take notice.
> >
> > So my question is: where do I go to
> get data to update these numbers?
> >I have found numbers of businesses
> and sales by type from the IRS in the
> >Stat Abstract 99. I have been able to
> find Total Assets for partnerships,
> >also from the IRS in Stat AB, but I
> assume this includes tangible and
> >financial assets. For corportations,
> I can get both tangible and financial
> >assets broken out. I have found
> nothing on asset holdings of any type
> >for proprietors.
> >
> > Obviously, I need to go beyond the
> Stat Ab., but knowing where to start
> >would be a great help. So any
> thoughts you have would be great.
> >
> >Thanks for any help you can give.
> >
> >Doug Orr
> >dorr at ewu.edu
>
> ---------------------------------------
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--
Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929
Tel. 530-898-5321 E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu