New book challenges notion that monopolies have no redeeming virtue

Richard McKenzie, professor of economics and public policy at UC Irvine’s Paul Merage School of Business, has written a new book released today called In Defense of Monopoly: How Market Power Fosters Creative Production. The work, published by The University of Michigan Press, argues that conventional models exaggerate the harm perpetrated by real-world monopolies, and also shows why a degree of monopoly is necessary to maximize the improvement of human welfare over time. McKenzie’s co-author, Dwight Lee, is a professor of economics at the University of Georgia.