Technological Change and Competition

The impact of science on business in the U.S. post‐World War II period has wrought a profound change in the spirit and nature of modern competition. In the 1930s, economists were concerned with such newly emerging problems as monopolistic and oligopolistic competition and the growing ability of large companies to deliberately retard the rate of technological innovation until the market was deemed “ready.” Such concerns were dramatically reflected in the famous hearings held by the Temporary National Economic Committee in the years 1937 to 1940.