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Winners, Losers & Microsoft: Competition and Antitrust in High Technology Paperback – March 1, 2001

by Stan J. Liebowitz (Author), Stephen E. Margolis (Author), Jack Hirshleifer (Foreword)

15 customer reviews

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Few issues in high technology are as divisive as the current debate over competition, innovation, and antitrust. Analyzing famous examples of economic “lock-in” by dominant corporations of supposedly inferior products, this book makes the case that free markets in high technology industry deliver better products to consumers, at lower prices, without government intervention. This publication's careful scholarship, well-founded hypotheses, and refutations of previously accepted theories—extending far beyond the Microsoft case—make this publication a vital piece of understanding for the future of technology and economics.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"By a long way, it is the best single thing to read on this tangle of issues." —The Economist

"Features what appears to be the first systematic look at the real-world history of the software industry." —Wired News

"In Winners, Losers & Microsoft, economists Liebowitz and Margolis present powerful evidence that Microsoft lowered prices." —Newsweek

"Th[is] fascinating history and analysis can guide us toward a better understanding of the newer forms of competition." —Jack Hirshleifer, professor of economics, UCLA

"Everyone interested in public policy toward high technology industries will want to read this excellent book." —Sam Peltzman, professor of economics, University of Chicago

"Powerful stuff, Winners, Losers & Microsoft promises to have an important impact on the debate about the appropriate use of antitrust in high-technology markets. It does indeed exhibit a very high caliber of scholarship, addresses the key questions posed by the proponents of anti-competitive 'lock-in,' and bases its conclusions on a wealth of new empirical evidence." —William F. Shughart II, Barnard Distinguished Professor of Economics, University of Mississippi

"If only the Clinton Justice Department read Winners, Losers & Microsoft, the American economy would be spared much pain and legal expense. Stan Liebowitz and Stephen Margolis really know their stuff, and they can write too." —Wall Street Journal

About the Author

Stan J. Liebowitz is a professor of managerial economics and the academic associate dean in the school of management at the University of Texas at Dallas. He has written on the topics of copyright and technology, broadcasting regulation, pricing practices, and mortgage discrimination. Stephen E. Margolis is a professor of economics and the head of the economics department in the college of management at North Carolina State University. His research includes work on housing markets, pricing of medical services, monopolistic competition, and economic efficiency in the law. They have jointly written numerous scholarly articles on the subjects of network effects and lock-in that have appeared in the Journal of Law, Economics and Organization; Harvard Journal of Law and Technology; and the Journal of Law and Economics. Their more popular articles have been published in the Christian Science Monitor, Investor’s Business Daily, and the Wall Street Journal.

Paperback: 302 pages
Publisher: Independent Institute; Second expanded edition edition (March 1, 2001)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0945999844
ISBN-13: 978-0945999843
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.7 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 15 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,273,320 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #270 in Books > Law > Administrative Law > Antitrust
- #842 in Books > Computers & Technology > History & Culture > History
- #1491 in Books > Business & Money > Industries > Computers & Technology

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Max More

An incisive book shedding light far beyond the MSFT case

August 26, 2001

Format: Hardcover

This book is unfortunately titled as it is really primarily about bringing real data and rigor to bear on many of the conventional "stories" about the economics of the new economy, rather than dwelling on the Microsoft antitrust situation. Clearly, the new economy tends to be characterized by more network effects, increasing returns to scale, and general "winner-take-all" effects than the historical economy. However, certain stories about early lock-in effects of technologies that are inferior, but that by luck got the early lead, have been uncritically passed from author to author. Examples are the QWERTY keyboard, VHS vs Betamax, Windows vs Apple, etc. Liebowitz and Margolis show that most of these stories do not hold up under close examination -- that in fact, these are not examples of the market failing to take the "right path". Actually, the market generally seems to get it right. This book is also the best we have seen in its treatment of the overall economics of information technology standards.

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Reviews From Around the Country

March 12, 2001

Format: Paperback

"In Winners, Losers & Microsoft, economists Liebowitz and Margolis present powerful evidence that Microsoft lowered prices." - NEWSWEEK
"Our 'Economics' focus discussed `The Fable of the Keys,' a paper by Stan Liebowitz and Stephen Margolis, which showed that the QWERTY story was, because the standard layout is not in fact demonstrably worse than the alternatives. This cast doubt on the whole new-theory movement. Now the authors brought out a book, Winners, Losers & Microsoft. It includes the keyboard paper but moves on from that, by way of a close look at the software industry, to a broader and deeper attack on the would-be heretics. By a long way, it is the best single thing to read on this tangle of issues. The book reviews the new theory carefully and in language accessible to the general reader, and then subjects it to a detailed empirical examination. At the end, very little of the fashionable critique of neoclassical economics is left standing. . . . Turning to the actual evidence, again and again, they show that good products win. The standard lock-in stories are examined and, like QWERTY before them, debunked. . . . Unsurprisingly, in view of all this, the authors take Microsoft's side in the firm's battle with the Justice Department. Their view of that endlessly complicated issue, set out in an appendix, is not so much a resounding acquittal as `case not proven'-but they would say this should suffice. The case they make against the path-dependence paradigm as a way to see the world could hardly be stronger: it is a big idea that simply fails to stand up." - THE ECONOMIST
"Winners, Losers & Microsoft gives 'path dependence' a cold shower and sheds much-needed empirical light on the success story we call Microsoft. The book is a pleasure to read, in no small part because Liebowitz and Margolis serve up course after course of exquisite historical and institutional detail. If you want to know the real reason we use QWERTY instead of the Dvorak keyboard and why we watch videos on VHS instead of Beta, read this book." - GEORGE N. BITTLINGMAYER, Wagnon Distinguished Professor of Economics, University of Kansas
"Winners, Losers & Microsoft features what appears to be the first systematic look at the real-world history of the software industry-and the results are sure to give Department of Justice trial attorneys the heebie-jeebies. An invaluable addition to the bookshelf of anyone interested in the Microsoft trial and future high-tech antitrust cases, the book is the best compilation that anyone's offered." - WIRED NEWS

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Great Book

August 27, 1999

Format: Hardcover

There are a lot of myths about why products succeed or fail. Many claim that customers get "locked into" products simply because they arrive on the scene first even when much better products are available. Some claim that Microsoft has taken over different markets despite inferior software simply because of the monopoly that it has in operating systems. Liebowitz and Margolis provide straightforward, convincing, and imaginative evidence that these claims are false.

It is amazing how many stories like the superiority of the DVORAK keyboard hang around for years with no supporting evidence. They make for great stories, but as these authors point out they are false.

If you want to learn about how markets work, read this book.

Finally, the previous commentor's remarks about these authors being bought off is offensive and false. Liebowitz and Margolis wrote about these issues a decade before Microsoft became involved in its current legal problems. Anyone who reads this book will realize that Microsoft would have been a lot better off if they had hired them rather than the lame effort they got from the MIT business school dean.

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Max More

An incisive book shedding light far beyond the MSFT case

August 26, 2001

Format: Paperback

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Winners, Losers & Microsoft: Competition and Antitrust in High Technology Paperback – March 1, 2001

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