The Portuguese Hub of Companies in 1973 – Discussing the Corporate Concentration in the Portuguese Economy on the Eve of the April Revolution

The network of Portuguese companies in 1973 has been identified as a relevant element for understanding the economic structure of the country in the decade of 1970–1980. This network had been formed before 1974, during the dictatorship, but it remained after the Carnation Revolution. In spite of such research, this network has not yet been properly analysed, especially through adequate tools from network analysis. This work will detail this network, the different scores of centrality of each company, and their modular structures; it will also discuss estimates from exponential random graph models to identify significant attributes that explain the discovered flows of investment. This work will also detail the processes of vertical integration as well as the specificities of the identified oligopolies.

Is More Mittelstand the Answer? Firm Size and the Crisis of Democratic Capitalism

Corporate concentration is currently being discussed as a core reason for the crisis of democratic capitalism. It is seen as a prime mover for wage stagnation and alienation, economic inequalities and discontent with democracy. A tacit coalition of progressive anti-monopoly critiques and small business promoters considers more deconcentrated corporate structures to be a panacea for the crisis of democratic capitalism, arguing that small firms in competition are better for employment, equality and democracy. This paper offers a brief outline of ideas of the anti-monopoly and small business ideal and critically evaluates whether a more deconcentrated economy may live up to these promises. While we agree that the plea for strengthened antitrust enforcement contains relevant and promising prospects for reform, our analysis concludes on a decidedly critical note. In particular, we caution against romanticized notions of the small capitalist firm.

The Tax Advantage of Big Business: How the Structure of Corporate Taxation Fuels Concentration and Inequality

Corporate concentration in the United States has been on the rise in recent years, sparking a heated debate about its causes, consequences, and potential remedies. This article examines a facet of public policy that has been neglected in the debate: corporate taxation. Developing the first empirical mapping of the effective tax rates of nonfinancial corporations disaggregated by size and broken down by jurisdiction, the article reveals a striking tax advantage for big business at home and abroad. The analysis goes on to show how persistent regressivity in the tax structure is bound up with the increasing relative power of large corporations within the corporate universe, as well as a shift in firm-level power relations. As large corporations become less disposed to investments that may indirectly benefit ordinary workers, they become more disposed to shareholder value enhancement that directly benefits the asset-rich. What this means is that the corporate tax structure is connected not only to rising corporate concentration but also to widening household inequality.

Afterword: Developments in autumn 2018

I sent this manuscript to Oxford University Press on 29 August 2018. The book emerged in April 2019. Much happened in the interim. I submitted this update on 4 January 2019, summarizing matters of consequence in autumn 2018, as well as important things I learned in that period. A recent Microsoft blog suggests that I was too positive in my portrayal of a shrinking digital divide. In the USA, 35 per cent of the population report they do not use broadband communications at home. Wikipedia continued to grow, fuelled in part by its foundation’s effort to engage underrepresented ‘emerging communities’. Battles in the USA over net neutrality intensified after the federal decision to abandon the policy. The state of California passed a tough net neutrality; the New York state attorney initiated an enquiry asking whether the federal decision had been swayed by millions of fraudulent comments. There were more innovations in sensory substitution to enable digital inclusion. At Caltech, researchers developed a system that allows blind people to receive an audio description of what is in their gaze: the objects appear to describe themselves in words. Women continued their struggle for equality and against gender discrimination in high-tech firms. Despite the importance of digital technologies for seniors to help combat loneliness, and to access banking and other online services, many are still digitally disengaged. Research shows that seniors perceive risk in being online, are reluctant to invest the time needed to gain and maintain digital proficiency, and are sometimes concerned that internet use would be inconsistent with their values, for example, the desire to support local stores. I was also too positive in my analysis of the impacts of sharing and stealing digital media and the power of digital media firms such as Google, Netflix, Facebook, and Amazon (see also the discussions of corporate concentration in Sections 12.9 and 14.12). Professor Jonathan Taplin has summarized how devastating these impacts have been, not just to digital media companies such as music and newspaper publishers, but to media creators such as composers and reporters. Consumer spending on recorded music dropped from almost US$20 billion in 1999 to US$7.5 billion in 2014.

The production of the rural landscape and its labour: The development of supply chain capitalism in the Swedish berry industry

Increased commercial interest in wild berries in Northern Sweden’s resource periphery has connected places and people to a global berry supply chain that produces goods for world markets. As a part of a wider global food chain, every link in this chain is deeply insecure and partly marked by secrecy and mystification. Contemporary representations of the Norrlandic landscape tend to obscure and hide economic conflicts and power relations connected to resource exploitation and corporate concentration, neglecting workers and local communities. This paper examines how globalization, neoliberal policies and the development of supply chain capitalism drive changes in labour markets and migration policies, which in turn shape/and are shaped by both material and immaterial aspects of the Norrlandic landscape. While many studies of global food chains have focused on abstract patterns of chain governance, business economics and logistics, we analyse the wild berry industry by centring on migrant workers and the production of a distinct spatiality through interconnectedness and historical conjuncture, with a starting point in a particular place in the interior of Norrland. We thereby contribute to a different narrative of the Norrlandic landscape, making visible power and labour relations.