We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
THE ELECTRIC LAMP MONOPOLY AND THE LIFE OF ELECTRIC LAMPS.
- Authors
Prais, S. J.
- Abstract
This article informs that the life of the commonly-used electric light bulb has been fixed at a standard of 1000 hours for over 50 years. Bulbs with a longer life can be manufactured at much the same cost, but at a loss in lighting efficiency, that is with a lower light-output per unit of electricity consumed. It has often been suggested that a longer length of life has not been chosen because manufacturers would lose in sales and that manufacturers have been in a position to fix a shorter life as a result of national and international agreements. The optimum life of a bulb depends on the ratio of the cost of replacing the bulb to the cost of running it per unit of time, such that the greater is this ratio, the longer is the optimum length of life. The article sets out the mathematical argument from which it follows that the optimum life is given by approximately nine times the replacement/running cost ratio. In the paper submitted to the Monopolies Commission, the multiple was put at only six times the difference arose partly from a mathematical slip in the original paper, and partly from the neglect of an important relation between the wattage and lighting efficiency of a bulb.
- Subjects
COST effectiveness; ECONOMIC life of fixed assets; COMPETITIVE advantage in business; LIGHT bulbs; ELECTRIC lamp industry; MONOPOLISTIC competition; ANTITRUST law; PRICE fixing
- Publication
Journal of Industrial Economics, 1974, Vol 23, Issue 2, p153
- ISSN
0022-1821
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2307/2098315