The main concern of this book is the growth of a national economy. In this respect, the book adds to the already abundant literature on economic growth. It is unlike others, however, in its emphasis on the analysis of the behavior of firms in the economy. The economy we are concerned with is one where the representative firm is a large-scale corporation and not a tiny firm as has been the case with the neoclassical theory of the firm. From this comes the title – The Theory of Growth in a Corporate Economy.

It is general knowledge today that production and other economic activities are substantially carried out by a limited number of big corporations. Wherever and whenever one goes shopping, for instance, one is surrounded by the products of nationally known corporations or the anonymous products of less well-known but equally far-reaching conglomerates. In fact, shopping itself usually requires the use of vehicles produced by giant manufacturers. Typically, such producers are not only big no matter how their size is measured but also are comprised of many plants and offices and diversified enough to extend into several industrial fields. In addition, with little exception they are joint-stock corporations with almost no one owning more than 10 percent of the ownership of each.

In spite of this enormous role played by big corporations in our economic activity, little effort has been made to analyze theoretically the dynamics of an economy composed of these corporations.