Industrial Organization and the Organization of Industries: Linking Industry Structure to Economic Performance

This paper examines how and why the field of industrial organization generated so much interest and excitement during the era corresponding to publication of the three editions of Scherer’s seminal work, Industrial Structure and Economic Performance. The paper concludes that it was the ability to address the compelling issues of its era confronting public policy that made the academic field of industrial organization not just interesting but also highly relevant and timely. In particular, by analyzing how and why the organization of industries matters for economic performance, along with the various policy approaches available to public policy, under the stewardship of F.M. Scherer, the scholarly field of industrial organization prospered and flourished.