The DOI matches its Crossref record.
The Learning Curve and Competition
Abstract
This article develops a model of competitive interaction and industry evolution in the presence of a learning curve. The learning curve is a function relating the unit costs of the individual firm to accumulated volume. The responses of the model to shifts in parameters are explored through calculated examples. The paper also used a two-period model to explore differences between open and closed-loop equilibria, and to assess the impact of learning spillover effects from one firm to the next.
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Citations
Cited by
Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-In by Historical Events
Arthur, W. B. (1989) · The Economic Journal · doi:10.2307/2234208 · Cited by 7,489
Innovation and Learning: The Two Faces of R & D
Cohen, W. M., & Levinthal, D. A. (1989) · The Economic Journal · doi:10.2307/2233763 · Cited by 7,530
Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy
Arthur, W. (2026) · doi:10.3998/mpub.10029 · Cited by 4,547
Schilling, M. A. (2002) · Academy of Management Journal · doi:10.2307/3069353 · Cited by 663
Online purchase return policy leniency and purchase decision: Mediating role of consumer trust
Oghazi, P., Karlsson, S., Hellström, D., & Hjort, K. (2018) · Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services · doi:10.1016/j.jretconser.2017.12.007 · Cited by 229
Metadata
- Authors
- Spence, A. M.
- Venue
- The Bell Journal of Economics
- Publisher
- JSTOR
- Published
- 1981
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 49
- ISSN
- 0361-915X (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2169044080
- Cited by
- 825
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 55.68
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
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How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: The Learning Curve and Competition. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.2307/3003508
- The paper
- Spence, A. M. (1981). The Learning Curve and Competition. The Bell Journal of Economics. https://doi.org/10.2307/3003508
Data sources
Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.
Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).
Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.
