Economic crisis and merger movements: 1880s Britain and 1980s United States.

Based upon his own previous work on long cycles in the expansion and contraction of the capitalist world economy, Bergesen focuses upon the reaction of dominant 'hegemonic' nations to economic recessions in an attempt to further examine his hypothesis that mergers between capitalist enterprises, taking place in periods of economic downturn, seem to occur less in the dominant national economies and more in other emerging core economies. To test this hypothesis, the author examines the reaction of British industry to crisis at the end of the 19th century (1873-1896) and, in comparison, makes some predictions concerning the response of American industrial enterprises to the recession which began in the mid-1970s. The general conclusion is that downturns do not have the same effect on all capitalist economies.-C.Gerry