bing about this book is that the overall impression created, heightened by the blurb and the introduction, is that not only are issues of technical efficiency of supreme importance, but that the book provides empirical support for a general case against modern small enterprises. This is despite the sophistication in approach shown by some individual contributors. Of course, it is well known that in the past, items were added to the list of products reserved for exclusive production in the small-scale sector, with little technical examination of the relative costs of production on a large and a small scale. The problem now is the reverse: items are being removed even more arbitrarily on the grounds that the small-scale sector is inefficient. Similarly, fiscal measures which have an adverse impact on the small-scale sector are officially justified in terms of their relative inefficiency.
