The best of all monopoly profits is a quiet life

This paper proposes an interpretation and a test of Hicks' assertion concerning monopoly. We suggest that one source of monopoly survival is a comparative advantage in producing a quiet, long life. To test this hypothesis, we compare the life expectancy of executives in banking, an industry in which competition was constrained by regulations during the period examined, with the life expectancy of their counterparts in less regulated industrial firms. Bankers had a lower age adjusted mortality rate.