Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Title: Concerns About Concentration
Author-Name: Nancy L. Rose
Abstract: A number of studies in recent years have fueled policymakers’ concerns
  over rising market concentration and the state of competition in US
  industry. However, determining the relationship between market
  concentration and other key economic outcomes­—such as markups,
  profit rates, labor share, and the state of competition more
  broadly—is fraught with empirical challenges. The state of evidence is
  actually much less clear than some popular commentary would suggest.
  
  Rose argues that highly aggregated measures of concentration across
  industries, which are used in many of the most provocative studies,
  cannot be used to draw conclusions about concentration dynamics due to a
  host of methodological challenges. Instead, industry-level studies are
  necessary to accurately assess causal relationships. These more
  appropriately modeled studies generally find no direct relationship
  between changes in concentration measures and changes in market
  competitiveness or performance. Despite the rise in aggregate
  concentration measures, Rose argues that all sectors remain well below
  market structure thresholds in the DOJ and FTC’s enforcement
  guidelines. Moreover, rising national concentration is not mirrored at
  more local levels, where measures of concentration have been declining
  over time. Still, Rose believes there is room for improving competition
  policy, as many instances of anti-competitive behavior have gone
  unchecked by the courts and merger enforcement has been weakened over
  time.
Creation-Date: 2019-11-01
Keywords: industrial organization, antitrust
File-URL: https://www.economicstrategygroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Concerns-About-Concentration.pdf
File-Format: Application/PDF
Handle: RePEc:cxx:wpaper:concerns-about-concentration