Abstract Given the political and public interest in rising industry concentration in developed economies, researchers have been working on uncovering underlying mechanisms and implications. Various causes of concentration have been proposed, although rarely tested in a comprehensive model. We study five distinct phenomena and their association with industry concentration: 1) Industry regulation, 2) mergers, 3) information technology use, 4) imports, and 5) productivity. We find that greater concentration within an industry is related to higher productivity, more regulation, and more merger activity. On the other and, it is lower with more imports and seemingly unrelated to the extent of information technology use. The most economically significant relationship is between concentration and industry productivity. Real the full working paper here.
Authors
- Pages
- 43
- Published in
- United States of America
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction 3
- 2. Literature 6
- 2.1. Industry concentration trends 6
- 2.2. Regulation and industry concentration 8
- 2.3. Information technology and industry concentration 9
- 2.4. Mergers and industry concentration 10
- 2.5. Productivity labor share and industry concentration 11
- Data 11
- 3.1. Imports 11
- 3.2. Industry concentration 12
- Figure 1 Industry concentration trends 1997-2017 14
- 3.3. Regulation 14
- Quantgov 14
- Figure 2 Regulatory restriction trends 1970-2020 16
- Figure 3 Cross-sectional correlations between regulatory restrictions and industry 17
- 3.4. IT 18
- 3.5. Mergers Acquisitions 18
- Figure 4 MA trends 1985-2023 19
- 3.6. Productivity and other measures 20
- Modeling 21
- 5. Results 23
- 6. Summary 28
- References 29
- Assessing EU merger control through 29
- Regulation Governance 29
- Review of Financial 29
- Studies 22 29
- SSRN. 29
- The Quarterly Journal of Economics 135 29
- Journal of Regulatory Economics 52 29
- American Economic Review 29
- Price theory 30
- Barriers to new competition Their character and consequences in 30
- Industrial organization 30
- Industry Concentration 30
- How the Chicago school overshot the mark The effect of conservative economic 30
- Financial Review 49 30
- Carnegie Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy 55 30
- The Journal of Law and 30
- Economics 63 30
- Control of corporations persons and firms engaged in interstate commerce 30
- Handbook of Industrial Organization Volume 2 30
- Concentration Mergers and Public Policy. 31
- Information technology firm size and industrial 31
- Journal of Regulatory Economics 61 31
- Issue brief Benefits of competition and indicators of 31
- FEDS Notes 31
- 2023-0203 31
- The Quarterly Journal of Economics 135 31
- Industrial Concentration The New Learning 31
- Rising markups and the role of consumer 32
- Analyzing the economic effects of state-level regulation 32
- Jahrbücher Für Nationalökonomie Und Statistik 241 32
- Rising concentration in agricultural 32
- Beyond antitrust The role of competition policy in promoting 32
- American Economic 32
- Journal Microeconomics 13 32
- Review of Finance 23 32
- Declining competition and investment in the U.S. 33
- The failure of free entry 33
- A Tale of Two Samples Unpacking Recent Trends in Industrial 33
- Concentration 33
- SSRN. 33
- Public Choice 192 33
- The Journal of Law Economics and 33
- Organization 33
- Public Choice 180 33
- Concurrences 2023 33
- Principles of political economy 33
- American 33
- Economic Review 112 33
- The extent of enterprise monopoly in the United States 1899-1939 a 34
- Southern California Law 34
- Review 85 34
- Bell Journal of Economics 5 34
- Journal of Law and Economics 34
- Journal of Law and 34
- Economics 20 34
- NBER Macroeconomics Annual 35 34
- International Journal of Industrial 34
- Organization 34
- Consolidation and concentration in the U.S. dairy industry. 34
- Public Policy Pamphlet No.15 34
- SSRN 34
- An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations. 35
- The American Economic Review 32 35
- The Journal of Legal Studies 14 35
- Duke Journal of Constitutional Law Public Policy 35
- Western Economic 35
- Journal 5 35
- Antitrust Law Journal 35
- The curse of bigness Antitrust in the New Gilded Age. 35
- Figures and Tables 36
- Table 1 Variables and their definitions 36
- Variable name Symbol Abbreviation Variable definitions 36
- Table 3 Regressions of domestic industry concentration 38
- Table 4 Regressions of import-augmented industry concentration 39
- Table 5 Regressions of industry concentration with import as additional regressor 40
- Figure 2 Industry concentration trends 1997-2017 41
- Figure 2 Regulatory restriction trends 1970-2020 42
- Figure 3 Cross-sectional correlations between regulatory restrictions and industry 42
- Figure 4 MA trends 1985-2023 43
