文档介绍：No, Monopoly Has Not Grown
ROBERT D. ATKINSON AND FILIPE LAGE DE SOUSA | JUNE 2021
Alarmists say the economy is experiencing a crisis of market concentration, with dominant
players stifling competition in industry after industry. That is the pretext for a push to radically
restructure antitrust policy—but newly released Census data largely contradict the claim.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
▪ Despite widespread claims of widespread monopolization, just 4 percent of .
industries are highly concentrated, and the share of industries with low levels of
concentration grew by around 25 percent from 2002 to 2017.
▪ Overall, Census data show . industries have not become more concentrated: The
average C4 ratio (the share of sales that the top four firms capture in an industry)
increased just 1 percentage point from 2002 to 2017.
▪ The more concentrated industries were in 2002, the more likely they were to become less
concentrated by 2017.
▪ Prices rose less in industries with higher levels of concentration than they did in the
overall economy from 2002 to 2017.
▪ There was no relationship between industry concentration and profitability in that period.
▪ In short, the widely accepted narrative that monopolization is increasing to crisis levels is
not supported by the facts. Overall, the . economy remains vibrantly competitive.
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & INNOVATION FOUNDATION | JUNE 2021
INTRODUCTION
Over the past several years, many scholars, activists, pundits, and policymakers have asserted
that market concentration has risen across the . economy, leading to a decline in
competition. The culprit, they claim, is poorly crafted antitrust laws and lax enforcement, which
have allow