Concentration in Product Markets

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Benkard, C. Lanier; Yurukoglu, Ali; Zhang, Anthony Lee
• 署名单位: Stanford University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Stanford University; University of Chicago
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-MICROECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7669
• DOI: 10.1257/mic.20240258
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: us industries; rise

摘要

This paper measures concentration in narrowly defined product markets for a broad range of consumer goods and services in the United States from 1994 to 2019. We document two main empirical facts. First, concentration levels are high. Of the markets in our sample, 44.4 percent are highly concentrated as defined by US regulators. Second, market concentration has been decreasing since 1994. The median HHI falls from 2,362 to 2,045. These findings stand in stark contrast to the prior literature, which uses market definitions that are aggregated to a level that is typically too broad to accurately reflect competition in consumer markets. (JEL D43, L13, M37, R32)