American Economic Journal:
Microeconomics
ISSN 1945-7669 (Print) | ISSN 1945-7685 (Online)
Concentration in Product Markets
American Economic Journal: Microeconomics
(pp. 268–92)
Abstract
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.Citation
Benkard, C. Lanier, Ali Yurukoglu, and Anthony Lee Zhang. 2026. "Concentration in Product Markets." American Economic Journal: Microeconomics 18 (2): 268–92. DOI: 10.1257/mic.20240258Additional Materials
JEL Classification
- D43 Market Structure, Pricing, and Design: Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
- L13 Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
- M37 Advertising
- R32 Other Spatial Production and Pricing Analysis