Concentration and Competition: Evidence from Europe and Implications for Policy

Gabor Koltay, Szabolcs Lorncz and Tommaso Valletti

No 9640, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: The paper provides new evidence on proxy indicators of market power for major European countries. The data shows moderately increasing average industry concentration over the last two decades, a considerably increasing proportion of high concentration industries, and an overall tendency towards oligopolistic structure. Estimates of aggregate profitability also show a sustained increase over the recent decades for European economies. While the academic and policy debate is not settled as to whether the causes of these trends are policy driven or reflect technological improvement, our findings suggest that competition policy is likely to face more challenges as large companies are becoming more common in more and more industries.

Keywords: mergers; antitrust; European Union; concentrations; industries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G34 L10 L40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-eec, nep-ind and nep-reg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ces:ceswps:_9640

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