IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cwl/cwldpp/828.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Measuring Market Power in U.S. Industry

Author

Abstract

Non-competitive conduct can be assessed by estimating the size of the markup or Lerner index achieves in a market. The markup implies a price elasticity of demand faced by the representative firm. For a given markup, non-competitive conduct that is insensitive to the value of the monopoly. To implement this measure, both the firm's and the market elasticities of demand must be estimated. Hall shows how to estimate the markup, and hence the elasticity faced by the firm, from the cyclical behavior of productivity. To estimate the market elasticity, an instrumental variables procedure exploiting a covariance restriction between productivity shocks and demand shocks is used. Results for broad sectors of private industry and for non-durable manufacturing industries display a wide range of monopoly power.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew D. Shapiro, 1987. "Measuring Market Power in U.S. Industry," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 828, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    • Handle: RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:828
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://cowles.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/pub/d08/d0828.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ian Domowitz & R. Glenn Hubbard & Bruce C. Petersen, 1986. "Business Cycles and the Relationship Between Concentration and Price-Cost Margins," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(1), pages 1-17, Spring.
    2. Shapiro, Matthew D, 1987. "Are Cyclical Fluctuations in Productivity Due More to Supply Shocks or Demand Shocks?," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 77(2), pages 118-124, May.
    3. Bresnahan, Timothy F., 1982. "The oligopoly solution concept is identified," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 10(1-2), pages 87-92.
    4. Rotemberg, Julio J & Saloner, Garth, 1986. "A Supergame-Theoretic Model of Price Wars during Booms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 76(3), pages 390-407, June.
    5. Robert E. Hall, 1986. "Chronic Excess Capacity in U.S. Industry," NBER Working Papers 1973, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Bresnahan, Timothy F., 1989. "Empirical studies of industries with market power," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: R. Schmalensee & R. Willig (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 17, pages 1011-1057, Elsevier.
    7. Hausman, Jerry A & Taylor, William E, 1983. "Identification in Linear Simultaneous Equations Models with Covariance Restrictions: An Instrumental Variables Interpretation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 51(5), pages 1527-1549, September.
    8. Appelbaum, Elie, 1982. "The estimation of the degree of oligopoly power," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2-3), pages 287-299, August.
    9. Bruno, Michael, 1978. "Duality, Intermediate Inputs and Value-Added," Histoy of Economic Thought Chapters, in: Fuss, Melvyn & McFadden, Daniel (ed.),Production Economics: A Dual Approach to Theory and Applications, volume 2, chapter 1, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought.
    10. Kydland, Finn E & Prescott, Edward C, 1982. "Time to Build and Aggregate Fluctuations," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 50(6), pages 1345-1370, November.
    11. Hall, Robert E, 1988. "The Relation between Price and Marginal Cost in U.S. Industry," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 96(5), pages 921-947, October.
    12. Long, John B, Jr & Plosser, Charles I, 1983. "Real Business Cycles," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 91(1), pages 39-69, February.
    13. Robert E. Hall, 1986. "Market Structure and Macroeconomic Fluctuations," Brookings Papers on Economic Activity, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, vol. 17(2), pages 285-338.
    14. Hall, Robert E., 1987. "Productivity and the business cycle," Carnegie-Rochester Conference Series on Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 421-444, January.
    15. Michael Bruno & Jeffrey D. Sachs, 1985. "Economics of Worldwide Stagflation," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number brun85-1, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Victor Zarnowitz, 1989. "Cost and Price Movements in Business Cycle Theories and Experience: Hypotheses of Sticky Wages and Prices (SEE ALSO WP3132-send out together)," NBER Working Papers 3131, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Henry Nieuwenhuijsen & Gerrit de Wit & Frank Hindriks, 2000. "Comparative advantages in estimating markups," Scales Research Reports H200003, EIM Business and Policy Research.
    3. Rotemberg, Julio J. & Woodford, Michael, 1999. "The cyclical behavior of prices and costs," Handbook of Macroeconomics, in: J. B. Taylor & M. Woodford (ed.), Handbook of Macroeconomics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 16, pages 1051-1135, Elsevier.
    4. Kevin M. Murphy & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1989. "Increasing Returns, Durables and Economic Fluctuations," NBER Working Papers 3014, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Francisco J. Goerlich, 1994. "Comportamiento cíclico de la productividad en la industria: shocks de oferta versus shocks de demanda," Investigaciones Economicas, Fundación SEPI, vol. 18(3), pages 491-515, September.
    6. J. Bradford De Long, 1990. "Interpreting Procyclical Productivity Movements: Evidence from a Cross-Nation Cross-Industry Panel," J. Bradford De Long's Working Papers _136, University of California at Berkeley, Economics Department.
    7. Andrea Vaona, 2016. "A nonparametric panel data approach to the cyclical dynamics of price-cost margins in the fourth Kondratieff wave," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 6(2), pages 155-170, August.
    8. Craig Burnside & Martin Eichenbaum & Sergio Rebelo, 1995. "Capital Utilization and Returns to Scale," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1995, Volume 10, pages 67-124, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Sascha A. Weber & Sven M. Anders, 2007. "Price rigidity and market power in German retailing," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(7), pages 737-749.
    10. Basu, Susanto & Fernald, John G., 1995. "Are apparent productive spillovers a figment of specification error?," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 165-188, August.
    11. Konopczak, Karolina, 2019. "Modelling cyclical variation in the cost pass-through: evidence from regime-dependent ARDL model," MF Working Papers 36, Ministry of Finance in Poland.
    12. Alejandro Castañeda Sabido & David Mulato, 2006. "Market Structure: Concentration and Imports as Determinants of Industry Margins," Estudios Económicos, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos, vol. 21(2), pages 177-202.
    13. Jesus Felipe & J. S. L. McCombie, 2002. "A Problem with Some Estimations and Interpretations of the Mark-up in Manufacturing Industry," International Review of Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(2), pages 187-215.
    14. Delipalla, Sophia & O'Donnell, Owen, 2001. "Estimating tax incidence, market power and market conduct: The European cigarette industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(6), pages 885-908, May.
    15. Maes, Dries & Vancauteren, Mark & Van Passel, Steven, 2019. "Investigating market power in the Belgian pork production chain," Review of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Studies, Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA), vol. 100(1-4), November.
    16. Chen, Yuquan & Yu, Xiaohua, 2018. "Does the centralized slaughtering policy create market power for pork industry in China?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 59-71.
    17. Perloff, Jeffrey M., 1991. "Econometric analysis of imperfect competition and implications for trade research," CUDARE Working Papers 47252, University of California, Berkeley, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    18. Kevin M. Murphy & Andrei Shleifer & Robert W. Vishny, 1989. "Building Blocks of Market Clearing Business Cycle Models," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 1989, Volume 4, pages 247-302, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Daniel Ryan, 1997. "The behaviour of productivity growth rates and price-cost margins during contractions and expansions," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(7), pages 889-893.
    20. Siotis, Georges, 2003. "Competitive pressure and economic integration: an illustration for Spain, 1983-1996," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(10), pages 1435-1459, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cwl:cwldpp:828. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Brittany Ladd (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cowleus.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.