IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aejmic/v18y2026i2p268-92.html

Concentration in Product Markets

Author

Listed:
  • C. Lanier Benkard
  • Ali Yurukoglu
  • Anthony Lee Zhang

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.

Suggested Citation

  • C. Lanier Benkard & Ali Yurukoglu & Anthony Lee Zhang, 2026. "Concentration in Product Markets," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 18(2), pages 268-292, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejmic:v:18:y:2026:i:2:p:268-92
    DOI: 10.1257/mic.20240258
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/mic.20240258
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to AEA members and institutional subscribers.
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.3886/E209805V1
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/24968
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles/materials/24969
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/mic.20240258?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • M37 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Advertising
    • R32 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Real Estate Markets, Spatial Production Analysis, and Firm Location - - - Other Spatial Production and Pricing Analysis

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:aea:aejmic:v:18:y:2026:i:2:p:268-92. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.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.