Download This PaperTrends in Market Concentration of Australian Industries
34 Pages Posted: 3 Sep 2019 Last revised: 30 Apr 2020
Date Written: April 29, 2020
Abstract
A host of industrialized countries have seen concentration in their industries grow. The trend is fueling concerns about falling competition. This paper focuses on the changing pattern of market concentration in Australian from 2002 to 2017. On average, market concentration has been on the rise. Underneath the aggregate statistics, however, the pattern is rather mixed, with concentration falling in several sectors. The study also detects a pattern of strong productivity growth among certain groups of industries at the same time that their concentration is increasing. A combination of rising export intensity, falling labor share and digital intensity are the contributors to these patterns. The implications point to the possibility that rising market concentration in some industries is technology driven and not due to a lack of competition.
Keywords: Market Concentration, Competition, Digital Maturity, Exporting, Productivity
JEL Classification: K21, L13, L5
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