Trends in Market Concentration of Australian Industries

A host of industrialised countries have seen concentration in their industries grow. This trend is fuelling concerns about falling competition. This article focuses on the changing pattern of market concentration in Australia from 2002 to 2017. On average, market concentration has been rising. However, beneath the aggregate statistics, the pattern is rather mixed, with concentration falling in several sectors. The study also detects a pattern of strong productivity growth alongside a shift towards capital intensive operation and increasing trade where concentration is growing. Overall, the implications of these findings point to the possibility that rising market concentration in some industries is technology driven and not due to a lack of competition.