Re: Need for more data on concentration

["John V. Craven" <craven@panther.middlebury.edu>]

In the 1950s the FTC published a detailed study on concentration and cross
concentration by product lines, four largest firms. It was the kind of
valuable study that a Congress really serious about information on
structure and concentration should demand every five years. No doubt the
reporting was onerous but the benefits for measuring concentration and,
indirectly, the vitality of competition were most positive. It would tell
us something about economic power as well. Verboten! Nein!

Jack Craven



On Tue, 29 Dec 1998 BFoer@aol.com wrote:

> Date: Tue, 29 Dec 1998 22:47:14 -0500
> From: BFoer@aol.com
> Reply-To: antitrust@essential.org
> To: Multiple recipients of list ANTITRUST <antitrust@essential.org>
> Subject: Need for more data on concentration
> 
> 	The American Antitrust Institute shares Joe Shea's concern regarding the
> difficulty in obtaining solid information about the structure and dynamics of
> our markets. One thing we are starting to look at is the old Line of Business
> reporting program that the FTC conducted in the 1970's. Attorney Dan Koch has
> volunteered to begin collecting and reviewing information about how it worked,
> why it was killed, and whether it is feasible to propose a modernized version.
> Programs like this typically generate huge business opposition on grounds of
> burden, but one suspects the more serious concern is that more knowledge by
> the public can only spell trouble. Please contact Dan (dkoch@counsel.com) or
> me if you have relevant information.
>     I understand that the Census Bureau collects economic information at the
> plant level, but that it is extremely difficult to gain access to this data
> and that very little use has been made of it in the field of competition
> policy. (Certainly more than one product can be manufactured at a given plant,
> but one would think that an IO economist could build some pretty useful market
> pictures by aggregating plants.) I'd like to hear from anyone with relevant
> information.
> 
> Bert Foer, American Antitrust Institute
>   
>