Re: Need for more data on concentration

[Joe Shea <joeshea@netcom.com>]

	The data I did get from the Census Bureau was buried in a
Midwestern warehouse and took weeks to uncover, but it shows economic
concentration by economic sector -- retail, services, manufacturing, etc.
-- not only for the two-digit SIC gross sectors but all the individual
areas (denoted by three- and four-digit SIC codes) of each sector, too. 
You can go fromeach toeach and immediately see how much the top 4, then 8
then 50 firms in each sector and subcategory earn as a percentage of all
receipts. This is extremely valuable benchmark information with which to
measure the current, unprecedented wave of consolidation.  The data is
contained in seven different bound volumes that are absolutely full of
data, and contain the concentration data for taxable and tax-exempt
organizations in various sections of each; the economomic concentration
tables within the 100-300 page volumes up to 20 pages or so in length. 
All are available on the Internet, too, as Acrobat PDF files. 

	My source for the data at the Census Bureau was Neil Tillman, a 
very able Public Information Officer..  His email address is:

		Neil Tillman <ntillman@census.gov>

Joe Shea				|	1812 N. Ivar, No. 5
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On Wed, 30 Dec 1998, John V. Craven wrote:

> 
> 
> 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
> >   
> > 
> 
>