Measuring Market Power and Cost‐efficiency Effects of Industrial Concentration

In this paper I show how Appelbaum's framework for testing price‐taking behavior in a single industry can be formally extended to consider concentration explicitly. In so doing, I separate the market power effect of concentration from its cost‐efficiency effect. Data from the US beef‐packing industry are used to illustrate an empirical application of the model. The findings support oligopsonistic market power and slaughter‐cost efficiency in the industry. However, the cost‐efficiency effect outweighs the market‐power effect.