The Gains and Losses from Industrial Concentration

Abstract

No field in the industrial organization literature has been as well plowed as the relationship between concentration and profitability. Weiss (19711), in his latest review of this literature, d.iscusses over 4O such studies since 1951, and this is not a complete census. The reader has by this late date earned the right to demand strong justification for a new entrant. Mine is simply that,despite its bulk, the literature fails to inform us how to interpret its main findings.