Trends in Competition in the United States: What Does the Evidence Show?

Carl Shapiro and Ali Yurukoglu review evidence on competition in the United States across market concentration, markups, business dynamism and other measures. They find that aggregate indicators do not support a simple, one-word verdict about the whole economy: conclusions differ by measure, time period and market.

The review argues for looking closely at how competition works in particular industries rather than treating firm size or concentration alone as decisive. The evidence raises important questions about market power while leaving meaningful uncertainty about the broad trend.