Archive for August 5th, 2013
Krugman
Had not spotted this one.
Krugman on market concentration (referring to an interesting study):
“We don’t talk much about monopoly power these days; antitrust enforcement largely collapsed during the Reagan years and has never really recovered. Yet Barry Lynn and Phillip Longman of the New America Foundation argue, persuasively in my view, that increasing business concentration could be an important factor in stagnating demand for labor, as corporations use their growing monopoly power to raise prices without passing the gains on to their employees“.
Am intrigued.
I see the link between excessive concentration and high profits.
But I am less comfy with the nexus between excessive concentration and stagnating labor demand.
The point is: I am not sure that less industrial concentration would bring about more jobs.
And I don’t really get it how more competition would, as such, induce corporations to pass-on profits to employees.
Chillin'Competition 