Agglomeration, Misallocation, and (the Lack of) Competition

2023-01-09 Publications

Photo by krakenimages on Unsplash

Industrial agglomeration policies may limit competition. This study develops, validates, and applies a novel approach for measuring competition based on the comovement of markups and market shares among firms in the same location and industry. Then this study develops a model of how this reduction in competition affects aggregate income. In this paper, the authors apply their approach to the well-known special economic zones (SEZs) of China. This paper estimates that firms in SEZs exhibit cooperative pricing almost three times as intensively as firms outside SEZs. Nevertheless, this paper models the aggregate consequences of SEZs and find positive effects because markups become higher but also more equal.

Author
Yao Amber Li
Associate Professor, Department of Economics
Associate Director, Center for Economic Development
Professor Yao Amber Li is currently an Associate Professor of Economics in School of Business and…
Wyatt J. Brooks
University of Notre Dame
Joseph P. Kaboski
University of Notre Dame
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