Structural change in U.S. food manufacturing, 1958-1997

Abstract

Public information regarding economic concentration, both aggregate and market, has declined since 1982. The Census no longer publishes a concentration report for its Economic Census, which is done every five years for manufacturing industries. Using purchased data from Census Special Tabulations, this paper documents advanced aggregate and market concentration in U.S. food and tobacco processing markets. The data are much more useful for studying output markets and fail to provide much guidance regarding oligopsony issues, which are perceived to be widespread in food processing. In output markets, evidence suggests that a market's use of media advertising contributed to advanced market concentration prior to 1977, but subsequently concentration has been rising in all industries. Producer good industries have posted the largest increases in concentration as they narrowed the difference in average concentration between themselves and the group of advertising-intensive industries. [EconLit codes: L110, L660] © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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