Effect of Mergers on Industrial Concentration, 1940-1947

Abstract

T HIS article reports the results of a statistical analysis of the merger movement in the United States since I94o.' Merger activity has long been recognized as having a major impact on the competitive structure of the American economy.2 It is also generally recognized that the high degree of industrial concentration which characterizes our economy today stems largely from the two waves of merger activity in the late nineteenth century which were typified by the formation of the Standard Oil Trust in I879 and, later, of the billion dollar United States Steel Corporation at the turn of the century. The major merger movement of the I920'S still further increased prevailing levels of concentration. With these historical precedents and in the face of the already high degree of industrial concentration illustrated by Chart I,3 the resurgence of large-scale merger activity in the United States since I940 raises issues of major national importance. In manufacturing and