Book Review: Fortschritte bei der Konzentrationserfassung [Progress in Concentration Measurement]

• Published date: 01 September 1984
• Author: Christian Marfels
• Date: 01 September 1984
• DOI: 10.1177/0003603X8402900309
• Subject Matter: Article

The

Antitrust

Bulletin/Fall 1984

Fortschritte bei der

Konzentrationserfassung

[Progress in Concentration

Measurement]

Hauptgutachten der Monopolkommission IV

Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft (1982), 419 pp.

607

Reviewed by Professor Christian Marfels, Department

of

Economics, Dalhousie University, Halifax, N.S., Canada

This is the Fourth Main Report

of

the Monopolies Commission. I

The report deals with the following topics: levels and trends

of

concentration in manufacturing, mining and construction (chs. I

and II); levels and trends of aggregate and overall concentration

in terms of the 100 largest firms (ch. III); concentration in the

press (ch. IV); dominant firms and merger control (ch. V); causes

of concentration and effects of taxes and subsidies on concentra-

tion (ch. VI); unions and concentration (ch. VII); and vertical

integration in the petroleum refining and chemical industries (ch.

VIII). Space does not permit a discussion

of

all topics; rather, this

review will focus on the central theme of the report, viz., the

presentation of concentration levels and trends.

As the title suggests, the central theme

of

the report is the

improvement and enlargement of concentration statistics for the

Federal Republic of Germany. And a significant improvement it

is, compared to the rather modest beginnings in the 1976 report.

The improvements can be grouped in three categories, viz., (1)

classification of industrial activities, (2) measures of firm size,

and (3) measures

of

concentration.

IThe Federal Cartel Bureau and the Monopolies Commission

publish their respective biennial reports in alternate years, i.e., the latter

in 1982 and the former in 1983, etc.

©1984 by Federal LegalPublications, Inc.