A Reappraisal of Interpreting Rising Concentration: The Case of Beer
A Reappraisal of Interpreting Rising Concentration: The Case of Beer
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对浓度上升解读的重新评估：以啤酒为例
DOI：
10.1086/296307
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发表时间：
1985
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Victor J. Tremblay
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Victor J. Tremblay
二战后酿酒行业的结构和行为发生了巨大的变化。最重要的是，集中度提高了，规模经济增加了，广告强度，特别是电视广告发生了变化。1984年，威廉·J·林克(William J.Lynk)在《华尔街日报》上发表了一篇文章，试图从经验上确定集中度和技术的变化如何影响1974年至1984年间酿酒行业的表现，他发现了对“竞争假说”的支持，即成本降低(由于成本优势或规模经济的开发)主导了集中度上升可能产生的市场力量效应，并导致产量增加和价格下降。因此，与威廉·J·林克(William J.Lynk)发现的美国酿酒业集中度上升导致行业产出扩大(按照他的假设，价格会下降)相反，另一种选择，即大型酿酒商将规模较小的竞争对手挤出市场的“排除假说”，这项研究的结果表明，集中度对二战后啤酒价格没有显著的直接影响。根据简化的价格方程进行的估算显示，广告和成本对啤酒价格产生了显著的积极影响。这些结果证明，1950年至1971年间，美国酿酒行业日益增长的集中度、规模经济和广告支出导致了更高的啤酒价格。*我要感谢威廉·哈拉根让我注意到林克的论文，感谢小詹姆斯·F·拉根、卡罗尔·霍顿·特伦布莱和一位匿名裁判对早先的草稿发表了有益的评论。任何剩余的错误都是我的责任。1.例如，1950至1978年间，公司数量从386家减少到37家，五家公司集中度从23%上升到71%。有关出色的行业研究，请参阅Elzinga(1973,1982)、Keithahn(1978)、Ornstein(1981)和Greer(1971a，1981)。2.本文从消费者的角度对行业绩效进行了评价。对于给定的产品质量水平，如果结构和行为的改变通过导致市场价格下降而有利于消费者，那么行业表现就会改善。
There has been a tremendous amount of change in the structure and conduct of the post-World War II brewing industry. Most important, concentration has risen, scale economies have increased, and advertising intensity, especially television advertising, has changed.' In a recent article in this Journal William J. Lynk (1984) attempted to determine empirically how changes in concentration and technology affected brewing industry performance between 1974 and 1980.2 He found support for the "competition hypothesis" that cost reductions (due to cost superiority or the exploitation of scale economies) have dominated the possible market power effect of rising concentration and have caused output to increase and prices to fall. Thus the alternative, or the "exclusion hypothesis" that large brewers have squeezed smaller rivals out of In contrast to the finding of William J. Lynk that rising concentration in the U.S. brewing industry caused industry output to expand (and by his presumption, prices to fall), the results of this study show that concentration had no significant direct impact on post-World War II beer prices. Estimates from a reduced-form price equation reveal that advertising and costs have had a significant positive effect on beer prices. These results provide evidence that the rising concentration, scale economies, and advertising expenditures in the U.S. brewing industry generated higher beer prices between 1950 and 1971. * I would like to thank William Hallagan for bringing Lynk's paper to my attention and James F. Ragan, Jr., Carol Horton Tremblay, and an anonymous referee for their helpful comments on earlier drafts. Any remaining errors are my responsibility. 1. For example, the number of firms declined from 386 to 37 and the five-firm concentration ratio increased from 23% to 71% between 1950 and 1978. See Elzinga (1973, 1982), Keithahn (1978), Ornstein (1981), and Greer (1971a, 1981) for excellent industry studies. 2. In this paper industry performance is evaluated from the consumer's point of view. For a given level of product quality, if structure and conduct changes are beneficial to consumers by causing the market price to fall, then industry performance has improved.