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Consider the following claims:

  • less competitive markets deliver worse outcomes for consumers,
  • less competitive markets deliver lower social welfare,
  • less competitive markets deliver higher prices/lower quality.

These might be considered fairly canonical claims in the sense that they emerge naturally from many 'textbook' models from introductory economics or industrial organization. That means that many students of economics are exposed to such claims through the lens of theory. I would like to supplement this with empirical evidence.

I am looking for references to empirical work that supports or refutes one or more of the abovee claims (or close variants of them). Particularly welcome would be survey articles covering literatures that address them.

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  • $\begingroup$ This article can not be considered an answer to your question, but it is directly related and I found it quite interesting: pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7e65/… $\endgroup$
    – Ignacio Valdés Zamudio
    Aug 12, 2018 at 20:11
  • $\begingroup$ I would ask the person(s) making these claims to provide empirical evidence. If its from a book, attempt to find the author's email address. These claims seem simplistic filtering of a complex topic, that being economics. I would ask the person, what role do central banks and technology play in these claims, or maybe these claims are being presented out of context. $\endgroup$
    – Daniel
    Nov 11, 2018 at 22:49
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    $\begingroup$ Hi, Ubiquitous -- I can post a few links later but hop on google scholar and browse the experimental literature focused on various market forms. Quite a few experiments demonstrate more than one of your points. I think you might also want to check the empirical literature on evidence of mark-ups. $\endgroup$
    – 123
    Jan 15, 2019 at 11:12

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Here is a fact sheet by the OECD about the effects of competition. It is mostly concerned with growth and productivity, but also discusses the effects on poor consumers and prices. It cites a wide range of empirical studies that you might find of interest.

https://www.oecd.org/daf/competition/2014-competition-factsheet-for-print-en.pdf

OECD, Factsheet on how competition policy affects macro-economic outcomes, 2014.

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