ABSTRACT
The subject of concentration lies at the heart of weighty economie questions concerning the growth, efficiency, profitability, and pricing policies of American business. The Database studies of concentration have been prepared for both business and government use, and can often be used by both sides in public and private antitrust litigation. In some markets for nondurable goods, the national ratios understate the true extent of concentration. A company is said to be seeking vertical concentration if it extends operations into two or more industries representing successive stages in the flow of goods or services from an earlier to a later stage of production or vice versa. According to John M. Blair, conglomerate concentration can be defined as the possession of a share of a given industry's resources or activity by companies that are primarily engaged in other industries but are not suppliers or users of the given industry's products.
