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The Rise of Market Power and the Macroeconomic Implications

Paper by Jan De Loecker, Jan Eeckhout and Gabriel Unger on rising markups, read here in its 2017 working-paper form (NBER 23687). The authors replied to the 2025 comment.

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Dates
Aug 2017
The debate

What it found

In 1980, average markups start to rise from 18% above marginal cost to 67% now.1

Who disputes it

Each side is quoted in its own words. Whether a finding holds is not decided here.

Paper by Jan De Loecker, Jan Eeckhout and Gabriel Unger on rising markups, read here in its 2017 working-paper form (NBER 23687). The authors replied to the 2025 comment.

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finding disputed by

Each side is quoted in its own words. Whether a finding holds is not decided here.

Timeline 3 dates
  1. Aug 2017 The Rise of Market Power and the Macroeconomic Implications
  2. Aug 2017 National Bureau of Economic Research produced The Rise of Market Power and the Macroeconomic Implications
  3. Nov 2025 The Rise of Market Power and the Macroeconomic Implications: Comment disputes a finding of The Rise of Market Power and the Macroeconomic Implications According to The Rise of Market Power and the Macroeconomic Implications: Comment
Proof 2 sources
  1. The Rise of Market Power and the Macroeconomic Implications, NBER Working Paper 23687, National Bureau of Economic Research, Aug 2017. Scholarship & press
    In 1980, average markups start to rise from 18% above marginal cost to 67% now.
    We document the evolution of markups based on firm-level data for the US economy since 1950.
  2. The Rise of Market Power and the Macroeconomic Implications: Comment, NBER Working Paper 34513, National Bureau of Economic Research, Nov 2025. Scholarship & press
    We conclude that the DEU methodology and data, as they are described in the article, do not support the conclusion that broad-based increases in market power have occurred in recent decades.
Page history 2 changes
  1. Second revision of Too Big to Fail: the FTC's 1917 finding, the 1952 report's seven firms, the 1984 hearing record, and corrected cards for Spirit, beef, tickets, Google and the final verdictAlibek05663c47
  2. Revise Too Big to Fail after the skeptic's review: read to 2 November 2026, a verdict card that separates findings from shares, the 1929 fight with its scandal and the board's stand, and sources for every cardAlibekc819f2cb

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