Organization

U.S. Census Bureau

Federal agency that runs the Economic Census, whose sales data underlie measures of industry concentration.

3 links, 1 backed by primary records

Connections 3

Economic Census top-four shares of sales, 1997 to 2017 its Economic Censuses are the source of the figures Primary record 1
Economic Census top-four shares of sales, 1997 to 2017 the same census, read by a policy group (ITIF) as showing a 1-point average rise, 2002 to 2017 Scholarship & press 2
Research on national and local concentration, 2018 and 2023 its Economic Censuses are the data of the 2023 paper by Autor, Patterson and Van Reenen Scholarship & press 3

Proof 3 sources

A note on industry concentration measurement (accessible data), FEDS Notes, Federal Reserve, 3 Feb 2023. Primary record
Source: 1997 and 2017 Economic Censuses.
Industry Concentration: Is It Rising Overall?, Conversable Economist, 21 Jun 2021. Scholarship & press
Overall, Census data show U.S. industries have not become more concentrated: The average C4 ratio (the share of sales that the top four firms capture in an industry) increased just 1 percentage point from 2002 to 2017.
Local and National Concentration Trends in Jobs and Sales: The Role of Structural Transformation, NBER Working Paper 31130, National Bureau of Economic Research, Apr 2023. Scholarship & press
We document that the Herfindhahl index of local employment concentration, measured at the county-by-NAICS six-digit-industry cell level, fell between 1992 and 2017 even as local sales concentration rose.

Page history 2 changes

2026-11-02Second 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
2026-11-02Revise 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