
What If Companies Get Big Because They're Better? - rickncliff
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-12-02/antitrust-zealots-beware-big-companies-are-more-productive
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CharlesColeman
> A productivity-based explanation for rising industry concentration _would
> suggest dramatically different policies than the antitrust one does._ The
> evidence uncovered by Autor and his collaborators buttresses the view that
> superstar firms are thriving because they are simply more productive than
> other firms, not because they have been given a special break by regulators.
> [emphasis mine]

And those different policies are? Regulating them like natural monopolies?

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zozbot234
It's not clear. Antitrust policy only matters (in the sense of having positive
effects!) _in the presence of barriers to entry_ (non-contestability), and
when these barriers are present it matters _regardless_ of how the dominant
firm got so big. So I think the folks who are pursuing this line of research
are either confused, or at best they're reaching the same conclusions as
mainstream scholarship in a very roundabout way.

