The economic crisis in the wake of the pandemic is changing the business landscape, exacerbating concerns about the state of competition in the U.S. economy. Nancy Rose documents how some large, well-positioned firms have dramatically increased their market share, accelerating trends seen prior to the pandemic. Rose predicts that with more firm exits and fewer new businesses entrants today, tomorrow’s product and labor markets may be less competitive and productive. Antitrust enforcers will be pressured to approve acquisitions of weaker competitors, and not to look too closely at cooperative solutions to market challenges. Rose argues that preserving competitive markets will require renewed commitment by policymakers to assert antitrust enforcement.
