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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Industrial concentration levels and trends in South Africa: completing the picture |
Author: | Fourie, F.C.v.N. |
Year: | 1996 |
Periodical: | South African Journal of Economics |
Volume: | 64 |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 97-121 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | economic concentration industry |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1813-6982.1996.tb01116.x |
Abstract: | South Africa's Central Statistical Service has recently agreed to make available various concentration measures - in particular, concentration ratios and the main summary indices - for the manufacturing censuses of 1982, 1985 and 1988. This paper analyses these new data, which provide the first opportunity to construct a more complete picture of economic concentration levels and trends in South Africa since 1972. The author first retraces the results of earlier research which shows, for the early 1980s, a very high absolute as well as relative concentration (inequality) and significant increases in relative concentration in the South African manufacturing sector. Despite clear differences between absolute and relative measures of concentration, the picture provided for 1982-1988 is remarkably similar. One of the factors that emerges is that absolute concentration is very high. On average, the four top firms in an industry subgroup control approximately 64 percent of the national market. Concentration is seemingly on the increase, but with no basis for alarmist declarations about the rate of increase. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |