The role of buyer power in oligopoly models: An empirical study

This study investigates whether an industry's profitability and concentration are influenced by structural characteristics of the industries and final markets to which it sells. Very few similar studies have been made, and there is some dispute about their conclusions. This study discusses the methodological problems behind this dispute and the ways in which the specification and data used here avoid these problems. The results show that seller profitability rises with the extent to which buyers are dispersed across many industries, but that no other buyer characteristic exerts a significant influence on either the profitability or the concentration of the selling industry.