Are Chinese Markets for Manufactured Products More Competitive than in the US?: A Comparison of China -US Industrial Concentration Ratios

We present estimates of 4 and 8 firm concentration ratios by industry and in weighted aggregate form for the manufacturing sector for Chinese enterprises for 2002 and 2007. These are then compared to available estimates for the same years and industrial classification for the US. These comparisons clearly point in the direction of China having sharply lower concentration ratios, in the order of one half of the US for 4 firm ratios. One possible implication is that markets for Chinese manufactured products are considerably more competitive than in the US.