La medida del grado de concentración de vendedores y compradores en un mercado agropecuario
Fecha
2005
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UNR Editora
Resumen
El objetivo de este trabajo es describir dos índices que pueden utilizarse para medir el grado de concentración del conjunto de empresas que actúan en un mercado y, a la luz de la teoría existente, evaluar tales índices con el fin de concluir cuál de ellos es el que cumple mejor con su función de posibilitar la inferencia acerca del probable comportamiento de tales empresas: en forma independiente o con algún tipo de acuerdo o colusión. Sobre la base de los resultados obtenidos cuando se aplicaron ambos índices al caso de la exportación de subproductos de la industria sojera y al procesamiento de leche, puede concluirse que el Índice Estándar (IE) es superior al Índice Herfindahl-Hirschman (IHH) para medir el grado de concentración de un conjunto de empresas, porque refleja mejor la posibilidad de un comportamiento colusivo derivado de la distribución entre ellas del total de operaciones. El IHH se utiliza en las leyes de la defensa de la competencia (Estados Unidos, Méjico e incluso la Argentina), con el fin de medir el grado de concentración y por lo tanto el riesgo de disminución de la competencia con lo cual se reduce la protección que brinda a los consumidores.
The objective of this paper is to describe two indexes that may be used to measure the degree of concentration of the firms operating in a market and, according to the current theory, to assess those indexes in order to conclude which of them works best for making inferences about the probable behaviour of those firms. On the basis of the results obtained when both indexes were applied to measure the concentration of firm in the soybean by-product export sector and dairy industries, it is possible to conclude that the Standard Index (SI) is better than the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) to measure the degree of firms concentration because it shows better the possibility of a collusive behaviour derived from the distribution of operations among them. However, in countries like the United States, Mexico and even Argentina, the HHI is used in competition protection laws to measure the degree of concentration. Therefore, there is a risk of a decrease in competition resulting in a decrease in the protection they offer to the consumers.
The objective of this paper is to describe two indexes that may be used to measure the degree of concentration of the firms operating in a market and, according to the current theory, to assess those indexes in order to conclude which of them works best for making inferences about the probable behaviour of those firms. On the basis of the results obtained when both indexes were applied to measure the concentration of firm in the soybean by-product export sector and dairy industries, it is possible to conclude that the Standard Index (SI) is better than the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) to measure the degree of firms concentration because it shows better the possibility of a collusive behaviour derived from the distribution of operations among them. However, in countries like the United States, Mexico and even Argentina, the HHI is used in competition protection laws to measure the degree of concentration. Therefore, there is a risk of a decrease in competition resulting in a decrease in the protection they offer to the consumers.
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Palabras clave
concentración, comportamiento colusivo, poder de mercado, competencia, concentration, collusive behaviour, market power, competition