- Title
- Low Interest Rates, Market Power, and Productivity Growth
- Author(s)
- Ernest Liu Ernest Liu (Princeton University)
- Atif Mian Atif Mian (Princeton University)
- Amir Sufi Amir Sufi (University of Chicago Booth School of Business)
- Abstract
- This study provides a new theoretical result that a decline in the long-term interest rate can trigger a stronger investment response by market leaders relative to market followers, thereby leading to more concentrated markets, higher profits, and lower aggregate productivity growth. This strategic effect of lower interest rates on market concentration implies that aggregate productivity growth declines as the interest rate approaches zero. The framework is relevant for anti-trust policy in a low interest rate environment, and it provides a unified explanation for rising market concentration and falling productivity growth as interest rates in the economy have fallen to extremely low levels.
- Creation Date
- 2020-08
- Section URL ID
- Paper Number
- 2020-18
- URL
- https://scholar.princeton.edu/sites/default/files/ernestliu/files/lms_2020_revised_final.pdf
- File Function
- Jel
- E20, E22, G01, G12
- Keyword(s)
- Interest rates, investment
- Suppress
- false
- Series
- 13