Monopolies look worse for workers than for consumers

New York

MONOPOLY power is a hot topic of economic debate. Economists are starting to ask whether increasing industrial concentration is choking off productivity growth, reducing capital investment, throttling or deterring would-be entrepreneur, raising consumer prices and reducing the share of national income flowing to workers.

This is a good and important effort. But it's also possible that with all the attention being paid to concentration at the industry level, there hasn't been enough focus on the other end of the monopoly problem - local labour markets.