source Economic Trends 2006

Here are the top ten industries by concentration (GVA stands for Gross Value Added). All have concentration ratios above 70%, meaning that the top 5 companies take over 70% of the total market. Many have grown by  mergers and acquisitions (see the table below for the biggest acquisitions between 1980 and 2006). These companies are classified as oligopolistic – dominated by competition of the few. As our theories suggest, they h behave in very different ways to highly competitive markets. They can be typified by very stable prices (the theory of the kinked demand curve), by risk averse game playing (reaction theories based on game theory), and by models of price leadership (local petrol stations tend to follow each other’s prices up and down).