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Superstar firms: how the shift from manufacturing to services affects local concentration of sales and jobs


The leading US firms in many industries have increased their national market share substantially over the last four decades - making these industries more concentrated. But locally the picture is more complex. David Autor, Christina Patterson and John Van Reenen show that while the local concentration of sales in the US has also risen, the concentration of local employment has fallen. These divergent trends are driven by the same underlying economic factor: the shift from manufacturing to services.


David Autor, Christina Patterson and John Van Reenen

20 June 2023     Paper Number CEPCP658

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This CentrePiece article is published under the centre's Growth programme.