Very pleased to see this article. Why has industry concentration risen? Because of intangibles....
Intangibles and Industry Concentration: A Cross‐Country Analysis
"This paper presents new evidence on the growing scale of large businesses in the United States, Japan and 11 European countries. Itdocuments a broad increase in industry concentration across the majority of countries and sectors over the period 2002–2017. Therising concentration is strongly linked to investment in intangibles—particularly innovative assets; and software and data—andthis relationship is magnified in more globalised industries. The results are consistent with intangibles disproportionately bene-fiting large firms, enabling them to scale up and increase their market shares by leveraging intangibles across multiple markets."
Here's the key chart
