Liberalisation, concentration and diversification: Business Groups in India, 2000-2020- Data Resources

We analyse the evolution of market structure in India between 2000 and 2020 using a rich dataset at high levels of disaggregation. We examine the extent to which business groups – notably family-owned groups – have sustained their dominant market positions in the Indian economy. We focus on two key dimensions. The first is the extent of concentration in markets and market shares by industry. The second concerns the dynamics and the extent to which business groups have focussed on consolidating their position in specific, narrow sectors or diversified by entering new sectors. We find that while market concentration has been falling, a bloc of high concentration sectors remains. Further, diversification has been actively pursued across sectors by most business groups. While this points to greater competition among business groups, the ratio of revenues to variable costs – a measure of the markup – has shifted upwards, particularly after 2013. The weight and persistence of these large business groups in the economy, as measured by the ratio of their revenues to GDP, has also increased. Finally, we discuss possible policy options.

This dataset provides data for Figures and the STATA .do file for the replication of the replication of figures and tables. Due to restrictions on sharing the data by the data service provider "CMIE Prowessdx", the authors are not at liberty to share the dataset for the analysis.