The dynamics of competition in New Zealand

Abstract

In this paper we examine the performance and dynamics of markets in the New Zealand economy. Using the prototype Longitudinal Business Database (LBD), we measure the evolution of competition amongst NZ firms. Our analysis has two parts. First, we examine a range of indicators of the dynamics across economy. Like most other studies in this area, our definition of „market‟ is the 4-digit industry (using the 1996 ANZSIC system). Second, we focus on a few industries and examine the dynamics of the market in more detail. Our lens for doing this is a transition matrix. We use these matrices to examine the dynamics of various aspects of the productivity distribution (and firm entrants).