In the United States, where regulation rather than government ownership
had been the adopted policy, many industries were deregulated. In the
United Kingdom, virtually all of the formally nationalized industries were
privatized. The level of public ownership in that country now compares
with that in the United States. In Canada, hundreds of Crown
corporations that the government had acquired for a variety of reasons
(but were neither natural monopolies nor operating in highly
concentrated industries) were sold off. Many large Crown corporations
operating in oligopolistic industries, such as Air Canada, Petro-Canada,
and Canadian National Railway, were privatized. Also, many industries,
such as airlines and gas and oil, were deregulated. Prices were freed, to
be set by the firms in the industries, and entry was no longer restricted by
government policy.
Rising Corporate Concentration
The past two decades has witnessed a gradual rise in the concentration
ratios in many economic sectors, especially in the United States.
Particularly noticeable has been the growing economic power of
dominant technology firms such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google,
and Microsoft. A general increase in corporate concentration, and
especially the dominance of these giant technology firms, has led to a
growing perception that government policy is needed to prevent
increases in firms’ market power from being used against society’s
interests.