Business and Economics Journal

Anti-monopoly Policy and New System of Large Corporate Groups in Germany after World War II

Abstract

Toshio Yamazaki

This paper discusses competition policy, in particular anti-monopoly policy and the development of a new system of industrial concentration in Germany after World War II. When examining industrial concentration in Germany, the cooperative mechanisms for corporations are the most characteristic manifestation of corporate group systems. Large corporate group systems evolved during the dissolution and reconcentration of monopolies after the war. Antimonopoly policy influenced new developments in the system of large corporate groups. Therefore, this paper discusses anti-monopoly policy and the restructuring of a system for large corporate groups. It first examines influence of the US occupation policy on monopolies in relation to monopoly deconcentration policy and antimonopoly policy in Germany. Next it analyzes anti-monopoly policy reform. Furthermore, it considers the restructuring of corporate group systems in relation to the dissolution of monopolies under the occupation policy and their reconcentration in the latter half of the 1950s. Drawing on this discussion, how large business operations were restructured through reconcentration or concentration, and how, as a result, divisions of labor in business domains developed in response to oligopolistic competition will be clarified.