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THE HERFINDAHL-HIRSCHMAN INDEX
"HHI" means the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index, a commonly accepted measure of
market concentration. It is calculated by squaring the market share of each firm competing in
the market and then summing the resulting numbers. For example, for a market consisting of
four firms with shares of thirty, thirty, twenty and twenty percent, the HHI is 2600
(302 + 302 + 202 + 202 = 2600).
The HHI takes into account the relative size and distribution of the firms in a market and
approaches zero when a market consists of a large number of firms of relatively equal size. The
HHI increases both as the number of firms in the market decreases and as the disparity in size
between those firms increases.
Markets in which the HHI is between 1000 and 1800 points are considered to be moderately
concentrated, and those in which the HHI is in excess of 1800 points are considered to be
concentrated. Transactions that increase the HHI by more than 100 points in concentrated
markets presumptively raise antitrust concerns under the Horizontal Merger Guidelines issued
by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. See Merger
Guidelines § 1.51.
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