The Covid-19 pandemic is likely to trigger a wave of bankruptcies among small businesses, adding further to market concentration, research published by the International Monetary Fund warns.

The paper and accompanying blog post – co-authored by IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva – highlight how market power has increased “significantly” since the 1980s. The authors find a small group of firms are increasingly dominant, able to impose larger price mark-ups. At the same time, “business