Regulatory and Concentration in the Iranian Automotive Industry

According to the non-competitive environment in the Iranian automotive industry, this study evaluates the effectiveness of the decisions of the National Competition Council by investigating the concentration on the car market in Iran. Calculation of the indexes of Concentration Ratio (CR), Herfindahl-Hirschman (HHI), Hall-Tideman (HTI) and Relative Entropy (ER) showed that the intensity of the concentration of the country's car market has not changed much during the period of regulatory of National Competition Council (2011-2019) compared to the period 1996-2011 and this market is still highly monopolized and concentrated. In addition, based on indexes of Gini coefficient (GC) and coefficient of variation (CV), inequality and the intensity of market share dispersion has increased significantly in the car market during this period. This issue is rooted in the fact that the entry of small manufacturing firms has not significantly changed the market share of the two dominant players in the automotive market (Iran Khodro and Saipa). The main reasons for the this failure of the National Competition Council are 1- Lack of legal capacity to involve the National Competition Council in trade and industrial policies, 2- The nature of public management of the automotive industry, 3- Elimination of foreign competitors through tariff and non-tariff barriers, 4- Non-targeted, unlimited, unconditional and non-discounting support to the automotive industry.