Lerner index

Lerner index, in economics, a measure of the market power of a firm. Formalized by the Russian-British economist Abba P. Lerner in 1934, the Lerner index is expressed in the following formula: Lerner index = P - MC/P where P represents the price of the good set by the firm and MC represents the firm’s marginal cost. Essentially, the index measures the percentage markup that a firm is able to charge over its marginal cost. The index ranges from a low value of 0 to a high of 1. The higher the value of the Lerner index, the more the firm is able to charge over its marginal cost, hence the greater its monopoly power.

The Lerner index provides a concise measure of monopoly power. However, its use is largely restricted to theoretical studies because of the difficulty of accurately measuring costs in practice. Other measures, such as the Herfindahl-Hirschman index, are more commonly used to gauge monopoly power using real industry data.