Startup activity in the U.S. has been falling for 20 years, and the big-is-bad crowd argues that the decline must be a byproduct of monopoly power. Not so, counters Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. He studied startup activity and found that, outside the retail sector, entrepreneurs are founding more firms than ever. Atkinson argues that the number of mom-and-pop stores declined not because of monopoly power, but because big chains got better at giving consumers what they want — ample selection at low prices.
