RECENT discussion in the literature has emphasized the micro-economic impact of industrial concentration on macro-economic wage and price inflation. A common notion is that industrial firms in highly concentrated industries engage in a different sort of wage payment behavior than do firms in less concentrated industries. Allegedly, there is a positive wage differential associated with industrial concentration, and although this differential may not increase in the long run over time, it does expand and compress over the business cycle. It widens in recessions and narrows in expansions because wage rates in highly concentrated industries increase rather steadily over time whereas wage rates in more nearly 'competitive' industries increase more unevenly over time, lagging behind in recessions and ratcheting up- wards to 'catch up' in expansions. This phenomenon, it is argued, fosters or reflects a general wage inflationary bias that concentrated market structures contribute to the macro-economy