# In a video interview, Professor Thomas Philippon discusses why market concentration and lack of competition are leading to higher prices in the U.S. than in Europe

1 Faculty News February 23, 2020 ![CNN logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/uat_027323.jpg?itok=3feg8BmM)>

Excerpt from [CNN](https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2020/02/22/exp-gps-0223-philippon-on-why-americans-pay-more.cnn) -- “'It’s pretty much concentration and lack of competition. What is most striking is that it was the opposite 20 years ago. So when I came to the US from Europe 20 years ago, I noticed that the US was the land of low prices and free markets, where you had lots of choices and very low prices, be it for flying around, for buying a cell phone, or for getting on the internet. And somehow over the 20 years that I’ve been here, I’ve seen these markets become more and more concentrated, controlled by a few large players, so that today US households have fewer choices, and they pay higher prices.'”

[Watch the Video](https://www.cnn.com/videos/tv/2020/02/22/exp-gps-0223-philippon-on-why-americans-pay-more.cnn)