Mortuary Mergers and the Internationalization of Internment

Abstract

“Mortuary Mergers and the Internationalization of Interment” is a study of the death services industry’s response to a changing market. Throughout the industry and across national borders, independent mortuaries and cemeteries are merging or consolidating. International death services firms are structured much as the automobile, oil, and communications multinationals are. Monopolistic competition is increasingly replaced by national and international oligopoly that may well translate into monopoly in isolated markets and lead to antitrust action and regulation. The study develops the historical roots of the death services industry but concentrates on the revolution underway. The prospects for the industry in the twenty-first century conclude the paper.