Mergers and market power: evidence from rivals' responses in European markets

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Stiebale, Joel; Szuecs, Florian
• 署名单位: Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf; Vienna University of Economics & Business
• 刊物名称: RAND JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0741-6261
• DOI: 10.1111/1756-2171.12427
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 678-702
• 关键词: horizontal mergers; competition evidence; propensity score; retail mergers; markups; industries; INNOVATION; identification; consolidation; acquisitions

摘要

We analyze the effects of M&A on the markups of non-merging rival firms across a broad set of industries. We exploit expert market definitions from the European Commission's merger decisions to identify relevant competitors in narrowly defined product markets and estimate markups as a measure of market power. Our results indicate that rivals increase their markups after mergers. Consistent with increases in market power, the effects are particularly pronounced when pre-merger concentration is high, when competitors are few, and when relevant markets are national. Merger rivals also reduce their employment, sales, and investment, whereas their profits increase.