The Price Effects of a Large Merger of Manufacturers: A Case Study of Maytag-Whirlpool

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ashenfelter, Orley C.; Hosken, Daniel S.; Weinberg, Matthew C.
• 署名单位: Princeton University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Drexel University
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.5.1.239
• 发表日期: 2013
• 页码: 239-261
• 关键词: retail gasoline markets; vertical relationships; empirical-evidence; contract changes; CONSUMER PRICES; COMPETITION; Petroleum; POWER; form

摘要

Many experts speculate that US antitrust policy towards horizontal mergers has been too lenient. We estimate the price effects of Whirlpool's acquisition of Maytag to provide new evidence on this debate. We compare price changes in appliance markets most affected by the merger to markets where concentration changed much less or not at all. We estimate price increases for dishwashers and relatively large price increases for clothes dryers, but no price effects for refrigerators or clothes washers. The combined firm's market share fell across all four affected categories, and the number of distinct appliance products offered for sale fell. (JEL G34, K21, L11, L41, L68)