Private Equity, Consumers, and Competition: Evidence from the Nursing Home Industry

• 成果类型: Article; Early Access
• 署名作者: Gandhi, Ashvin D.; Song, YoungJun; Upadrashta, Prabhava
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Los Angeles; National Bureau of Economic Research; California State University System; San Diego State University
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2023.01486
• 发表日期: 2026
• 关键词: Healthcare; finance; Industrial Organization; market structure; Firm strategy; market performance

摘要

This paper studies how product market competition shapes the impact of private equity (PE) acquisitions on consumers. We examine nursing home buyouts and observe that PE-owned facilities exhibit greater competitive sensitivity: competing more aggressively when competitive incentives are strong and exploiting market power more aggressively when competitive incentives are weak. We find that PE-owned facilities are more sensitive to local market competition-even when comparing effects only across facilities purchased as part of the same acquisition-and are more responsive to a pro-competitive policy helping consumers compare facilities. This suggests that regulators should attend to the competitive sensitivity of acquirers and the concentration of markets where acquisitions occur, as well as consider pro-competitive policies to mitigate or even reverse PE's potentially adverse consequences.