Merger Effects and Antitrust Enforcement: Evidence from US Retail / Vivek Bhattacharya, Gastón Illanes, David Stillerman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bhattacharya, Vivek.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Illanes, Gastón.

Stillerman, David.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w31123.

NBER working paper series no. w31123

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2023.

Summary:

We document the effects of a comprehensive set of US retail mergers. On average, prices increase by 1.5% and quantities decrease by 2.3%, with significant heterogeneity in outcomes across mergers. Price changes correlate with the screens codified in the Horizontal Merger Guidelines. Through a model of enforcement, we find that agencies challenge mergers they expect would increase average prices more than 8-9%. Modest increases in stringency reduce prices and the prevalence of approved anti-competitive mergers, with minimal impacts on blocked pro-competitive mergers, at a significantly greater agency burden. Our findings inform the debate over whether antitrust enforcement has been lax.

Notes:

Print version record

April 2023.