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ON THE PRICE EFFECTS OF HORIZONTAL MERGERS: A THEORETICAL INTERPRETATION
Author(s) -
Dargaud Emilie,
Reggiani Carlo
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
bulletin of economic research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.227
H-Index - 29
eISSN - 1467-8586
pISSN - 0307-3378
DOI - 10.1111/boer.12004
Subject(s) - scrutiny , economics , context (archaeology) , competition (biology) , interpretation (philosophy) , microeconomics , industrial organization , law , ecology , paleontology , political science , computer science , biology , programming language
Horizontal mergers are usually under the scrutiny of antitrust authorities due to their potential undesirable effects on prices and consumer surplus. Ex‐post evidence, however, suggests that these effects do not always take place and even relevant mergers may end up having negligible price effects. The analysis of mergers in the context of non‐localized spatial competition may offer a further interpretation to the ones proposed in the literature: in this framework both positive and zero price effects are possible outcomes of the merger activity.