Price Effects of Horizontal Mergers: A Retrospective on Retrospectives

Abstract

In this comprehensive review of ex-post merger studies price effects of horizontal transactions are evaluated. By combining and further analyzing the results of 52 retrospective studies on 82 mergers or merger-like transactions it can be shown that the industry alone is no strong indication for the direction of price-related merger effects. However, the "size" or "importance" of a transaction as well as market concentration pre-merger and change in concentration due to the transaction seem to have an impact on post-transaction price development.

In The Light Of Dynamic Competition: Should We Make Merger Remedies More Flexible?

“…5 This paper does not undertake an ex-post evaluation of the effectiveness of ex-ante remedies, as a substantial body of empirical economic literature already exists on this subject. SeeWeinberg (2008) andStöhr (2021) for empirical overviews on the price effects of horizontal mergers. Latest studies look at non-price effects, such as quality and variety; see for instanceArgentesi et al (2021).…”