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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Koh, Paul S.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.12924
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author Koh, Paul S.
author_facet Koh, Paul S.
contents Antitrust authorities routinely rely on market concentration measures to assess the potential adverse effects of mergers on consumer welfare. Using a first-order approximation argument with logit and CES demand, I derive the relationship between the welfare effect of a merger on consumer surplus and the change in the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI). My results suggest that merger harm is correlated with the merger-induced change in HHI, and the proportionality coefficient depends on the price responsiveness parameter, market size, and the distribution of market shares within and across the merging firms. I present numerical validation of my formula along with an empirical illustration.
format Preprint
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institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Concentration-Based Inference for Evaluating Horizontal Mergers
Koh, Paul S.
General Economics
Economics
Antitrust authorities routinely rely on market concentration measures to assess the potential adverse effects of mergers on consumer welfare. Using a first-order approximation argument with logit and CES demand, I derive the relationship between the welfare effect of a merger on consumer surplus and the change in the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI). My results suggest that merger harm is correlated with the merger-induced change in HHI, and the proportionality coefficient depends on the price responsiveness parameter, market size, and the distribution of market shares within and across the merging firms. I present numerical validation of my formula along with an empirical illustration.
title Concentration-Based Inference for Evaluating Horizontal Mergers
topic General Economics
Economics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.12924