Merger Retrospective Studies Bibliography

• Background
• Bibliography
• References

Background

The Bureau of Economics has compiled a list of all merger retrospectives that it could identify that have been published in academic journals or been released by government organizations as studies or working papers. In conducting this search, we defined a merger retrospective as a study having two characteristics:

• The study must use pre- and post-merger data to examine how market outcomes such as prices, output, or quality changed following mergers.
• The study must explicitly address how the studied merger(s) may have affected competition.

These restrictions exclude research that use other methodological approaches to determine how mergers affected market outcomes, e.g., examining changes in a firm’s share price around the time of a merger’s announcement. In addition, we exclude studies that examine the impact of mergers generally, but do not explicitly consider how changes in market power resulting from the merger may have affected market outcomes.

The bibliography identifies the title, author(s), journal, and year of publication of the merger retrospective. We have also classified the primary industry(s) studied, the type of merger (horizontal/vertical), and the primary outcome(s) studied (e.g., price, output, or quality). The bibliography only includes studies that have conducted merger retrospectives.

As a result, we are explicitly excluding a number of lines of scholarship related to merger retrospectives that may be helpful to those seeking to better understand or contribute to this literature. A number of researchers have conducted reviews of the retrospective literature. Representative examples include those by Ashenfelter, Hosken, and Weinberg (2014) and Kwoka (2015). In addition, Ilzkovitz and Dierx (2020) have collected a series of papers that provide a detailed description and discussion of the European Union’s experience in using ex post evaluations (including merger retrospectives) in aiding competition policy. Other researchers have used the results of previously published retrospectives as data for further analysis, including recent studies by Kwoka and Gu (2015) and Mariuzzo and Ormosi (2019). Finally, a number of researchers and some international organizations have written papers discussing methodological issues in conducting merger retrospectives, such as Carlton (2009) and the OECD (2015).
Jump to References.

While we have attempted to identify all studies published by government agencies or academic journals, we have almost certainly failed to include some studies in our bibliography. If you know of a paper that should be included in our bibliography, please contact us at retros@ftc.gov.

Note: The Federal Trade Commission does not endorse the views expressed in the studies. The FTC takes no responsibility for, and exercises no control over, the accuracy, copyright or trademark compliance, or legality of the material contained in these studies.

Bibliography

References

Ashenfelter, Orley, Daniel Hosken, and Matthew Weinberg. 2014. “Did Robert Bork Understate the Competitive Impact of Mergers? Evidence from Consummated Mergers.” Journal of Law and Economics 57 (3): S67-100

Carlton, Dennis W. 2009. “Why We Need to Measure the Effect of Merger Policy and How to Do It.” Competition Policy International 5 (1): 87–100.

Ilzkovitz, Fabienne and Adriaan Dierx. 2020. Ex Post Economic Evaluation of Competition Policy: The EU Experience.

Kwoka, John. 2015. Mergers, Merger Control, and Remedies: A Retrospective Analysis of U.S. Policy.

Kwoka, John, and Chengyan Gu. 2015. “Predicting Merger Outcomes: The Accuracy of Stock Market Event Studies, Market Structure Characteristics, and Agency Decisions.” Journal of Law and Economics 58 (3): 519–43.

Mariuzzo, Franco, and Peter L. Ormosi. 2019. “Post-Merger Price Dynamics Matters, So Why Do Merger Retrospectives Ignore It?” Review of Industrial Organization 55 (3): 403–29.

OECD (2016) Reference guide on ex-post evaluation of competition agencies’ decisions.