Comparing merger enforcement across jurisdictions -- New Zealand versus the European Union and the United States

Comparing large samples of merger markets for NZ and the US, and controlling for case-mix differences within samples using single competition variables, Pickford (2012) found that the proportion of markets challenged was lower in NZ. We extend this analysis using discrete choice modelling to estimate merger decision models for NZ comparable to those previously estimated for the EU and the US. We ran the NZ merger markets through those models and computed hypothetical challenge rates in the other two jurisdictions. We found that a larger proportion would likely have been challenged in both jurisdictions, meaning that NZ's merger enforcement stance is relatively lenient.