The initial wireless phone industry in the United States had many competitors, but due to mergers and acquisitions the industry has become highly consolidated. This paper documents the history of the consolidation. More importantly, I use the geographic path of consolidation to distinguish...

The US mobile phone industry has dramatically consolidated through mergers. We investigate whether a merger increases the performance of a combined carrier over the sum of its constituent parts. We first directly compare the quantities of post-merger carriers to those of their pre-merger...

We empirically study bidding in the C Block of the US mobile phone spectrum auctions. Spectrum auctions are conducted using a simultaneous ascending auction design that allows bidders to assemble packages of licenses with geographic complementarities. While this auction design allows the market...