. Second, we propose and illustrate an alternative, preference based, method for estimating consumer responses to price changes … under these conditions. Our preference based approach yields price elasticities on the order of 0.4 and a "utilities … expenditure" elasticity of near unity. This research highlights the possibility that households may be more sensitive to price …

In this paper we propose a method to evaluate the effectiveness of U.S. horizontal merger policy and apply it to the … most problematic for the antitrust agencies. Thus we estimate an upper bound on the likely price effect of completed … mergers. Our study employs retail scanner data and uses familiar panel data program evaluation procedures to measure price …

effect of a merger on the behavior of rival firms, and instrumenting for these mergers, unbiased estimates of the effect of a … merger on market outcomes can be obtained. Using this methodology, I evaluate the impact of independent hospital mergers … between 1989 and 1996 on rivals' prices. I find sharp increases in rivals' prices following a merger, with the greatest effect …

Merger efficiencies provide the primary justification for why mergers of competitors may benefit consumers … merger of Miller and Coors breweries was expected to increase concentration and reduce costs. All else equal, the average … predicted increase in concentration lead to price increases of two percent, but at the mean this was offset by a nearly equal …

prices. Remedies based on separate bargaining do not alleviate the price increases …

belonging to both merging parties, as well as (one or more) \common insurers" with which price and network status is negotiated … of merger activity. We find that hospitals gaining system members in-state (but not in the same geographic market …) experience price increases of 7-10 percent relative to control hospitals, while hospitals gaining system members out …

This paper examines the construction of a price index based on an estimated demand system. In principle the method … examined can produce a price index that accounts for introduction of new products and quality changes in existing products … assumptions. For the data I use, depending on the interpretation of the demand estimates, a price index can range between a 35 …

This paper examines demand systems where the demand for a good depends only on its own price, consumer income, and a …