inferences about a consumer's preferred product category and offer advertising firms the possibility to target their ads to match … the consumer's taste. Such targeting reduces overall advertising costs and, as a direct effect, increases industry profits … intensify competition between firms. As a result, firms may earn higher profits from "de-targeted" advertising; i.e., when the …

We study welfare effects of horizontal mergers under a successive oligopoly model and find that downstream mergers can … increase welfare if they reduce input prices. The lower input price shifts some input production from cost- inefficient … conditions for a reduction in input prices and welfare-improving horizontal mergers under a general demand function. Qualitative …