We analyze the optimal dynamic policy of an antitrust authority towards horizontal mergers when merger proposals are … endogenous and occur over time. Approving a currently proposed merger will affect the profitability and welfare effects of … surplus by using a completely myopic merger review policy that approves a merger today if and only if it does not lower …

We analyze the optimal policy of an antitrust authority towards horizontal mergers when merger proposals are endogenous … seeks to maximize expected consumer surplus involves discriminating between mergers based on a naive computation of the post-merger … Herfindahl index (over and above the apparent effect of the proposed merger on consumer surplus). We show that the antitrust …

quantify the domestic and cross-border effects of mergers, and to draw conclusions for the coordination of national merger … industries a merger approval policy based on domestic consumer surplus is too restrictive from the viewpoint of the neighboring … country. We also show that adopting a supra-national policy that approves a merger if and only if it increases the sum of …