Study of the impact of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on productivity and market power has been complicated by the difficulty of separating these two effects. We use newly-developed techniques to separately estimate productivity and markups across a wide range of industries using detailed...

Product differentiation is well established as being the key source of the cereal industry's high price-cost margins. However, there is little consensus as to whether pricing collusion is also a source of profitability, and indeed, whether price even serves as a strategic variable in this...

This paper studies financial statement information from the 50 largest international oil and gas companies during 1992 to 2011 and evaluates their relation to market values. In particular, we examine how this relationship is affected by accounting method choice (successful efforts versus full...

This paper studies financial statement information from the 50 largest international oil and gas companies during 1992 to 2011 and evaluates their relation to market values. In particular, we examine how this relationship is affected by accounting method choice (successful efforts versus full...

We explore the efficiency in the oil industry employing a sample of around 300 companies operating in Europe over 2010-2019. We construct efficiency scores by means of DEA non-parametric techniques. Average efficiency in the sample is modest, 0.27 and decreasing over time. We examine the...

Several competition authorities have accused petrol retailers of engaging in collusive conduct, which results in alleged “excessive” prices as well as simultaneous price setting across filling stations. However, petrol retailers must exert a substantial amount of market power if they are to...

Do firms employing undocumented workers have a competitive advantage? Using administrative data from the state of Georgia, this paper investigates the incidence of undocumented worker employment across firms and how it affects firm survival. Firms are found to engage in herding behavior, being...