In March of 2000 the New York Stock Exchange proposed a merger with The Nasdaq Stock Market. Applying a qualitative assessment to the proposed merger from the organizations' perspective it is argued that the merger would be favorable for both organizations. Applying a quantitative assessment to...

We study competition in the German interurban bus industry two years after its liberalization in January 2013. In addition to a brief characterization of the liberalization process and several general market developments, we provide a detailed analysis of selected market characteristics such as...

China's merger enforcement agency approved the Google/Motorola merger with conditions. This pattern of approval is not in full accordance with that in other jurisdictions, including the United States and the European Union, which made unconditional approvals. This contradiction attracted ample...

On 26 March 2018, news broke that the global ride-hailing giant Uber agreed to sell its Southeast Asian operations to its local competitor Grab. Four days later, a CoRe Blog post put forward a first assessment of the potentially anti-competitive consequences of the merger as well as the related...

Mergers in the pharmaceutical sector warrant special scrutiny not only because of concerns over affordability of medicines, but also because the institutional details of pharmaceutical markets complicate the economic analysis of merger effects. Standard anti-trust analysis of mergers, in...

Pharmaceutical markets are complex. Multiple agents, including doctors, insurers, and pharmacies, play critical roles that affect competition between manufacturers and patient choice between drugs. This complexity, however, is neglected in standard antitrust analysis. In evaluating proposed...

Should internet era merger policy differ from industrial era merger policy? Platform ecosystems rely on economies of scale, data-driven economies of scope, high-quality algorithmic systems, and strong network effects that frequently promote winner-take-most markets. Their market dominance has...

Antitrust populists increasingly call on the government to “break up big tech.” But antitrust enforcers would face heavy evidentiary burdens if they sought to break a company up on the premise that a long-consummated merger was unlawful from the outset and should have been blocked years ago....

The results of MOFCOM's review in Wal-Mart’s acquisition of control of Yihaodian is a reminder that non-competition factors play significant roles in AML merger control. MOFCOM’s decision in Wal-Mart/Yihaodian may be a striking "throw back" to the Coca-Cola/Huiyuan and Mitsubishi...

This paper identifies substantial flaws in how U.S. government agencies and courts assess the impact of proposed mergers by firms using broadband networks to reach consumers. Based on current market definitions, consumer impact assessments and economic doctrine, antitrust enforcement agencies...