operates within state boundaries: cross-market, within-state hospital mergers yield price increases of 7-9 percent for … or service, but are bundled by a common intermediary. Focusing on hospital mergers across distinct geographic markets, we … higher prices (or lower-quality care). Using data on hospital mergers from 1996-2012, we find support that this mechanism …

by 15.9% and hospital costs by 4.7%. Our estimation results show that the effects on charge prices do not last as long as … negotiated prices, while low-price hospitals increase charges; (2) hospital characteristics such as ownership, case mix, and … payer mix; and (3) hospital size and market competition. We also conduct counterfactuals to predict price changes of non …

differential merger outcomes are caused mostly by firms' technology or product market attributes. Furthermore, empirical merger …. We allow the merger responses to vary across firms, even after controlling for regressors, and apply a random …' postmerger output further increases (and postmerger price further declines) if merging firms are more efficient, operate in more …