? These three questions have been puzzling industrial economists since the end of the last century when the first great merger … economic research during the last decade as merger and acquisition activity became one of the most evident activities of firms …

This paper empirically evaluates the price effects of the merger of two major book retail chains in the UK: Waterstone … information on a sample of 200 books sold in 60 stores in 50 different local markets for a period of four years around the merger … prices, we undertake an ex-post assessment of the impact of the merger at both levels. At the local level, we compare the …