We analyze the economic consequences of rising health care prices in the US. Using exposure to price increases caused … by horizontal hospital mergers as an instrument, we show that rising prices raise the cost of labor by increasing …

horizontal merger activity. We propose a theoretically-backed methodological approach to classify mergers that yields more … information on merger types and merger effects, and that can, moreover, distinguish between mergers characterized largely by … approach is that it encompasses the impact of merger events not only on merging firms (custom in the literature), but also on …

-based synergies in horizontal merger activity. We propose a schematic to classify mergers that yields more information on merger types … and merger effects, and that can, moreover, distinguish between mergers characterized largely by collusion-based synergies … encompasses the impact of merger events not only on merging firms - as is custom - but also on non-merging competitor firms (the …