Horizontal mergers are usually under the scrutiny of antitrust authorities due to their potential undesirable effects on prices and consumer surplus. Ex-post evidence, however, suggests that not always these effects take place and even relevant mergers may end up having negligible price effects....

Horizontal mergers are usually under the scrutiny of antitrust authorities due to their potential undesirable effects on prices and consumer surplus. Ex-post evidence, however, suggests that not always these effects take place and even relevant mergers may end up having negligible price effects....

The theoretical analysis of merger poses a number of paradoxes. If firms compete in prices, a merger is profitable for all parties involved. Outsiders, however, free-ride and earn higher profits than insiders. The "spokes model" is a recently introduced framework to study n-firms spatial...