A recent edition of the CPI Antitrust Chronicle provided a range of perspectives on the applicability of the Upward Pricing Pressure (UPP) model to merger analysis. A number of key insights (e.g., the relevance of market definition, the usefulness of an UPP screen, the similarity between UPP and...

Economists have two basic methodologies: structuralism, in which formal economic models control the analysis, and experimentalism, in which economic theory guides the analysis, but data from experiments determines the policy recommendation. The choice between the two approaches is often quite...

This paper explores the Federal Trade Commission’s unilateral effects analysis from the perspectives of both the 1992 and 2010 Merger Guidelines. Historical enforcement data is used to define a diversion benchmark of 30 percent, but is unable to detect a role for the margin variable. A related...

This paper tests a model of political control of the bureaucracy using a data set of mergers evaluated by the Federal Trade Commission between 1983 and 2000. The results support a sophisticated control model in which the President sets the agenda within the scope of policies acceptable to...

The 2010 revision of the Merger Guidelines highlighted the importance of both economic modeling of the post-merger competitive process and effects evidence, defined as information able to predict the transaction’s likely competitive effect. With sufficient data, it is possible to see how...

This book focuses on the antitrust process and how that process affects the efficiency of antitrust law enforcement. The contributors share a wide range of experiences in the antitrust process, including academia, the legal environment, and both private and public sectors. The book deals first...

Merger analysis is a field in which economic theory is systematically applied, day-in, day-out. Economics structures the definition of the relevant market, and then economics drives the evaluation of the likely competitive effect of the merger. Exactly which models appear to be used by Federal...

The Hart Scott Rodino program, coupled with the modern Merger Guidelines has structured merger enforcement for the last twenty years. This paper reviews all of the filings on which the Commission issued a second request. While horizontal mergers predominate, vertical, potential competition and...

This paper generalizes the critical loss concept of Harris and Simons to account for a broader range of possible cost structures. Our focus on understanding the market level equilibrium for relatively homogenous goods makes it clear that the Harris and Simons procedure is appropriate in some...