I estimate the price and productivity effects of horizontal mergers in the ready-mix concrete industry using plant and … firm-level data from the US Census Bureau. Horizontal mergers involving plants in close proximity are associated with price … relationship between productivity and prices, the rate at which productivity reduces price is modest and the effects of increased …

marginal costs are nondecreasing, any profitable merger failing to generate technological synergies must harm consumers through … differentiated and firms compete in prices. The implications for merger policy are discussed …

Cost synergies are an explicitly recognized justification for a two-firm merger, and empirical techniques are now … widely used to assess the impact of cost-reducing mergers on prices and welfare in the post-merger market. We show that if … the merger occurs in a vertically product differentiated market, then the merger will lead to a reduction in product …

find that only the merger between Coca-Cola and Pepsi leads to substantial price increases and corresponding welfare losses …. A concern is that using a standard discrete choice model that assumes single unit purchases may understate the price … estimates with a model of static oligopoly, I then run the merger simulations. Consistent with the arguments of Coca-Cola, we …