We analyze the efficiency defense in merger control. First, we show that the relationship between exogenous efficiency … find that merger proposals are largely aligned with a proper social welfare analysis which explicitly considers the without … merger counterfactual. We demonstrate that the merger specificity requirement does not help much to select socially desirable …

exact amount of cost efficiency/inefficiency that will result from the merger. Nevertheless, the key element of the model is … always have incentives to merge, irrespective of cost uncertainty, while a merger without role redistribution is ex ante … merger between leaders always enhances welfare if participants have incentives to merge, such that private and collective …

to the merger. We show that a PPO reduces the minimal synergy level necessary to make a merger beneficial for consumers …. It follows that an antitrust authority ignoring existing PPOs when evaluating merger proposals (which reflects the … current EU merger control regime) invites sneaky takeovers: Acquiring firms strategically use PPOs prior to a full merger …

either merge with a similar component producer (horizontal merger) or a complementary one (vertical merger) of a composite …, higher marginal cost savings are required for a horizontal merger in a composite industry not to result in a price increase …

We study upstream horizontal mergers and their potential efficiency gains. We show that an upstream horizontal merger … and decreases wholesale prices when downstream competition is not too strong. Examining whether the merger’s potential …