agents with incentives to cut marginal costs prior to choosing output. We stress that synergies come at a cost which possibly … leads to a countervailing incentive effect: The merged firm's principal may be induced to stifle managerial incentives in … actually reduce consumer surplus which opposes the use of an efficiency defense in merger control. …

defense in merger control. -- Managerial Incentives ; Horizontal Mergers ; Antitrust ; Productive Efficiency Gains ; Synergies …We analyze the effects of synergies from horizontal mergers on managerial incentives. In contrast to synergies …, efficiency gains resulting from managerial effort are not merger specific, i.e., they may be realized by all firms before and …