We study welfare effects of horizontal mergers under a successive oligopoly model and find that downstream mergers can increase welfare if they reduce input prices. The lower input price shifts some input production from cost- inefficient upstream firms to cost-efficient ones. Also, the lower...

The paper analyzes gross upward pricing pressure indices called iGUPPI to assess the effects of a merger between vertically integrated firms where in the downstream market also independent rivals are active. Such indices could be used e.g. to screen mergers between mobile network operators which...

Apple's economic role in the Publisher conspiracy to increase Amazon's below cost pricing of e-books is examined in a hub-and-spoke conspiracy framework. The Publishers conspired because of their concern that Amazon's low prices would adversely affect physical book demand and prices and also...

A vertical merger between a firm and an input supplier to that firm can generate efficiencies by eliminating double marginalization or alleviating other contracting inefficiencies. However, when the supplier also sells to that firm's rivals, a key antitrust concern is input foreclosure: the...

We consider infinitely repeated vertical relations when a retailer can sell an established product and a new product that is initially inferior but can improve over time. We find that the retailer has an incentive to sell the new product more than what maximizes industry profits. The...

In a paper in the March 2004 AER, Justine Hastings concludes that the acquisition of an independent gasoline retailer, Thrifty, by a vertically integrated firm, ARCO, is associated with sizable price increases at competing stations. To better understand the novel mechanism to which she...

We explore the supply chain problem of a downstream durable goods monopolist, who chooses one of the following trading modes: an exclusive supply chain with an incumbent supplier or an open supply chain, allowing the monopolist to trade with a new efficient entrant in the future. The predicted...

An ecosystem comprises all downstream products that employ a certain upstream input. Consumers make irreversible investments to join an ecosystem before downstream prices are set. By committing to buy products that use the specific ecosystem input, they are at risk of being held-up. Unable to...

We study welfare effects of horizontal mergers under a successive oligopoly model and find that downstream mergers can increase welfare if they reduce input prices. The lower input price shifts some input production from cost-inefficient upstream firms to cost-efficient ones. Also, the lower...

We study final product manufacturers' incentives to introduce new products into the market and how they are affected by a merger among them. We show that when manufacturers distribute their products through multi-product retailers, a manufacturers merger, although it leads to an increase in the...