Government policy is more effective when the enforcement regime is transparent, because the economy benefits from the resulting reduction in transactions costs. The Federal Trade Commission has promoted transparency through a number of formal and informal programs. Examples include detailed...

In 1989, Barry Harris & Joseph Simons developed a quantitative method to implement the Horizontal Merger Guidelines' hypothetical monopolist test with a market-level “critical loss” analysis. The appeal of Harris & Simons' framework is that it created a simple, intuitive approach to...

The staff at an antitrust agency can focus on either coordinated interaction (collusion) or unilateral effects theories when investigating a proposed merger. This paper statistically models whether the choice of economic theory materially affects the Federal Trade Commission's (FTC) enforcement...

The Merger Guidelines highlight unilateral effects analysis as the most prominent theory of concern in differentiated markets. This study evaluates the Federal Trade Commission's historical record to determine what considerations drive the review process, if these considerations depend on the...

Most mergers filed at the enforcement agencies are conglomerate in nature with only minor horizontal overlaps. An enforcement agency may challenge the merger, if any overlap is believed to be adversely affected by the transaction. While the merging firm is entitled to a hearing in federal court,...