Title

The Effect of Mergers on Consumer Prices: Evidence from Five Selected Case Studies

Author(s)

Orley Ashenfelter Orley Ashenfelter (Princeton University)

Daniel Hosken Daniel Hosken (Federal Trade Commission)

Abstract

In this paper we propose a method to evaluate the effectiveness of U.S. horizontal merger policy and apply it to the study of five recent consumer product mergers. We selected the mergers from those that, from the public record, seemed to be most problematic for the antitrust agencies. Thus we estimate an upper bound on the likely price effect of completed mergers. Our study employs retail scanner data and uses familiar panel data program evaluation procedures to measure price changes. Our results indicate that four of the five mergers resulted in some increases in consumer prices, while the fifth merger had little effect.

Creation Date

2008-02

Section URL ID

CEPS

Paper Number

160

URL

https://gceps.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/160ashenfelter.pdf

File Function

Jel

L1, L41, L66, L71, L73

Keyword(s)

Horizontal Mergers, Merger Retrospectives, Antitrust, Consumer Products, Program Evaluation, United States

Suppress

false

Series

3