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Multimarket Contact in the Hospital Industry

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  • Matt Schmitt

Abstract

Hospitals in the United States increasingly belong to multihospital systems that operate in numerous geographic markets. A large literature in management and economics suggests that competition between firms may be softened as a result of multimarket contact—ie., firms competing with one another in multiple markets simultaneously. Exploiting plausibly exogenous variation in multimarket contact generated by out-of-market consolidation, I find that increases in multimarket contact over the 2000–2010 period led to higher hospital prices. These results suggest that continued hospital consolidation may produce higher prices even if that consolidation only minimally affects within-market concentration.

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  • Matt Schmitt, 2018. "Multimarket Contact in the Hospital Industry," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 361-387, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:aejpol:v:10:y:2018:i:3:p:361-87
    Note: DOI: 10.1257/pol.20170001
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Waldfogel Joel & Wulf Julie, 2006. "Measuring the Effect of Multimarket Contact on Competition: Evidence from Mergers Following Radio Broadcast Ownership Deregulation," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-25, July.
    2. William N. Evans & Ioannis N. Kessides, 1994. "Living by the "Golden Rule": Multimarket Contact in the U. S. Airline Industry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(2), pages 341-366.
    3. Leemore Dafny, 2009. "Estimation and Identification of Merger Effects: An Application to Hospital Mergers," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(3), pages 523-550, August.
    4. Federico Ciliberto & Jonathan W. Williams, 2014. "Does multimarket contact facilitate tacit collusion? Inference on conduct parameters in the airline industry," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 45(4), pages 764-791, December.
    5. Melnick, Glenn & Keeler, Emmett, 2007. "The effects of multi-hospital systems on hospital prices," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 400-413, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Vaziri, M., 2022. "Antitrust Law and Business Dynamism," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 2243, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    2. Martin Gaynor & Kate Ho & Robert J. Town, 2015. "The Industrial Organization of Health-Care Markets," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 53(2), pages 235-284, June.
    3. Haizhen Lin & Ian M. McCarthy, 2023. "Multimarket Contact in Health Insurance: Evidence from Medicare Advantage," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(1), pages 212-255, March.
    4. Gaurab Aryal & Dennis J. Campbell & Federico Ciliberto & Ekaterina A. Khmelnitskaya, 2023. "Common Subcontracting and Airline Prices," Papers 2301.05999, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2023.
    5. Isogai, Shigeki & Shen, Chaohai, 2023. "Multiproduct firm’s reputation and leniency program in multimarket collusion," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    6. Saxell, Tanja & Nurminen, Mikko, 2020. "Physician Prices and Competition: Evidence from Acquisitions in the Private Health Care Sector," Working Papers 130, VATT Institute for Economic Research.
    7. Steven Berry & Martin Gaynor & Fiona Scott Morton, 2019. "Do Increasing Markups Matter? Lessons from Empirical Industrial Organization," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 33(3), pages 44-68, Summer.
    8. Balaguer, Jacint & Ripollés, Jordi, 2021. "Does multimarket contact affect prices in the retail fuel industry? First empirical evidence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    9. Sebastian Linde & Ralph Siebert, 2016. "Do Mergers Among Multimarket Firms Create Value?," CESifo Working Paper Series 6139, CESifo.
    10. Porter, Robert H., 2020. "Mergers and coordinated effects," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    11. Donggeun Kim & Myongjin Kim & Kerry Tan, 2021. "Tacit collusion and price dispersion in the presence of Southwest Airlines," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 88(1), pages 3-32, July.
    12. Eren Gürer, 2022. "Rising markups and optimal redistributive taxation," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(5), pages 1227-1259, October.
    13. O. Cem Ozturk & Necati Tereyagoglu, 2022. "Distribution Channel Relationships in the Presence of Multimarket Contact," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 31(1), pages 218-238, January.
    14. Mikko Nurminen, 2021. "Mergers and Acquisitions in the Markets for Diagnostic Services: Evidence from the Finnish Private Health Care Sector," Discussion Papers 139, Aboa Centre for Economics.
    15. Lin, Haizhen & McCarthy, Ian M. & Richards, Michael, 2021. "Hospital Pricing Following Integration with Physician Practices," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    16. Jules Yimga, 2023. "Multimarket Contact and Market Power Implications in the US Airline Industry," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 985-1024, December.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • I11 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Analysis of Health Care Markets
    • I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
    • K21 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Antitrust Law
    • L41 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices

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