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Can partial horizontal ownership lessen competition more than a monopoly?

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  • Brito, Duarte
  • Ribeiro, Ricardo
  • Vasconcelos, Helder

Abstract

In this paper we investigate the anti-competitive effects of partial horizontal ownership in a setting where: (i) two cost-asymmetric firms compete à la Cournot; (ii) managers deal with eventual conflicting interests of the different shareholders by maximizing a weighted sum of the two firms’ operating profits; and (iii) weights result from the corporate control structure of the firm they run. Within this theoretical structure, we find that if the manager of the more efficient firm weights the operating profit of the (inefficient) rival more than its own profit, then partial ownership will lessen competition more than a monopoly when both firms produce.

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  • Brito, Duarte & Ribeiro, Ricardo & Vasconcelos, Helder, 2019. "Can partial horizontal ownership lessen competition more than a monopoly?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 90-95.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:176:y:2019:i:c:p:90-95
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2018.12.039
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    7. Brito, Duarte & Osório, António & Ribeiro, Ricardo & Vasconcelos, Helder, 2018. "Unilateral effects screens for partial horizontal acquisitions: The generalized HHI and GUPPI," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 127-189.
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Romain Lestage, 2021. "Input price discrimination and non-controlling vertical shareholding," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 59(3), pages 226-250, June.
    2. Brito, Duarte & Elhauge, Einer & Ribeiro, Ricardo & Vasconcelos, Helder, 2023. "Modelling the objective function of managers in the presence of overlapping shareholding," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    3. Brito, Duarte & Ribeiro, Ricardo & Vasconcelos, Helder, 2020. "Overlapping ownership, endogenous quality, and welfare," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    4. Arijit Mukherjee, 2023. "Losses from cross-holdings in a duopoly with convex cost and strategic input price determination," Economic Theory Bulletin, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 11(1), pages 81-91, April.
    5. Leonardos, Stefanos & Petrakis, Emmanuel & Skartados, Panagiotis & Stamatopoulos, Giorgos, 2021. "Partial passive ownership holdings and licensing," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    6. Jianxia Yang & Chenhang Zeng, 2021. "Collusive stability of cross-holding with cost asymmetry," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 91(4), pages 549-566, November.
    7. Kęstutis Peleckis, 2022. "Application of the Fuzzy VIKOR Method to Assess Concentration and Its Effects on Competition in the Energy Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-16, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Partial horizontal ownership; Common-ownership; Cross-ownership; Monopoly; Duopoly; Cost asymmetries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
    • L12 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Monopoly; Monopolization Strategies
    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L41 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices
    • L50 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - General

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