IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/indorg/v62y2019icp358-376.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Airline horizontal mergers and productivity: Empirical evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China

Author

Listed:
  • Yan, Jia
  • Fu, Xiaowen
  • Oum, Tae Hoon
  • Wang, Kun

Abstract

The identification of possible efficiency gains is a core issue in the analysis of mergers. However, empirical studies are generally subject to bias caused by merger endogeneity. In the early 2000s, the Chinese government pursued a strategy of merging small firms in key industries to create large enterprise groups. Mergers created by this policy provide a rare quasi-natural experiment to investigate the effect of mergers. We take the opportunity to apply the difference-in-differences approach to identify the effect of mergers on the efficiency of Chinese airlines. Overall, our analysis suggests that the mergers increased the productivity of Chinese airlines.

Suggested Citation

  • Yan, Jia & Fu, Xiaowen & Oum, Tae Hoon & Wang, Kun, 2019. "Airline horizontal mergers and productivity: Empirical evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 358-376.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:indorg:v:62:y:2019:i:c:p:358-376
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2018.01.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167718717304198
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2018.01.004?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Manuela, Wilfred S. & Rhoades, Dawna L. & Curtis, Tamilla, 2016. "The U.S. Airways Group: A post-merger analysis," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 56(PB), pages 138-150.
    2. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2010. "The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design Is Taking the Con out of Econometrics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 3-30, Spring.
    3. Anderson, James E & Kraus, Marvin, 1981. "Quality of Service and the Demand for Air Travel," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 63(4), pages 533-540, November.
    4. Gudmundsson, Sveinn Vidar & Merkert, Rico & Redondi, Renato, 2017. "Cost functions and determinants of unit cost effects in horizontal airline M&As," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 444-454.
    5. Windle, Robert J. & Dresner, Martin E., 1992. "Partial productivity measures and total factor productivity in the air transport industry: Limitations and uses," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 435-445, November.
    6. John Kwoka & Evgenia Shumilkina, 2010. "The Price Effect Of Eliminating Potential Competition: Evidence From An Airline Merger," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(4), pages 767-793, December.
    7. Douglas, George W & Miller, James C, III, 1974. "Quality Competition, Industry Equilibrium, and Efficiency in the Price-Constrained Airline Market," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 64(4), pages 657-669, September.
    8. Egger, Peter & Hahn, Franz R., 2010. "Endogenous bank mergers and their impact on banking performance: Some evidence from Austria," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 155-166, March.
    9. Robin A. Prager & Timothy H. Hannan, 1998. "Do Substantial Horizontal Mergers Generate Significant Price Effects? Evidence From The Banking Industry," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 433-452, December.
    10. repec:bla:jindec:v:50:y:2002:i:3:p:237-63 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Yahua Zhang & David Round, 2009. "Policy Implications of the Effects of Concentration and Multimarket Contact in China’s Airline Market," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 34(4), pages 307-326, June.
    12. Kim, E Han & Singal, Vijay, 1993. "Mergers and Market Power: Evidence from the Airline Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(3), pages 549-569, June.
    13. Zhang, Yahua & Round, David K., 2008. "China's airline deregulation since 1997 and the driving forces behind the 2002 airline consolidations," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 130-142.
    14. Richard, Oliver, 2003. "Flight frequency and mergers in airline markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(6), pages 907-922, June.
    15. Caves, Douglas W & Christensen, Laurits R & Diewert, W Erwin, 1982. "Multilateral Comparisons of Output, Input, and Productivity Using Superlative Index Numbers," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 92(365), pages 73-86, March.
    16. Aviv Nevo, 2000. "Mergers with Differentiated Products: The Case of the Ready-to-Eat Cereal Industry," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 31(3), pages 395-421, Autumn.
    17. Goh, Mark & Yong, Jongsay, 2006. "Impacts of code-share alliances on airline cost structure: A truncated third-order translog estimation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 835-866, July.
    18. Oum, Tae Hoon & Zhang, Anming, 2001. "Key aspects of global strategic alliances and the impacts on the future of Canadian airline industry," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 7(5), pages 287-301.
    19. Youssef, Waleed & Hansen, Mark, 1994. "Consequences of strategic alliances between international airlines: The case of Swissair and SAS," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 415-431, September.
    20. Oum, Tae Hoon & Fu, Xiaowen & Yu, Chunyan, 2005. "New evidences on airline efficiency and yields: a comparative analysis of major North American air carriers and its implications," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 153-164, March.
    21. Jerry A Hausman & Gregory K Leonard, 2002. "The Competitive Effects of a New Product Introduction: A Case Study," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 237-263, September.
    22. Clougherty, Joseph A., 2002. "US domestic airline mergers: the neglected international determinants," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 557-576, April.
    23. Merkert, Rico & Morrell, Peter S., 2012. "Mergers and acquisitions in aviation – Management and economic perspectives on the size of airlines," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 853-862.
    24. Brueckner, Jan K. & Spiller, Pablo T., 1991. "Competition and mergers in airline networks," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 323-342, September.
    25. Schosser, Maximilian & Wittmer, Andreas, 2015. "Cost and revenue synergies in airline mergers – Examining geographical differences," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 142-153.
    26. Kolaric, S. & Schiereck, D., 2014. "Performance of bank mergers and acquisitions: a review of the recent empirical evidence," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 64471, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    27. Laurits R. Christensen & Dale W. Jorgenson, 1969. "The Measurement Of U.S. Real Capital Input, 1929–1967," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 15(4), pages 293-320, December.
    28. Shaw, Shih-Lung & Lu, Feng & Chen, Jie & Zhou, Chenghu, 2009. "China’s airline consolidation and its effects on domestic airline networks and competition," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 17(4), pages 293-305.
    29. Fu, Xiaowen & Oum, Tae Hoon & Chen, Ruowei & Lei, Zheng, 2015. "Dominant carrier performance and international liberalization – The case of Northeast Asia," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 61-75.
    30. Johnston, Ahren & Ozment, John, 2013. "Economies of scale in the US airline industry," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 95-108.
    31. Fu, Xiaowen & Lei, Zheng & Wang, Kun & Yan, Jia, 2015. "Low cost carrier competition and route entry in an emerging but regulated aviation market – The case of China," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 3-16.
    32. Jia Yan & Xiaowen Fu & Tae Hoon Oum & Kun Wang, 2016. "The Effects of Mergers on Airline Performance and Social Welfare," Advances in Airline Economics, in: Airline Efficiency, volume 5, pages 131-159, Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
    33. Park, Jong-Hun, 1997. "The effects of airline alliances on markets and economic welfare," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 181-195, September.
    34. Barros, Carlos P. & Liang, Qi Bin & Peypoch, Nicolas, 2013. "The technical efficiency of US Airlines," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 139-148.
    35. Wang, Jiaoe & Bonilla, David & Banister, David, 2016. "Air deregulation in China and its impact on airline competition 1994–2012," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 12-23.
    36. Peters, Craig, 2006. "Evaluating the Performance of Merger Simulation: Evidence from the U.S. Airline Industry," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(2), pages 627-649, October.
    37. Borenstein, Severin, 1990. "Airline Mergers, Airport Dominance, and Market Power," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 400-404, May.
    38. Zhang, Qiong & Yang, Hangjun & Wang, Qiang & Zhang, Anming, 2014. "Market power and its determinants in the Chinese airline industry," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 64(C), pages 1-13.
    39. Oum, Tae Hoon & Yu, Chunyan, 1995. "A productivity comparison of the world's major airlines," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 2(3), pages 181-195.
    40. Douglas W. Caves & Laurits R. Christensen & Michael W. Tretheway, 1984. "Economies of Density versus Economies of Scale: Why Trunk and Local Service Airline Costs Differ," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(4), pages 471-489, Winter.
    41. Klaus Gugler & Ralph Siebert, 2007. "Market Power versus Efficiency Effects of Mergers and Research Joint Ventures: Evidence from the Semiconductor Industry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 89(4), pages 645-659, November.
    42. Brueckner, Jan K & Spiller, Pablo T, 1994. "Economies of Traffic Density in the Deregulated Airline Industry," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(2), pages 379-415, October.
    43. Xiaowen Fu & Tae H. Oum, 2015. "Dominant Carrier Performance and International Liberalisation: The case of North East Asia," International Transport Forum Discussion Papers 2015/3, OECD Publishing.
    44. Aviv Nevo & Michael D. Whinston, 2010. "Taking the Dogma out of Econometrics: Structural Modeling and Credible Inference," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 69-82, Spring.
    45. Wang, Kun & Fan, Xingli & Fu, Xiaowen & Zhou, Yiran, 2014. "Benchmarking the performance of Chinese airlines: An investigation of productivity, yield and cost competitiveness," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 3-14.
    46. repec:bla:jindec:v:46:y:1998:i:4:p:433-52 is not listed on IDEAS
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bai, Xue-jie & Zeng, Jin & Chiu, Yung-Ho, 2019. "Pre-evaluating efficiency gains from potential mergers and acquisitions based on the resampling DEA approach: Evidence from China's railway sector," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 46-56.
    2. Yakath Ali, Nurul Syuhadah & Yu, Chunyan & See, Kok Fong, 2021. "Four decades of airline productivity and efficiency studies: A review and bibliometric analysis," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    3. Zhu, Feng & Wu, Xu & Cao, Chengxuan, 2021. "High-speed rail and air transport competition under high flight delay conditions in China: A case study of the Beijing-Shanghai corridor," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    4. Fu, Xiaowen & Lei, Zheng & Liu, Shaoxuan & Wang, Kun & Yan, Jia, 2020. "On-time performance policy in the Chinese aviation market - An innovation or disruption?," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 14-23.
    5. Gudmundsson, Sveinn Vidar & Merkert, Rico & Redondi, Renato, 2020. "Cost structure effects of horizontal airline mergers and acquisitions," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 136-144.
    6. Su, Min & Luan, Weixin & Fu, Xiaowen & Yang, Zaili & Zhang, Rui, 2020. "The competition effects of low-cost carriers and high-speed rail on the Chinese aviation market," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 37-46.
    7. repec:ags:aaea22:336009 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Ying Li & Yung-Ho Chiu & Tai-Yu Lin & Tzu-Han Chang, 2020. "Pre-Evaluating the Technical Efficiency Gains from Potential Mergers and Acquisitions in the IC Design Industry," International Journal of Information Technology & Decision Making (IJITDM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 19(02), pages 525-559, April.
    9. Thierry Blayac & Patrice Bougette, 2023. "What can be Expected from Mergers After Deregulation? The Case of the Long-Distance Bus Industry in France," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 62(1), pages 63-97, February.
    10. Ho, Chun-Yu & McCarthy, Patrick & Wang, Yanhao, 2020. "Decomposing sources of gain from airline mergers: A model and case study from China," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    11. Ho, Chun-Yu & McCarthy, Patrick & Wang, Yanhao, 2021. "Competition and countervailing power: Evidence from the China Eastern and Shanghai Airlines merger," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    12. Tan, Xinlong & Jia, Rongwen & Yan, Jia & Wang, Kun & Bian, Lei, 2021. "An Exploratory analysis of flight delay propagation in China," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    13. Czerny, Achim I. & Fu, Xiaowen & Lei, Zheng & Oum, Tae H., 2021. "Post pandemic aviation market recovery: Experience and lessons from China," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    14. See, Kok Fong & Rashid, Azwan Abdul & Yu, Ming-Miin, 2024. "Measuring the network capacity utilization, energy consumption and environmental inefficiency of global airlines," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    15. Kanjilal, Kiriti & Espinola-Arredondo, Ana & Munoz-Garcia, Felix, 2022. "Does the presence of a public firm facilitate merger approvals?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    16. Liang, Pinghan & Zou, Wei, 2024. "Flying high in the sky: The airports decentralization reform and regional economic development in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Khezrimotlagh, Dariush & Kaffash, Sepideh & Zhu, Joe, 2022. "U.S. airline mergers’ performance and productivity change," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    2. Le, Huubinh B. & Yimga, Jules O., 2023. "Codeshare restrictions as antitrust remedy," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 17-24.
    3. Ma, Wenliang & Wang, Qiang & Yang, Hangjun & Zhang, Yahua, 2020. "Evaluating the price effects of two airline mergers in China," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    4. Le Huubinh B. & Yimga Jules, 2019. "Market Power and Marginal Cost Effects in Competing Markets: Evidence from Airline Mergers," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 18(2), pages 63-108, June.
    5. Kai Hüschelrath & Kathrin Müller, 2014. "Airline Networks, Mergers, and Consumer Welfare," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 48(3), pages 385-407, September.
    6. Gong, Qiang & Wang, Kun & Fan, Xingli & Fu, Xiaowen & Xiao, Yi-bin, 2018. "International trade drivers and freight network analysis - The case of the Chinese air cargo sector," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 253-262.
    7. Zhang, Yahua & Sampaio, Breno & Fu, Xiaowen & Huang, Zhibin, 2018. "Pricing dynamics between airline groups with dual-brand services," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 46-59.
    8. Federico Ciliberto & Emily E. Cook & Jonathan W. Williams, 2019. "Network Structure and Consolidation in the U.S. Airline Industry, 1990–2015," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 54(1), pages 3-36, February.
    9. Fu, Xiaowen & Jin, Huan & Liu, Shaoxuan & Oum, Tae H. & Yan, Jia, 2019. "Exploring network effects of point-to-point networks: An investigation of the spatial patterns of Southwest Airlines’ network," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 36-45.
    10. Joseph A. Clougherty, 2006. "The international drivers of domestic airline mergers in twenty nations: integrating industrial organization and international business," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 27(1), pages 75-93.
    11. de Oliveira, Renan P. & Oliveira, Alessandro V.M., 2021. "Financial distress, survival network design strategies, and airline pricing: An event study of a merger between a bankrupt FSC and an LCC in Brazil," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    12. Shen, Ying, 2017. "Market competition and market price: Evidence from United/Continental airline merger," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 10(C), pages 1-7.
    13. Wu, Chuntao & Jiang, Qiuyue & Yang, Hangjun, 2018. "Changes in cross-strait aviation policies and their impact on tourism flows since 2009," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 61-72.
    14. Pavlović, Dejan & Babić, Danica, 2018. "Recent trends in assessment of proposed consolidations in EU airline industry – From discretion to arbitrariness," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 65-77.
    15. Wang, Jiaoe & Bonilla, David & Banister, David, 2016. "Air deregulation in China and its impact on airline competition 1994–2012," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 12-23.
    16. Brito, Duarte & Pereira, Pedro & Ramalho, Joaquim J.S., 2013. "Mergers, coordinated effects and efficiency in the Portuguese non-life insurance industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 554-568.
    17. DOI Naoshi & OHASHI Hiroshi, 2015. "An Airline Merger and its Remedies: JAL-JAS of 2002," Discussion papers 15100, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    18. Vaze, Vikrant & Luo, Tian & Harder, Reed, 2017. "Impacts of airline mergers on passenger welfare," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 130-154.
    19. Christos Genakos & Andreas Lamprinidis & James Walker, 2023. "Evaluating merger effects," CEP Discussion Papers dp1921, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    20. Yang, Hangjun & Ma, Wenliang & Wang, Qiang & Wang, Kun & Zhang, Yahua, 2020. "Welfare implications for air passengers in China in the era of high-speed rail," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 1-13.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Horizontal merger; Productive efficiency; Airline mergers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L93 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Air Transportation
    • L98 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Government Policy
    • R48 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - Government Pricing and Policy
    • D24 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Production; Cost; Capital; Capital, Total Factor, and Multifactor Productivity; Capacity
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:indorg:v:62:y:2019:i:c:p:358-376. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505551 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.