IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jjrfmx/v15y2022i7p315-d867216.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Vertical Theories of Harm on Investor Returns: An Event Study of US Vertical Mergers

Author

Listed:
  • Ralph Sonenshine

    (Department of Economics, American University, Washington, DC 20016, USA)

  • Seyni Da

    (Department of Economics, American University, Washington, DC 20016, USA)

Abstract

The welfare implications of vertical mergers have been a subject of disagreement for decades. Similar to horizontal mergers, economists need to weigh the efficiency gains relative to the market power concerns when considering the competitive effects of vertical mergers. However, in vertical mergers, regulators are also concerned with other potential harmful effects, such as input and customer foreclosure. Using an event style technique, this paper explores these vertical theories of harm by comparing the abnormal returns of acquirers, targets, and the two combined in vertical and horizontal mergers that were challenged by regulators as potentially anticompetitive. Our results indicate that abnormal returns to targets were similar between vertical and horizontal mergers, but the gains to targets relative to acquirers were far higher in vertical versus horizontal mergers (53.6% versus 39.5%). In addition, we found that exclusionary effects have a positive impact (0.24% of the dollar abnormal return) on the bargaining position of targets. In contrast, acquirers gain 0.45% and 0.39% of the dollar abnormal return relative to targets when the antitrust concern entails collusive effects or elimination of potential competition, respectively.

Suggested Citation

  • Ralph Sonenshine & Seyni Da, 2022. "The Impact of Vertical Theories of Harm on Investor Returns: An Event Study of US Vertical Mergers," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-19, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jjrfmx:v:15:y:2022:i:7:p:315-:d:867216
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/15/7/315/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1911-8074/15/7/315/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tasneem Chipty, 2001. "Vertical Integration, Market Foreclosure, and Consumer Welfare in the Cable Television Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 91(3), pages 428-453, June.
    2. Joseph P. H. Fan & Vidhan K. Goyal, 2006. "On the Patterns and Wealth Effects of Vertical Mergers," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 79(2), pages 877-902, March.
    3. Eckbo, B Espen & Wier, Peggy, 1985. "Antimerger Policy under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act: A Reexamination of the Market Power Hypothesis," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 28(1), pages 119-149, April.
    4. Laurence C. Baker & M. Kate Bundorf & Daniel P. Kessler, 2020. "Does Multispecialty Practice Enhance Physician Market Power?," American Journal of Health Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(3), pages 324-347.
    5. Ahern, Kenneth R., 2012. "Bargaining power and industry dependence in mergers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 103(3), pages 530-550.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Dong, Yizhe & Li, Chang & Li, Haoyu, 2021. "Customer concentration and M&A performance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    2. Lee, Kyeong Hun & Mauer, David C. & Xu, Emma Qianying, 2018. "Human capital relatedness and mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(1), pages 111-135.
    3. Huang, Allen H. & Lin, An-Ping & Zang, Amy Y., 2022. "Cross-industry information sharing among colleagues and analyst research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 74(1).
    4. Amrita Nain & Yan Wang, 2018. "The Product Market Impact of Minority Stake Acquisitions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(2), pages 825-844, February.
    5. Fan, Joseph P.H. & Huang, Jun & Morck, Randall & Yeung, Bernard, 2017. "Institutional determinants of vertical integration in China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 524-539.
    6. Ann-Kristin Achleitner & Reiner Braun & Eva Lutz & Uwe Reiner, 2014. "Industry relatedness in trade sales and venture capital investment returns," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 621-637, October.
    7. Qianqian Huang & Ryoonhee Kim, 2019. "Capital structure decisions along the supply chain: Evidence from import competition," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 50(6), pages 873-894, August.
    8. Jaideep Shenoy, 2012. "An Examination of the Efficiency, Foreclosure, and Collusion Rationales for Vertical Takeovers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 58(8), pages 1482-1501, August.
    9. Gao, Ning & Peng, Ni & Strong, Norman, 2017. "What determines horizontal merger antitrust case selection?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 51-76.
    10. Chen, Long & Zhang, Gaiyan & Zhang, Weina, 2016. "Return predictability in the corporate bond market along the supply chain," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 66-86.
    11. Felipe Cortes & Francisco Marcet, 2023. "Analysts’ Connections and M&A Outcomes," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(7), pages 4108-4133, July.
    12. Marissa Beck & Fiona Scott Morton, 2021. "Evaluating the Evidence on Vertical Mergers," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 59(2), pages 273-302, September.
    13. Avdasheva, Svetlana & Tsytsulina, Dina, 2015. "The effects of M&As in highly concentrated domestic vis-à-vis export markets: By the example of Russian metal industries," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 368-382.
    14. Gao, Ning & Peng, Ni & Zhang, Yi, 2021. "Distributive inefficiency in horizontal mergers: Evidence from wealth transfers between merging firms and their customers," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    15. Joseph P.H. Fan & Jun Huang & Randall Morck & Bernard Yeung, 2009. "Vertical Integration, Institutional Determinants and Impact: Evidence from China," NBER Working Papers 14650, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Pereira, Pedro & Ribeiro, Tiago, 2011. "The impact on broadband access to the Internet of the dual ownership of telephone and cable networks," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 283-293, March.
    17. Ye, Silin & Zhou, Jing & Jiang, Yunwen & Liu, Xiaming, 2023. "Managers as the bridge: How cultural friction influences the integration of cross-border mergers and acquisitions," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(4).
    18. Laura Alfaro & Nick Bloom & Paola Conconi & Harald Fadinger & Patrick Legros & Andrew F Newman & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2024. "Come Together: Firm Boundaries and Delegation," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 22(1), pages 34-72.
    19. Tomaso Duso & Klaus Gugler & Florian Szücs, 2013. "An Empirical Assessment of the 2004 EU Merger Policy Reform," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 123(11), pages 596-619, November.
    20. Song, Moon H. & Walkling, Ralph A., 2005. "Anticipation, Acquisitions and Bidder Returns," Working Paper Series 2005-11, Ohio State University, Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics.

    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:gam:jjrfmx:v:15:y:2022:i:7:p:315-:d:867216. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.