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The Price Effects of the Delta/Northwest Airline Merger

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  • Dan Luo

Abstract

This paper examines the price effects of the merger between Delta Airlines and Northwest Airlines. Empirical analysis finds that, other things equal, the fares for airport-pairs where Delta and Northwest competed with each other prior to the merger did not increase by much following the merger. This result is consistent with the additional finding that the impact of changes in low-cost carrier competition is large while the effect of changes in competition from legacy carriers is slight. Since both Delta and Northwest Airlines are legacy carriers, the results for other legacies suggest that the merger should not have exerted a dramatic impact on fares. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

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  • Dan Luo, 2014. "The Price Effects of the Delta/Northwest Airline Merger," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 44(1), pages 27-48, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revind:v:44:y:2014:i:1:p:27-48
    DOI: 10.1007/s11151-013-9380-1
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    Cited by:

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    2. Shen, Ying, 2017. "Market competition and market price: Evidence from United/Continental airline merger," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 10(C), pages 1-7.
    3. Huubinh B. Le, 2016. "A retrospective analysis of the competitive effects of the Southwest and Airtran merger in overlapping markets," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 36(3), pages 1650-1655.
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    5. Myongjin Kim & Leilei Shen & Qi Ge, 2023. "Does Competition Increase or Decrease Price Dispersion? Insights from One‐Way vs. Round‐Trip Airfares," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 85(2), pages 435-455, April.
    6. Myongjin Kim & Qi Ge & Donggeun Kim, 2021. "Mergers and labor market outcomes in the US airline industry," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 39(4), pages 849-866, October.
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    8. Orley Ashenfelter & Daniel Hosken & Matthew Weinberg, 2014. "Did Robert Bork Understate the Competitive Impact of Mergers? Evidence from Consummated Mergers," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 57(S3), pages 67-100.
    9. Franco Mariuzzo & Peter L. Ormosi, 2017. "Post-merger price dynamics matter, so why do merger retrospectives ignore them?," Working Paper series, University of East Anglia, Centre for Competition Policy (CCP) 2016-05, Centre for Competition Policy, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK..
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    16. Azar, José & Schmalz, Martin & Tecu, Isabel, 2017. "Anti-Competitive Effects of Common Ownership," IESE Research Papers D/1169, IESE Business School.
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    18. Daniel Rijken & Vincent (V.A.C.) van den Berg, 2017. "The Impact of Airline Mergers on Quality: Why Do Different Mergers Have Such Different Effects?," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 17-079/VIII, Tinbergen Institute.
    19. Doi, Naoshi & Ohashi, Hiroshi, 2019. "Market structure and product quality: A study of the 2002 Japanese airline merger," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 158-193.
    20. Luttmann, Alexander & Ladd, Daniel, 2023. "Loyalty rewards and redemption behavior: Stylized facts for the U.S. airline industry," MPRA Paper 119214, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    21. Rafael Rocha Oliveira & Claudio Lucinda, 2024. "How do incumbents react to the exit of a potential competitor? Evidence from the airline sector," Working Papers, Department of Economics 2024_04, University of São Paulo (FEA-USP).
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    24. 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).

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