IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/revind/v61y2022i4d10.1007_s11151-022-09883-w.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economics at the FTC: Estimating Harm from Deception and Analyzing Mergers

Author

Listed:
  • Michael Vita

    (Federal Trade Commission)

  • Keith Brand

    (Federal Trade Commission)

  • Miriam Larson-Koester

    (Federal Trade Commission)

  • Nathan Petek

    (Federal Trade Commission)

  • Charles Taragin

    (Federal Reserve Board)

  • William Violette

    (Federal Trade Commission)

  • Daniel H. Wood

    (Federal Trade Commission)

Abstract

Economists in the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Economics perform economic analysis in support of the Commission’s dual missions to protect consumers and competition by preventing anticompetitive, deceptive, and unfair business practices through law enforcement, advocacy, and education. This article first presents summaries of analyses that FTC economists performed to estimate the consumer harm from two different types of deception that involved misleading information about lease terms and suppression of negative product reviews. The essay next turns to economic analyses of mergers: We first consider the vertical issues that arose in a semiconductor merger; and then we provide a discussion of how complementarity between hospitals may affect the analysis of hospital mergers.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael Vita & Keith Brand & Miriam Larson-Koester & Nathan Petek & Charles Taragin & William Violette & Daniel H. Wood, 2022. "Economics at the FTC: Estimating Harm from Deception and Analyzing Mergers," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 61(4), pages 405-438, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revind:v:61:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s11151-022-09883-w
    DOI: 10.1007/s11151-022-09883-w
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11151-022-09883-w
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11151-022-09883-w?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. Capps, Cory & Dranove, David & Satterthwaite, Mark, 2003. "Competition and Market Power in Option Demand Markets," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 34(4), pages 737-763, Winter.
    2. Katherine Ho, 2006. "The welfare effects of restricted hospital choice in the US medical care market," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(7), pages 1039-1079.
    3. Kate Ho & Robin S. Lee, 2017. "Insurer Competition in Health Care Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 85, pages 379-417, March.
    4. Allan Collard-Wexler & Gautam Gowrisankaran & Robin S. Lee, 2019. ""Nash-in-Nash" Bargaining: A Microfoundation for Applied Work," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(1), pages 163-195.
    5. Russell Pittman, 2021. "Three Economist’s Tools for Antitrust and Merger Analysis: Case Applications," EAG Discussions Papers 202102, Department of Justice, Antitrust Division.
    6. Jerry Hausman, 2001. "Mismeasured Variables in Econometric Analysis: Problems from the Right and Problems from the Left," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 57-67, Fall.
    7. Joseph Farrell & David Balan & Keith Brand & Brett Wendling, 2011. "Economics at the FTC: Hospital Mergers, Authorized Generic Drugs, and Consumer Credit Markets," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 39(4), pages 271-296, December.
    8. Gautam Gowrisankaran & Aviv Nevo & Robert Town, 2015. "Mergers When Prices Are Negotiated: Evidence from the Hospital Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 105(1), pages 172-203, January.
    9. Klein, Benjamin & Crawford, Robert G & Alchian, Armen A, 1978. "Vertical Integration, Appropriable Rents, and the Competitive Contracting Process," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 21(2), pages 297-326, October.
    10. Gloria Sheu & Charles Taragin, 2021. "Simulating mergers in a vertical supply chain with bargaining," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(3), pages 596-632, September.
    11. Christopher Garmon, 2017. "The accuracy of hospital merger screening methods," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 48(4), pages 1068-1102, December.
    12. Saltzman, Evan, 2019. "Demand for health insurance: Evidence from the California and Washington ACA exchanges," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 197-222.
    13. Matthew S. Lewis & Kevin E. Pflum, 2017. "Hospital systems and bargaining power: evidence from out-of-market acquisitions," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 48(3), pages 579-610, August.
    14. Jean Marie Abraham & Coleman Drake & Jeffrey S. McCullough & Kosali Simon, 2017. "What drives insurer participation and premiums in the Federally-Facilitated Marketplace?," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 17(4), pages 395-412, December.
    15. Farrell Joseph & Shapiro Carl, 2010. "Antitrust Evaluation of Horizontal Mergers: An Economic Alternative to Market Definition," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-41, March.
    16. Matthew S. Lewis & Kevin E. Pflum, 2015. "Diagnosing Hospital System Bargaining Power in Managed Care Networks," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 7(1), pages 243-274, February.
    17. David M. Cutler & Sarah J. Reber, 1998. "Paying for Health Insurance: The Trade-Off between Competition and Adverse Selection," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 113(2), pages 433-466.
    18. Anne Beeson Royalty & Neil Solomon, 1999. "Health Plan Choice: Price Elasticities in a Managed Competition Setting," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 34(1), pages 1-41.
    19. Nathan H. Miller & Gloria Sheu, 2021. "Quantitative Methods for Evaluating the Unilateral Effects of Mergers," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 58(1), pages 143-177, February.
    20. Leemore Dafny & Kate Ho & Robin S. Lee, 2019. "The price effects of cross‐market mergers: theory and evidence from the hospital industry," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 50(2), pages 286-325, June.
    21. Devesh Raval, 2020. "Whose Voice Do We Hear in the Marketplace? Evidence from Consumer Complaining Behavior," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 39(1), pages 168-187, January.
    22. Michael Luca & Georgios Zervas, 2016. "Fake It Till You Make It: Reputation, Competition, and Yelp Review Fraud," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 62(12), pages 3412-3427, December.
    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. Rabbani, Maysam, 2023. "Mergers with future rivals can boost prices, bar entry, and intensify market concentration," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 88(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. 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.
    2. Devesh Raval & Ted Rosenbaum & Nathan E. Wilson, 2022. "Using disaster‐induced closures to evaluate discrete choice models of hospital demand," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 53(3), pages 561-589, September.
    3. Zack Cooper & Stuart V Craig & Martin Gaynor & John Van Reenen, 2019. "The Price Ain’t Right? Hospital Prices and Health Spending on the Privately Insured," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(1), pages 51-107.
    4. Stuart V. Craig & Matthew Grennan & Ashley Swanson, 2021. "Mergers and marginal costs: New evidence on hospital buyer power," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(1), pages 151-178, March.
    5. Craig, Stuart V. & Ericson, Keith Marzilli & Starc, Amanda, 2021. "How important is price variation between health insurers?," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    6. David J. Balan & Keith Brand, 2023. "Simulating Hospital Merger Simulations," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(1), pages 47-123, March.
    7. Devesh Raval & Ted Rosenbaum & Steven A. Tenn, 2017. "A Semiparametric Discrete Choice Model: An Application To Hospital Mergers," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(4), pages 1919-1944, October.
    8. Raval, Devesh & Rosenbaum, Ted & Wilson, Nathan E., 2021. "How do machine learning algorithms perform in predicting hospital choices? evidence from changing environments," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    9. Chorniy, Anna & Miller, Daniel & Tang, Tilan, 2020. "Mergers in Medicare Part D: Assessing market power, cost efficiencies, and bargaining power," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    10. Gaynor, Martin & Town, Robert J., 2011. "Competition in Health Care Markets," Handbook of Health Economics, in: Mark V. Pauly & Thomas G. Mcguire & Pedro P. Barros (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 499-637, Elsevier.
    11. Chiara Brouns & Rudy Douven & Ron Kemp, 2021. "Prices and market power in mental health care: Evidence from a major policy change in the Netherlands," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 803-819, April.
    12. Naomi Hausman & Kurt Lavetti, 2021. "Physician Practice Organization and Negotiated Prices: Evidence from State Law Changes," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(2), pages 258-296, April.
    13. Eric Barrette & Gautam Gowrisankaran & Robert Town, 2020. "Countervailing Market Power and Hospital Competition," NBER Working Papers 27005, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    14. Abigail Ferguson & Nellie Lew & Michael Lipsitz & Devesh Raval, 2023. "Economics at the FTC: Spatial Demand, Veterinary Hospital Mergers, Rulemaking, and Noncompete Agreements," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 63(4), pages 435-465, December.
    15. Christopher Conlon & Julie Holland Mortimer, 2021. "Empirical properties of diversion ratios," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(4), pages 693-726, December.
    16. Kate Ho & Robin S. Lee, 2017. "Insurer Competition in Health Care Markets," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 85, pages 379-417, March.
    17. William P. Rogerson, 2021. "The Upstream Pass-Through Rate, Bargaining Power and the Magnitude of the Raising Rivals’ Costs (RRC) Effect," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 59(2), pages 205-227, September.
    18. Kate Ho & Robin S. Lee, 2019. "Equilibrium Provider Networks: Bargaining and Exclusion in Health Care Markets," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(2), pages 473-522, February.
    19. Nathan E. Wilson, 2021. "The Impact of Competition on Investment: Evidence From California Hospitals," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(1), pages 1-32, March.
    20. Jason Allen & Robert Clark & Jean-François Houde, 2019. "Search Frictions and Market Power in Negotiated-Price Markets," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(4), pages 1550-1598.

    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:kap:revind:v:61:y:2022:i:4:d:10.1007_s11151-022-09883-w. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.