IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/acb/cbeeco/2009-508.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Welfare Enhancing Mergers Under Product Differentiation

Author

Listed:
  • Tina Kao
  • Flavio Menezes

Abstract

This paper considers a model of duopoly with differentiated products to examine the welfare effects of a merger between two asymmetric firms. We find that for quantity competition, the parameter range for welfare enhancing merger widens if the products are closer substitutes. On the other hand, mergers are never welfare enhancing in this setting when firms compete in prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Tina Kao & Flavio Menezes, 2009. "Welfare Enhancing Mergers Under Product Differentiation," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2009-508, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:acb:cbeeco:2009-508
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cbe.anu.edu.au/researchpapers/econ/wp508.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Motta,Massimo, 2004. "Competition Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521016919, October.
    2. Farrell, Joseph & Shapiro, Carl, 1990. "Horizontal Mergers: An Equilibrium Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(1), pages 107-126, March.
    3. Hackner, Jonas, 2000. "A Note on Price and Quantity Competition in Differentiated Oligopolies," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 233-239, August.
    4. Perry, Martin K & Porter, Robert H, 1985. "Oligopoly and the Incentive for Horizontal Merger," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 219-227, March.
    5. David Hennessy, 2000. "Cournot Oligopoly Conditions under which Any Horizontal Merger Is Profitable," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 17(3), pages 277-284, November.
    6. Nirvikar Singh & Xavier Vives, 1984. "Price and Quantity Competition in a Differentiated Duopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 15(4), pages 546-554, Winter.
    7. Piercarlo Zanchettin, 2006. "Differentiated Duopoly with Asymmetric Costs," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(4), pages 999-1015, 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. Luis Gautier & Mahelet G. Fikru, 2024. "Mergers in Cournot Markets with Environmental Externality and Product Differentiation," Natural Resource Management and Policy, in: Handbook of Merger Control and Environmental Policy, chapter 0, pages 21-46, Springer.
    2. Choi, Pak-Sing & Espínola-Arredondo, Ana & Muñoz-García, Félix, 2022. "Environmental policy helping antitrust decisions: Socially excessive and insufficient merger approvals," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    3. Fikru, Mahelet G., 2016. "Modelling mergers among polluting firms when environmental policy is endogenous," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 1-6.
    4. Luis Gautier & Mahelet G. Fikru, 2024. "The Design of Emission Taxes in Markets with New Firm Acquisitions," Natural Resource Management and Policy, in: Handbook of Merger Control and Environmental Policy, chapter 0, pages 225-243, Springer.
    5. Choi, Pak-Sing & Espinola-Arredondo, Ana & Munoz, Felix, 2020. "Mergers as an environmental ally: Socially excessive and insufficient merger approvals," Working Papers 2020-1, School of Economic Sciences, Washington State University.
    6. Apostolis Pavlou, 2015. "Learning by doing and horizontal mergers," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 116(1), pages 25-38, September.
    7. Nisvan Erkal & Daniel Piccinin, 2010. "Welfare‐Reducing Mergers in Differentiated Oligopolies with Free Entry," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 86(273), pages 178-184, June.
    8. Luis Gautier & Mahelet G. Fikru, 2024. "Welfare Impact of New Firm Acquisition," Natural Resource Management and Policy, in: Handbook of Merger Control and Environmental Policy, chapter 0, pages 105-132, Springer.
    9. Jiyun Cao & Arijit Mukherjee & Uday Bhanu Sinha, 2020. "The implications of labour unions in the presence of a merger," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 88(4), pages 575-583, July.
    10. Ana Espínola-Arredondo & Felix Munoz-Garcia & Ae Rin Jung, 2020. "Organic Mergers and Acquisitions," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 59-91, March.
    11. Pu†yan Nie, 2018. "Comparing Horizontal Mergers Under Cournot with Bertrand Competitions," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 55-80, March.

    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. Kao, Tina & Menezes, Flavio, 2009. "Endogenous mergers under multi-market competition," Journal of Mathematical Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(12), pages 817-829, December.
    2. Inderst, Roman & Wey, Christian, 2004. "The incentives for takeover in oligopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(8-9), pages 1067-1089, November.
    3. Ana Espínola-Arredondo & Felix Munoz-Garcia & Ae Rin Jung, 2020. "Organic Mergers and Acquisitions," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 59-91, March.
    4. Jurgan, Jens, 2009. "Conjectural cost variations in a differentiated good oligopoly," W.E.P. - Würzburg Economic Papers 80, University of Würzburg, Department of Economics.
    5. Tsuyoshi Toshimitsu, 2017. "Merger Paradox in a Network Product Market: A Horizontally Differentiated Three-Firm Model," Discussion Paper Series 167, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University, revised Sep 2017.
    6. Neelanjan Sen & Uday Bhanu Sinha, 2023. "When to merge with a lower quality producer?," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 138(2), pages 165-188, March.
    7. Manasakis, Constantine & Vlassis, Minas, 2014. "Downstream mode of competition with upstream market power," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(1), pages 84-93.
    8. Fanti, Luciano, 2013. "Cross-ownership and unions in a Cournot duopoly: When profits reduce with horizontal product differentiation," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 34-40.
    9. Simon Loertscher & Leslie M. Marx, 2021. "Coordinated Effects in Merger Review," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 64(4), pages 705-744.
    10. D. Dragone & L. Lambertini & A. Mantovani, 2006. "Horizontal Mergers with Scale Economies," Working Papers 571, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    11. Fauli-Oller, Ramon & Sandonis, Joel, 2003. "To merge or to license: implications for competition policy," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(5), pages 655-672, May.
    12. Cumbul, Eray & Virág, Gábor, 2018. "Multilateral limit pricing in price-setting games," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 250-273.
    13. Ciprian Rusescu & Mihai Daniel - Roman, 2021. "Dynamic Behaviour In A Bertrand Model With Bounded Rational Players," Annals - Economy Series, Constantin Brancusi University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 3, pages 45-55, June.
    14. Bojan Ristić & Dejan Trifunović, 2014. "Horizontal Mergers And Weak And Strong Competition Commissions," Economic Annals, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Belgrade, vol. 59(202), pages 69-106, July – Se.
    15. Luciano Fanti & Nicola Meccheri, 2012. "Profits and competition in a unionized duopoly model with product differentiation and labour decreasing returns," Discussion Papers 2012/133, Dipartimento di Economia e Management (DEM), University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
    16. Medvedev, A., 2004. "Structural Remedies in Merger Regulation in a Cournot Framework," Discussion Paper 2004-006, Tilburg University, Tilburg Law and Economic Center.
    17. Scrimitore, Marcella, 2011. "Profitability in Cournot and Bertrand Mixed Markets under Endogenous Objectives," MPRA Paper 35643, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Mukherjee, Arijit, 2005. "Price and quantity competition under free entry," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(4), pages 335-344, December.
    19. Ki‐Dong Lee & Kangsik Choi, 2024. "Uniform versus discriminatory tariffs when competition mode is endogenous," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(1), pages 95-120, January.
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    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

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:acb:cbeeco:2009-508. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feanuau.html .

    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.