IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2402.12575.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Revisiting the Impact of Upstream Mergers with Downstream Complements and Substitutes

Author

Listed:
  • Enrique Ide

Abstract

I examine the impact of upstream mergers on negotiated prices when suppliers bargain with a monopoly intermediary selling products to final consumers. Conventional wisdom holds that such transactions reduce negotiated prices when the products are complements for consumers and increase prices when they are substitutes. This is because downstream complementarities or substitutabilities transfer to upstream negotiations, where a merger of complements (substitutes) weakens (strengthens) the suppliers' bargaining leverage. I challenge this view, showing that this logic breaks down when the intermediary's portfolio includes products beyond those of the merging suppliers. In such cases, the merging suppliers' products may act as substitutes for the intermediary even if they are complements for consumers, or as complements for the intermediary even if they are substitutes for consumers. These findings reveal that upstream conglomerate mergers can increase prices without foreclosure or monopolization, and offer an explanation for buyer-specific price effects in upstream mergers.

Suggested Citation

  • Enrique Ide, 2024. "Revisiting the Impact of Upstream Mergers with Downstream Complements and Substitutes," Papers 2402.12575, arXiv.org, revised Jan 2025.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2402.12575
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2402.12575
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William P. Rogerson, 2020. "Modelling and predicting the competitive effects of vertical mergers: The bargaining leverage over rivals effect," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 53(2), pages 407-436, May.
    2. Fernando Luco & Guillermo Marshall, 2020. "The Competitive Impact of Vertical Integration by Multiproduct Firms," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(7), pages 2041-2064, July.
    3. Greenlee, Patrick & Reitman, David & Sibley, David S., 2008. "An antitrust analysis of bundled loyalty discounts," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 1132-1152, September.
    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. Donna, Javier D. & Pereira, Pedro & Trindade, Andre & Yoshida, Renan C., 2020. "Direct-to-Consumer Sales by Manufacturers and Bargaining," MPRA Paper 105773, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Javier D. Donna & Pedro Pereira, 2024. "Structural Presumptions for Non-horizontal Mergers in the 2023 Merger Guidelines: A Primer and a Path Forward," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 65(1), pages 303-345, August.
    3. Michael A. Salinger, 2021. "The New Vertical Merger Guidelines: Muddying the Waters," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 59(2), pages 161-176, September.
    4. Gleb B. Domnenko & David S. Sibley, 2023. "Simulating Vertical Mergers," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 62(2), pages 99-118, March.
    5. Konstantinos G. Papadopoulos & Emmanuel Petrakis & Panagiotis Skartados, 2022. "The ambiguous competitive effects of passive partial forward ownership," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 89(2), pages 540-568, October.
    6. Hendrik Döpper & Geza Sapi & Christian Wey, 2024. "A bargaining perspective on vertical integration," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 57(1), pages 199-224, February.
    7. Choi, Jay Pil & Jeon, Doh-Shin & Whinston, Michael D., 2024. "Tying with Network Effects," CEPR Discussion Papers 19076, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    8. Fumagalli, Chiara & Motta, Massimo, 2020. "Tying in evolving industries, when future entry cannot be deterred," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    9. John Asker & Heski Bar-Isaac, 2012. "Vertical Practices Facilitating Exclusion," Working Papers 12-20, New York University, Leonard N. Stern School of Business, Department of Economics.
    10. Liliane Karlinger & Dimitrios Magos & Pierre Régibeau & Hans Zenger, 2020. "Recent Developments at DG Competition: 2019/2020," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 57(4), pages 783-814, December.
    11. Halmenschlager, Christine & Mantovani, Andrea, 2017. "On the private and social desirability of mixed bundling in complementary markets with cost savings," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 45-59.
    12. Chrysovalantou Milliou & Konstantinos Serfes, 2023. "Supplier Encroachment with Mutual Outsourcing," CESifo Working Paper Series 10519, CESifo.
    13. Meilin Ma & Ralph Siebert, 2021. "The Impact of Private Label Introduction on Assortment, Prices, and Profits of Retailers," CESifo Working Paper Series 9380, CESifo.
    14. Chiara Bellucci & Armando Rungi, 2024. "Procompetitive effects of vertical takeovers. Evidence from the European Union," Papers 2411.12412, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2024.
    15. Alexandre de Cornière & Greg Taylor, 2024. "Anticompetitive Bundling When Buyers Compete," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 16(1), pages 293-328, February.
    16. Laurent Linnemer, 2022. "Doubling Back on Double Marginalization," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 61(1), pages 1-19, August.
    17. Calzolari, Giacomo & Denicolo, Vincenzo, 2010. "Competitive quantity discounts," CEPR Discussion Papers 8144, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    18. 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.
    19. Marie-Laure Allain & Claire Chambolle & Stéphane Turolla, 2022. "The Effect of Input Price Discrimination on Retail Prices: Theory and Evidence from France," Working Papers SMART 22-06, INRAE UMR SMART.
    20. Claire Chambolle & Hugo Molina, 2021. "A Buyer Power Theory of Exclusive Dealing and Exclusionary Bundling," Working Papers hal-03231803, HAL.

    More about this item

    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:arx:papers:2402.12575. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.