Whom Should I Merge With? How product substitutability affects merger profitability

The paper presents a simple model of oligopoly, in which three firms supply differentiated products. The degree of product substitutability is not uniform across goods. We investigate the merger profitability, and we show that profitability depends on the degree of good differentiation. Contrary to what seems to emerge from different models, we find that merger between firms that supply “more similar” product is more profitable as compared to merger between firms supplying more differentiated goods.