Theory predicts that in concentrated industries with high product similarity, horizontal acquisitions can effectively increase incumbent firms’ market power. Using a novel measure for industry product similarity, we show that in such industries firms’ propensity to make horizontal...

This paper studies how horizontal mergers between cable providers impact the vertical contracting outcomes (per-subscriber fees that TV cable providers pay the upstream content creators) and consequently the prices and composition of bundles that cable providers offer to end consumers. The...

Do horizontal mergers shape the way an industry evolves? I answer this question by investigating the non-merging rivals’ investments. Based on the stylized fact that the rivals’ performance on average declines in the three years following horizontal mergers, I find the rivals become more...

This paper presents theory and evidence on horizontal industry structure, focusing on situations where plant-level scale economies are small and market power is not an issue. At issue is the question: what makes industries necessarily fragmented? The theoretical model distinguishes between the...

This paper examines how firms adjust cash holdings following horizontal mergers in the industry. Using a sample of 16,597 horizontal mergers between US firms from 1984 to 2016, we find that in the three-year period following horizontal mergers, the marginal value of cash decreases for the rivals...

This paper presents a non-technical introduction to three economic tools that have in recent years become widespread in competition law enforcement in general and in the analysis of proposed mergers in particular: critical loss analysis, upward pricing pressure, and the vertical arithmetic. In...