The profitability of horizontal mergers is investigated in a situation in which firms face a production shock and therefore are uncertain about their future costs. I show that, due to production rationalization, small-scale mergers can be profitable if the uncertainty is large. The efficiency...

This paper examines the choice of commercial breaks by a television network in a monopoly setup. It is assumed that viewers dislike commercials, while the network seeks to maximize the total audience for these commercials through its choice of the number, length, and timing of commercial breaks....