We investigate the impact of cartel breakdowns on merger activity. Merging information on cartel cases decided by the … average number of all merger transactions increase by up to 51 percent when comparing the three years before the cartel … European Commission (EC) between 2000 and 2011 with a detailed data set of worldwide merger activity, we find that, first, the …

This paper examines whether cartel breakdown provokes a period of intensive merger activity amongst the former … sample of 84 European cartels, it finds that mergers are indeed more frequent post-cartel breakdown, especially in markets … effects - alternatively, they may be the consequence of market restructuring, necessitated by more intense competition post-cartel …