TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ashenfelter,Orley
AU  - Hosken,Daniel
TI  - The Effect of Mergers on Consumer Prices: Evidence from Five Selected Case Studies
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 13859
PY  - 2008
Y2  - March 2008
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13859
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w13859.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Orley C. Ashenfelter
Industrial Relations Section
Firestone Library
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ  08544
Tel: 609/258-4040
Fax: 609/258-2907
E-Mail: c6789@princeton.edu

Daniel Hosken
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20580
E-Mail: dhosken@ftc.gov
AB  - In this paper we propose a method to evaluate the effectiveness of U.S. horizontal merger policy and apply it to the study of five recent consumer product mergers. We selected the mergers from those that, from the public record, seemed to be most problematic for the antitrust agencies. Thus we estimate an upper bound on the likely price effect of completed mergers. Our study employs retail scanner data and uses familiar panel data program evaluation procedures to measure price changes. Our results indicate that four of the five mergers resulted in some increases in consumer prices, while the fifth merger had little effect.
ER  -