TY  - JOUR
AU  - Horn,Henrik
AU  - Levinsohn,James
TI  - Merger Policies and Trade Liberalization
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6077
PY  - 1997
Y2  - June 1997
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6077
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6077.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Henrik Horn
Research Institute of Industrial Economics
Box 55665, SE-102 15 Stockholm, Sweden
E-Mail: henrik.horn@econ-law.se

James A. Levinsohn
Yale School of Management
PO Box 208200
New Haven, CT  06520
Tel: 734/763-2319
Fax: 734/764-2769
E-Mail: James.Levinsohn@yale.edu
AB  - This paper is about the interactions between what is traditionally considered trade policy and a narrow but important aspect of competition policy, namely merger policy.  We focus on links between merger policies and trade liberalization.  We put special emphasis on the topical issue of the role that international agreements such as the GATT play when merger policies are nationally chosen.  Of particular concern is the possibility that liberalization of international trade will induce countries to increasingly use competition policies to promote national interests at the expense of others.  We examine the incentives for a welfare maximizing government to make such a substitution.  Interpreting merger policy as a choice of degree of industrial concentration, we investigate how the merger policy that is optimal from the point of view of an individual country is affected by restrictions on the use of tariffs and export subsidies.
ER  -