Private Equity, Consumers, and Competition: Evidence from the Nursing Home Industry
This paper studies how product market competition shapes the impact of private equity (PE) acquisitions on consumers. We examine nursing home buyouts and observe that PE-owned facilities exhibit greater competitive sensitivity: competing more aggressively when competitive incentives are strong and exploiting market power more aggressively when competitive incentives are weak. We find that PE-owned facilities are more sensitive to local market competition—even when comparing effects only across facilities purchased as part of the same acquisition—and are more responsive to a pro-competitive policy helping consumers compare facilities. This suggests that the competitive sensitivity of acquirers and the concentration of markets where acquisitions occur are important factors contributing to the effects of a merger, as well as that pro-competitive polices can reshape the effects of PE ownership on consumers.
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