MERGER PERFORMANCE AND EFFICIENCIES IN HORIZONTAL MERGER POLICY IN THE UNITED STATES AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

MERGER PERFORMANCE AND EFFICIENCIES IN HORIZONTAL MERGER POLICY IN THE UNITED STATES AND THE EUROPEAN UNION

In current horizontal merger policy in the US and the EU an explicit efficiency defense is allowed. On both sides of the Atlantic mergers are unconditionally approved if internal efficiencies are sufficient to reverse the mergers' potential to harm consumers in the relevant market. Current merg...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of advanced research in law and economics 2010-07, Vol.1 (1), p.16
Main Author: Kamerbeek, Sjoerd
Format: Article
Language:eng
Subjects:
Acquisitions & mergers
Competition policy
Consumers
Defense
Efficiency
Horizontal integration
Price cuts
Price increases
Public policy
Studies
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:In current horizontal merger policy in the US and the EU an explicit efficiency defense is allowed. On both sides of the Atlantic mergers are unconditionally approved if internal efficiencies are sufficient to reverse the mergers' potential to harm consumers in the relevant market. Current merger policy is implicitly based on the assumption that rational managers will only propose privately profitable mergers. In this paper I will show that the empirical evidence on merger performance suggests that this assumption can't be sustained. Managers do propose uneconomic mergers, motivated by non-wealth maximizing behavior. To tackle this problem I argue that efficiencies should not only be used as an efficiency defense, but efficiencies should work both ways. To avoid type I and type II errors the competition authorities in the US and the EU should undertake a sequential efficiency test in their assessment of specific mergers. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:2068-696X
2068-696X