Merger Remedies at the European Commission: A Multinomial Logit Analysis

Patrice Bougette () and Stéphane Turolla ()

Working Papers from LAMETA, Universtiy of Montpellier

Abstract: This paper aims to build and empirically evaluate a discrete choice model of merger remedies as a basis for policy analysis. The database consists of 229 merger cases accepted in Phase I or Phase II of the European merger process between 1990 and 2005. We focus on the following question: Which merging firms’ characteristics lead the European Commission to decide whether to require conditional acceptance? Although a lot of empirical studies have been carried out these last years, ours is distinguished by at least two original features. First, we explore determinanting factors of the Commission’s decisions with a neural network model differentiating cases accepted with or without remedies (either structural or behavioral). Secondly, we implement three multinomial logit models. We find that variables related to high market power lead more frequently to a remedy outcome, whatever the phase. Innovative industries such as energy, transportation and communications positively affect the probability of a behavioral remedy. Lastly, former Competition Commissioner Mario Monti’s policy appears to be pro-remedy, i.e. seeking concessions from merging parties.

Date: 2006-09, Revised 2008-02
View list of references View citations in EconPapers

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.lameta.univ-montp1.fr/Fr/Productions/Documents/DR2006-08.pdf First version, 2006 (application/pdf)
Our link check indicates that this URL is bad, the error code is: 404 Not Found

Related works:
Working Paper: Merger Remedies at the European Commission: A Multinomial Logit Analysis (2006)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:lam:wpaper:06-08

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from LAMETA, Universtiy of Montpellier
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Patricia Modat ().