The Price Effects of a Large Merger of Manufacturers: A Case Study of Maytag-Whirlpool

Orley Ashenfelter, Daniel S. Hosken and Matthew Weinberg ()

American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2013, vol. 5, issue 1, 239-61

Abstract: Many experts speculate that US antitrust policy towards horizontal mergers has been too lenient. We estimate the price effects of Whirlpool's acquisition of Maytag to provide new evidence on this debate. We compare price changes in appliance markets most affected by the merger to markets where concentration changed much less or not at all. We estimate price increases for dishwashers and relatively large price increases for clothes dryers, but no price effects for refrigerators or clothes washers. The combined firm's market share fell across all four affected categories, and the number of distinct appliance products offered for sale fell. (JEL G34, K21, L11, L41, L68)

JEL-codes: G34 K21 L11 L41 L68 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
Note: DOI: 10.1257/pol.5.1.239
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (98)

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Working Paper: The Price Effects of a Large Merger of Manufacturers: A Case Study of Maytag-Whirlpool (2011)
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