The balance of probabilities vs. the balance of harms in merger control

Yossi Spiegel

Economics Letters, 2025, vol. 247, issue C

Abstract: I examine the difference between the balance of probabilities and the balance of harms standards in merger control. I show that both standards take into account the entire distribution of post-merger outcomes, but the former focuses on the median outcome whereas the latter focuses on the mean outcome. Consequently, a shift from a balance of probabilities to a balance of harms standard broadens the set of mergers that are blocked if the distribution of post-merger outcomes is skewed to the left and conversely if it is skewed to the right.

Keywords: Merger control; Balance of probabilities; Balance of harms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D43 L41 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176525000047
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:247:y:2025:i:c:s0165176525000047

DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112167

Access Statistics for this article

Economics Letters is currently edited by Economics Letters Editorial Office

More articles in Economics Letters from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().