What can be Expected from Mergers After Deregulation? The Case of the Long-Distance Bus Industry in France

Thierry Blayac and Patrice Bougette

Review of Industrial Organization, 2023, vol. 62, issue 1, No 5, 63-97

Abstract: Abstract This study estimates the competitive effects of horizontal mergers in the French long-distance bus industry. We examine the two mergers that followed the 2015 Deregulation Act (the Macron Law); we use an exclusive and exhaustive dataset that covers eight consecutive quarters. We analyze the merger effects by comparing bus links that were affected by mergers with those that were unaffected; we use difference-in-differences estimations. We find that the two mergers are associated with price increases of about 13.5% immediately that then moderate to 5.3%; and with the frequency decreases from − 21.5 to − 25.7%; we observe no effects on load factors. These findings show evidence of short-run anticompetitive effects, while the mergers under study were not scrutinized by the French competition agency, as they were below the notification thresholds.

Keywords: Long-distance bus industry; Mergers and acquisitions; Deregulated industry; Consolidation; Intramodal competition; Difference-in-differences estimation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K23 L11 L41 L43 L92 R40 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11151-022-09878-7 Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
Working Paper: What Can Be Expected from Mergers after Deregulation? The Case of the Long-Distance Bus Industry in France (2022)
Working Paper: What can be Expected from Mergers After Deregulation? The Case of the Long-Distance Bus Industry in France (2022)
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:kap:revind:v:62:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s11151-022-09878-7

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... on/journal/11151/PS2

DOI: 10.1007/s11151-022-09878-7

Access Statistics for this article

Review of Industrial Organization is currently edited by L.J. White

More articles in Review of Industrial Organization from Springer, The Industrial Organization Society Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().