Empirical Evidence on FTC Enforcement of the Merger Guidelines

Malcolm B Coate and Fred S McChesney

Economic Inquiry, 1992, vol. 30, issue 2, 277-93

Abstract: The Justice Department's 1982/1984 guidelines identify various factors--concentration, entry barriers, ease of collusion, efficiency--that would thereafter determine whether the government will challenge a merger. Analysts have criticized enforcement agencies, however, for not following the guidelines and criticize the guidelines themselves for not identifying the weights attached to the factors. Using a 1982-86 sample of seventy horizontal mergers, the authors examine which factors influenced the Federal Trade Commission's decision to challenge mergers. The relative importance of the guidelines and other factors in merger challenges is measured and related empirical issues are also explored. Copyright 1992 by Oxford University Press.

Date: 1992
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

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:oup:ecinqu:v:30:y:1992:i:2:p:277-93

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

Economic Inquiry is currently edited by Preston McAfee

More articles in Economic Inquiry from Western Economic Association International Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().