Le Contrôle des concentrations en France: Une analyse empirique des avis du Conseil de la Concurrence

Lionel Janin and Benoît Menoni
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Lionel Janin: Crest

No 2005-37, Working Papers from Center for Research in Economics and Statistics

Abstract: Merger control is one important tool of competition policy. Economic theoryprovides some guidance about what criteria to use for the assessmentof proposed mergers, mainly the balance between potential efficiency gains(pro competitive effect) and the elimination of a rival (anti competitiveeffect) in horizontal mergers, but the actual enforcement lies in the handsof competition authorities.Following previous work by Khemani and Shapiro (1993) and Bergman,Jakobsson, and Razo (2005), we focus on the factors explaining the conclusionsof the competition authorities.We use the complete set of opinions of the French Competition Council(Conseil de la concurrence) in merger cases between 1988 and 2002,to which we apply a latent variable decision model. We use the factorsmentioned within the opinions of the Council as explanatory variables, acknowledginga potential endogeneity issue. In a first specification, barriersto entry and buyer power are shown to be the main justifying elementsmentioned in the opinions. In a second specification excluding some endogenousfactors, market shares and the involved sector appear as moreobjective determinants of the opinions, but with a low explanatory power.In addition, we also compare a few opinions of the Council with the reactionof the stock market at the announcement of the merger using anevent study methodology.

Pages: 35
Date: 2005
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Journal Article: L e contrôle des concentrations en France: une analyse empirique des avis du Conseil de la concurrence (2007)
Journal Article: Le contrôle des concentrations en France: une analyse empirique des avis du Conseil de la concurrence (2007)
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