Assessing Unilateral Merger Effects in a Two-Sided Market: An Application to the Dutch Daily Newspaper Market

Lapo Filistrucchi (), Tobias Klein and Thomas Michielsen ()
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Thomas Michielsen: Tilburg University

Working Papers - Economics from Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa

Abstract: We compare different methods to assess unilateral merger effects in a two-sided market by applying them to a hypothetical merger in the Dutch newspaper industry. For this, we first specify and estimate a structural model of demand for differentiated products on both the readership and the advertising side of the market. This allows us to recover price elasticities and indirect network effects. Following Filistrucchi, Klein, and Michielsen (2010) marginal costs are then recovered from an oligopoly model of the supply side. We use these estimates of price elasticities, network effects and marginal costs to compare different methods that can be used to evaluate merger effects: We perform a concentration analysis based on the Herfindahl Hirschmann Index, a Small Significant Non-Transitory Increase in Price test, measure Upward Pricing Pressure, and conduct a full merger simulation.

Keywords: Two-sided markets; newspapers; advertising; network effects; merger simulation; SSNIP; UPP; HHI. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L13 L40 L82 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 32 pages
Date: 2011
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com and nep-mkt
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Related works:
Journal Article: ASSESSING UNILATERAL MERGER EFFECTS IN A TWO-SIDED MARKET: AN APPLICATION TO THE DUTCH DAILY NEWSPAPER MARKET (2012)
Working Paper: Assessing Unilateral Merger Effects in a Two-Sided Market: An Application to the Dutch Daily Newspaper Market (2011)
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