Deregulation, competition, and consolidation: The case of the German interurban bus industry

Niklas S. Dürr, Sven Heim and Kai Hüschelrath
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Kai Hueschelrath and Niklas Stephan Duerr

No 15-061, ZEW Discussion Papers from ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Abstract: We provide an empirical assessment of the German interurban bus industry two years after its deregulation in January 2013. In addition to a general description of key developments of the industry, we use a unique route-level price data set to study both competitive interaction in general and the potential price effects of a recently announced merger of the two largest players in the market in particular. We find that route-level average prices, inter alia, do not only depend on the number of competitors but especially on the composition of firms operating on a particular route. Although our empirical results suggest short-term price increases on certain route types post-merger, it remains an open question whether the merger should be classified as anticompetitive.

Keywords: deregulation; competition; merger; interurban bus services; Germany (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K21 K23 L11 L41 L92 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com, nep-ind, nep-law and nep-reg
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Deregulation, Competition, and Consolidation: The Case of the German Interurban Bus Industry (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zbw:zewdip:15061

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