IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/manchs/v83y2015i5p604-621.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Losses from Horizontal Merger: an Extension to a Successive Oligopoly Model with Product Differentiation

Author

Listed:
  • Ramon Fauli-Oller
  • Borja Mesa-Sánchez

Abstract

type="main"> This paper generalizes the model of Salant et al. (1983; Quarterly Journal of Economics, Vol. 98, pp. 185–199) to a successive oligopoly model with product differentiation. Upstream firms produce differentiated goods, retailers compete in quantities, and supply contracts are linear. We show that if retailers buy from all producers, downstream mergers do not affect wholesale prices. Our result replicates that of Salant's, where mergers are not profitable unless the size of the merged firm exceeds 80 per cent of the industry. This result is robust to the type of competition.

Suggested Citation

  • Ramon Fauli-Oller & Borja Mesa-Sánchez, 2015. "Losses from Horizontal Merger: an Extension to a Successive Oligopoly Model with Product Differentiation," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 83(5), pages 604-621, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:manchs:v:83:y:2015:i:5:p:604-621
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/manc.12082
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steffen Ziss, 2005. "Horizontal Mergers and Successive Oligopoly," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 99-114, June.
    2. Horn, Henrik & Wolinsky, Asher, 1988. "Worker Substitutability and Patterns of Unionisation," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 98(391), pages 484-497, June.
    3. Stephen W. Salant & Sheldon Switzer & Robert J. Reynolds, 1983. "Losses From Horizontal Merger: The Effects of an Exogenous Change in Industry Structure on Cournot-Nash Equilibrium," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 98(2), pages 185-199.
    4. Sara Fisher Ellison & Christopher M. Snyder, 2010. "Countervailing Power In Wholesale Pharmaceuticals," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 32-53, March.
    5. Fumagalli, Chiara & Motta, Massimo, 2001. "Upstream mergers, downstream mergers, and secret vertical contracts," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 275-289, September.
    6. Perry, Martin K & Porter, Robert H, 1985. "Oligopoly and the Incentive for Horizontal Merger," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 219-227, March.
    7. Tasneem Chipty & Christopher M. Snyder, 1999. "The Role Of Firm Size In Bilateral Bargaining: A Study Of The Cable Television Industry," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 81(2), pages 326-340, May.
    8. Inderst, Roman & Wey, Christian, 2003. "Bargaining, Mergers, and Technology Choice in Bilaterally Oligopolistic Industries," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 34(1), pages 1-19, Spring.
    9. Inderst, Roman & Wey, Christian, 2007. "Buyer power and supplier incentives," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 647-667, April.
    10. Ramon Faulí‐Oller, 2002. "Mergers between Asymmetric Firms: Profitability and Welfare," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 70(1), pages 77-87, January.
    11. Suchan Chae & Paul Heidhues, 2004. "Buyers' Alliances for Bargaining Power," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 731-754, December.
    12. Greenhut, M L & Ohta, H, 1976. "Related Market Conditions and Interindustrial Mergers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 66(3), pages 267-277, June.
    13. Marie-Laure Allain & Saïd Souam, 2004. "Concentration horizontale et relations verticales," Working Papers hal-00242914, HAL.
    14. Tommy Staahl Gabrielsen & Lars Sørgard, 1999. "Discount Chains and Brand Policy," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(1), pages 127-142, March.
    15. Henrick Horn & Asher Wolinsky, 1988. "Bilateral Monopolies and Incentives for Merger," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(3), pages 408-419, Autumn.
    16. Sass, Tim R., 2005. "The competitive effects of exclusive dealing: Evidence from the U.S. beer industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 23(3-4), pages 203-225, April.
    17. Christopher M. Snyder, 1996. "A Dynamic Theory of Countervailing Power," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 27(4), pages 747-769, Winter.
    18. Gabrielsen, Tommy Staahl & Sorgard, Lars, 1999. " Discount Chains and Brand Policy," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 101(1), pages 127-142, March.
    19. Alan T. Sorensen, 2003. "Insurer‐hospital bargaining: negotiated discounts in post‐deregulation connecticut," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(4), pages 469-490, December.
    20. Raymond Deneckere & Carl Davidson, 1985. "Incentives to Form Coalitions with Bertrand Competition," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 16(4), pages 473-486, Winter.
    21. Snyder, Christopher M., 1998. "Why do larger buyers pay lower prices? Intense supplier competition," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 58(2), pages 205-209, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dana, James D., 2012. "Buyer groups as strategic commitments," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 74(2), pages 470-485.
    2. Hans-Theo Normann & Bradley J. Ruffle & Christopher M. Snyder, 2007. "Do buyer-size discounts depend on the curvature of the surplus function? Experimental tests of bargaining models," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 38(3), pages 747-767, September.
    3. Marie-Laure Allain & Saïd Souam, 2004. "Concentration horizontale et relations verticales," Working Papers hal-00242914, HAL.
    4. Sara Fisher Ellison & Christopher M. Snyder, 2010. "Countervailing Power In Wholesale Pharmaceuticals," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 32-53, March.
    5. Jeon, Doh-Shin & Menicucci, Domenico, 2019. "On the unprofitability of buyer groups when sellers compete," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 265-288.
    6. Jeon, Doh-Shin & Menicucci, Domenico, 2014. "Buyer Group and Buyer Power When Sellers Compete," TSE Working Papers 14-543, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Nov 2017.
    7. Battigalli, Pierpaolo & Fumagalli, Chiara & Polo, Michele, 2007. "Buyer power and quality improvements," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 45-61, June.
    8. Inderst, Roman & Wey, Christian, 2007. "Buyer power and supplier incentives," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 647-667, April.
    9. Yuxin Chen & Xinxin Li, 2013. "Group Buying Commitment and Sellers’ Competitive Advantages," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(1), pages 164-183, March.
    10. Ioannis N. Pinopoulos, 2020. "Upstream horizontal mergers involving a vertically integrated firm," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 130(1), pages 67-83, June.
    11. Baldursson, Fridrik M. & Johannesson, Sigurdur, 2005. "Kaupendamáttur á sementsmarkaði [Buyer power in the cement industry]," MPRA Paper 14742, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    12. David Davis, 2014. "Buyer Alliances as Countervailing Power in WIC Infant-Formula Auctions," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 45(2), pages 121-138, September.
    13. Can Erutku & Patrick de Lamirande, 2009. "Merging with a buyer group member," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(7), pages 481-490.
    14. Chiara Fumagalli & Massimo Motta, 2008. "Buyers’ Miscoordination, Entry and Downstream Competition," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 118(531), pages 1196-1222, August.
    15. Smith, Howard & Thanassoulis, John, 2006. "Upstream Competition and Downstream Buyer Power," CEPR Discussion Papers 5803, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Ioannis N. Pinopoulos, 2017. "Upstream horizontal mergers and vertical integration," Discussion Paper Series 2017_07, Department of Economics, University of Macedonia, revised Aug 2017.
    17. Wu, Vivian Y., 2009. "Managed care's price bargaining with hospitals," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 350-360, March.
    18. Walter Beckert, 2018. "An Empirical Analysis of Countervailing Power in Business-to-Business Bargaining," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 52(3), pages 369-402, May.
    19. Zhu, Jing & Boyaci, Tamer & Ray, Saibal, 2016. "Effects of upstream and downstream mergers on supply chain profitability," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 249(1), pages 131-143.
    20. Inderst, Roman & Wey, Christian, 2003. "Bargaining, Mergers, and Technology Choice in Bilaterally Oligopolistic Industries," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 34(1), pages 1-19, Spring.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:manchs:v:83:y:2015:i:5:p:604-621. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/semanuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.