IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/bejeap/vcontributions.5y2006i1n17.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Measuring the Effect of Multimarket Contact on Competition: Evidence from Mergers Following Radio Broadcast Ownership Deregulation

Author

Listed:
  • Waldfogel Joel

    (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and NBER, waldfogj@wharton.upenn.edu)

  • Wulf Julie

    (Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, jwulf@hbs.edu)

Abstract

This paper examines the effects of multimarket contact on advertising prices in the U.S. radio broadcasting industry. While it is in general difficult to measure the effect of multimarket contact on competition, the 1996 Telecommunications Act substantially relaxed local radio ownership restrictions, giving rise to a major and exogenous consolidation wave. Between the years of 1995 to 1998, the average extent of multimarket contact in major U.S. media markets increased by 2.5 times. Importantly, the extent of change in multimarket contact varies across markets, and the change in multimarket contact varies separately from the change in concentration. Using a panel data set on 248 geographic U.S. radio broadcast markets, 1995-1998, we find that multimarket contact has little effect on advertising prices. This paper contributes to the empirical literature on multimarket contact by analyzing a different industrial context and using longitudinal data surrounding an ownership deregulation.

Suggested Citation

  • Waldfogel Joel & Wulf Julie, 2006. "Measuring the Effect of Multimarket Contact on Competition: Evidence from Mergers Following Radio Broadcast Ownership Deregulation," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 5(1), pages 1-25, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:contributions.5:y:2006:i:1:n:17
    DOI: 10.1515/1538-0645.1420
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/1538-0645.1420
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/1538-0645.1420?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

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

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ma, Wenliang & Wang, Qiang & Yang, Hangjun & Zhang, Yahua, 2020. "Is multimarket contact an antitrust concern? A case of China’s airline market," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 515-526.
    2. Hernández-Murillo, Rubén & Llobet, Gerard & Fuentes, Roberto, 2010. "Strategic online banking adoption," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1650-1663, July.
    3. Federico Ciliberto & Jonathan W. Williams, 2014. "Does multimarket contact facilitate tacit collusion? Inference on conduct parameters in the airline industry," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 45(4), pages 764-791, December.
    4. Simon P. Anderson & John McLaren, 2012. "Media Mergers And Media Bias With Rational Consumers," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 10(4), pages 831-859, August.
    5. Isogai, Shigeki & Shen, Chaohai, 2023. "Multiproduct firm’s reputation and leniency program in multimarket collusion," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    6. Cruz-García, Paula & Fernández de Guevara, Juan & Maudos, Joaquín, 2021. "Bank competition and multimarket contact intensity," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    7. Ciliberto, Federico & Williams, Jonathan, 2010. "Does Multimarket Contact Facilitate Tacit Collusion? Inference on Conjectural Parameters in the Airline Industry," MPRA Paper 24888, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. Coccorese, Paolo & Pellecchia, Alfonso, 2013. "Multimarket contact, competition and pricing in banking," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 187-214.
    9. Matt Schmitt, 2018. "Multimarket Contact in the Hospital Industry," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 361-387, August.
    10. Robert M. Feinberg, 2015. "“Exports‐at‐Risk”: The Effect of Multimarket Contact in International Trade," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 81(3), pages 769-781, January.
    11. Murakami, Hideki & Asahi, Ryota, 2011. "Multimarket Contact And Market Power: A Case Of The U.S. Airline Industry," Hitotsubashi Journal of commerce and management, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 45(1), pages 81-88, October.
    12. Hideki Murakami & Ryota Asahi, 2011. "An empirical analysis of the effect of multimarket contacts on air carriers' pricing behaviors: A case of the U.S," Discussion Papers 2011-35, Kobe University, Graduate School of Business Administration.
    13. Haizhen Lin & Ian M. McCarthy, 2023. "Multimarket Contact in Health Insurance: Evidence from Medicare Advantage," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 71(1), pages 212-255, March.
    14. Ciliberto, Federico & Watkins, Eddie & Williams, Jonathan W., 2019. "Collusive pricing patterns in the US airline industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 136-157.
    15. Zhang, Yahua & Round, David K., 2011. "Price wars and price collusion in China's airline markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 361-372, July.
    16. Leheyda, Nina, 2008. "Geographical and Multi-product Linkages of Markets: Impact on Firm Equilibrium Interactions (Some Evidence from the European Car Market)," ZEW Discussion Papers 08-119, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    17. Beomjoon Shim & Ahmed Khwaja, 2017. "The Collusive Effect of Multimarket Contact on Prices: Evidence from Retail Lumber Markets," 2017 Meeting Papers 593, Society for Economic Dynamics.

    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:bpj:bejeap:v:contributions.5:y:2006:i:1:n:17. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    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.