IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/indorg/v65y2019icp302-326.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mergers of complements and entry in innovative industries

Author

Listed:
  • Etro, Federico

Abstract

I study a merger between producers of complement inputs facing potential entry, with investment by the incumbents in deterministic cost reduction and by the entrants in probabilistic innovation, and then competition in prices. The merger solves Cournot complementarity problems in investment and pricing, which is what makes it profitable but also potentially anti-competitive. When the demand is inelastic the merger harms consumers by reducing R&D of the entrants if the incumbents are efficient enough (always when bundling is adopted). Instead, with a demand elastic enough, the merger increases consumer surplus (even with bundling).

Suggested Citation

  • Etro, Federico, 2019. "Mergers of complements and entry in innovative industries," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 302-326.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:indorg:v:65:y:2019:i:c:p:302-326
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijindorg.2019.04.004
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016771871930030X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2019.04.004?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 look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Susan Athey & Armin Schmutzler, 1995. "Product and Process Flexibility in an Innovative Environment," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 26(4), pages 557-574, Winter.
    2. Matsushima Noriaki & Sato Yasuhiro & Yamamoto Kazuhiro, 2013. "Horizontal Mergers, Firm Heterogeneity, and R&D Investments," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 13(2), pages 959-990, August.
    3. Bourreau, Marc & Jullien, Bruno & Lefouili, Yassine, 2018. "Mergers and Demand-Enhancing Innovation," TSE Working Papers 18-907, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Apr 2021.
    4. Economides, Nicholas & Salop, Steven C, 1992. "Competition and Integration among Complements, and Network Market Structure," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 105-123, March.
    5. López, Ángel L. & Vives, Xavier, 2016. "Cross-ownership, R&D Spillovers, and Antitrust Policy," IESE Research Papers D/1140, IESE Business School.
    6. Gilbert, Richard J & Greene, Hillary, 2015. "Merging Innovation into Antitrust Agency Enforcement of the Clayton Act," Department of Economics, Working Paper Series qt8c68x088, Department of Economics, Institute for Business and Economic Research, UC Berkeley.
    7. Bourreau, Marc & Jullien, Bruno, 2018. "Mergers, investments and demand expansion," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 136-141.
    8. Choi, Jay Pil & Jeon, Doh-Shin, 2016. "A Leverage Theory of Tying in Two-Sided Markets," TSE Working Papers 16-689, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Oct 2019.
    9. 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.
    10. Volker Nocke & Nicolas Schutz, 2018. "Multiproduct‐Firm Oligopoly: An Aggregative Games Approach," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 86(2), pages 523-557, March.
    11. Paolo Bertoletti & Federico Etro, 2017. "Monopolistic Competition when Income Matters," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(603), pages 1217-1243, August.
    12. Denicolò, Vincenzo & Polo, Michele, 2018. "Duplicative research, mergers and innovation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 56-59.
    13. Dirk Czarnitzki & Federico Etro & Kornelius Kraft, 2014. "Endogenous Market Structures and Innovation by Leaders: An Empirical Test," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 81(321), pages 117-139, January.
    14. Sjaak Hurkens & Doh-Shin Jeon & Domenico Menicucci, 2019. "Dominance and Competitive Bundling," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 1-33, August.
    15. Raaj Kumar Sah & Joseph E. Stiglitz, 1987. "The Invariance of Market Innovation to the Number of Firms," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 18(1), pages 98-108, Spring.
    16. Federico, Giulio & Langus, Gregor & Valletti, Tommaso, 2017. "A simple model of mergers and innovation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 136-140.
    17. Carl Davidson & Ben Ferrett, 2007. "Mergers in Multidimensional Competition," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 74(296), pages 695-712, November.
    18. Federico Etro, 2007. "Competition, Innovation, and Antitrust," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-540-49601-4, November.
    19. Bruno Jullien & Yassine Lefouili, 2018. "Horizontal mergers and innovation," Post-Print hal-03263838, HAL.
    20. Ángel L. López & Xavier Vives, 2019. "Overlapping Ownership, R&D Spillovers, and Antitrust Policy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(5), pages 2394-2437.
    21. Tarantino, Emanuele & Motta, Massimo, 2016. "The Effect of a Merger on Investments," CEPR Discussion Papers 11550, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    22. Matteo Alvisi & Emanuela Carbonara & Francesco Parisi, 2011. "Separating complements: the effects of competition and quality leadership," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 103(2), pages 107-131, June.
    23. Davidson, Carl & Mukherjee, Arijit, 2007. "Horizontal mergers with free entry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 157-172, February.
    24. Federico Etro, 2018. "Conglomerate Mergers and Entry in Innovative Industries," Working Papers 2018:19, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    25. Choi, Jay Pil & Stefanadis, Christodoulos, 2001. "Tying, Investment, and the Dynamic Leverage Theory," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 32(1), pages 52-71, Spring.
    26. Federico, Giulio & Langus, Gregor & Valletti, Tommaso, 2018. "Reprint of: Horizontal mergers and product innovation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 590-612.
    27. Rabah Amir & Jim Y. Jin & Gerald Pech & Michael Tröge, 2016. "Prices and Deadweight Loss in Multiproduct Monopoly," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 18(3), pages 346-362, June.
    28. Schmutzler, Armin, 2013. "Competition and investment — A unified approach," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 477-487.
    29. Federico, Giulio & Langus, Gregor & Valletti, Tommaso, 2018. "Horizontal mergers and product innovation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1-23.
    30. Paolo Bertoletti & Federico Etro, 2016. "Preferences, entry, and market structure," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 47(4), pages 792-821, November.
    31. Josh Lerner & Scott Stern, 2012. "The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity Revisited," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number lern11-1, March.
    32. Marshall, Guillermo & Parra, Álvaro, 2019. "Innovation and competition: The role of the product market," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 221-247.
    33. Jay Pil Choi, 2008. "Mergers With Bundling In Complementary Markets," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 553-577, September.
    34. Matutes, Carmen & Regibeau, Pierre, 1992. "Compatibility and Bundling of Complementary Goods in a Duopoly," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 37-54, March.
    35. Bruno Jullien & Yassine Lefouili, 2018. "Horizontal Mergers And Innovation‡," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 14(3), pages 364-392.
    36. 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.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Gautier, Axel & Lamesch, Joe, 2021. "Mergers in the digital economy," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    2. Akgün, Uğur & Caffarra, Cristina & Etro, Federico & Stillman, Robert, 2020. "On the welfare impact of mergers of complements: Raising rivals’ costs versus elimination of double marginalization," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 195(C).
    3. GAUTIER Axel, & LAMESCH Joe,, 2020. "Mergers in the digital economy," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2020001, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).

    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. Motta, Massimo & Tarantino, Emanuele, 2021. "The effect of horizontal mergers, when firms compete in prices and investments," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    2. Cabolis, C. & Manasakis, C. & Moreno, D. & Petrakis, E., 2021. "The interactions of R&D investments and horizontal mergers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 187(C), pages 507-534.
    3. Haucap, Justus & Stiebale, Joel, 2023. "Non-price effects of mergers and acquisitions," DICE Discussion Papers 402, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    4. Haucap, Justus & Rasch, Alexander & Stiebale, Joel, 2019. "How mergers affect innovation: Theory and evidence," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 283-325.
    5. Calvano, Emilio & Polo, Michele, 2021. "Market power, competition and innovation in digital markets: A survey," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    6. Bourreau, Marc & Jullien, Bruno & Lefouili, Yassine, 2018. "Mergers and Demand-Enhancing Innovation," TSE Working Papers 18-907, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Apr 2021.
    7. Giulio Federico & Fiona Scott Morton & Carl Shapiro, 2019. "Antitrust and Innovation: Welcoming and Protecting Disruption," NBER Chapters, in: Innovation Policy and the Economy, Volume 20, pages 125-190, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    8. José Luis Moraga‐González & Evgenia Motchenkova & Saish Nevrekar, 2022. "Mergers and innovation portfolios," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 53(4), pages 641-677, December.
    9. Igor Letina & Armin Schmutzler & Regina Seibel, 2020. "Killer acquisitions and beyond: policy effects on innovation strategies," ECON - Working Papers 358, Department of Economics - University of Zurich, revised Jul 2023.
    10. Øystein Foros & Bjørn Hansen & Thibaud Vergé, 2023. "Co-operative investment by downstream rivals: network sharing in telecom markets," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 64(1), pages 34-47, December.
    11. Roberto Cellini, 2021. "Whom should I merge with? How product substitutability affects merger profitability," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 48(3), pages 337-353, September.
    12. Jullien, Bruno & Lefouili, Yassine, 2018. "Horizontal Mergers and Innovation," CEPR Discussion Papers 12773, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Mukherjee, Arijit, 2022. "Merger and process innovation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    14. Justin P. Johnson & Andrew Rhodes, 2021. "Multiproduct mergers and quality competition," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(3), pages 633-661, September.
    15. Richard J. Gilbert, 2019. "Competition, Mergers, and R&D Diversity," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 54(3), pages 465-484, May.
    16. Alexandre Carbonnel, 2021. "Can foreclosure benefit consumers? The case of innovation in new markets," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(3), pages 1471-1480.
    17. Gilbert, Richard J. & Katz, Michael L., 2022. "Dynamic merger policy and pre-merger product choice by an entrant," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    18. Lefouili, Yassine & Madio, Leonardo, 2023. "Market Structure and Investments : A Progress Report," TSE Working Papers 23-1491, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE), revised Mar 2024.
    19. Volker Nocke & Nicolas Schutz, 2018. "An Aggregative Games Approach to Merger Analysis in Multiproduct-Firm Oligopoly," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2018_024, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    20. Bennato, Anna Rita & Davies, Stephen & Mariuzzo, Franco & Ormosi, Peter, 2021. "Mergers and innovation: Evidence from the hard disk drive market," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Mergers; R&D; Cournot complementarity; Bundling; Antitrust in high-tech industries;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L1 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance
    • L4 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies

    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:eee:indorg:v:65:y:2019:i:c:p:302-326. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/505551 .

    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.