IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/revind/v51y2017i4d10.1007_s11151-017-9599-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economics at the Antitrust Division 2016–2017: Healthcare, Nuclear Waste, and Agriculture

Author

Listed:
  • Ari D. Gerstle

    (U.S. Department of Justice – Antitrust Division)

  • Helen C. Knudsen

    (U.S. Department of Justice – Antitrust Division)

  • June K. Lee

    (U.S. Department of Justice – Antitrust Division)

  • W. Robert Majure

    (U.S. Department of Justice – Antitrust Division)

  • Dean V. Williamson

    (U.S. Department of Justice – Antitrust Division)

Abstract

This year the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice litigated an unprecedented number of cases. Two mergers, Anthem with Cigna and Aetna with Humana, threatened to dramatically alter the face of commercial health insurance. The Anthem case raised questions of how to evaluate a claim that competition costs billions annually in potential medical cost savings. The Aetna case raised questions of how commercial insurers compete against the public programs—specifically Medicare. The Division also litigated numerous other civil matters including a proposed merger of nuclear waste disposal facilities. In that case, economists had to explore the scope and bounds of competition within a variety of regulatory regimes. And, in a merger of two new technologies that improve the efficiency of planting seeds, the emerging nature of the market led to interesting variations in the analysis. This overview of the economic issues in these particular cases is intended to provide insights into the challenges of enforcing antitrust law and the way in which economic analysis in particular is used to address those challenges.

Suggested Citation

  • Ari D. Gerstle & Helen C. Knudsen & June K. Lee & W. Robert Majure & Dean V. Williamson, 2017. "Economics at the Antitrust Division 2016–2017: Healthcare, Nuclear Waste, and Agriculture," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 51(4), pages 515-528, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revind:v:51:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1007_s11151-017-9599-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s11151-017-9599-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11151-017-9599-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11151-017-9599-3?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.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dunn, Abe, 2010. "The value of coverage in the medicare advantage insurance market," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(6), pages 839-855, December.
    2. Hall Anne E, 2011. "Measuring the Return on Government Spending on the Medicare Managed Care Program," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(2), pages 1-43, January.
    3. Leemore Dafny & David Dranove, 2008. "Do report cards tell consumers anything they don't already know? The case of Medicare HMOs," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 39(3), pages 790-821, September.
    4. Town, Robert & Liu, Su, 2003. "The Welfare Impact of Medicare HMOs," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 34(4), pages 719-736, Winter.
    5. repec:mpr:mprres:3849 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Philip Watson & Jason Winfree, 2022. "Should we use antitrust policies on big agriculture?," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(3), pages 1313-1326, September.
    2. Ronald Drennan & Helen C. Knudsen & W. Tom Whalen & Jeffrey M. Wilder, 2020. "The Year in Review: Economics at the Antitrust Division 2019–2020," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 57(4), pages 815-825, December.

    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. Abe Dunn, 2009. "Does Competition Among Medicare Advantage Plans Matter?: An Empirical Analysis of the Effects of Local Competition in a Regulated Environment," EAG Discussions Papers 200905, Department of Justice, Antitrust Division.
    2. 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.
    3. Jason Brown & Mark Duggan & Ilyana Kuziemko & William Woolston, 2014. "How Does Risk Selection Respond to Risk Adjustment? New Evidence from the Medicare Advantage Program," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(10), pages 3335-3364, October.
    4. Shiko Maruyama, 2008. "Measuring the Welfare Effect of Entry in Differentiated Product Markets: The Case of Medicare HMOs," Discussion Papers 2008-01, School of Economics, The University of New South Wales.
    5. Martin Gaynor & Kate Ho & Robert J. Town, 2015. "The Industrial Organization of Health-Care Markets," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 53(2), pages 235-284, June.
    6. Marika Cabral & Michael Geruso & Neale Mahoney, 2018. "Do Larger Health Insurance Subsidies Benefit Patients or Producers? Evidence from Medicare Advantage," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 108(8), pages 2048-2087, August.
    7. Ian M. McCarthy & Michael Darden, 2017. "Supply-Side Responses to Public Quality Ratings: Evidence from Medicare Advantage," American Journal of Health Economics, MIT Press, vol. 3(2), pages 140-164, Spring.
    8. McCarthy, Ian M., 2018. "Quality disclosure and the timing of insurers’ adjustments: Evidence from medicare advantage," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 13-26.
    9. Pelech, Daria, 2018. "Paying more for less? Insurer competition and health plan generosity in the Medicare Advantage program," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 77-92.
    10. Duggan, Mark & Starc, Amanda & Vabson, Boris, 2016. "Who benefits when the government pays more? Pass-through in the Medicare Advantage program," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 50-67.
    11. Shiko Maruyama, 2006. "Welfare Analysis Incorporating a Structural Entry-Exit Model: A Case Study of Medicare HMOs," Hi-Stat Discussion Paper Series d06-166, Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
    12. Atherly Adam & van den Broek-Altenburg Eline & Feldman Roger D. & Dowd Bryan, 2020. "Switching Costs in Medicare Advantage," Forum for Health Economics & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 23(1), pages 1-14, June.
    13. Hall Anne E, 2011. "Measuring the Return on Government Spending on the Medicare Managed Care Program," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 11(2), pages 1-43, January.
    14. Susan Feng Lu, 2012. "Multitasking, Information Disclosure, and Product Quality: Evidence from Nursing Homes," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(3), pages 673-705, September.
    15. David Dranove & Christopher Ody & Amanda Starc, 2021. "A Dose of Managed Care: Controlling Drug Spending in Medicaid," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 13(1), pages 170-197, January.
    16. Padmaja Ayyagari & Daifeng He, 2017. "The Role of Medical Expenditure Risk in Portfolio Allocation Decisions," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(11), pages 1447-1458, November.
    17. Balat, Jorge & Papageorge, Nicholas W. & Qayyum, Shaiza, 2017. "Positively Aware? Conflicting Expert Reviews and Demand for Medical Treatment," IZA Discussion Papers 10919, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Austin B. Frakt & Steven D. Pizer, 2010. "Beneficiary price sensitivity in the Medicare prescription drug plan market," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 19(1), pages 88-100, January.
    19. Pelech, Daria, 2017. "Dropped out or pushed out? Insurance market exit and provider market power in Medicare Advantage," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 98-112.
    20. Jessica Van Parys & Zach Y. Brown, 2023. "Broadband Internet Access and Health Outcomes: Patient and Provider Responses in Medicare," NBER Working Papers 31579, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

    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:kap:revind:v:51:y:2017:i:4:d:10.1007_s11151-017-9599-3. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.