IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/revind/v55y2019i2d10.1007_s11151-018-9670-8.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When Efficient Firms Flock Together: Merger Incentives Under Yardstick Competition

Author

Listed:
  • Jonas Teusch

    (University of Liege
    Université catholique de Louvain)

Abstract

Local monopolists that are regulated by yardstick competition frequently merge with their peers. However, economic theory provides little guidance for merger analysis. In contrast, the theoretical model in this article shows that there can be room for strategic firm behaviour even in a setting where firms are many and collusion is not sustainable. Specifically, the article derives conditions under which firms propose welfare-decreasing mergers to avoid competition with efficient peers and establishes when peer effects discourage firms from implementing socially desirable mergers. Efficient peers flock together whereas inefficient firms remain independent, unless peer effects are counteracted by efficiency effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonas Teusch, 2019. "When Efficient Firms Flock Together: Merger Incentives Under Yardstick Competition," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 55(2), pages 237-255, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:revind:v:55:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s11151-018-9670-8
    DOI: 10.1007/s11151-018-9670-8
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11151-018-9670-8
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11151-018-9670-8?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. Neeman, Zvika, 2004. "The relevance of private information in mechanism design," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 117(1), pages 55-77, July.
    2. Tangeras, Thomas P., 2002. "Collusion-proof yardstick competition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 231-254, February.
    3. Lockwood, Ben, 1995. "Multi-firm regulation without lump-sum taxes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 31-53, January.
    4. Dag Dalen & Andres Gómez-Lobo, 2003. "Yardsticks on the road: Regulatory contracts and cost efficiency in the Norwegian bus industry," Transportation, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 371-386, November.
    5. Kwoka, John & Pollitt, Michael, 2010. "Do mergers improve efficiency? Evidence from restructuring the US electric power sector," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 645-656, November.
    6. Haney, Aoife Brophy & Pollitt, Michael G., 2009. "Efficiency analysis of energy networks: An international survey of regulators," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5814-5830, December.
    7. Dag Morten Dalen, 1998. "Yardstick Competition and Investment Incentives," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 7(1), pages 105-126, March.
    8. Grossman, Sanford J & Hart, Oliver D, 1986. "The Costs and Benefits of Ownership: A Theory of Vertical and Lateral Integration," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 94(4), pages 691-719, August.
    9. Nicholas Bloom & Carol Propper & Stephan Seiler & John Van Reenen, 2015. "The Impact of Competition on Management Quality: Evidence from Public Hospitals," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 82(2), pages 457-489.
    10. Georg Meran & Christian Hirschhausen, 2009. "A modified yardstick competition mechanism," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 223-245, June.
    11. Cowan, Simon, 1997. "Competition in the Water Industry," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 13(1), pages 83-92, Spring.
    12. Saastamoinen, Antti & Bjørndal, Endre & Bjørndal, Mette, 2017. "Specification of merger gains in the Norwegian electricity distribution industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 96-107.
    13. Jean-Jacques Laffont & David Martimort, 2000. "Mechanism Design with Collusion and Correlation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 68(2), pages 309-342, March.
    14. Emmanuelle Auriol & Jean‐Jacques Laffont, 1992. "Regulation By Duopoly," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(3), pages 507-533, September.
    15. Dijkstra, Peter T. & Haan, Marco A. & Mulder, Machiel, 2017. "Industry structure and collusion with uniform yardstick competition: Theory and experiments," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-33.
    16. Eshien Chong & Freddy Huet, 2009. "Yardstick Competition, Franchise Bidding and Firms’ Incentives to Collude," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 35(1), pages 149-169, September.
    17. Wallsten, Scott & Kosec, Katrina, 2008. "The effects of ownership and benchmark competition: An empirical analysis of U.S. water systems," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 186-205, January.
    18. Jean-Jacques Laffont & Jean Tirole, 1993. "A Theory of Incentives in Procurement and Regulation," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262121743, December.
    19. Andrei Shleifer, 1985. "A Theory of Yardstick Competition," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 16(3), pages 319-327, Autumn.
    20. McAfee, R Preston & McMillan, John, 1995. "Organizational Diseconomies of Scale," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 4(3), pages 399-426, Fall.
    21. AGRELL, Per J. & TEUSCH, Jonas, 2015. "Making the Belgian Distribution System Fit for the Energy Transition," LIDAM Reprints CORE 2725, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    22. Bitran, E. & Serra, Pablo, 1994. "Regulatory issues in the privatization of public utilities: The chilean experience," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(Supplemen), pages 179-197.
    23. Peter Bogetoft & Dexiang Wang, 2005. "Estimating the Potential Gains from Mergers," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 145-171, May.
    24. Kumbhakar, Subal C. & Hjalmarsson, Lennart, 1998. "Relative performance of public and private ownership under yardstick competition: electricity retail distribution," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 97-122, January.
    25. Dranove, David & Satterthwaite, Mark A., 2000. "The industrial organization of health care markets," Handbook of Health Economics, in: A. J. Culyer & J. P. Newhouse (ed.), Handbook of Health Economics, edition 1, volume 1, chapter 20, pages 1093-1139, Elsevier.
    26. Cronin, Frank J. & Motluk, Stephen A., 2007. "How Effective Are M&As in Distribution? Evaluating the Government's Policy of Using Mergers and Amalgamations to Drive Efficiencies into Ontario's LDCs," The Electricity Journal, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 60-68, April.
    27. Ayako Suzuki, 2012. "Yardstick Competition to Elicit Private Information: An Empirical Analysis," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 40(4), pages 313-338, June.
    28. Fumitoshi Mizutani & Hideo Kozumi & Noriaki Matsushima, 2009. "Does yardstick regulation really work? Empirical evidence from Japan’s rail industry," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 36(3), pages 308-323, December.
    29. Schmid, Andreas & Varkevisser, Marco, 2016. "Hospital merger control in Germany, the Netherlands and England: Experiences and challenges," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(1), pages 16-25.
    30. Cremer, Jacques & McLean, Richard P, 1985. "Optimal Selling Strategies under Uncertainty for a Discriminating Monopolist When Demands Are Interdependent," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(2), pages 345-361, March.
    31. Demski, Joel S. & Sappington, David E. M. & Spiller, Pablo T., 1988. "Incentive schemes with multiple agents and bankruptcy constraints," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 44(1), pages 156-167, February.
    32. Raffaele Fiocco & Dongyu Guo, 2015. "Mergers between regulated firms with unknown efficiency gains," Review of Economic Design, Springer;Society for Economic Design, vol. 19(4), pages 299-326, December.
    33. Per J. Agrell & Jonas Teusch, 2015. "Making the Belgian distribution system fit for the energy transition. The case for yardstick competition," Reflets et perspectives de la vie économique, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(1), pages 157-174.
    34. Jamasb, Tooraj & Pollitt, Michael, 2003. "International benchmarking and regulation: an application to European electricity distribution utilities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(15), pages 1609-1622, December.
    35. Greene, William, 2005. "Reconsidering heterogeneity in panel data estimators of the stochastic frontier model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 126(2), pages 269-303, June.
    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. Pereira, Miguel Alves & Marques, Rui Cunha, 2022. "Is sunshine regulation the new prescription to brighten up public hospitals in Portugal?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).

    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. TEUSCH, Jonas, 2016. "Merger Incentives Under Yardstick Competition : a Theoretical Model," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2016037, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    2. Agrell, Per J. & Teusch, Jonas, 2020. "Predictability and strategic behavior under frontier regulation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    3. Eshien Chong & Freddy Huet, 2009. "Yardstick Competition, Franchise Bidding and Firms’ Incentives to Collude," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 35(1), pages 149-169, September.
    4. Harada, Shumpei & 原田, 峻平 & Yamauchi, Hirotaka & 山内, 弘隆, 2014. "Yardstick Competition And Franchise Bidding: A Comparative Analysis Based On Asymmetric Information," Hitotsubashi Journal of commerce and management, Hitotsubashi University, vol. 48(1), pages 31-42, October.
    5. Armstrong, Mark & Sappington, David E.M., 2007. "Recent Developments in the Theory of Regulation," Handbook of Industrial Organization, in: Mark Armstrong & Robert Porter (ed.), Handbook of Industrial Organization, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 27, pages 1557-1700, Elsevier.
    6. Faure-Grimaud, Antoine & Reiche, Sönje Kerrin, 2003. "Dynamic Yardstick Regulation," CEPR Discussion Papers 4035, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    7. Faure-Grimaud, Antoine & Reiche, Sonje, 2003. "Dynamic yardstick regulation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 19319, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Faure-Grimaud, A. & Reiche, S., 2006. "Dynamic yardstick mechanisms," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 54(2), pages 316-335, February.
    9. Antoine Faure-Grimaud & Soenje Reiche, 2003. "Dynamic Yardstick Regulation," STICERD - Theoretical Economics Paper Series 459, Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines, LSE.
    10. Tangeras, Thomas P., 2002. "Collusion-proof yardstick competition," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(2), pages 231-254, February.
    11. Eshien Chong & Freddy Huet, 2006. "Enchères, concurrence par comparaison et collusion," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 57(3), pages 583-592.
    12. Subal C. Kumbhakar & Gudbrand Lien, 2017. "Yardstick Regulation of Electricity Distribution Disentangling Short-run and Long-run Inefficiencies," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 5).
    13. Cullmann, Astrid & Farsi, Mehdi & Filippini Massimo, 2009. "Unobserved Heterogeneity and International Benchmarking in Public Trasport," Quaderni della facoltà di Scienze economiche dell'Università di Lugano 0904, USI Università della Svizzera italiana.
    14. Agrell, Per J. & Grifell-Tatjé, Emili, 2016. "A dynamic model for firm-response to non-credible incentive regulation regimes," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 287-299.
    15. Meya, Johannes, 2013. "Dynamics of Yardstick Regulation: Historical Cost Data and the Ratchet E ffect," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79796, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    16. Nicolò Avogadro & Sebastian Birolini & Mattia Cattaneo & Paolo Malighetti & Chiara Morlotti & Renato Redondi, 2020. "Yardstick Regulation in a Competitive Context? The Case of the Italian Airports," Competition and Regulation in Network Industries, , vol. 21(3), pages 244-274, September.
    17. Dijkstra, Peter T. & Haan, Marco A. & Mulder, Machiel, 2017. "Design of yardstick competition and consumer prices: Experimental evidence," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 261-271.
    18. Tangerås, Thomas P., 2002. "Regulation of Cost and Quality under Yardstick Competition," Working Paper Series 573, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    19. Georg Meran & Christian Hirschhausen, 2009. "A modified yardstick competition mechanism," Journal of Regulatory Economics, Springer, vol. 35(3), pages 223-245, June.
    20. Boyer, Marcel, 2003. "Competition and the reform of incentive schemes in the regulated sector," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(7-8), pages 1353-1381, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Yardstick competition; Merger analysis; Incentive regulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L51 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - Economics of Regulation
    • L40 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - General
    • L11 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms

    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:kap:revind:v:55:y:2019:i:2:d:10.1007_s11151-018-9670-8. 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.