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Unilateral Effects Screens for Partial Horizontal Acquisitions: The Generalized HHI and GUPPI

Author

Listed:
  • Duarte Brito

    (Universidade Nova de Lisboa)

  • António Osório

    (Universitat Rovira i Virgili)

  • Ricardo Ribeiro

    (Faculdade de Economia e Gestão - Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto)

  • Hélder Vasconcelos

    (Universidade do Porto)

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed an increased interest, by competition agencies, in assessing the competitive effects of partial acquisitions. We propose a generalization to a partial horizontal acquisition setting of the two most traditional indicators used to screen unilateral anti-competitive effects: the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index and the Gross Upward Price Pressure Index. The proposed generalized indicators can deal with all types of acquisitions that may lessen competition in the industry: acquisitions by owners that are internal to the industry (rival firms) and engage in cross-ownership, as well as acquisitions by owners that are external to the industry and engage in common-ownership. Furthermore, these indicators can deal with direct and indirect acquisitions, which may or may not correspond to control, and nest full mergers as a special case. We provide an empirical application to several acquisitions in the wet shaving industry. The results seem to suggest that (i) a full merger induces higher unilateral anti-competitive effects than a partial controlling acquisition involving the same firms, (ii) a partial controlling acquisition induces higher unilateral anti-competitive effects than a partial non-controlling acquisition involving the same firms and the same financial stakes, and (iii) an acquisition by owners that are internal to the industry induces higher unilateral anti-competitive effects than an acquisition (involving the same firms and the same stakes) by external owners that participate in more than one competitor firm.

Suggested Citation

  • Duarte Brito & António Osório & Ricardo Ribeiro & Hélder Vasconcelos, 2015. "Unilateral Effects Screens for Partial Horizontal Acquisitions: The Generalized HHI and GUPPI," Working Papers de Economia (Economics Working Papers) 02, Católica Porto Business School, Universidade Católica Portuguesa.
  • Handle: RePEc:cap:wpaper:022015
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    Cited by:

    1. Brito, Duarte & Ribeiro, Ricardo & Vasconcelos, Helder, 2019. "Can partial horizontal ownership lessen competition more than a monopoly?," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 90-95.
    2. Lømo, Teis Lunde, 2024. "Overlapping ownership, pass-through, and product differentiation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    3. Brito, Duarte & Ribeiro, Ricardo & Vasconcelos, Helder, 2020. "Overlapping ownership, endogenous quality, and welfare," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    4. José Azar & Xavier Vives, 2018. "Oligopoly, Macroeconomic Performance, and Competition Policy," CESifo Working Paper Series 7189, CESifo.
    5. Miguel Antón & Florian Ederer & Mireia Giné & Martin Schmalz, 2023. "Common Ownership, Competition, and Top Management Incentives," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 131(5), pages 1294-1355.
    6. Moreno, Diego & Petrakis, Emmanuel, 2022. "The impact on market outcomes of the portfolio selection of large equity investors," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    7. Dai, Miao & Benchekroun, Hassan & Long, Ngo Van, 2022. "On the profitability of cross-ownership in Cournot nonrenewable resource oligopolies: Stock size matters," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 111(C).
    8. Vives, Xavier, 2020. "Common ownership, market power, and innovation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    9. Duarte Brito & Einer Elhauge & Ricardo Ribeiro & Helder Vasconcelos, 2018. "Modeling Horizontal Shareholding with Ownership Dispersion," Working Papers de Economia (Economics Working Papers) 01, Católica Porto Business School, Universidade Católica Portuguesa.
    10. Heijnen, Pim & Schoonbeek, Lambert, 2020. "Cross-shareholdings and competition in a rent-seeking contest," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    11. Brito, Duarte & Ribeiro, Ricardo & Vasconcelos, Helder, 2018. "Quantifying the coordinated effects of partial horizontal acquisitions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 108-149.
    12. José Azar & Sahil Raina & Martin Schmalz, 2022. "Ultimate ownership and bank competition," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 51(1), pages 227-269, March.
    13. Hassan Benchekroun & Miao Dai & Ngo Van Long, 2020. "On the Profitability of Cross-Ownership in Cournot Oligopolies: Stock Sizes Matter," CESifo Working Paper Series 8503, CESifo.
    14. Filomena Garcia & Jose Manuel Paz y Miño & Gustavo Torrens, 2020. "The merger paradox, collusion, and competition policy," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 22(6), pages 2051-2081, December.
    15. José Azar & Xavier Vives, 2021. "General Equilibrium Oligopoly and Ownership Structure," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 89(3), pages 999-1048, May.
    16. Oz Shy & Rune Stenbacka, 2020. "Common ownership, institutional investors, and welfare," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 706-723, July.
    17. Panagiotis N. Fotis & Michael L. Polemis & Konstantinos Eleftheriou, 2017. "Unilateral effects of partial acquisitions: consistent calculation of GUPPI under horizontal merger guidelines within the EU," Economia e Politica Industriale: Journal of Industrial and Business Economics, Springer;Associazione Amici di Economia e Politica Industriale, vol. 44(3), pages 315-325, September.
    18. Hunold, Matthias & Schlütter, Frank, 2019. "Vertical financial interest and corporate influence," DICE Discussion Papers 309, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    19. Brito, Duarte & Elhauge, Einer & Ribeiro, Ricardo & Vasconcelos, Helder, 2023. "Modelling the objective function of managers in the presence of overlapping shareholding," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Antitrust; Partial Horizontal Acquisitions; Oligopoly; Screening Indicators; HHI; GUPPI;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L41 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices
    • L66 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Manufacturing - - - Food; Beverages; Cosmetics; Tobacco

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