IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/jecper/v39y2025i1p29-52.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Improving Economic Analysis in Merger Guidelines

Author

Listed:
  • Louis Kaplow

Abstract

Merger review should reflect basic precepts of decision analysis, best practices in industrial organization economics, and teachings from related fields. Unfortunately, the analytical methods in modern merger guidelines fall short. Protocols violate standard prescriptions for information collection and decision-making, rely on a market definition paradigm that deviates significantly from core models of competitive interaction, fail to leverage central advances in understanding the efficiency consequences of mergers, and contravene or ignore fundamental dynamics relating to entry. This article elaborates correct analysis and contrasts it with that embodied in modern merger guidelines generally employed throughout the developed world, including the 2023 Merger Guidelines revision in the United States.

Suggested Citation

  • Louis Kaplow, 2025. "Improving Economic Analysis in Merger Guidelines," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 39(1), pages 29-52, Winter.
    • Handle: RePEc:aea:jecper:v:39:y:2025:i:1:p:29-52
    DOI: 10.1257/jep.20241413
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/jep.20241413
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.aeaweb.org/doi/10.1257/jep.20241413.ds
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1257/jep.20241413?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
    ---><---

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • K21 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Antitrust Law
    • L40 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - General
    • N42 - Economic History - - Government, War, Law, International Relations, and Regulation - - - U.S.; Canada: 1913-

    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:aea:jecper:v:39:y:2025:i:1:p:29-52. 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: Michael P. Albert (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeaaaea.html .

    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.