IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/recore/v53y2008i1p57-69.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Price effects of mergers in natural resources industries

Author

Listed:
  • Wårell, Linda
  • Lundmark, Robert

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to estimate and analyse the price and welfare effects from the mergers between Rio Tinto and North Ltd. in 2000, and CVRD and Caemi in 2001. The analyses are conducted using a merger simulation model that, based on the pre-merger situation estimates the post-merger outcome. This paper applies a standard Cournot framework model where each firm produces a single homogenous product, and the firms’ strategic variable is quantities. The results from the merger simulation regarding the Rio Tinto/North Ltd. merger show that the merged firm has a combined market share of almost 20%. The estimated price increase due to the merger is 5.8%. Regarding the CVRD/Caemi merger the initial concentration in the pre-merger market is substantially larger than the year before, and the results indicate that the estimated price effect from the merger is more significant, almost 7%. Regarding the effect of prices on resource extraction, the estimated higher price of iron ore after the merger implies that substitution towards steel scrap in the steel-making process increases. This finding implies that resource extraction possibly has been lower than what might have been the case without the merger. Note that this effect is analysed as ceteris paribus, i.e., other impacts on iron ore demand and prices than the specific mergers have not been considered. In both merger simulations the overall welfare effect is estimated to be negative, something which thus does not support the European Commission's decisions to allow these mergers. However, none of the simulations did take into account possible cost efficiencies resulting from the mergers.

Suggested Citation

  • Wårell, Linda & Lundmark, Robert, 2008. "Price effects of mergers in natural resources industries," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 57-69.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:recore:v:53:y:2008:i:1:p:57-69
    DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2008.09.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921344908001432
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.resconrec.2008.09.001?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. Farrell, Joseph & Shapiro, Carl, 1990. "Horizontal Mergers: An Equilibrium Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(1), pages 107-126, March.
    2. Jean Tirole, 1988. "The Theory of Industrial Organization," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262200716, April.
    3. Werden, Gregory J, 1991. "Horizontal Mergers: Comment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 81(4), pages 1002-1006, September.
    4. Rogers, Christopher D. & Robertson, Kirsty & Robertson, Kirsty, 1987. "Long term contracts and market stability : The case of iron ore," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 3-18, March.
    5. Chang, Hui-Shung, 1994. "Estimating Japanese import shares of iron ore," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(2), pages 87-93, June.
    6. Philip Crooke & Luke Froeb & Steven Tschantz & Gregory Werden, 1999. "Effects of Assumed Demand Form on Simulated Postmerger Equilibria," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 15(3), pages 205-217, November.
    7. Lundmark, Robert & Nilsson, Mats, 2003. "What do economic simulations tell us? Recent mergers in the iron ore industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(3-4), pages 111-118.
    8. Torries, Thomas F., 1988. "Competitive cost analysis in the mineral industries : The example of nickel," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 14(3), pages 193-204, September.
    9. McAfee, R Preston & Williams, Michael A, 1992. "Horizontal Mergers and Antitrust Policy," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 181-187, 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. Yufeng CHEN & Shuo YANG, 2022. "How Does the Reform in Pricing Mechanism Affect the World’s Iron Ore Price: A Time-Varying Parameter SVAR Model," Journal for Economic Forecasting, Institute for Economic Forecasting, vol. 0(2), pages 83-103, April.

    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. Nathan H. Miller & Gloria Sheu, 2021. "Quantitative Methods for Evaluating the Unilateral Effects of Mergers," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 58(1), pages 143-177, February.
    2. Lundmark, Robert & Nilsson, Mats, 2003. "What do economic simulations tell us? Recent mergers in the iron ore industry," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(3-4), pages 111-118.
    3. Lundmark, Robert & Wårell, Linda, 2008. "Horizontal mergers in the iron ore industry--An application of PCAIDS," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 129-141, September.
    4. Daniel Greenfield & Bruce Kobayashi & Jeremy Sandford & Christopher Taylor & Nathan Wilson, 2019. "Economics at the FTC: Quantitative Analyses of Two Chemical Manufacturing Mergers," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 55(4), pages 607-623, December.
    5. Kaplow, Louis & Shapiro, Carl, 2007. "Antitrust," Handbook of Law and Economics, in: A. Mitchell Polinsky & Steven Shavell (ed.), Handbook of Law and Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 15, pages 1073-1225, Elsevier.
    6. Nilssen, Tore & Sorgard, Lars, 1998. "Sequential horizontal mergers," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(9), pages 1683-1702, November.
    7. Mason, Robin & Weeds, Helen, 2013. "Merger policy, entry, and entrepreneurship," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 23-38.
    8. Oliver Budzinski & Isabel Ruhmer, 2010. "Merger Simulation In Competition Policy: A Survey," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(2), pages 277-319.
    9. Jrisy Motis, 2007. "Mergers and Acquisitions Motives," Working Papers 0730, University of Crete, Department of Economics.
    10. Ivaldi, Marc & Jullien, Bruno & Rey, Patrick & Seabright, Paul & Tirole, Jean, 2003. "The Economics of Unilateral Effects," IDEI Working Papers 222, Institut d'Économie Industrielle (IDEI), Toulouse.
    11. Helman, Udi, 2006. "Market power monitoring and mitigation in the US wholesale power markets," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 877-904.
    12. Jovanovic, Dragan & Wey, Christian, 2012. "An equilibrium analysis of efficiency gains from mergers," DICE Discussion Papers 64, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    13. Guilding, Chris & McManus, Lisa, 2002. "The incidence, perceived merit and antecedents of customer accounting: an exploratory note," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(1-2), pages 45-59.
    14. Ramón Faulí-Oller & Joel Sandonís, 2001. "To Merge Or To License: Implications For Competition Policy," Working Papers. Serie AD 2001-05, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
    15. Grupp, Marcel & Rauch, Christian & Umber, Marc P. & Walz, Uwe, 2015. "The influence of leveraged buyouts on target firms' competitors," SAFE Working Paper Series 99, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    16. Volker Nocke & Michael D. Whinston, 2010. "Dynamic Merger Review," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 118(6), pages 1201-1251.
    17. Jaunaux, Laure & Lefouili, Yassine & Sand-Zantman, Wilfried, 2017. "Entry and merger policy," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 124-129.
    18. Robert Town & Douglas Wholey & Roger Feldman & Lawton R. Burns, 2006. "The Welfare Consequences of Hospital Mergers," NBER Working Papers 12244, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Long, Ngo Van & Soubeyran, Antoine, 2001. "Cost Manipulation Games in Oligopoly, with Costs of Manipulating," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 42(2), pages 505-533, May.
    20. Emilie Dargaud, 2006. "Mergers and collusion with asymmetric capacities," Post-Print halshs-00140138, HAL.

    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:recore:v:53:y:2008:i:1:p:57-69. 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: Kai Meng (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/resources-conservation-and-recycling .

    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.