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Antitrust Enforcement Increases Economic Activity

Author

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  • Babina, Tania

    (Columbia University - Columbia Business School, Finance; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER); Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR))

  • Barkai, Simcha

    (Boston College)

  • Jeffers, Jessica

    (HEC Paris)

  • Karger, Ezra

    (Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago)

  • Volkova, Ekaterina

    (University of Melbourne - Faculty of Business and Economics)

Abstract

We hand-collect and standardize information describing all 3,055 antitrust lawsuits brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ) between 1971 and 2018. Using restricted establishment-level microdata from the U.S. Census, we compare the economic outcomes of a non-tradable industry in states targeted by DOJ antitrust lawsuits to outcomes of the same industry in other states that were not targeted. We document that DOJ antitrust enforcement actions permanently increase employment by 5.4% and business formation by 4.1%. Using an event-study design, we find (1) a sharp increase in payroll that exceeds the increase in employment, meaning that DOJ antitrust enforcement increases average wages, (2) an economically smaller increase in sales that is statistically insignificant, and (3) a precise increase in the labor share. While we cannot separately measure the quantity and price of output, the increase in production inputs (employment), together with a proportionally smaller increase in sales, strongly suggests that these DOJ antitrust enforcement actions increase the quantity of output and simultaneously decrease the price of output. Our results show that government antitrust enforcement leads to persistently higher levels of economic activity in targeted industries.

Suggested Citation

  • Babina, Tania & Barkai, Simcha & Jeffers, Jessica & Karger, Ezra & Volkova, Ekaterina, 2023. "Antitrust Enforcement Increases Economic Activity," HEC Research Papers Series 1488, HEC Paris.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebg:heccah:1488
    DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4539741
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    Cited by:

    1. Wentian Zhang, 2023. "The Effect of Antitrust Enforcement on Venture Capital Investments," Papers 2312.13564, arXiv.org, revised May 2024.
    2. Calligaris, Sara & Chaves, Miguel & Criscuolo, Chiara & De Lyon, Joshua & Greppi, Andrea & Pallanch, Oliviero, 2024. "Industry concentration in Europe: Trends and methodological insights," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 126768, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Babina, Tania & Bahaj, Saleem & Buchak, Greg & De Marco, Filippo & Foulis, Angus & Gornall, Will & Mazzola, Francesco & Yu, Tong, 2025. "Customer data access and fintech entry: Early evidence from open banking," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    4. Barkai, Simcha & Benzell, Seth G., 2024. "70 years of US corporate profits," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).

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    JEL classification:

    • E24 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Consumption, Saving, Production, Employment, and Investment - - - Employment; Unemployment; Wages; Intergenerational Income Distribution; Aggregate Human Capital; Aggregate Labor Productivity
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • K21 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Antitrust Law
    • L40 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - General

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