Working paper 16-4

What can merger retrospectives tell us? An assessment of European mergers

AUTHORS: Franco Mariuzzo, Peter Ormosi & Richard Havell

ABSTRACT: In this review of retrospective European merger studies we provide a discussion of the price effect of analysed mergers and examine whether the antitrust agency made the right decisions. We find that remedied mergers, on average, were not followed by a price-increase, suggesting that, in our sample, merger interventions were effective at eliminating problems. High market concentration was more likely to lead to higher post-merger prices, although remedies were able to reduce post-merger price-increases, even in concentrated markets. We look at a number of reasons why prices may increase post-merger and find little evidence of genuine agency errors

KEYWORDS: Mergers; merger retrospectives; ex-post evaluation.

CITATION: Mariuzzo, F, Ormosi, P & Havell, R (2016) "What can merger retrospectives tell us? An assessment of European mergers", CCP Working Paper 16-4

Policy Brief 16-4

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