Abstract
The period since the 1982 Merger Guidelines is surveyed and assessed, including the 1992 Merger Guidelines. The 1982 Guidelines were an improvement in economic underpinnings and in merger policy, but the Guidelines' focus on short run market power is not a sensible basis for merger policy. The 1992 Guidelines continue this focus on short run market power, attempt to provide some clarifications of current enforcement policy, but add some questionable economics to the stew. The merger policy laid out in the 1992 Guidelines will not survive, since it does not suitably come to grips with the fundamental bases of the social costs and benefits of mergers and ignores ‘competitiveness’ issues.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Coate, Malcolm B. and James Langenfeld (1992) ‘Entry Under the Merger Guidelines 1982–92’, unpublished manuscript.
Coate, Malcolm B. and Fred S. McChesney (1992) ‘Empirical Evidence on FTC Enforcement of the Merger Guidelines’,Economic Inquiry,30(2), 277–293.
Denis, Paul T. (1992) ‘Market Power in Antitrust Merger Analysis: Refining the Collusion Hypothesis’,Antitrust Law Journal,60(3), 829–837.
Fisher, Alan A. and Robert H. Lande (1992) ‘Proposing a Structured Reformulation of the Comparatively Unpredictable 1992 Guidelines’, unpublished manuscript.
Holt, Charles and David Scheffman (1987) ‘Facilitating Practices The Effects of Advance Notice and Best-Price Policies’,Rand Journal of Economics,18(2), 187–197.
Kreps, D. and J. Scheinkman (1983) ‘Cournot Precommitment and Bertrand Competition Yield Cournot Outcomes’,Bell Journal of Economics,14, 326–337.
Langenfeld, J. and D. Scheffman (1990) ‘The FTC in the 1980s’,Review of Industrial Organization,5(2), 79–98.
Salop, Steven C. (1986) ‘Measuring Ease of Entry’,Antitrust Bulletin,31, 551–570.
Scheffman, David (1992) ‘Statistical Measures of Market Power: Uses and Abuses,’Antitrust Law Journal 60(3), 901–919.
Scheffman, David and Pablo T. Spiller (1987) ‘Geographic Market Definition Under the Department of Justice Merger Guidelines’,Journal of Law and Economics,30(1), 123–148.
Scheffman D. and P. Spiller (1992) ‘Buyers' Strategies, Entry Barriers, and Competition’,Economic Inquiry, forthcoming.
Schumann, Laurence, Robert P. Rogers, and James D. Reitzes (1992) ‘Case Studies of the Price Effects of Horizontal Mergers’, FTC Bureau of Economics Staff Report, April 1992.
Shapiro, C. (1989) ‘Theories of Oligopoly Behavior’, in R. Willig and R. Schmalensee (eds),The Handbook of Industrial Organization, Volume 1, Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishers.
Willig, Robert D. (1991) ‘Merger Analysis, Industrial Organization Theory, and Merger Guidelines’,Brookings Papers on Economic Activity: Microeconomics 1991, 281–312.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
The author thanks John Peterman and Jim Langenfeld for helpful comments, and the Dean's Summer Research Fund of the Owen School for support.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Scheffman, D.T. Ten years of Merger Guidelines: A retrospective, critique, and prediction. Rev Ind Organ 8, 173–189 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01034176
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01034176