Measuring Unilateral Effects in Partial Horizontal Acquisitions

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed an increased interest, by competition agencies, in assessing the competitive effects of partial acquisitions. We propose an empirical structural methodology to examine quantitatively the unilateral impact of partial horizontal acquisitions. The acquisitions may be direct or indirect, and may or not correspond to control. The proposed methodology simulates the effects on prices, market shares, firm profits and consumer welfare. It can deal with differentiated products industries and nests full mergers as a special case. We provide an empirical application to several acquisitions in the wet shaving industry.

Keywords: Antitrust, Unilateral Effects, Partial Acquisitions, Oligopoly, Differentiated Products, Demand Estimation

JEL Classification: D12, C54, L13, L41, L66