Tag: Bureau of Economics

We analyze the effect of product quality on the output of a high-quality dominant firm facing a low-quality competitive fringe. Using a standard vertical differentiation model, we show that profit...

An extensive literature shows that agency issues and transactions costs influence vertical integration. Another mature literature indicates that market structure influences competitive behavior...

PUBLISHED AS: Vertical Separation Increases Gasoline Prices Analyses of organizational form's impact on economic behavior have been rarer than studies of the determinants of organizational form itself...

In many settings where spatial preemption might be expected to produce tightly concentrated industry structures, firms share the market instead. Using a strategic investment model, I show that this...

Economists at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) pursue the agency’'s competition and consumer protection missions. In this year’'s essay, in antitrust, we discuss various aspects of our hospital...

This paper measures market dynamics within the U.S. grocery industry (defined as supermarket, supercenter and club retailers). We find that the composition of outlets changes substantially, roughly 7%...

Recent literature has shown that an incumbent can use exclusive contracts to maintain supra-competitive prices, but only if he completely prevents a more efficient potential entrant from entering, and...

In 2004, the Federal Trade Commission brought legal action retrospectively challenging the 2000 acquisition of Highland Park Hospital by Evanston Northwestern Healthcare in Evanston, Illinois. A major...

Economists at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) pursue the agency'’s competition and consumer protection missions. In this year'’s essay, in antitrust, we discuss the new Merger Guidelines, three...

Workers value job security. If at least some workers value it enough, then it is efficient for at least some firms to adopt policies in which they commit (implicitly or explicitly) not to dismiss...

PUBLISHED AS: Alcohol, antitrust, and the 21st Amendment: An empirical examination of post and hold laws The Twenty-first Amendment repealed prohibition, but granted the states broad power to regulate...

This paper presents new evidence of asymmetric pass-through, the notion that upward cost shocks are passed through faster than downward cost shocks, in U.S. gasoline prices. Much of the extant...

Studies of gasoline prices in multiple countries have found a repeated sequence of asymmetric cycles where a sharp price increase is followed by gradual decreases. This price pattern is linked to...

We provide the first analysis of potential competition in the generic drug industry. Our identification strategy exploits a provision of the Hatch-Waxman Act that rewards 180 days of marketing...