Essays in competition policy

• Main Author: Coles, Heather E.
• Published: University of East Anglia 2006
• Subjects: 338.6048
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.433916

The chapters of this thesis are driven by contemporary competition policy questions. Although each chapter is self-standing, they all concern the effect of mergers on competition and pricing. To date one chapter is complete, it includes a theoretical model which determines the competitive effects of mergers across hub-and-spoke networks. The analysis put forward in this thesis upgrade forms the basis of a 2°d chapter. It translates recent theoretical insights on tacit collusion and asymmetries onto a graph, which can be used to identify those mergers most likely to result in coordinated effects. A sample of 73 merger cases investigated by the European Competition Commission is drawn on, and their model of tacit coordination unravelled. A third chapter will follow from this analysis and will incorporate an in-depth case study of a market where collective dominance was a competition concern. It will examine how the market has evolved since intervention and test whether the empirical evidence is consistent with the theory.