Download This PaperAntitrust for Consumers and Workers: A Framework for Labor Market Analysis in Merger Review
41 Pages Posted: 2 Jun 2020
Date Written: April 6, 2020
Abstract
This paper discusses the problem of buyer power in labor markets and proposes a framework for more interventionist enforcement under existing merger law. While a common core of basic economic assumptions supports increased enforcement as a general matter, the choice among several available economic welfare standards has significant implications for merger enforcement outcomes in certain types of cases. This paper considers economic standards based on total welfare, on customer welfare, and on trading partner welfare and concludes that a trading partner welfare standard should be adopted. However, in cases where a merger is likely to result in significant efficiencies that will decrease prices for customers, customer impacts should be considered when crafting a remedy, and if the efficiencies produced by a merger are inextricably linked to and substantially exceed the harms from increased labor market power, agencies should exercise their prosecutorial discretion to allow the merger to go ahead. On the basis of these principles, the paper then develops a framework for analysis that builds off of the existing processes and techniques described in the 2010 Horizontal Merger Guidelines. This framework is designed to be a practical, principled approach that benefits both customers and workers.
Keywords: Antitrust, Labor, Merger Review
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