The Competitive Effects of Common Ownership: Economic Foundations and Empirical Evidence: Reply
8 Pages Posted: 30 Sep 2017 Last revised: 27 Sep 2018
Date Written: September 20, 2018
Abstract
Kennedy, O’Brien, Song, and Waehrer (2017) replicate the panel results of Azar, Schmalz and Tecu (forthcoming), but argue on theoretical grounds that the estimates should not be interpreted as anti-competitive effects of common ownership. They then develop and estimate alternative models and find no significant positive effects of common ownership on airline ticket prices. This note points out features of their empirical analysis that cast doubt on the reliability of their method and results. Their conclusion that the data do not support AST’s interpretation seems unwarranted.
Keywords: Competition, Ownership, Diversification, Pricing, Antitrust, Governance, Product Market
JEL Classification: L41, L10, G34
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation