Kwoka’s Mergers, Merger Control, and Remedies: Rejoinder to Kwoka

11 Pages Posted: 12 Jan 2018 Last revised: 29 Jan 2018

See all articles by Michael Vita

Michael Vita

U.S. Federal Trade Commission - Bureau of Economics

Date Written: January 29, 2018

Abstract

John Kwoka’s Mergers, Merger Control, and Remedies is a meta-analysis of “retrospective” academic studies of consummated mergers and other horizontal arrangements. Based on this meta-analysis, Kwoka strongly criticizes federal enforcement policies, claiming that the agencies permit far too many anticompetitive mergers to go unchallenged, and are far too willing to accept remedies that fail to prevent a significant loss of competition. Kwoka claims further that this excessive leniency is culmination of a trend reflecting deliberate policy choices made over the last several decades.

In a forthcoming critique, Vita & Osinski challenge Kwoka’s analysis and his conclusions, identifying serious flaws in the size, construction, and composition of his sample, and in the statistical analysis of the data drawn from that sample. In a published response to Vita & Osinski, Professor Kwoka offers a number of objections and counter-arguments. In this rejoinder, I respond to Professor Kwoka.

Keywords: Mergers, Merger Remedies, Meta-Analysis

JEL Classification: C18, C81, L4, L41

Suggested Citation

Vita, Michael, Kwoka’s Mergers, Merger Control, and Remedies: Rejoinder to Kwoka (January 29, 2018). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3098855 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3098855

Michael Vita (Contact Author)

U.S. Federal Trade Commission - Bureau of Economics ( email )

600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20580
United States

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