@techreport{blonigen_pierce_mergers_2016,
Title = {Evidence for the Effects of Mergers on Market Power and
Efficiency},
Author = {Blonigen, Bruce A and Pierce, Justin R},
Institution = {National Bureau of Economic Research},
Type = {Working Paper},
Series = {Working Paper Series},
Number = {22750},
Year = {2016},
Month = {October},
DOI = {10.3386/w22750},
URL = {http://www.nber.org/papers/w22750},
Abstract = {Study of the impact of mergers and acquisitions
(M&As) on productivity and market power has been complicated
by the difficulty of separating these two effects. We use
newly-developed techniques to separately estimate productivity and
markups across a wide range of industries using detailed
plant-level data. Employing a difference-in-differences framework,
we find that M&As are associated with increases in average
markups, but find little evidence for effects on plant-level
productivity. We also examine whether M&As increase efficiency
through reallocation of production to more efficient plants or
through reductions in administrative operations, but again find
little evidence for these channels, on average. The results are
robust to a range of approaches to address the endogeneity of
firms' merger decisions.}}