A fundamental economic reconstruction of merger analysis to strengthen our ability to determine mergers’ likely effects and improve merger regulation. Why rethink merger analysis? Because methods employed throughout the world violate basic precepts of decision analysis and economics. Fundamental principles are underdeveloped, inhibiting research, policy formulation, and merger review. In Rethinking Merger Analysis, Louis Kaplow undertakes a foundational analysis of the questions central to understanding and regulating horizontal mergers and shows why many conventional practices need to be altered or replaced. On the empirical front, Kaplow offers insights, identifies shortcomings, and proposes extensions of existing research. Altogether, merger review can be greatly improved to better identify harmful mergers and avoid thwarting beneficial ones. The correct economic analysis of anticompetitive effects conflicts sharply with the reigning market definition paradigm. This protocol is more deeply flawed than appreciated, readily produces large errors, and can result in uncertainty bounds on challenge thresholds of two orders of magnitude. Merger efficiencies are underanalyzed because of the failure to draw on relevant disciplines and pertinent industry expertise. Postmerger entry’s role is mischaracterized in merger guidelines, and its direct welfare effects are ignored. Entry induced by the prospect of a subsequent buyout has until recently been disregarded. Proper assessment requires a dynamic framing that accounts for a merger regime’s influence on the creation and capabilities of new generations of startups that are central to economic dynamism. This book eschews advocacy and instead focuses on clear thinking—indeed, rethinking—about how to improve merger policy and assessment.

A comprehensive analysis of merger outcomes based on all empirical studies, with an assessment of the effectiveness of antitrust policy toward mergers. In recent decades, antitrust investigations and cases targeting mergers—including those involving Google, Ticketmaster, and much of the domestic airline industry—have reshaped industries and changed business practices profoundly. And yet there has been a relative dearth of detailed evaluations of the effects of mergers and the effectiveness of merger policy. In this book, John Kwoka, a noted authority on industrial organization, examines all reliable empirical studies of the effect of specific mergers and develops entirely new information about the policies and remedies of antitrust agencies regarding these mergers. Combined with data on outcomes, this policy information enables analysis of, and creates new insights into, mergers, merger policies, and the effectiveness of remedies in preventing anticompetitive outcomes. After an overview of mergers, merger policy, and a common approach to merger analysis, Kwoka offers a detailed analysis of the studied mergers, relevant policies, and chosen remedies. Kwoka finds, first and foremost, that most of the studied mergers resulted in competitive harm, usually in the form of higher product prices but also with respect to various non-price outcomes. Other important findings include the fact that joint ventures and code sharing arrangements do not result in such harm and that policies intended to remedy mergers—especially conduct remedies—are not generally effective in restraining price increases. The book's uniquely comprehensive analysis advances our understanding of merger decisions and policies, suggests policy improvements for competition agencies and remedies, and points the way to future research.

The most important book on antitrust ever written. It shows how antitrust suits adversely affect the consumer by encouraging a costly form of protection for inefficient and uncompetitive small businesses.

Experts report on the latest research on extending access to financial services to the 2.5 billion adults around the world who lack it. About 2.5 billion adults, just over half the world's adult population, lack bank accounts. If we are to realize the goal of extending banking and other financial services to this vast “unbanked” population, we need to consider not only such product innovations as microfinance and mobile banking but also issues of data accuracy, impact assessment, risk mitigation, technology adaptation, financial literacy, and local context. In Banking the World, experts take up these topics, reporting on new research that will guide both policy makers and scholars in a broader push to extend financial markets. The contributors consider such topics as the complexity of surveying people about their use of financial services; evidence of the impact of financial services on income; the occasional negative effects of financial services on poor households, including disincentives to work and overindebtedness; and tools for improving access such as nontraditional credit scores, financial incentives for banking, and identification technologies that can dramatically reduce loan default rates.

A subversive approach to economic theory, Rethinking Market Regulation explores the devastating impact of globalisation and a lack of governmental regulation on the US workforce. It challenges two key economic principles: that markets are competitive, making government intervention unnecessary, and the claim that corporations exist for the benefit of their shareholders, but not for other stakeholders. Arguing that both principles are based in myth, this book offers an insightful perspective into the plight of workers faced with widespread job losses through the merging and outsourcing of resources. Rethinking Market Regulation ties together the problems that come with using economic principles as a justification for a lack of government intervention with the harm and widespread social repercussions faced by workers. With a close focus on the personal and financial consequences of losing employment, this book offers a compelling comparison of the legal and social treatment of labor in the US and the EU, closing with the recommendation for a new regulatory regime as a prescription for the current system of mass inequality and widespread job losses. Rethinking Market Regulation is ideal for scholars, professionals and anyone else interested in gaining an alternative perspective to modern US economic theory and market regulation.

Bringing together developments from the past 30years in contingent valuation, this book examines the relative value of securities in a corporation's capital structure, including debt of different priorities, convertible debt, common stock, and warrants.

The new M&A bible. Few actions can change the value of a company—and its competitive future—as quickly and dramatically as an acquisition. Yet most companies fail to create shareholder value from these deals, and in many cases they destroy it. It doesn't have to be this way. In The Synergy Solution, Deloitte's Mark Sirower and Jeff Weirens show acquirers how to develop and execute an M&A strategy—end to end—that not only avoids the pitfalls that so many companies fall into but also creates real, long-term shareholder value. This strategy includes how to: Become a prepared "always on" acquirer Test the investment thesis and DCF valuation of a deal Plan for a successful Announcement Day, and properly communicate synergy promises to investors and other stakeholders Realize those promised synergies through integration planning and post-close execution Manage change and build a new, combined organization Sirower and Weirens provide invaluable background to those considering M&A, laying out the issues they have to consider, how to analyze them, and how to plan and execute the deal effectively. They also show those who have already started the process of M&A how to maximize their chances of success. There's an art and a science to getting mergers and acquisitions right, and this powerful book provides the insights and strategies acquirers need to find success at every stage of an often complex and perilous process.