In this issue: Competition authorities are looking hard at the economic theories that underlie the empirical analysis they use when evaluating mergers. With their recent merger guidelines, both the EC…

Michael Baumann, Paul Godek, Mar 14, 2011 The U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), the two federal agencies that review mergers, recently issued new Horizontal…

Mar 15, 2011 Competition agencies around the world are charged with the task of identifying and challenging mergers and acquisitions that are likely to substantially lessen competition. Agencies have over…

Michael Noel, Mar 14, 2011 Every year, the Federal Trade Commission(“FTC”)and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice (“DOJ”) are notified of thousands of mergers.  Investigating which mergers are…

Jan Peter van der Veer, Mar 14, 2011 In recent years, there has been a trend towards a more systematic use of detailed empirical analysis in the assessment of merger…

Sonia Jaffe, Glen Weyl, Mar 14, 2011 The innovations of the new U.K. and U.S. merger guidelines released last year have excited many economists. On the one hand, they apply…

Dennis Carlton, Mar 14, 2011 The application of economics to issues involving competition policy has always required a mixture of economic theory and empirical analysis. As any good lawyer knows,…