Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/84675 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
DICE Discussion Paper No. 113
Publisher: 
Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE), Düsseldorf
Abstract: 
We study the effect of a merger in a dynamic high-technology industry - the videogame market - which is characterized by frequent introduction of new products. To assess the impact of the merger between two large specialist retailers in the UK, we perform a difference-in-differences analysis comparing the price evolution of the merging parties to that of their 7 major competitors on an original sample of 196 videogames belonging to six different consoles. The results of our econometric analyses suggest that there has been a reduction in the general level of prices of both new and pre-owned games after the merger. This decline has been more marked for the merging parties, which suggests that the merger between Game and Gamestation did not lead to a substantial lessening of competition; rather it is consistent with the existence of efficiency gains.
Subjects: 
R&D
Ex-post Evaluation
Videogames market
Retail sector
JEL: 
K21
L24
L44
D22
O32
ISBN: 
978-3-86304-112-0
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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