Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/85055 
Year of Publication: 
2013
Series/Report no.: 
DIW Discussion Papers No. 1330
Publisher: 
Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin
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: 
Mergers
Ex-post Evaluation
Videogames market
Retail sector
JEL: 
K21
L24
L44
D22
O32
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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