INEFFICIENT BUYER MERGERS TO OBTAIN SIZE DISCOUNTS
Session Mergers III
Session ChairMihkel Tombak, University of Toronto

Presenter(s) Stephane Caprice, Toulouse School of Economics (GREMAQ-INRA)
Co-Author(s) Ozlem Bedre, Toulouse School of Economics, GREMAQ, and Ecole Polytechnique
Keywords buyer mergers, commercial zoning laws, non-linear supply contracts, size discounts and waterbed effects
JEL Codes K21, L42

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This paper analyzes the welfare implications of buyer mergers when one monopoly manufacturer sells its product to many locally competitive retail markets. Assuming diseconomies of scale upstream, we show that a larger retailer gets size discounts from the supplier, i.e., it has a higher buyer power than smaller retailers. Different from the conventional argument that more buyer power reduces retail prices, we show that a larger retailer does not pass on size discounts to consumer prices when firms bargain over non-linear supply contracts. Moreover, size discounts for the larger buyer do not lead to higher tariffs for smaller buyers, i.e., there is no waterbed effect, when supply contracts are non-linear.

 
When & Where
Thu 3 Sep 2009
16:00 - 18:00
Room
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