The Effects of FTC Antitrust Challenges on Rival Firms 1981-1987: An Analysis of the Use of Stock Returns to Determine the Competitive Effects of Horizontal Mergers

The study examines recent FTC merger enforcement and uses stock market evidence to confront prior research which argued that the FTC tended to challenge pro-competitive mergers. The study finds that the evidence is equally consistent with the FTC challenging mergers that simultaneously have both pro-competitive and anti-competitive effects.