Mergers, Merger Control, and Remedies is foremost an economics book. But it has a high readability factor for non-economist antitrust practitioners and policy makers. This derives largely from Kwoka's seamless and intuitive linking of empirics, to valuable insight into observed agency outcomes, to implications for merger policy. As a result, the book is a must-read for economists, lawyers, institutional experts, and policy makers.
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Diana L. Moss,
The American Antitrust InstituteKwoka's new book effectively sets the stage for...enforcement agencies to undertake initiatives and projects...[T]he book moves the debate forward and toward steps to improve the effectiveness of merger enforcement policies.
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Robert A. Skitol,
The Antitrust SourceA frequent lament in academe goes this way: 'Wouldn't it be great if someone put together all of the studies on....' For retrospective analyses of 'close call' but nevertheless consummated mergers, Kwoka (Northeastern Univ.) provides just that―and more. Highly Recommended.
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Choice
This first-ever comprehensive review of the retrospective studies of mergers both supports and challenges U.S. antitrust enforcers. Kwoka finds that opposition to mergers is usually justified, but that enforcers clear too many harmful mergers and often impose inadequate conduct remedies. Debates over merger policy can no longer proceed without reference to empirical evidence.
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Jonathan B. Baker, Professor, American University Washington College of Law; former Director, Bureau of Economics, Federal Trade Commission
Mergers, Merger Control, and Remedies fills the voids in our general knowledge about U.S. policy on mergers, the effectiveness of that policy, and the consequences of mergers that do occur for consumers and other market participants. Kwoka is clear and complete in his discussion of the analytical challenges of studying these questions and is persuasive in his argument that these issues are of central importance in the US economy and, in particular, in the crafting of US merger policy. Lawyers, economic consultants, and government officials will benefit from reading this book.
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Sara Fisher Ellison, Department of Economics, MIT
Merger policy is starting to be influenced by the growing literature on merger retrospectives, and Kwoka's book brings that work together, offering a great way to learn about it. I look forward to teaching from this book and I strongly recommend it to antitrust decision-makers.
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Joseph Farrell, Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley; former Chief Economist, Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission
About the Author
John Kwoka is Neal F. Finnegan Distinguished Professor of Economics at Northeastern University. He is the coauthor of The Antitrust Revolution: Economics, Competition, and Policy.