Gopal Das Varma and Martino De Stefano have received the 21st Annual Jerry S. Cohen Award for Antitrust Scholarship for their article, “Entry Deterrence, Concentration, and Merger Policy,” 61 Review of Industrial Organization 199 (2022).
In their article, the authors criticize current merger enforcement for weighing post-merger entry as a factor potentially mitigating the otherwise anticompetitive effects of a merger without also considering how the merger could increase incentives by incumbents to engage in conduct calculated to deter future entry. The authors demonstrate that a merger can reduce the overall likelihood of entry, even at elevated industry profit levels, by increasing incumbent incentives to engage in entry deterrence.
