Digging deep to compete: vertical integration, product market competition and prices

This article establishes a causal effect of product market competition on vertical integration. I exploit a hitherto unexplored natural experiment in the US coal mining industry and a unique mine-level organizational data set. Following an exogenous increase in product market competition the inciden...

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Main Author: McGowan, Danny
Format: Article
Published: Wiley 2017
Online Access:https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47206/
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author McGowan, Danny
author_facet McGowan, Danny
author_sort McGowan, Danny
building Nottingham Research Data Repository
collection Online Access
description This article establishes a causal effect of product market competition on vertical integration. I exploit a hitherto unexplored natural experiment in the US coal mining industry and a unique mine-level organizational data set. Following an exogenous increase in product market competition the incidence of vertical integration fell by 33% within the treatment group relative to the counterfactual. I find novel evidence that transition to the lower degree of vertical integration is driven by competition reducing market prices by 32% which decreased the incentive to conduct vertical mergers. I discuss several possible interpretations of these changes.
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spelling nottingham-472062020-05-04T19:23:03Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47206/ Digging deep to compete: vertical integration, product market competition and prices McGowan, Danny This article establishes a causal effect of product market competition on vertical integration. I exploit a hitherto unexplored natural experiment in the US coal mining industry and a unique mine-level organizational data set. Following an exogenous increase in product market competition the incidence of vertical integration fell by 33% within the treatment group relative to the counterfactual. I find novel evidence that transition to the lower degree of vertical integration is driven by competition reducing market prices by 32% which decreased the incentive to conduct vertical mergers. I discuss several possible interpretations of these changes. Wiley 2017-12-18 Article PeerReviewed McGowan, Danny (2017) Digging deep to compete: vertical integration, product market competition and prices. Journal of Industrial Economics, 65 (4). pp. 683-718. ISSN 1467-6451 http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/joie.12157/full doi:10.1111/joie.12157 doi:10.1111/joie.12157
spellingShingle McGowan, Danny
Digging deep to compete: vertical integration, product market competition and prices
title Digging deep to compete: vertical integration, product market competition and prices
title_full Digging deep to compete: vertical integration, product market competition and prices
title_fullStr Digging deep to compete: vertical integration, product market competition and prices
title_full_unstemmed Digging deep to compete: vertical integration, product market competition and prices
title_short Digging deep to compete: vertical integration, product market competition and prices
title_sort digging deep to compete: vertical integration, product market competition and prices
url https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47206/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47206/
https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47206/