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Open research questions in Merger and Competition Analysis

30 unresolved questions extracted from the limitations and future-work sections of 3,618 Merger and Competition Analysis papers in our library. Each links back to the study that raised it.

What the literature leaves open

  • − − p The replacement bargaining game (in case no agreement is reached) is structurally identi- cal to the original - same promoter, same continuum of artists with the same outside option V (a breakdown in negotiations with any single artist does not affect the total mass of available artists), same cost αi if that replacement bargaining breaks down.

    Vertical Integration with Multiple (Complementary) Input Suppliers: A Theoretical Approach · 2026 · DOI

  • Third, the queue clearance is partly limited by the protocol’s per-epoch churn cap rather than by behavioural choice alone; this mechanical limit is the bonding friction the hypothesis identifies, but it is not a purely behavioural adjustment, and the two are reported separately rather than conflated.

    Online Supplementary Appendix to A Dynamic Institutional-Selection Model under Constrained Coordination and Network Externalities: Block-Producer Behaviour across Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake Regimes · 2026 · DOI

  • Background: Principal-agent problem has been discussed intensively in the recent decade, but this specific case has not yet been analyzed in this manner; one of two companies in Cournot duopoly employs a manager who has a partial ownership of the second company, but without executive power in that company.

    Managerial conflict of interests effects on duopoly market structure · 2025 · DOI

  • Finally, I find that the effectiveness of data‐filing provisions was limited to the early months of the NIRA, prior to a wave of cartel breakdown occurring in spring 1934.

    Cartel Code Attributes and Cartel Performance: An Industry‐Level Analysis of the National Industrial Recovery Act · 2007 · DOI

  • Despite its significance in representing inflation and mitigating inflationary risks in long-term contracts, price indexation has not been extensively explored in previous studies in the sociology of markets.

    Material consequences: the return of inflation and the value of price indexation · 2026 · DOI

  • Indeed, until relatively recently, the textbooks viewed monopsony power as either a theoretical curiosum, or a concept limited to a handful of company towns in the past.

    Monopsony in the Labor Market · 2022 · DOI

  • First, stricter merger control is warranted in an economy where large, highly efficient and profitable “superstar” firms account for an increasing share of economic activity.

    Protecting Competition in the American Economy: Merger Control, Tech Titans, Labor Markets · 2019 · DOI

  • This paper further suggests that the current list of inconsistently and poorly defined product strategies used by the courts be augmented by three more straight forward but overlapping categories based on impact on consumer choice: Lock‐Outs, Lock‐Ins, and Hold‐Ups.

    Product Strategy and Antitrust: A Consumer Choice Perspective · 2017 · DOI

  • Although many papers consider the effect of switching costs on entry when the incumbent firm is privately‐owned, the effect when the incumbent firm is publicly‐owned has not been analyzed.

    Privatization and Entry with Switching Costs · 2016 · DOI

  • :Estimates of monopolistic markups are relatively scarce in the literature mostly due to lack of appropriate data and methodological difficulties, while their behavior has important implications for the conduct of monetary policy.

    The Distribution of Monopolistic Markups in the Polish Economy · 2014 · DOI

  • Our empirical findings are consistent with an oligopolistic second-degree price discrimination model and encompass contradictory findings in the literature.

    Is the Effect of Competition on Price Dispersion Nonmonotonic? Evidence from the U.S. Airline Industry · 2013 · DOI

  • In addition, although we find that gasoline retail prices demonstrate asymmetric responses to changes in gasoline wholesale prices , we find only limited evidence of such behavior for retail prices with respect to gasoline excise taxes.

    PERFECT COMPETITION, URBANIZATION, AND TAX INCIDENCE IN THE RETAIL GASOLINE MARKET · 2009 · DOI

  • However, the policy remains controversial and the relative roles of ownership and other structural changes, such as competition and regulation, in promoting economic performance remain uncertain.

    Privatisation in Developing Countries: A Review of the Evidence and the Policy Lessons · 2005 · DOI

  • However, as the effects of national concentration restrictions often are not limited to the jurisdictions that determine its intensity, there will be (spatial) external effects, due to which national decisions systematically diverge from the social optimum.

    Combating Media Concentration by the German Market Share Model · 2000 · DOI

  • While the positive correlations among economic-loss estimates is comforting, much work remains to be done to improve estimation techniques and to decide rationally which behavorial models are correct.

    Nouvelles estimations des pertes de bien-être et de surplus du consommateur dans l'industrie agro-alimentaire américaine · 1994 · DOI

  • Early analyses of automobile insurance regulation and deregulation efforts have yielded mixed results, in part because of the small number of completed deregulation experiments.

    Price and Availability Tradeoffs of Automobile Insurance Regulation · 1989 · DOI

  • While economists have shown increased interest in these contracts, surprisingly little is known about them, or, indeed, about how to analyze the contracting activity of private economic actors.

    Quantity and Price Adjustment in Long-Term Contracts: A Case Study of Petroleum Coke · 1987 · DOI

  • Analyzes competitive markets in which the characteristics of the commodities exchange are not fully known to at least one of the parties to the transaction.

    Equilibrium in Competitive Insurance Markets: An Essay on the Economics of Imperfect Information · 1976 · DOI

  • It remains to be seen if a sufficient number of issues have been accumulated and enough friction generated for the voters to change loyalties in future elections.

    The Common Market Decision in Norway: A Clash between Direct and Indirect Democracy · 1973 · DOI

  • It is premature to assert that this self-interest (investment) motive is insufficient to cover the costs of voting for most citizens, so that a utility of voting for its own sake (consumption) needs to be added.

    Economic competition and political competition · 1972 · DOI

  • This is the case of private consumption, which is only limited by the planned disposable income of the people, but whose probable composition must be forecast by the planner in order to work out correctly prices and monetary flows for the planned period.

    The role of prices in a command economy · 1971 · DOI

  • This limitation will result when one limited to the indus large firm’s need for x t is kind of labor represents a large fraction of the total demand for for it.

    Pay Differentials by Size of Establishment · 1967 · DOI

  • What now remains to be improved is the profitability of tin mining, in terms of social as well as finMidal economics, to the actual mining communities and the populations and governments dmt meet the industry's sodal overhead.

    On Oligopoly in Tin · 1967 · DOI

  • Materials, over all, are scarce relatively to demand and most have a wide variety of uses, while most uses (though not all) can be met less or more efficiently by a variety of materials.

    Some Reflections on the Philosophy of Prices · 1958 · DOI

  • No agreement in this trade, but firms were all anxious to know what their rivals were doing. There are no agreements, and bad trade leads to a tendency to reduce prices.

    PRICE THEORY AND BUSINESS BEHAVIOUR · 1939 · DOI

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30 open questions have been extracted from the limitations and future-work passages of 3,618 Merger and Competition Analysis papers in our library. Each one below links back to the study that raised it, so you can read the original claim in context.

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