Discussion paper

DP2738 Merger Profitability in Unionized Oligopoly

We examine how a merger affects wages of unionized labour and, in turn, the profitability of a merger under Cournot competition in differentiated products. If unions are plant-specific, we find that a merger is more profitable than in a corresponding model with exogenous wages. In contrast to the received literature, we find that it can be more profitable to take part in a merger than to be an outsider. For firm-specific unions, on the other hand, results are reversed.

£6.00
Citation

Sørgard, L and K Lommerud (2001), ‘DP2738 Merger Profitability in Unionized Oligopoly‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 2738. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp2738