Discussion paper Competition Policy

DP17178 Political Power and Market Power

We study the link between political influence and industrial concentration. A model of firm lobbying shows that concentration and regulation may be either strategic complements or substitutes. Using data for the past 20 years in the US, we study whether merging firms’ influence activity increases or decreases after a merger. We document an increase in lobbying activity and we find some evidence for an increase in campaign contributions.

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Citation

Prat, A, T Valletti and B Cowgill (2022), ‘DP17178 Political Power and Market Power‘, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 17178. CEPR Press, Paris & London. https://cepr.org/publications/dp17178