An Economic Analysis of Russian Merger Control: the Event Study Approach

Mergers, acquisitions, and other types of business combinations are subject to a high extent of antitrust scrutiny. The reason is that a merger can cause both negative and positive effects on a social welfare. However, potential benefits and risks of a merger are difficult to assess ex-ante.Therefore, an analysis of a competition authority’s activity is highly important, since it allows economists and policy makers to identify the flaws in the merger control enforcement and to improve it by refining laws and applied techniques.

The main aim of the research is to analyze how mergers and the Russian competition authority’s decisions on these mergers influence the competition in the selected industries. Using the event study methodology and the stock market data, Russian shareholders’ reaction to the mergers and authority’s decisions announcements will be examined in terms of efficiency assessment.