Upward Price Pressure, Merger Simulation, and Merger Simulation Light

Abstract

The Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice have traditionally used market shares as an early preliminary screen in evaluating the potential for anticompetitive effects of a proposed merger. Recently, Farrell and Shapiro proposed a new merger screen known as Upward Price Pressure. This article discusses the advantages and disadvantages of this screen, contrasts it to more complicated full merger simulations, and ultimately suggests a merger simulation light approach that has elements of both and that may be more useful in the very early stages of analysis.