Merger in Daylight: The Economics and Politics of European Merger Control

by Damien Neven, Robin Nuttall, Paul Seabright

In 1989 the European Council of Ministers approved a Regulation establishing a new system of merger control for the European Community. This is the first independent review of the EC Merger Regulation and has wide implications for other issues such as regulatory capture and transparency. It uses the latest research methodology from economics to analyse the decisions taken by the Commission and also reports a detailed survey of firms which have submitted merger proposals and the law firms that have advised them. The full text of the Regulation is reprinted along with summary statistics for all of the cases investigated up to the end of March 1993. Economists, lawyers, and practitioners in the business and policy communities concerned with regulation and merger policy will need this book. " I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the political economy of merger control in the EC and in the US. The authors show clear mastery of complex legal issues that underpin merger control, and offer an up-to-date and highly readable guide through the policy thicket." -Janusz Ordover, former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Antitrust Division, US Department of Justice

296 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1994