Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP15167
Authors: Igor Letina; Armin Schmutzler; Regina Seibel
Abstract: This paper provides a theory of strategic innovation project choice by incumbents and start-ups which serves as a foundation for the analysis of acquisition policy. We show that, in spite of countervailing incentives on incumbents and entrants, prohibiting acquisitions has a weakly negative overall innovation effect. We provide conditions determining the size of the effect and, in particular, conditions under which it is zero. We further analyze the effects of less restrictive policies, including merger remedies and the tax treatment of acquisitions and initial public offerings. Such interventions tend to prevent acquisitions only if the entrant has sufficiently high stand-alone profits.
Keywords: innovation; killer acquisitions; merger policy; potential competition; startups
JEL Codes: O31; L41; G34
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Prohibition of acquisitions (G34) | weakly negative effect on overall innovation (O36) |
| High bargaining power of entrants (L13) | lower probability of innovation under prohibition (O39) |
| Low bargaining power of entrants (D43) | higher probability of innovation under prohibition (O31) |