Antitrust Merger Policy: Lessons from the Australian Experience

Philip L. Williams and Graeme Woodbridge

No 9600, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: A study of the operation of Australia's merger policy over the last twenty-seven years can yield lessons for countries that are contemplating the introduction of their own merger policy. If it is to be used to enhance value, merger policy should provide that any possible increase in monopoly power be weighed against any increases in efficiency. The process by which this is achieved should be undertaken with speed and secrecy so as not to deter efficiency-enhancing mergers. The twin requirements of speed and secrecy will, in turn, present problems in achieving fair process and the creation of precedent.

JEL-codes: L4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2003-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-com and nep-ind
Note: CF
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Published as Ito, Takatoshi and Anne O. Krueger (eds.) Governance, regulation, and privatization in the Asia-Pacific region NBER-East Asia Seminar on Economics, vol. 12. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
Published as Antitrust Merger Policy: Lessons from the Australian Experience , Philip L. Williams, Graeme Woodbridge. in Governance, Regulation, and Privatization in the Asia-Pacific Region , Ito and Krueger. 2004

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w9600.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nbr:nberwo:9600

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w9600

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().