The article explores the effectiveness of divestitures as a remedy for upstream horizontal mergers in vertically related markets. We argue that competition authorities ignoring the asymmetric bargaining power between upstream and downstream firms when assessing the choice of the buyer of the divested brands is likely to implement an inadequate policy. First, a small buyer with high bargaining power ...
We study the impact of fossil fuel subsidy removal on presidential popularity using difference-indifference approaches and a stylized theoretical model. Analyzing macro level data for two subsidy removal events in Mexico and Bolivia in the early 2010s, we find evidence of a negative impact on presidential approval. Our theoretical probabilistic voting model predicts that the decline in popularity is ...
We evaluate German purchase subsidies for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) using data on new vehicle registrations in Germany dur¬ing 2015-2022. We account for confounding time trends and interacting EU-level CO2 standards using neighboring countries as a control group. We find that 40% of BEV and 25% of PHEV registrations were subsidy-induced. The program ...
