Conference on:
MERGERS, INNOVATION and THE LABOUR MARKET
Date: 15 Sep 2022 – 16 Sep 2022
Location: London
Format: Hybrid
Deadline for Submission of Papers: 15th of June 2022
Local Organizers: Carmine Ornaghi (University of Southampton); Franco Mariuzzo (UEA and CCP); Lorenzo Cassi (Paris School of Economics); Peter Ormosi (UEA and CCP); Sean Ennis (UEA and CCP)
Submission: Send your manuscript to: conferencelondon2022@gmail.com Please indicate in the email if you plan to travel to London or you prefer to attend online.
Participants: Prof. Ioanna Marinescu, Prof. Justus Haucap and Prof. Bruce Lyons are among the academics that will contribute to the event.
Background and objective:
Efficiencies play a crucial role in assessing the desirability of mergers for consumers and for the economy as a whole. Merging firms routinely invoke production efficiencies and knowledge synergies in R&D as compelling reasons for consolidation
However, the ex-ante evaluation of future efficiencies spurred by a merger as well as the retrospective analysis of the effects of mergers on static and dynamic efficiencies can be daunting tasks, because of the difficulty in accessing detailed information on production activities within firms and the uncertainty associated with innovation projects, among other reasons.
Furthermore, even if mergers can be shown to generate efficiency gains that can be passed onto customers in the form of lower prices or improved product quality, there is a growing discussion among economists and policy makers about the need of broadening the aim of merger enforcement to limit practices that harm free and fair competition not only in the product markets, to the detriment of consumers, but also in the labour markets, to the detriment of workers. Accordingly, mergers that should be approved under a consumer welfare standard, may be challenged if assessed through the lenses of a worker welfare standard.
Given the empirical challenges in assessing efficiencies and the theoretical conundrum of who should benefit from such efficiencies, the objective of this conference is to create a forum to present and discuss applied works that have tried to model and evaluate the effect of mergers on the labour market and on innovation. In particular, we welcome the submission of manuscripts on the effects of mergers on:
· Labour Market, in particular wages and employment
· Labour Productivity.
· Innovation Activities, in particular knowledge synergies in R&D projects and productivity of R&D personnel.
Submission of papers by PhD students and junior scholars is particularly welcome. Depending on the number of papers received, there may be a special session where young researcher can present and discuss their work with more experienced researchers in the field of industrial organization and labour market.
Format and Dates:
The conference is hosted by the Competition Market Authority (CMA) in London and is sponsored by Economic and Social Research Council, the Centre for Competition Policy (CCP) and the University of Southampton. The conference will be a hybrid event, enabling you to attend in-person or online. The conference will see the presentation of papers with both academics and economists working in the government as discussants, to provide a unique opportunity for cross-fertilization of ideas between scholars and practitioners in competition policy.
Submission and Funding:
Papers should be received by the 15th of June (extended abstracts will be considered, but complete papers are more likely to be accepted). Notification of acceptance will be given by the end of June.
There is funding available for PhD students and speakers to cover reasonable travel costs and one-night stay in hotel.
For any further information, please send an email to: