I am an Associate Professor of Economics at Swarthmore College.  Prior to joining Swarthmore, I was a research economist in the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice.  At the DOJ, my primary focus was evaluating the competitive impact of mergers. Below are links to my research papers and CV.

Email: mremer1 "at" swarthmore "dot" edu.

Link to my CV  

Publications

"Sub-Perfect Game: Profitable Biases of NBA Referees," with Daniel F. Stone and Joseph Price, Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 2012, Vol. 21, pp. 271-300. [SSRN], Media Coverage: Oregonian, June 3rd, 2009.        

"Using Cost Pass-Through to Calibrate Demand,'' with Nathan H. Miller and Gloria Sheu, Economics Letters, 2013, Vol. 118, pp. 451-454  [May 2012].

"Bias in Reduced Form Estimates of Pass-Through," with Alexander MacKay, Nathan H. Miller, and Gloria Sheu, Economics Letters, 2014, Vol. 123, pp. 200-202 [January 2014].

"US v. H&R Block: Market Definition in Court since the 2010 Merger Guidelines," with R. Warren-Boulton, Antitrust Bulletin, 2014, Vol. 59, pp. 599-618.

"An Empirical Investigation of the Determinants of Asymmetric Pricing," International Journal of Industrial Organization, 2015, Vol.42, pp. 46-56.  [September 2013]

"Pass-Through and the Prediction of Merger Price Effects,'' with Nathan H. Miller, Conor Ryan, and Gloria Sheu, Journal of Industrial Economics, 2016, Vol. 64, pp. 684-709. [June 2015]

"Upward Pricing Pressure as a Predictor of Merger Price Effects," with Nathan H. Miller, Conor Ryan, and Gloria Sheu, International Journal of Industrial Organization, 2017, Vol. 52, pp. 216-247.  [January 2017]

"Lowering Consumer Search Costs Can Lead to Higher Prices," with Mitsukuni Nishida, Economics Letters, 2018, Vol. 162, pp. 1-4.

"The Determinants and Consequences of Search Cost Heterogeneity: Evidence From Local Gasoline Markets," with Mitsukuni Nishida, Journal of Marketing Research, 2018, Vol. 55, pp. 305-320.  [February 2017]

"Race and Employment Outcomes: Evidence from NBA Coaches," with Nicholas Hill, Economic Inquiry, 2020, Vol. 58, pp. 1469-1486.  [October 2018]

"Price-Fixing Allegations in the Canned Tuna Industry: A Look at the Data ," with Minhae Kim, Ryan Mansley, Nathan H. Miller, and Matthew Weinberg, Anitrust Bulletin, 2023, Vol. 68, pp. 154-163. [December 2022] 

Working Papers

"Multimarket Contact and Prices: Evidence from an Airline Merger Wave," with Reed Orchinik [August 2024] 

"Price Effects in U.S. Merger Retrospectives: A Meta-Analytic Approach," with Andrew Olsen and Reed Orchinik [June 2024] 

"Consumer Inertia and Market Power," with Alexander MacKay, (Revision Requested, RAND Journal of Economics). [January 2022]

•     Vega Economics Award for the Best Paper in Industrial Economics presented at the 2018 North American Econometric Society Summer Meetings

"What's the Difference? Measuring the Effect of Mergers in the Airline Industry," with Reed Orchinik, [October 2021]

"Competition and Pricing Strategies: Evidence from Retail Gasoline Stations" [January 2019].

"An Empirical Study of Canned Tuna," with Minhae Kim, Ryan Mansley, Nathan Miller, and Matthew Weinberg, work in progress.

"Empirical Regularities of Asymmetric Pricing in the Retail Gasoline Industry," (available upon request).

"Musical Addiction: A Case Study of Phish Concert Goers," (undergraduate thesis).

 Teaching Experience

  Swarthmore College 

Introduction to Economics

Industrial Organization

Antitrust and Market Regulation

Intermediate Microeconomics

Directed Reading in Game Theory 

  Johns Hopkins University 

  Economic and Social Networks, Instructor                                                            

  Elements of Microeconomics, Instructor

  Elements of Micro, Micro Theory, Elements of Macro, Macro Theory, TA