Finance and Economics Discussion Series (FEDS)
July 2025
A Distance-based Algorithm for Defining Antitrust Markets
Charles Taragin and Marco Taylhardat
Abstract:
We propose a simple algorithm for defining merger-specific geographic antitrust markets based on merging firm proximity. Applying it to over a thousand hypothetical bank mergers, we compare concentration measures in our markets to those defined by the Federal Reserve, which are not merger-specific, finding broad agreement but also offering potential improvements upon current definitions.
Keywords: market definition; bank mergers; computational methods
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17016/FEDS.2025.051
PDF: Full Paper
Related Materials: Accessible materials (.zip)
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