Cross-Market Mergers: Theories of Harm and Limiting Principles

Studies find evidence of systematic price increases following specific types of “cross-market” hospital mergers and acquisitions—meaning combinations of hospitals that are too far apart to be close substitutes or in the same relevant antitrust market. No agency, however, has yet fully litigated a cross-market challenge. In “Cross-Market Mergers: Theories of Harm and Limiting Principles,” Partner Cory Capps, Senior Economist Leyla Karakas, and Principal Tetyana Shvydko review the mechanisms that could drive cross-market price, discuss logical predicates for each theory, and discuss the important distinction that, while complementarity between sellers is ruled out by definition for in-market mergers, parties to a cross-market merger can be complements or substitutes.