Sequential Cross-Border Mergers in Models of Oligopoly

Oligopoly theory suggests that anti-competitive mergers may be held up because firms outside the merger stand to increase profits at the expense of the merging firms (Stigler 1950). Against this backdrop, I examine the profitability of cross-border mergers by embedding a class of oligopoly models -- where mergers are anti-competitive and firms' actions are strategic substitutes -- in the sequential merger game of Nilssen and S