Bundling and Mergers in Energy Markets

Laurent Granier (1) , Marion Podesta (2)

1 GATE Lyon Saint-Étienne - Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon - Saint-Etienne
2 IREGE - Institut de Recherche en Gestion et en Economie

Does bundling trigger mergers in energy industries? We observe mergers between …rms belonging to various energy markets, for instance between gas and electricity providers. These mergers enable …rms to bundle. We consider two horizontally di¤erentiated markets. In this framework, we show that bundling strategies in energy markets create incentives to form multi-market …rms in order to supply bi- energy packages. Moreover, we …nd that this type of merger is detrimental to social welfare.

Mots clés: Energy Markets; Endogenous Mergers; Product Bundling

Domaines: Economies et finances

Laurent Granier, Marion Podesta. Bundling and Mergers in Energy Markets. Energy Economics, 2010, 32 (6), pp.1316-1324. ⟨10.1016/j.eneco.2010.06.010⟩. ⟨hal-00955456⟩