An empirical assessment of the merger between Iberia, Clickair and Vueling

In this paper, I apply a difference-in-difference estimator to examine the impact of the merger between Iberia, Clickair and Vueling on route flight frequency, which is considered to be the main attribute of quality in the sector. Controlling for different indicators of competition and several route...

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Bibliographic Details
Author: Fageda, Xavier, 1975-
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2014
Country:España
Institution:Universidad de Barcelona
Repository:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/68499
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/68499
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Indústria aeronàutica
Aviació
Fusió d'empreses
Aircraft industry
Aeronautics
Consolidation and merger of corporations
Description
Summary:In this paper, I apply a difference-in-difference estimator to examine the impact of the merger between Iberia, Clickair and Vueling on route flight frequency, which is considered to be the main attribute of quality in the sector. Controlling for different indicators of competition and several route attributes, I show that the merger has implied a decrease in route flight frequency but the magnitude of this effect is modest. A plausible explanation of my result is a more collusive behavior of airlines offering flights in the routes affected by the merger.