The Year in Review: Economics at the Antitrust Division 2019-2020

Two recent enforcement actions highlight important aspects of the economic analyses that have been performed at the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice over this past year: The Novelis-Aleris merger illustrates how the decision-making tools that are used by market participants can reveal market characteristics that are key to merger analysis. The acquisition of Aetna by CVS raised several novel issues. A complex regulatory framework affected optimal bidding behavior among insurers and injected unique considerations into the analysis of a horizontal consolidation. Analysis of vertical aspects of the merger required accounting for variation in the mode of competition across a supply chain.