We make use of a unique route-level price data set of the recently deregulated German interurban bus industry to study both competitive interaction in general, and the potential price effects of a merger between the two largest players in particular. We find that route-level average prices, inter alia , depend not only on the number of competitors, but especially on the composition of firms operating on a particular route. Although our empirical results suggest short-term price increases on certain route types post-merger, it remains an open question whether the merger should be classified as anticompetitive.
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Dürr et al. (2016) studied this question.