In: Economics
You are the manager in a market composed of 6 firms, each of which has a 16.66 percent market share. In addition, each firm has a strong financial position and is located within a 100-mile radius of its competitors.
Instruction: Enter your responses rounded to the nearest penny (two decimal places).
a. Calculate the premerger Herfindahl-Hirschman index (HHI) for this market.
b. Suppose that any two of these firms merge. What is the postmerger HHI?
(a)
Firm 1 = 16.66%
Firm 2 = 16.66%
Firm 3 = 16.66%
Firm 4 = 16.66%
Firm 5 = 16.66%
Firm 6 = 16.66%
Calculate the Pre-merger HHI -
HHI = [Market share of Firm 1]2 + [Market share of Firm 2]2 + [Market share of Firm 3]2 + [Market share of Firm 4]2 + [Market share of Firm 5]2 + [Market share of Firm 6]2
HHI = [16.66]2 + [16.66]2 + [16.66]2 + [16.66]2 + [16.66]2 + [16.66]2
HHI = 277.56 + 277.56 + 277.56 + 277.56 + 277.56 + 277.56
HHI = 1,665.36
Thus,
The Pre-merger HHI is 1,665.36
(b)
Now, two of these firms merge.
For example, Firm 1 and Firm 2 now merge with each other. So, their combined market share would be now 33.32%.
Calculate the postmerger HHI -
HHI = [Market share of Firm 1 + Firm 2]2 + [Market share of Firm 3]2 + [Market share of Firm 4]2 + [Market share of Firm 5]2 + [Market share of Firm 6]2
HHI = [33.32]2 + [16.66]2 + [16.66]2 + [16.66]2 + [16.66]2
HHI = 1,110.22 + 277.56 + 277.56 + 277.56 + 277.56
HHI = 2,220.46
Thus,
The post merger HHI is 2,220.46