Scholar
LightNews

Tommaso Valletti

Videos

Tommaso M. Valletti is Professor of Economics at Imperial College Business School, and also Professor of Economics at the University… more

Tommaso Valletti
H-index: 44
Economics 37%
Business 36%
more

Reposted by Tommaso Valletti

Reposted by Tommaso Valletti, Mouin Rabbani, Vali Nasr , and 4 more

by Tommaso Valletti

Reposted by Tommaso Valletti, Thom Brooks

by Tommaso Valletti

by Tommaso Valletti

tomvalletti.bsky.social
Once properly interpreted, econ theory overwhelmingly supports the ITOH.

👉 Without synergies/spillovers, mergers harm consumers.

So: weakening merger control in the name of innovation is misguided.
The economics is clear — the ITOH still stands.

📄 Article www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
The innovation theory of harm in merger control: Some clarifications
Recent literature has analyzed the unilateral effects of mergers on investment and innovation. This note explores the Innovation Theory of Harm from a…
www.sciencedirect.com
2 7

by Tommaso Valletti

tomvalletti.bsky.social
My paper revisits the Innovation Theory of Harm (ITOH): mergers can reduce firms’ incentives to invest & innovate.

This theory has shaped major EU merger cases in telecoms & agro-chemicals.

What I find:
1 3

by Tommaso Valletti

tomvalletti.bsky.social
🚨 New paper in Economics Letters!

Do mergers boost or harm innovation? The debate is heating up in EU & UK policy circles.

Some argue:
Relax merger control → more investment, productivity, competitiveness.
This view has influenced reports like Draghi’s & UK gov’t policy.
But is it right? 🤔
1 1 10

by Tommaso Valletti

by Diane Coyle — Reposted by Tommaso Valletti, Robert Metcalfe

dianecoyle1859.bsky.social
Call for papers, 4th UK Workshop on Digital Economics, London 28 November 2025: competitionpolicy.ac.uk/events/4th-w... This is always a great event
Centre for Competition Policy
High quality independent research into competition policy and regulation
competitionpolicy.ac.uk
15 21

Reposted by Tommaso Valletti, Nando Sigona, Ruth Mace

Reposted by Tommaso Valletti, Alex Coad, Robert Metcalfe

bretthollenbeck.com
🚨Free data alert!! 🚨 Please share.

Large new dataset of Amazon product reviews, including full text and photos and product characteristics, with individual *reviews labeled as fake reviews*.

I believe this is the first publicly available data of this kind.

github.com/bretthollenb...
1 43 130

by Tommaso Valletti

tomvalletti.bsky.social
Findings: Ex post actions against consummated mergers exist but do not have a good record of success.

Implications: postmerger policy ineffectiveness needs a more stringent ex ante policy in order to achieve the right balance.

Link to the pre-print:

papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

Ciao

2/2

by Tommaso Valletti

tomvalletti.bsky.social
New paper just accepted in the Antitrust Law Journal written with John Kwoka.

We study the policy toward consummated mergers that prove to be anticompetitive, both in theoretical and empirical terms.

1/2
1 4

Reposted by Tommaso Valletti

Reposted by Tommaso Valletti

Reposted by Tommaso Valletti

by Tommaso Valletti

Reposted by Tommaso Valletti, Tomaso Duso

cepr.org
⭐Join us online for a high-level debate on merger control in Europe
Featuring E Tarantino, S Athey, @janeeckhout.bsky.social, P Heidhues, F Ederer, @tomasoduso.bsky.social
Moderator: @cristinacaffarra.bsky.social
14 July @ 17:00 CEST
cepr.org/events/updat...
@tomvalletti.bsky.social
5 10

by Tommaso Valletti

tomvalletti.bsky.social
I’ve written this piece in The Times.

Competition should work for the many, not the few.
1 2 11

Reposted by Tommaso Valletti

by Tommaso Valletti

Reposted by Tommaso Valletti

by Tommaso Valletti

tomvalletti.bsky.social
Video of this remarkable webinar now available online:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7e5...
2 6

Reposted by Tommaso Valletti

Reposted by Tommaso Valletti

cepr.org
Designing “Buy European” Policies for European Strategic Autonomy - 15 Apr @ 17:00 CEST

🗣️@snoep.bsky.social, D Harhoff, U Akcigit, G Spagnolo, B Baltzan, @schularick.bsky.social

@sandertordoir.bsky.social @tomvalletti.bsky.social @cristinacaffarra.bsky.social

cepr.org/events/desig...
#EconSky
3 7

by Tommaso Valletti

tomvalletti.bsky.social
FBP muted price competition among bookshops. But competition was still at work and turned to non-price aspects that overall have benefited readers in the Italian book market.

The paper is dedicated to Mario a dear friend who passed away far too soon. ❤️

Read at: ow.ly/BnZQ50VkExP

Ciao/Fin
Cultural exception? The impact of price regulation on prices and variety in the market for books
Fixed book price (FBP) agreements are a form of resale price maintenance applied to books in various countries. FBP restricts retail price competition with the aim of promoting book production variety. Yet, despite its popularity and adoption in many countries, there is no empirical evidence on its effects. We offer systematic evidence on the impact of FBP on book variety and prices using a detailed new dataset from Italy that includes the universe of books published and bought, before and after the introduction of FBP. Our results indicate that FBP raises prices without significantly affecting the number of new books published in the marketplace. However, it also increases considerably the variety of books actually bought, especially from independent bookstores. We estimate a structural model of demand that accounts for both effects, finding that consumers overall benefited from the regulation.
ow.ly
1

by Tommaso Valletti

tomvalletti.bsky.social
We also find that employment increased, and used LLM to look at Google reviews & ratings about bookshops.

Readers appreciate discovery, suggestions & events organized by bookshops. This is in line with the “service effort” mechanism in settings where otherwise there would be free-riding. 5/
1 1

by Tommaso Valletti

tomvalletti.bsky.social
Not really. We also find that the *variety* of books purchased by readers went up. Books that had a near-zero market share before FBP... started being purchased afterwards.

So there is a possible trade-off! 4/
1 1

by Tommaso Valletti

tomvalletti.bsky.social
Indeed, comparing with the same Italian books sold in Switzerland at the time (Italian is an official language there too! And there is no regulation of books in CH), final prices to readers went up, especially among independent bookshops that are very common in ITA.

End of the story? 3/
1 1

References

Fields & subjects

Updated 1m