부산대학교 도서관

The article presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of the linked oligopoly hypothesis as a means of analyzing the effects of the multi-market expansion of large diversified bank holding companies in the U.S. The current geographic expansion of large bank holding companies has stimulated interest, particularly among banking and antitrust authorities, on its impact on aggregate concentration of banking resources. The trend toward multi-market expansions of banking firms, and the consequent increase in aggregate concentration, has rendered the basic single-market model obsolete for considering the competitive effects of the market-extension type of merger. According to the "linked oligopoly" concept, as banks become increasingly diversified into different geographic markets, there is likely to be an increase in the number of markets in which any given pair of firms meet. Although the concept of linked oligopoly has been in circulation for more than thirty years, it has never really been a significant element in antitrust cases, nor has it received much attention in the academic community.