It may be illegal for institutional investors to buy-and-hold large equity stakes in a less competitive industry with high market concentration.

Olivia London

2017-11-27 07:39:00 Mon ET

Is it anti-competitive and illegal for passive indexers and mutual funds to place large stock bets in specific industries with high market concentration? Harvard law professor Einer Elhauge suggests that it is illegal for a passive institutional investor to buy-and-hold large equity stakes in a less competitive industry with high concentration, such as the U.S. airlines industry with 4 or fewer key players. In contrast, passive indexers would be safe from antitrust concerns if most other institutional investors stop buying multiple public companies in a specific sector with high market concentration.

The basic rationale relates to the fact that if institutional investors such as index funds and mutual funds hold shares of multiple companies in a specific industry, these oligopolistic firms would tend to compete less vigorously with one another. When senior executives make business decisions in the best interests of their institutional investors, this logic suggests less fierce product market competition and greater price discrimination for consumers in addition to the private benefits of portfolio diversification. The net result would be more stable share prices and more favorable rents and returns to these passive indexers and mutual funds.

Although key critics may disagree with this novel thesis, it is quite controversial to judge whether it is legal for institutional investors to retain major equity stakes in oligopolistic firms in a given industry with high market concentration.

 


If any of our AYA Analytica financial health memos (FHM), blog posts, ebooks, newsletters, and notifications etc, or any other form of online content curation, involves potential copyright concerns, please feel free to contact us at service@ayafintech.network so that we can remove relevant content in response to any such request within a reasonable time frame.

Blog+More

President Trump tweets that he asks the SEC to assess the practical implications of switching to a 6-month corporate disclosure cycle.

John Fourier

2018-08-17 11:45:00 Friday ET

President Trump tweets that he asks the SEC to assess the practical implications of switching to a 6-month corporate disclosure cycle.

In accordance with the extant corporate disclosure rules and requirements, all U.S. public corporations have to report their balance sheets, income statemen

+See More

It can be practical for the U.S. to impose the 2% Warren wealth tax on the rich.

Dan Rochefort

2019-02-03 13:39:00 Sunday ET

It can be practical for the U.S. to impose the 2% Warren wealth tax on the rich.

It can be practical for the U.S. to impose the 2% wealth tax on the rich. Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren proposes a 2% wealth tax on the richest Americ

+See More

Facebook introduces a new cryptocurrency Libra as a fresh medium of exchange for e-commerce.

Dan Rochefort

2019-07-21 09:37:00 Sunday ET

Facebook introduces a new cryptocurrency Libra as a fresh medium of exchange for e-commerce.

Facebook introduces a new cryptocurrency Libra as a fresh medium of exchange for e-commerce. Libra will be available to all the 2 billion active users on Fa

+See More

AYA finbuzz podcast offers fresh insights into the latest stock market issues and economic trends for better and wiser investment decisions.

Daphne Basel

2019-07-31 11:34:00 Wednesday ET

AYA finbuzz podcast offers fresh insights into the latest stock market issues and economic trends for better and wiser investment decisions.

AYA Analytica finbuzz podcast channel on YouTube July 2019 In this podcast, we discuss several topical issues as of July 2019: (1) All 18 systemical

+See More

San Francisco Fed CEO Mary Daly suggests that trade escalation is not the only risk in the global economy.

Rose Prince

2019-06-19 09:27:00 Wednesday ET

San Francisco Fed CEO Mary Daly suggests that trade escalation is not the only risk in the global economy.

San Francisco Fed CEO Mary Daly suggests that trade escalation is not the only risk in the global economy. Due to the current Sino-U.S. trade tension, the g

+See More

Federal Reserve's QE exit strategy makes sense ahead of Fed Chair Janet Yellen's stepdown in 2018.

Chanel Holden

2017-03-27 06:33:00 Monday ET

Federal Reserve's QE exit strategy makes sense ahead of Fed Chair Janet Yellen's stepdown in 2018.

Goldman Sachs chief economist Jan Hatzius says the Federal Reserve's QE exit strategy makes sense ahead of Fed Chair Janet Yellen's stepdown in 2018

+See More