Gender Considerations in the Analysis of Market Definition and Competitive Effects: A Practical Framework and Illustrative Example
Lexis-Nexis Antitrust Report, August 2023
The August 2023 issue of the Lexis-Nexis Antitrust Report published research funded in part by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as part of the organization’s Gender Inclusive Competition Policy project. The paper, titled “Gender Considerations in the Analysis of Market Definition and Competitive Effects: A Practical Framework and Illustrative Example” and authored by Analysis Group Managing Principals Lisa Pinheiro and Jee-Yeon Lehmann and Vice Presidents Anne Catherine Faye and Marissa Ginn, was originally submitted as an online working paper to the OECD.
In their research, the authors outline potential supply- and demand-side factors and data sources that could be used to evaluate the extent to which gender-based considerations might be relevant to the analysis of competitive effects and early merger investigations. They show how their framework could be applied in practice through the analysis of a hypothetical merger between two consumer product firms, illustrating how initial analysis of competitive effects could identify relevant market features for competition analysis and inform whether additional investigations of gender-based factors may be warranted.
The OECD references the authors’ research findings in its Gender Inclusive Competition Toolkit for competition authorities, released in September of 2023.