Allen M. Parkman

Crossownership and media concentration

This paper investigates whether media concentration permits newspaper and group owners of television stations to charge higher advertising rates than other types of owners. The prior studies that have looked at this issue have had to rely on questionable data. This study focuses on more accurate data, i.e. selling prices. It is argued that the potential for higher advertising rates could cause newspaper and group owners to pay higher prices for television stations than other types of buyers. An empirical analysis was made of sales of television stations between 1960 and 1969. The results tend to show that newspaper owners were willing to pay higher prices. A second analysis was done to determine whether the higher prices were due to market power or economies of scale. The results tend to show that the higher prices were probably due to the market power possessed by newspaper owned stations, some of which spills over to the other stations in the market.

Vertical mergers and selective price cutting

A number of reasons have been offered for why businesses vertically merge. These include the facilitation of collusion and selective price cutting to circumvent rigid oligopolistic prices in upstream markets. This article presents a test of the second motive using data from the cement-concrete industries. Mergers in those industries are investigated because they were a controversial series of vertical mergers. The selective price cutting hypothesis is tested using ARIMA models with intervention components. Our results do not support that hypothesis.

No-Fault Divorce: What Went Wrong?

In this study, the author shows how no-fault divorce has systematically operated against the interests of divorced women and their children. Using economic tools, especially human capital theory, the author critiques current divorce law and presents a framework for reform that would correct the injustices introduced by no-fault divorce. This book is useful reading for anyone interested in the health of the family and the well-being of women in contemporary US society.