The Hart-Scott-Rodino Act at Fifty: Acquisition Patterns and Industry Dynamics
Abstract
The Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act requires firms to notify the U.S. antitrust agencies of acquisitions that exceed size thresholds. We study the economic consequences of the 2000 HSR Amendments, effective in 2001, which raised the minimum reporting threshold from $15 to $50 million, as adjusted, and removed the percentage-of-shares trigger, exempting many smaller transactions from review. Using SDC/Refinitiv transaction data, annual HSR reports, and Census Business Dynamics Statistics, we construct an industry-level measure of exposure to the reform and compare more-and less-exposed industries over the following two decades. We document three stylized facts: the HSR reform is associated with a shift in the composition of recorded acquisitions toward larger, same-industry, and repeated-acquirer deals; these responses differ sharply between goods-producing and service industries; and so do the accompanying changes in industry and labor-market dynamics.
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