Bundling and Mergers in Energy Markets

International audienceDoes bundling trigger mergers in energy industries? We observe mergers between rms belonging to various energy markets, for instance between gas and electricity providers. These mergers enable rms to bundle. We consider two horizontally di¤erentiated markets. In this framework, we show that bundling strategies in energy markets create incentives to form multi-market rms in order to supply bi- energy packages. Moreover, we nd that this type of merger is detrimental to social welfare