Abstract:This paper studies the firm's merging strategy and its influence on social welfare in the market with possibility of successive entry. The conclusions in this paper reveal the basic difference of merging behavior between monopolistic competition and oligopoly. The research shows that: 1) permission of successive entry reduces the incentive of firms to merge and avoid the possibility of high market concentration caused by sequential merging, so as to increase the social welfare; 2) though with permission, ac...