Managing Principal Aaron Yeater Named the 2025 Economist of the Year by Global Competition Review for Kroger-Albertsons Merger Testimony

April 2, 2025

Analysis Group proudly congratulates Managing Principal Aaron Yeater on winning the Economist of the Year award presented by Global Competition Review (GCR) during its annual GCR Awards. Mr. Yeater was recognized for his testimony on behalf of the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in its litigation to enjoin the merger of the Kroger and Albertsons supermarket chains – one of the most closely watched merger challenges of recent years and an early application of the 2023 Merger Guidelines.

In his work on the case, Mr. Yeater analyzed cost-saving efficiencies that the companies claimed would result from the merger, showing that many of the claimed efficiencies were neither verifiable nor merger specific. In granting a preliminary injunction blocking the merger, a judge in the US District Court for the District of Oregon agreed with Mr. Yeater’s application of the new guidelines and noted, with reference to the efficiencies, that “Mr. Yeater’s report raises credible reasons to doubt some of the assumptions underlying the projection methodologies.”

The award was presented at a ceremony in Washington, DC, on April 1.