  We analyze the clustering properties of quasars simulated using a
semianalytic model built on the Millennium Simulation, with the goal of testing
scenarios in which black hole accretion and quasar activity are triggered by
galaxy mergers. When we select quasars with luminosities in the range
accessible by current observations, we find that predicted values for the
redshift evolution of the quasar bias agree rather well with the available data
and the clustering strength depends only weakly on luminosity. This is
independent of the lightcurve model assumed, since bright quasars are black
holes accreting close to the Eddington limit. We also used the large catalogues
of haloes available for the Millennium Simulation to test whether recently
merged haloes exhibit a stronger large-scale clustering than the typical haloes
of the same mass. This effect might help to explain the very high clustering
strength observed for z~4 quasars. However, we do not detect any significant
excess bias for the clustering of merger remnants, suggesting that objects of
merger-driven nature do not cluster significantly differently than other
objects of the same characteristic mass.
