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A ntitrust Economics 2013. David S. Evans University of Chicago, Global Economics Group. Elisa Mariscal CIDE, Global Economics Group. Topic 9: cartels and coordinated effects. Topic 9 | Part 1 29 August 2013. Date. Overview. The Economics of Price Fixing.
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Antitrust Economics 2013 David S. Evans University of Chicago, Global Economics Group Elisa Mariscal CIDE, Global Economics Group Topic 9: cartels and coordinated effects Topic 9 | Part 1 29 August 2013 Date
The Economics of Price Fixing “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.” Adam Smith (1723-1790) The Wealth of Nations, Book I, Chapter X (1776)
Some Other Cartel Price Paths Railroads Citric Acid Lysine
Cartel Duration Harrington, CRESSE Lectures, 2011
Cartel Harm Connor (2001), Levensteiny Suslow (2001), OECD, and WorldIntegratedTradeSolutiondatabase. SITC: Standard International TradeCode.
Fact About Cartels Data Harrington, CRESSE Lectures, 2011
Replicating the Monopoly Outcome with a Cartel Agreements on Price and Agreements on Output
Price Agreements Number of identical firms = 20 Monopoly Profit margin of $15 a unit and total profit of $15 million. Perfect competition MC P MR PM = $20 PC = $5 D 2,000,000 1,000,000 Q
Cartels with Two-Sided Platforms Fixed priced to buyers, not clear to sellers
Incentives to Cheat on Output Agreement Lysine cartel: one company Claimed it reported “misleading” sales info to the other companies and other company hid 3500 tons of Lysine from the cartel’s auditors. Harrington, CRESSE Lectures, 2011
Cheating Makes It Hard for Cartels to Achieve Monopoly Price