IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bpj/bejeap/v14y2014i1p189-202n9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Market-Induced Rationalization and Welfare-Enhancing Cartels

Author

Listed:
  • Tuinstra Jan

    (Amsterdam School of Economics and CeNDEF, University of Amsterdam and Tinbergen Institute, Valckenierstraat 65–67, 1018 XE Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

  • in ’t Veld Daan L.

    (Amsterdam School of Economics and CeNDEF, University of Amsterdam and Tinbergen Institute, Valckenierstraat 65–67, 1018 XE Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

Abstract

We show that incomplete cartels in quantity-setting oligopolies may increase welfare, without any efficiencies or synergies being internalized by cartel formation. The main intuition is that the cartel has an incentive to contract output and that the firms outside the cartel react to this by expanding output. If the outsiders are more efficient than the cartel firms, average production costs go down. We model collusion in a market structure with imperfect substitute goods. Even for relatively moderate differences in efficiency, total welfare may increase due to this market-induced rationalization, whereas the cartel remains profitable. We discuss why the effect can be relevant for sectors where new, superior products are developed. Because anti-cartel enforcement is costly, it is important for competition authorities to realize that not all cartels lead to a welfare loss.

Suggested Citation

  • Tuinstra Jan & in ’t Veld Daan L., 2014. "Market-Induced Rationalization and Welfare-Enhancing Cartels," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 14(1), pages 189-202, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:14:y:2014:i:1:p:189-202:n:9
    DOI: 10.1515/bejeap-2013-0005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/bejeap-2013-0005
    Download Restriction: For access to full text, subscription to the journal or payment for the individual article is required.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1515/bejeap-2013-0005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cheung, Francis K., 1992. "Two remarks on the equilibrium analysis of horizontal merger," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 119-123, September.
    2. Stennek Johan, 2003. "Horizontal Mergers Without Synergies May Increase Consumer Welfare," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 3(1), pages 1-14, January.
    3. Juan‐Pablo Montero & Juan Ignacio Guzman, 2010. "Output‐Expanding Collusion In The Presence Of A Competitive Fringe," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 106-126, March.
    4. Farrell, Joseph & Shapiro, Carl, 1990. "Horizontal Mergers: An Equilibrium Analysis," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(1), pages 107-126, March.
    5. Stephen W. Salant & Sheldon Switzer & Robert J. Reynolds, 1983. "Losses From Horizontal Merger: The Effects of an Exogenous Change in Industry Structure on Cournot-Nash Equilibrium," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 98(2), pages 185-199.
    6. Iwan Bos & Erik Pot, 2012. "On the possibility of welfare-enhancing hard core cartels," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 107(3), pages 199-216, November.
    7. Perry, Martin K & Porter, Robert H, 1985. "Oligopoly and the Incentive for Horizontal Merger," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(1), pages 219-227, March.
    8. Sjostrom, William, 1989. "Collusion in Ocean Shipping: A Test of Monopoly and Empty Core Model s," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 97(5), pages 1160-1179, October.
    9. Matusui, Akihiko, 1989. "Consumer-benefited cartels under strategic capital investment competition," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 7(4), pages 451-470, December.
    10. Raymond Deneckere & Carl Davidson, 1985. "Incentives to Form Coalitions with Bertrand Competition," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 16(4), pages 473-486, Winter.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Neelanjan Sen & Urvashi Tandon & Rajit Biswas, 2024. "Collusion under product differentiation," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 142(1), pages 1-43, June.
    2. Koert Buiren & Daan in ‘t Veld & Janneke Voort, 2019. "State Aid and Competition: Application of a Social Welfare Criterion to State Aid," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 389-411, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Inderst, Roman & Wey, Christian, 2004. "The incentives for takeover in oligopoly," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 22(8-9), pages 1067-1089, November.
    2. Justin P. Johnson & Andrew Rhodes, 2021. "Multiproduct mergers and quality competition," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 52(3), pages 633-661, September.
    3. Ulus Aysegul & Yildiz Halis M., 2012. "On the Relationship between Tariff Levels and the Nature of Mergers," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-40, December.
    4. Sergio Currarini & Marco A. Marini, 2015. "Coalitional Approaches to Collusive Agreements in Oligopoly Games," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 83(3), pages 253-287, June.
    5. Bakaouka, Elpiniki & Escrihuela-Villar, Marc & Ferrarese, Walter, 2024. "Horizontal mergers with Bertrand competition and convex costs," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 60-67.
    6. Eric Giraud‐Héraud & Hakim Hammoudi & Mahdi Mokrane, 2003. "Multiproduct firm behaviour in a differentiated market," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 36(1), pages 41-61, March.
    7. Tsuyoshi Toshimitsu, 2017. "Merger Paradox in a Network Product Market: A Horizontally Differentiated Three-Firm Model," Discussion Paper Series 167, School of Economics, Kwansei Gakuin University, revised Sep 2017.
    8. Esfahani, Hamideh, 2019. "Profitability of horizontal mergers in the presence of price stickiness," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 279(3), pages 941-950.
    9. Kojun Hamada, 2012. "Uncertainty and Horizontal Mergers," Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics (JITE), Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 168(2), pages 252-265, June.
    10. Ziss, Steffen, 2001. "Horizontal mergers and delegation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(3-4), pages 471-492, March.
    11. R. Cellini & L. Lambertini, 2003. "Capital Accumulation and Horizontal Mergers in Differential Oligopoly Games," Working Papers 477, Dipartimento Scienze Economiche, Universita' di Bologna.
    12. Larry D. Qiu & Wen Zhou, 2007. "Merger waves: a model of endogenous mergers," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 38(1), pages 214-226, March.
    13. Huck, Steffen & Konrad, Kai A. & Müller, Wieland, 2000. "Profitable horizontal mergers: A market structure-oriented view," SFB 373 Discussion Papers 2000,27, Humboldt University of Berlin, Interdisciplinary Research Project 373: Quantification and Simulation of Economic Processes.
    14. Nilssen, Tore & Sorgard, Lars, 1998. "Sequential horizontal mergers," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(9), pages 1683-1702, November.
    15. Robert Town & Douglas Wholey & Roger Feldman & Lawton R. Burns, 2006. "The Welfare Consequences of Hospital Mergers," NBER Working Papers 12244, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    16. Gugler, Klaus & Szücs, Florian, 2013. "Spillover effects in oligopolistic markets," VfS Annual Conference 2013 (Duesseldorf): Competition Policy and Regulation in a Global Economic Order 79905, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    17. J. Peter Neary, 2007. "Cross-Border Mergers as Instruments of Comparative Advantage," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 74(4), pages 1229-1257.
    18. Tomaso Duso & Lars-Hendrik Röller & Jo Seldeslachts, 2014. "Collusion Through Joint R&D: An Empirical Assessment," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(2), pages 349-370, May.
    19. Santos-Pinto, Luís, 2010. "The impact of firm cost and market size asymmetries on national mergers in a three-country model," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 682-694, November.
    20. Chen, Jiawei, 2009. "The effects of mergers with dynamic capacity accumulation," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 92-109, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    efficient cartels; cournot competition; rationalization of production;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L10 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - General
    • L41 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bpj:bejeap:v:14:y:2014:i:1:p:189-202:n:9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Peter Golla (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.degruyter.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.