This paper studies how the presence of an antitrust authority affects market-sharing agreements made by firms in oligopolistic markets. These agreements prevent firms from entering each other´s market. The set of market-sharing agreements defines a collusive network, which is under suspicion by antitrust authorities. This paper shows that, from the firm´s point of view, the probability of being caught is endogenous and depends on the agreements each firm has signed. Stable collusive networks can be decomposed into a set of isolated firms and complete alliances of different sizes. While in the absence of the antitrust authority, a network is stable if its alliances are large enough, when the antitrust authority is considered, the network is stability depends on the network configuration as a whole. Antitrust laws may have a pro-competitive effect as they give Firms in large alliances more incentives to cut their agreements at once.
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Paper provided by Universidad Carlos III, Departamento de Economía in its series Economics Working Papers with number
we085024.
Find related papers by JEL classification: D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure and Pricing - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection K21 - Law and Economics - - Regulation and Business Law - - - Antitrust Law L41 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices
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Paul Belleflamme & Francis Bloch, 2004.
"Market sharing agreements and collusive networks,"
International Economic Review,
Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 45(2), pages 387-411, 05.
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Dutta, Bhaskar & Mutuswami, Suresh, 1996.
"Stable Networks,"
Working Papers
971, California Institute of Technology, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
[Downloadable!]
Jackson, Matthew O. & van den Nouweland, Anne, 2002.
"Strongly Stable Networks,"
Working Papers
1147, California Institute of Technology, Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
[Downloadable!]