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Cheap talk, monitoring and collusion

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  • David Spector

    (PSE - Paris-Jourdan Sciences Economiques - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - INRA - Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École des Ponts ParisTech - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement)

Abstract

Many collusive agreements involve the exchange of self-reported sales data between competitors, which use them to monitor compliance with a target market share allocation. Such communication may facilitate collusion even if it is unverifiable cheap talk and the underlying information becomes publicly available with a delay. The exchange of sales information may allow firms to implement incentive-compatible market share reallocation mechanisms after unexpected swings, limiting the recourse to price wars. Such communication may allow firms to earn profits that could not be earned in any collusive, symmetric pure-strategy equilibrium without communication.

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  • David Spector, 2020. "Cheap talk, monitoring and collusion," PSE Working Papers halshs-01983037, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-01983037
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-01983037v4
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Yu Awaya, 2021. "Private Monitoring and Communication in the Repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma," Games, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-10, October.

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