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Tacit Collusion and Capacity Withholding in Repeated Uniform Price Auctions

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  • Dechenaux, Emmanuel

    () (Kent State University)

  • Kovenock, Dan

    (Purdue University)

Abstract

This paper contributes to the study of tacit collusion by analyzing infinitely repeated multiunit uniform price auctions in a symmetric oligopoly with capacity constrained firms. Under both the Market Clearing and Maximum Accepted Price rules of determining the uniform price, we show that when each firm sets a price-quantity pair specifying the firm's minimum acceptable price and the maximum quantity the firm is willing to sell at this price, there exists a range of discount factors for which the monopoly outcome with equal sharing is sustainable in the uniform price auction, but not in the corresponding discriminatory auction. Moreover, capacity withholding may be necessary to sustain this outcome. We extend these results to the case where firms may set bids that are arbitrary step functions of price-quantity pairs with any finite number of price steps. Surprisingly, under the Maximum Accepted Price rule, firms need employ no more than two price steps to minimize the value of the discount factor above which the perfectly collusive outcome with equal sharing is sustainable on a stationary path. Under the Market Clearing Price rule, only one step is required. That is, within the class of step bidding functions with a finite number of steps, maximal collusion is attained with simple price-quantity strategies exhibiting capacity withholding.

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Bibliographic Info

Paper provided by Research Institute of Industrial Economics in its series Working Paper Series with number 636.

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Length: 36 pages
Date of creation: 01 Mar 2005
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:hhs:iuiwop:0636

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Keywords: Auction; Capacity; Collusion; Electricity Market; Supply Function;

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  1. Natalia Fabra & Nils‐Henrik Fehr & David Harbord, 2006. "Designing electricity auctions," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(1), pages 23-46, 03.
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  3. Deneckere, Raymond J & Kovenock, Dan, 1992. "Price Leadership," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(1), pages 143-62, January.
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  4. Crampes, Claude & Creti, Anna, 2005. "Capacity Competition in Electricity Markets," Open Access publications from University of Toulouse 1 Capitole http://neeo.univ-tlse1.fr, University of Toulouse 1 Capitole.
  5. Emmanuel Dechenaux & Dan Kovenock, 2011. "Endogenous rationing, price dispersion and collusion in capacity constrained supergames," Economic Theory, Springer, vol. 47(1), pages 29-74, May.
  6. Garcia-Diaz, Anton & Marin, Pedro L., 2003. "Strategic bidding in electricity pools with short-lived bids: an application to the Spanish market," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 201-222, February.
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  11. Aitor Ciarreta & María Paz Espinosa, 2003. "Market Power In The Spanish Wholesale Electricity Market," Working Papers. Serie AD 2003-22, Instituto Valenciano de Investigaciones Económicas, S.A. (Ivie).
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  13. Crawford, Gregory S. & Crespo, Joseph & Tauchen, Helen, 2007. "Bidding asymmetries in multi-unit auctions: Implications of bid function equilibria in the British spot market for electricity," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(6), pages 1233-1268, December.
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Cited by:
  1. Dechenaux, Emmanuel & Kovenock, Dan, 2003. "Endogenous Rationing, Price Dispersion, and Collusion in Capacity Constrained Supergames," Purdue University Economics Working Papers 1164, Purdue University, Department of Economics.
  2. Sven Heim & Georg Götz, 2013. "Do pay-as-bid auctions favor collusion? - Evidence from Germany’s market for reserve power," MAGKS Papers on Economics 201324, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Faculty of Business Administration and Economics, Department of Economics (Volkswirtschaftliche Abteilung).
  3. Joseph Mullins & Liam Wagner & John Foster, 2010. "Price Spikes in Electricity Markets: A Strategic Perspective," Energy Economics and Management Group Working Papers 05, School of Economics, University of Queensland, Australia.
  4. Anderson, E.J. & Cau, T.D.H., 2011. "Implicit collusion and individual market power in electricity markets," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 211(2), pages 403-414, June.

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