IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/71205.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Assessing Firm Behavior in Carve-out Markets: Evidence on the Impact of Carve-out Policy

Author

Listed:
  • Gayle, Philip
  • Thomas, Tyson

Abstract

Airlines wanting to cooperatively set prices for their international air travel service must apply to the relevant authorities for antitrust immunity (ATI). While cooperation may yield benefits, it can also have anti-competitive effects in markets where partners competed prior to receiving ATI. A carve-out policy forbids ATI partners from cooperating in markets policymakers believe will be most harmed by anti-competitive effects. We examine carve-out policy applications to three ATI partner pairings, and find evidence more consistent with cooperative pricing in carve-out markets in spite of the policy, calling into question the effectiveness of the policy in achieving intended market outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Gayle, Philip & Thomas, Tyson, 2016. "Assessing Firm Behavior in Carve-out Markets: Evidence on the Impact of Carve-out Policy," MPRA Paper 71205, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:71205
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/71205/1/MPRA_paper_71205.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Javier Gimeno, 1999. "Reciprocal threats in multimarket rivalry: staking out ‘spheres of influence’ in the U.S. airline industry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(2), pages 101-128, February.
    2. Brueckner, Jan K. & Proost, Stef, 2010. "Carve-outs under airline antitrust immunity," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 28(6), pages 657-668, November.
    3. Federico Ciliberto & Jonathan W. Williams, 2014. "Does multimarket contact facilitate tacit collusion? Inference on conduct parameters in the airline industry," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 45(4), pages 764-791, December.
    4. Volodymyr Bilotkach, 2005. "Price Competition between International Airline Alliances," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 39(2), pages 167-190, May.
    5. Brueckner Jan K. & Picard Pierre M., 2013. "Airline Alliances, Carve-Outs and Collusion," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(2), pages 211-227, June.
    6. Brueckner, Jan K & Whalen, W Tom, 2000. "The Price Effects of International Airline Alliances," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 43(2), pages 503-545, October.
    7. Steven Berry & Panle Jia, 2010. "Tracing the Woes: An Empirical Analysis of the Airline Industry," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 2(3), pages 1-43, August.
    8. Steven T. Berry, 1994. "Estimating Discrete-Choice Models of Product Differentiation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 25(2), pages 242-262, Summer.
    9. Sofia Berto Villas-Boas, 2007. "Vertical Relationships between Manufacturers and Retailers: Inference with Limited Data," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 74(2), pages 625-652.
    10. Harumi Ito & Darin Lee, 2007. "Domestic Code Sharing, Alliances, and Airfares in the U.S. Airline Industry," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 50(2), pages 355-380.
    11. Gasmi, F & Laffont, J J & Vuong, Q, 1992. "Econometric Analysis of Collusive Behavior in a Soft-Drink Market," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 1(2), pages 277-311, Summer.
    12. Jay Pil Choi, 2008. "Mergers With Bundling In Complementary Markets," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 553-577, September.
    13. Brueckner, Jan K., 2001. "The economics of international codesharing: an analysis of airline alliances," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(10), pages 1475-1498, December.
    14. Chen, Yongmin & Gayle, Philip G., 2007. "Vertical contracting between airlines: An equilibrium analysis of codeshare alliances," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 1046-1060, October.
    15. Ricardo Flores-Fillol & Rafael Moner-Colonques, 2007. "Strategic Formation of Airline Alliances," Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, University of Bath, vol. 41(3), pages 427-449, September.
    16. Philip G. Gayle, 2013. "On the Efficiency of Codeshare Contracts between Airlines: Is Double Marginalization Eliminated?," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, American Economic Association, vol. 5(4), pages 244-273, November.
    17. Gayle, Philip G. & Brown, Dave, 2014. "Airline strategic alliances in overlapping markets: Should policymakers be concerned?," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 243-256.
    18. Peters, Craig, 2006. "Evaluating the Performance of Merger Simulation: Evidence from the U.S. Airline Industry," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 49(2), pages 627-649, October.
    19. Volodymyr Bilotkach, 2011. "Multimarket Contact and Intensity of Competition: Evidence from an Airline Merger," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 38(1), pages 95-115, January.
    20. Zou, Li & Yu, Chunyan & Dresner, Martin, 2012. "Multimarket contact, alliance membership, and prices in international airline markets," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(2), pages 555-565.
    21. Jan K. Brueckner, 2003. "International Airfares in the Age of Alliances: The Effects of Codesharing and Antitrust Immunity," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 85(1), pages 105-118, February.
    22. Brueckner, Jan K., 2003. "The benefits of codesharing and antitrust immunity for international passengers, with an application to the Star alliance," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 83-89.
    23. Volodymyr Bilotkach & Kai Hüschelrath, 2011. "Antitrust Immunity For Airline Alliances," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(2), pages 335-380.
    24. Chen, Yongmin & Gayle, Philip G., 2019. "Mergers and product quality: Evidence from the airline industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 96-135.
    25. Vuong, Quang H, 1989. "Likelihood Ratio Tests for Model Selection and Non-nested Hypotheses," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 57(2), pages 307-333, March.
    26. Brueckner, Jan K & Spiller, Pablo T, 1994. "Economies of Traffic Density in the Deregulated Airline Industry," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 37(2), pages 379-415, October.
    27. W. Whalen, 2007. "A panel data analysis of code-sharing, antitrust immunity, and open skies treaties in international aviation markets," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 30(1), pages 39-61, February.
    28. William N. Evans & Ioannis N. Kessides, 1994. "Living by the "Golden Rule": Multimarket Contact in the U. S. Airline Industry," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(2), pages 341-366.
    29. Jong-Hun Park & Anming Zhang, 2000. "An Empirical Analysis of Global Airline Alliances: Cases in North Atlantic Markets," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 16(4), pages 367-384, June.
    30. Gresik, Thomas A & Mansley, Edward C, 2001. "The Strategic Effects of Batch Processing," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 42(3), pages 697-728, August.
    31. B. Douglas Bernheim & Michael D. Whinston, 1990. "Multimarket Contact and Collusive Behavior," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 21(1), pages 1-26, Spring.
    32. Orit Hassin & Oz Shy, 2004. "Code‐sharing Agreements and Interconnections in Markets for International Flights," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(3), pages 337-352, August.
    33. Jan K. Brueckner & Darin N. Lee & Ethan S. Singer, 2011. "Alliances, Codesharing, Antitrust Immunity, And International Airfares: Do Previous Patterns Persist?," Journal of Competition Law and Economics, Oxford University Press, vol. 7(3), pages 573-602.
    34. Bilotkach, Volodymyr & Hüschelrath, Kai, 2012. "Airline alliances and antitrust policy: The role of efficiencies," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 21(C), pages 76-84.
    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. Fageda, Xavier & Flores-Fillol, Ricardo & Theilen, Bernd, 2019. "Hybrid cooperation agreements in networks: The case of the airline industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 194-227.
    2. Luttmann, Alexander & Ladd, Daniel, 2023. "Loyalty rewards and redemption behavior: Stylized facts for the U.S. airline industry," MPRA Paper 119214, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Gayle, Philip G. & Yimga, Jules O., 2018. "How much do consumers really value air travel on-time performance, and to what extent are airlines motivated to improve their on-time performance?," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 14(C), pages 31-41.
    4. Philip G. Gayle & Ying Lin, 2021. "Cost Pass‐Through In Commercial Aviation: Theory And Evidence," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 59(2), pages 803-828, April.
    5. Chen, Yongmin & Gayle, Philip G., 2019. "Mergers and product quality: Evidence from the airline industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 96-135.
    6. Fageda, Xavier & Flores-Fillol, Ricardo & Lin, Ming Hsin, 2020. "Vertical differentiation and airline alliances: The effect of antitrust immunity," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    7. Gayle, Philip G. & Xie, Xin, 2019. "Firms’ markup, cost, and price changes when policymakers permit collusion: Does antitrust immunity matter?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 680-707.
    8. de Jong, Gerben & Behrens, Christiaan & van Herk, Hester & Verhoef, Erik, 2022. "Airfares with codeshares: (why) are consumers willing to pay more for products of foreign firms with a domestic partner?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 1-18.
    9. Brueckner, Jan K. & Singer, Ethan, 2019. "Pricing by international airline alliances: A retrospective study," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 20(C).
    10. Le Huubinh B. & Yimga Jules, 2019. "Market Power and Marginal Cost Effects in Competing Markets: Evidence from Airline Mergers," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 18(2), pages 63-108, June.

    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. Volodymyr Bilotkach, 2019. "Airline Partnerships, Antitrust Immunity, and Joint Ventures: What We Know and What I Think We Would Like to Know," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 54(1), pages 37-60, February.
    2. Brueckner, Jan K. & Flores-Fillol, Ricardo, 2020. "Market structure and quality determination for complementary products: Alliances and service quality in the airline industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    3. Alderighi, Marco & Gaggero, Alberto A. & Piga, Claudio A., 2015. "The effect of code-share agreements on the temporal profile of airline fares," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 42-54.
    4. Gayle, Philip G. & Xie, Xin, 2019. "Firms’ markup, cost, and price changes when policymakers permit collusion: Does antitrust immunity matter?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 680-707.
    5. Bilotkach, Volodymyr & Hüschelrath, Kai, 2019. "Balancing competition and cooperation: Evidence from transatlantic airline markets," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 1-16.
    6. Menezes Bezerra Sampaio, Raquel & Urdanoz, Miguel, 2022. "Airlines' cooperation in the US domestic market: Measuring the evolution of price gaps," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 424-443.
    7. Jules Yimga, 2023. "Multimarket Contact and Market Power Implications in the US Airline Industry," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 985-1024, December.
    8. Gayle Philip G. & Thomas Tyson, 2015. "Product Quality Effects of International Airline Alliances, Antitrust Immunity, and Domestic Mergers," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 14(1), pages 45-74, March.
    9. Philip G. Gayle & Xin Xie, 2018. "Entry Deterrence And Strategic Alliances," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 56(3), pages 1898-1924, July.
    10. Gayle, Philip G. & Brown, Dave, 2014. "Airline strategic alliances in overlapping markets: Should policymakers be concerned?," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 243-256.
    11. Le, Huubinh B. & Yimga, Jules O., 2023. "Codeshare restrictions as antitrust remedy," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 17-24.
    12. Volodymyr Bilotkach & Kai Hüschelrath, 2013. "Airline Alliances, Antitrust Immunity, and Market Foreclosure," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 95(4), pages 1368-1385, October.
    13. Calzada, Joan & Fageda, Xavier & Safronov, Roman, 2022. "How do global airline alliances affect flight frequency? Evidence from Russia," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    14. Fageda, Xavier & Flores-Fillol, Ricardo & Lin, Ming Hsin, 2020. "Vertical differentiation and airline alliances: The effect of antitrust immunity," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    15. Yimga, Jules, 2022. "Code-sharing agreements and path quality in the US airline industry," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 369-385.
    16. Xia, Wenyi & Zhang, Anming, 2016. "High-speed rail and air transport competition and cooperation: A vertical differentiation approach," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 456-481.
    17. Zhang, Anming & Czerny, Achim I., 2012. "Airports and airlines economics and policy: An interpretive review of recent research," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 15-34.
    18. Stephen Martin, 2012. "Market Structure and Market Performance," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 40(2), pages 87-108, March.
    19. Brueckner Jan K. & Picard Pierre M., 2013. "Airline Alliances, Carve-Outs and Collusion," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 12(2), pages 211-227, June.
    20. Fageda, Xavier & Flores-Fillol, Ricardo & Theilen, Bernd, 2019. "Hybrid cooperation agreements in networks: The case of the airline industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 194-227.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Airline competition; Antitrust immunity; Carve-out Policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L40 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - General
    • L93 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Air Transportation

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:71205. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.