Asymmetric Cartels - a Theory of Ring Leaders
Many convicted cartels have a leader which is substantially larger than its rivals. In a setting where firms face indivisible costs of collusion, we show that: (i) firms may have an incentive to merge so as to create asymmetric market structures since this enables the merged firm to cover the indivisible cost associated with cartel leadership; and (ii) forbidding mergers leading to symmetric market structures can induce mergers leading to asymmetric market structures with a higher risk of collusion. Thus, these results have implications for the practice of the current EU and US merger policies.
If you experience problems downloading a file, check if you have the proper application to view it first. In case of further problems read the IDEAS help page. Note that these files are not on the IDEAS site. Please be patient as the files may be large.
As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version under "Related research" (further below) or search for a different version of it.
| Length: | |
| Date of creation: | May 2008 |
| Date of revision: | |
| Handle: | RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6829 |
| Contact details of provider: | Postal: Phone: 44 - 20 - 7183 8801 Fax: 44 - 20 - 7183 8820
|
| Order Information: | Email: |
References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
- Norbäck, Pehr-Johan & Persson, Lars, 2006.
"Entrepreneurial Innovations, Competition and Competition Policy,"
Working Paper Series
670, Research Institute of Industrial Economics, revised 05 May 2010.
- Norbäck, Pehr-Johan & Persson, Lars, 2012. "Entrepreneurial innovations, competition and competition policy," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(3), pages 488-506.
- Norbäck, Pehr-Johan & Persson, Lars, 2008. "Entrepreneurial Innovations, Competition and Competition Policy," CEPR Discussion Papers 6823, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Lommerud, Kjell Erik & Straume, Odd Rune & Sørgard, Lars, 2003.
"National versus international mergers in unionised oligopoly,"
Working Papers in Economics
12/03, University of Bergen, Department of Economics.
- Kjell Erik Lommerud & Odd Rune Straume & Lars Sørgard, 2006. "National versus international mergers in unionized oligopoly," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(1), pages 212-233, 03.
- Lommerud, Kjell Erik & Sørgard, Lars & Straume, Odd Rune, 2003. "National versus International Mergers in Unionised Oligopoly," CEPR Discussion Papers 4040, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Helder Vasconcelos, 2005. "Tacit Collusion, Cost Asymmetries, and Mergers," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(1), pages 39-62, Spring.
- Rothschild, R., 1999. "Cartel stability when costs are heterogeneous," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 17(5), pages 717-734, July.
- Friedman, James W, 1971. "A Non-cooperative Equilibrium for Supergames," Review of Economic Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(113), pages 1-12, January.
- Compte, Olivier & Jenny, Frederic & Rey, Patrick, 2002. "Capacity constraints, mergers and collusion," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 1-29, January.
- Persson, Lars & Horn, Henrik, 1998.
"Endogenous Mergers in Concentrated Markets,"
Working Paper Series
513, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
- Horn, Henrik & Persson, Lars, 2001. "Endogenous mergers in concentrated markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 19(8), pages 1213-1244, September.
- Horn, Henrik & Persson, Lars, 1996. "Endogenous Mergers in Concentrated Markets," CEPR Discussion Papers 1544, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- Harrington, Joseph E., 2006. "How Do Cartels Operate?," Foundations and Trends(R) in Microeconomics, now publishers, vol. 2(1), pages 1-105, August.
- Joseph E. Harrington, Jr, 2006. "How Do Cartels Operate?," Economics Working Paper Archive 531, The Johns Hopkins University,Department of Economics.
- Verboven, Frank, 1997. "Collusive behavior with heterogeneous firms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 121-136, May.
- Horn, Henrik & Persson, Lars, 1999.
"The Equilibrium Ownership of an International Oligopoly,"
Working Paper Series
515, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
- Horn, Henrik & Persson, Lars, 2001. "The equilibrium ownership of an international oligopoly," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 53(2), pages 307-333, April.
- Horn, Henrik & Persson, Lars, 1999. "The Equilibrium Ownership of an International Oligopoly," CEPR Discussion Papers 2302, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
- repec:cup:cbooks:9780521816632 is not listed on IDEAS
- repec:cup:cbooks:9780521016919 is not listed on IDEAS
This item is not listed on Wikipedia, on a reading list or among the top items on IDEAS.
When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:6829. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.
For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ()
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 references are entirely missing, you can add them using this form.
If the full references list an item that is present in RePEc, but the system did not link 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 profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.
Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.