TY - UNPB
T1 - Rules, Communication and Collusion
T2 - Narrative Evidence from the Sugar Institute Case
AU - Genesove, David
AU - Mullin, Wallace P
N1 - March 2001.
PY - 2001
Y1 - 2001
N2 - Detailed notes on weekly meetings of the sugar refining cartel show how communication helps firms collude, and so highlight the deficiencies in the current formal theory of collusion. The Sugar Institute did not fix prices or output. Prices were increased by homogenizing business practices to make price cutting more transparent. Meetings were used to interpret and adapt the agreement, coordinate on jointly profitable actions, ensure unilateral actions were not misconstrued as cheating, and determine whether cheating had occurred. In contrast to established theories, cheating did occur, but sparked only limited retaliation, partly due to the contractual relations with selling agents.
AB - Detailed notes on weekly meetings of the sugar refining cartel show how communication helps firms collude, and so highlight the deficiencies in the current formal theory of collusion. The Sugar Institute did not fix prices or output. Prices were increased by homogenizing business practices to make price cutting more transparent. Meetings were used to interpret and adapt the agreement, coordinate on jointly profitable actions, ensure unilateral actions were not misconstrued as cheating, and determine whether cheating had occurred. In contrast to established theories, cheating did occur, but sparked only limited retaliation, partly due to the contractual relations with selling agents.
U2 - 10.3386/w8145
DO - 10.3386/w8145
M3 - מסמך עבודה
T3 - NBER working paper series
BT - Rules, Communication and Collusion
PB - National Bureau of Economic Research
CY - Cambridge, Mass
ER -