The discontent cartel member and cartel collapse: The case of the German cement cartel

We hypothesize a particular source of cartel instability and explore its relevance to understanding cartel dynamics. The cartel instability is rooted in the observation that, upon cartel formation, the relative positions of firms are often fixed which may lead some growth-conscious members to be discontent. This incongruity between a cartel member's allocated market share and its desired market share may result in systematic deviations and the eventual collapse of the cartel. This hypothesis is then taken to the German cement cartel of 1991–2002. We argue that Readymix was such a discontent cartel member and, using a rich pricing data set, are able to characterize how Readymix deviated, how other firms responded, and how it led to the collapse of the cartel.     

The impact of external forces on cartel network dynamics: Direct research in the diamond industry

This paper describes the impact of external environmental forces on cartel networks. Using a case research approach, this report examines two leading business networks within one industry, over time. The results suggest that (a) bargaining power of intermediaries increases with the advent of new and powerful actors, (b) process activities that cartels previously controlled are being outsourced to new actors sometimes based in developing countries, (c) other actors are acquiring resources once dominated by a cartel, (d) external forces triggered by the illegal diamond trade, such as international regulatory constraints, no longer favour cartels like De Beers, and (e) over time, these and additional environment factors are forcing actors like De Beers who perform rigid process activities to become more flexible. For example, forces are moving cartels which relied previously on hand-picked intermediaries in highly controlled networks to market their products to adopt a flexible market-focused expansion of operations in retail contexts.     

The impact of the 2002 reform of the EU leniency program on cartel outcomes

The objective of this study is to empirically assess whether the 2002 reform of the EU leniency program, which brought the EU leniency policy much closer to the US policy, has increased the European Commission’s capability to destabilize cartels while making prosecution more efficient. More specifically, relying on a difference-in-difference approach, we estimate the impact of the 2002 reform on cartel duration, fines before and after applying leniency reductions and duration of investigation. We find that the 2002 reform decreased cartel duration by about 87 percent, but did not significantly affect the other outcome variables. Thus, our findings seem to suggest that the 2002 reform has improved the cartel-destabilizing effect of the EU leniency program, without enhancing however its effectiveness in prosecuting cartels.     

成品油调价对国内物价水平的影响

在总结美国历史上对油品价格管制的经验和教训的基础上,针对当前人们对提高国内油品价格会加重通胀的担心,从定性和定量两个方面分析并得出一致结论,即油品价格调整对国内物价水平的影响非常有限。强调指出：油价调整应重在价格形成机制的调整,市场化的成品油价格是节能的巨大动力;高油价有助于加快国内产业结构调整的步伐,长远看将促进我国经济健康和可持续发展。     

The impact of market actions on firm reputation

Drawing on signaling theory, we hypothesize that a firm's reputation is shaped by its own market actions and the actions of its industry rivals. We view market actions as signals that convey information about the underlying competencies of firms and influence stakeholder evaluations of them. We find that the total number of a firm's market actions, the complexity of its action repertoire, the time lag in rivals' responses to its actions, and the similarity of its repertoire with those of its rivals positively affect its reputation. These results suggest that a firm's reputation is influenced both by its own actions and by its rivals' actions. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The bakers of Washington cartel: Twenty-five years later

Craig M. Newmark challenges the findings of a 1965 Federal Trade Commission decision and Economic Report that a price fixing cartel increased bread prices in the state of Washington from the mid-1950s to 1964. Newmark believes prices were higher during the cartel's existence because retailers in the west had higher margins and that bakers in the west had higher wages and higher normal profits than elsewhere in the country. Newmark ignores evidence that the cartel had set the higher retailer margins in Washington and that the labor costs and profits of Washington bakers were not higher than elsewhere. The Washington bakers had inflated distribution costs and excess capacity prior to the cartel's breakup. This result is commonplace when a cartel stimulates costly nonprice competition, so that the higher prices of the cartel members end up primarily in higher unit cost. Finally, Newmark claims that the reason prices fell in 1965 was the entry of a significant size price cutter, not the demise of the cartel. What Newmark characterized as a principal entrant was actually a tiny, two-man operation, with less than a 1.0 percent market share. The record shows that this entrant did not trigger the precipitous price decline occuring when the cartel was destroyed.     

The impact of shopbot use on prices and price dispersion: Evidence from online book retailing

Internet price search tools, notably shopbots, have reduced consumers' search costs for price and product characteristics. While a variety of analytic models predict that increased consumer search will lower price levels among competing retailers, there is no consensus in the literature as to how price dispersion will change with increased consumer search. Moreover, there are no papers that have empirically tested these predictions using direct observation of variation in shopbot use over time.This paper examines the impact of changes in shopbot use over time on pricing behavior in the Internet book market. We do this by combining price and clickstream data collected from August 1999 to July 2001 — a period of rapid expansion in shopbot use. We find that a 1% increase in shopbot use is correlated with a $0.41 decrease in price levels and a 1.1% decrease in price dispersion.     

The impact of regulating mobile termination rates and MNO-MVNO relationships on retail prices

A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) provides mobile telecommunication services by eluding the constraints of the radio communication infrastructure and establishing an agreement with a hosting network operator (HNO) for the use of its spectrum. Thus, MVNOs offer a wide range of mobile services and directly compete with every mobile network operator (MNO). This paper studies the economic justifications for potential regulatory intervention that defines the level of mobile termination rates (MTRs) and negotiations and agreements among MVNOs and HNOs. The results show that symmetric MTR reduction leads to competition growth among operators, forcing every operator to reduce retail prices and, consequently, to enhancing consumer welfare. The paper also finds that a collaborative strategy adopted by an HNO and an MVNO is advantageous for both and induces a reduction in retail prices, thus weakening other MNOs.     

The leniency rule revisited: Experiments on cartel formation with open communication

The experimental literature on antitrust enforcement provides robust evidence that communication plays an important role for the formation and stability of cartels. We extend these studies through a design that distinguishes between innocuous communication and communication about a cartel, sanctioning only the latter. To this aim, we introduce a participant in the role of the competition authority, who is properly incentivized to judge the communication content and price setting behavior of the firms. Using this novel design, we revisit the question whether a leniency rule successfully destabilizes cartels. In contrast to existing experimental studies, we find that a leniency rule does not affect cartelization. We discuss potential explanations for this contrasting result.     

Penalizing cartels: The case for basing penalties on price overcharge

In this paper we set out the welfare economics based case for imposing cartel penalties on the cartel overcharge rather than on the more conventional bases of revenue or profits (illegal gains). To do this we undertake a systematic comparison of a penalty based on the cartel overcharge with three other penalty regimes: fixed penalties, penalties based on revenue, and penalties based on profits. Our analysis is the first to compare these regimes in terms of their impact on both (i) the prices charged by those cartels that do form and (ii) the number of stable cartels that form (deterrence). We show that the class of penalties based on profits is identical to the class of fixed penalties in all welfare-relevant respects. For the other three types of penalty we show that, for those cartels that do form, penalties based on the overcharge produce lower prices than those based on profit) while penalties based on revenue produce the highest prices. Further, in conjunction with the above result, our analysis of cartel stability (and thus deterrence), shows that penalties based on the overcharge out-perform those based on profits, which in turn out-perform those based on revenue in terms of their impact on each of the following welfare criteria: (a) average overcharge, (b) average consumer surplus, and (c) average total welfare.     

The impact of network relationships on internationalization process: An empirical study of Chinese private enterprises

Chinese private enterprises have been internationalizing rapidly during the last two decades. This study adopts a network approach to examine what factors affect the internationalization process of Chinese private enterprises. Our survey of 108 private Chinese enterprises in the manufacturing sector in Zhejiang province in southeastern China revealed that business networks and personal networks affect the internationalization activities of Chinese private enterprises. Specifically, business networks have a positive impact on the timing of the first foreign market entry, the internationalization pace, and resource commitments, whereas personal networks have a positive impact on the internationalization pace and resource commitments, but not on the timing of the first foreign market entry. In this paper, we report our findings of our survey, discuss the contribution that this study makes to the existing internationalization literature, and suggest future research directions. Policy implications on how to facilitate the internationalization process are also discussed.     

国际油价长周期波动对产油国投资环境的影响

石油供需的弹性特点决定了国际石油市场一直存在高油价均衡与低油价均衡交替出现的现象。经济发展增速低于预期往往会带来国际油价从高位均衡向低位均衡转变,近年世界经济发展变动预示着国际油价已进入低位均衡阶段。在低油价均衡下,近年来很多重要的产油国都已出现十分严重的政府财政危机。出于维持国家财政平衡的需求,产油国往往会采取竞争性的生产政策,可能推出更具吸引力的投资政策。在石油投资机会增多的同时,投资风险会提高。在新的市场环境下,中国石油企业应当着力控制石油投资成本,在把握海外有利的投资机会的同时,高度重视和规避境外投资风险。     

The heterogeneous impact of house purchase limits policy on housing prices: Comparison between elite and non-elite school district houses

The effectiveness of housing purchase limits policies has aroused heated debate, yet few discussed its impact on educational capitalization. We examine the heterogeneous effect of housing purchase limits policy on the price of elite school district houses (ESDH) and non-elite school district houses. By exploiting second-hand houses data in Hefei China, we find that the price of ESDH has increased greatly after the limitation, compared with non-elite school districts. Further we discover that the ESDH have lower depreciation risks, and their price is higher in neighborhoods with smaller dwelling area. Our finding indicates that the limits policy may have exacerbated the educational capitalization.     

The impact of regulation on the retail prices in fixed-line telephony across the European Union

This paper estimates reduced-form models for incumbent prices in the fixed telecommunications industry using data for European Union (EU) countries from 1998 to 2002. The regulation of fixed-line telephony has a significant impact on prices for residential consumers. Liberalization of the telecommunications industry decreased retail prices by about 8.2%. The introduction of carrier pre-selection and number portability had a negative impact on price levels. The estimation results also suggest that a 1% decrease in termination charges on the incumbent network led on average to a 0.17% decrease in the cost of usage basket for residential consumers. Furthermore, in the pricing regressions for incumbent local and national calls at peak and off-peak times interconnection charges are significant only in the estimation of national peak prices. A 1% decrease in single transit interconnection charges on the incumbent network led to a 0.31% decrease in incumbent national prices at peak times, as calculated for the average prices in the EU in 2002.     

高油价下美国主要石油公司投资特点和行为分析

通过分析1974-2005年美国主要石油公司的投资数据,总结出在不同的原油价格下美国主要石油公司的投资特点和主要业务板块的投资行为;总投资油价高度关联、总业务板块的投资额和投资比例随着油价变化而调整、油价剧烈变化时容易发生公司并购.近30年来,美国主要石油公司的油气生产业务更倾向国外,注重天然气和海上油气的开发.在炼油业务方面,美国主要石油公司炼厂数量减少,规模扩大,技术升级加快,开工率提高,环保成本大幅度上升,炼油操作成本持续降低,在毛利稳定.油品销售方面,加油部数量下降,单站销量上升,加油模式开始转型,单站投资增加,零售利呈下降趋势.在油价持续高涨、环保压力越来越大的情况下,美国主要石油公司开始重视非常规石油资源和可再生能源的发展,重视恪守社会责任,宣传清洁能源和经济能源.     

Understanding the impact of symbolic and substantive environmental actions on organizational reputation

Research in corporate environmental practices has shown that stakeholders impose coercive and normative forces that drive firms to perform environmental protection actions. However, limited attention has been placed on how different constituents of stakeholders value the firm's environmental actions. By focusing on industry peers as a constituent of stakeholders, we examine how the firm's environmental actions impact its reputation. Based on institutional theory and signaling theory we propose that symbolic environmental actions negatively affect reputation, whereas substantive actions improve firm's reputation among its peers. Building on the notion of signaling process, the authors also observe that a firm's reporting practices moderate positively the negative effect of symbolic actions. Data from a sample of 213 publicly traded firms operating in polluting industries from 2006 to 2013 support these results. The findings emphasize the danger of using symbolic actions to signal environmental commitment in a context of high-involvement information search and opportunistic behaviors.     

Foreign owners and American cement: Old cartel hands,or new kids on the block?

In 1961, all portland cement producing capacity in the United States was owned by companies domiciled here. Thirty years later, about 70% was controlled by foreign owners, mostly European. It has been suggested by various authorities — academic economists, the business press, even cement executives — that foreign governments' tolerance for formal or tacit collusion would bring the American cement industry a kind of ‘price discipline’ that it has been largely unable to practice since 1948. This contention is tested as an hypothesis, using regional data from the U.S. Bureau of Mines and the Portland Cement Association. The test shows either no or a negative relation between foreign control and the level of regional cement prices. At the same time, we observe the traditional positive relation between concentration (HHI) and prices. The results imply that horizontal mergers between cement producers are a better subject for the attention of public policy than where they are owned.     

The effect of air traffic delays on airline prices

A legislative change in takeoff and landing restrictions at LaGuardia Airport provides an opportunity to study the effect of an exogenous shock to product quality on prices in the airline industry. I test how the price response varies with the degree of competition in the market. I find that prices fall by $1.42 on average for each additional minute of flight delay, and that the price response is substantially larger in more competitive markets.     

国际原油价格上涨对中国、美国和日本宏观经济的影响

2002年至2007年,国际原油价格上涨的特点包括:1)油价持续上涨的周期长,上涨幅度大;2)油价上涨与美元走弱密不可分;3)原油期货市场的投机因素对现货市场的影响逐渐加大.2003-2006年,原油价格波动对世界经济的影响有明显弱化的迹象,但是,2007年世界主要经济体在宏观经济指标方面出现波动,高油价对世界经济的影响似乎初现苗头.本文采用一种新的非对称协整检验方法,研究分析2002年以来原油价格波动对美国、日本和中国宏观经济的影响.结果显示,由持续到2002年的数据得出的结论,与持续到2007年的数据得出的结论有所不同.原油价格冲击对于供给侧和需求侧的影响,近年来发生了变化.原油价格冲击对于经济体的影响取决于经济体的产业结构和能源消费结构.原油价格波动与总体价格水平之间存在长期稳定协整关系,原油价格波动影响总体价格水平的传导机制相对而言更为复杂.     

美联储量化宽松政策及其对大宗商品的影响

面对大萧条以来最为严重的金融危机,美国政府实施了规模宏大的财政和货币双重刺激,但美国经济仍然处在低增长的边缘,而且失业率居高不下。为此,美联储在2010年11月初宣布,继续维持零利率政策不变,同时推出第二轮量化宽松货币政策。该政策一经公布,就受到众多国家的反对和指责。在后布雷顿森林体系下,美国的宏观经济政策具有明显的外溢效应,政策的成本和收益是不对称的。对美国而言,持续扩张是合理的政策选择,而且货币宽松优于财政扩张。美国在实施量化宽松政策的过程中,一方面可以刺激国内经济增长和促进就业,另一方面由此产生的流动性过剩和弱美元将通货膨胀和资产泡沫等风险外溢至国外,从而对外围国家产生实质性冲击。欧洲和日本将面临政策收放的两难,新兴经济体将面临通货膨胀和本币升值的双重压力。在美元中长期贬值的趋势下,大宗商品价格将保持高位震荡,而且波动可能加剧。