Bitte verwenden Sie diesen Link, um diese Publikation zu zitieren, oder auf sie als Internetquelle zu verweisen: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/315097 
Erscheinungsjahr: 
2025
Schriftenreihe/Nr.: 
Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper No. TI 2025-012/VII
Verlag: 
Tinbergen Institute, Amsterdam and Rotterdam
Zusammenfassung: 
Competition authorities impose substantial penalties on firms engaging in illegal pricefixing. We examine how basing cartel fines on either revenue, profit, or price overcharge influences cartel and market prices, as well as cartel incidence and stability. In an infinitely repeated Bertrand oligopoly game, we show that revenue-based fines incentivize firms to charge prices above the monopoly price, whereas only overcharge-based fines encourage prices below the monopoly price. Cartels are stable for a smaller range of discount factors when fines are based on overcharges rather than other bases. We test these predictions in a laboratory experiment where subjects can form cartels, which allows them to discuss pricing at the risk of being detected and fined. By equalizing expected fines across treatments, we isolate the effect of the fine's base. We find that market prices are lowest under overcharge-based fines and highest under revenue-based fines. Variation in market prices across treatments is fully driven by cartel prices. While these results align with the theoretical predictions, cartel incidence remains unchanged across regimes. Our results suggest competition authorities could improve enforcement by shifting from revenue-based fines to profit- or overcharge-based fines.
Schlagwörter: 
Antitrust
Cartel
Collusion
Repeated game
Experiment
JEL: 
C73
C92
D43
K21
L41
Dokumentart: 
Working Paper
Erscheint in der Sammlung:

Datei(en):
Datei
Größe
1.25 MB





Publikationen in EconStor sind urheberrechtlich geschützt.