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Tacit Collusion in Capacity Investment: The Role of Capacity Exchanges

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  • Christiaan Hogendorn

    (Economics Department, Wesleyan University)

Abstract

In many capacity-intensive industries (e.g. electricity, bandwidth), exchanges allow firms to buy and sell wholesale capacity before selling on the retail market. This allows firms to smooth demand shocks, but it also raises suspicions that exchanges facilitate tacit collusion to limit capacity investment. This paper models investment and exchange in a one-shot game and in a repeated game with tacit collusion. It finds that the presence of the exchange does not reduce total capacity investment, and thus does not raise consumer prices. In fact, the exchange may make it more difficult to sustain tacit collusion.

Suggested Citation

  • Christiaan Hogendorn, 2006. "Tacit Collusion in Capacity Investment: The Role of Capacity Exchanges," Wesleyan Economics Working Papers 2006-002, Wesleyan University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:wes:weswpa:2006-002
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    File URL: http://repec.wesleyan.edu/pdf/chogendorn/2006002_hogendorn.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Stenbacka, Rune, 1994. "Financial structure and tacit collusion with repeated oligopoly competition," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 281-292, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Young David, 2010. "Endogenous Investment and Pricing under Uncertainty," The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(1), pages 1-29, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    capacity investment; capacity exchanges; business to business exchanges; tacit collusion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L13 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Oligopoly and Other Imperfect Markets
    • L41 - Industrial Organization - - Antitrust Issues and Policies - - - Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices
    • D43 - Microeconomics - - Market Structure, Pricing, and Design - - - Oligopoly and Other Forms of Market Imperfection

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