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Cartel price announcements: The vitamins industry

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  • Marshall, Robert C.
  • Marx, Leslie M.
  • Raiff, Matthew E.

Abstract

The primary manufacturers of vitamins admitted to participating in international market-share-agreement cartels for several years during the 1990s. Their announced price increases appeared in leading trade journals. We show that price announcements during the cartel period, and the lead times before these prices took effect, were fundamentally different in character from price announcements when explicit collusion was less likely. These differences are consistent with our model of price announcements where we account for the importance to the cartel of buyer acceptance of, or resistance to, a price increase. Acceptance avoids costly market-share reallocations among members of an explicit cartel. Logit estimates show that after 1985, the likelihood of a price announcement is largely driven by the length of time between announcements, rather than cost or demand factors, suggesting that the price announcements after 1985 stem from cartel meetings.

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  • Marshall, Robert C. & Marx, Leslie M. & Raiff, Matthew E., 2008. "Cartel price announcements: The vitamins industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 762-802, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:indorg:v:26:y:2008:i:3:p:762-802
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    4. H. Peter Boswijk & Maurice J. G. Bun & Maarten Pieter Schinkel, 2019. "Cartel dating," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(1), pages 26-42, January.
    5. Riemer P. Faber & Maarten C. W. Janssen, 2019. "On the Effects of Suggested Prices in Gasoline Markets," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 121(2), pages 676-705, April.
    6. Willem Boshoff & Stefan Frübing & Kai Hüschelrath, 2018. "Information exchange through non-binding advance price announcements: an antitrust analysis," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 439-468, June.
    7. Thomas Bourveau & Guoman She & Alminas Žaldokas, 2020. "Corporate Disclosure as a Tacit Coordination Mechanism: Evidence from Cartel Enforcement Regulations," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(2), pages 295-332, May.
    8. Pierluigi Sabbatini, 2016. "The Coordinated Effect of a Merger with Balanced Sharing of Collusive Profits," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 345-371, September.
    9. Escobar, Juan F. & Llanes, Gastón, 2018. "Cooperation dynamics in repeated games of adverse selection," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 408-443.
    10. Andreoli-Versbach, Patrick & Franck, Jens-Uwe, 2015. "Endogenous price commitment, sticky and leadership pricing: Evidence from the Italian petrol market," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 32-48.
    11. Iossa, Elisabetta & Loertscher, Simon & Marx, Leslie & Rey, Patrick, 2020. "Collusive Market Allocations," TSE Working Papers 20-1084, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    12. Gustavo Gudino, 2021. "Self-Enforcing Price Leadership," Games, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-18, July.
    13. Gerlach, Heiko & Nguyen, Lan, 2021. "Price staggering in cartels," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    14. Johannes Paha, 2012. "Using accounting data in cartel damage calculations: blessing or menace?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 241-263, October.
    15. Kaplow, Louis, 2018. "Price-fixing policy," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 749-776.
    16. Chen, Gang & Rytter, Niels G.M. & Jiang, Liping & Nielsen, Peter & Jensen, Lars, 2017. "Pre-announcements of price increase intentions in liner shipping spot markets," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 109-125.
    17. Marc Escrihuela‐Villar & Walter Ferrarese, 2022. "Asymmetric input contracts under price leadership," Manchester School, University of Manchester, vol. 90(1), pages 77-91, January.
    18. Shakun Datta Mago & Emmanuel Dechenaux, 2009. "Price leadership and firm size asymmetry: an experimental analysis," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 12(3), pages 289-317, September.
    19. Kumar, Vikram & Marshall, Robert C. & Marx, Leslie M. & Samkharadze, Lily, 2015. "Buyer resistance for cartel versus merger," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 71-80.

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