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Resale Price Maintenance: An Economic Assessment of the Federal Trade Commission's Case against the Corning Glass Works

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  • Ippolito, Pauline M
  • Overstreet, Thomas R, Jr

Abstract

This article examines the economic explanations for the use of resale price maintenance (RPM) by the Corning Glass Works, using empirical evidence developed from the Federal Trade Commission's case challenging the practice. Three classes of RPM theories are tested: the supplier and dealer anticompetitive theories, and the class of principle-agent theories. The article uses both ex ante and ex post tests to distinguish the theories, including tests based on structural evidence, as well as data on sales, advertising and stock market reactions for the company and its competitors around critical events in the case. The evidence most convincingly rejects the anticompetitive theories and points toward a principle-agent explanation in which RPM helped increase sales of Corning's products. The case is of interest, in part, because the "simple" products at issue in the case are not the types of products most often associated with potential efficiency explanations for RPM. Copyright 1996 by the University of Chicago.

Suggested Citation

  • Ippolito, Pauline M & Overstreet, Thomas R, Jr, 1996. "Resale Price Maintenance: An Economic Assessment of the Federal Trade Commission's Case against the Corning Glass Works," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 39(1), pages 285-328, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jlawec:v:39:y:1996:i:1:p:285-328
    DOI: 10.1086/467350
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Thomas W. Gilligan, 1986. "The Competitive Effects of Resale Price Maintenance," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 17(4), pages 544-556, Winter.
    2. Ralph A. Winter, 1993. "Vertical Control and Price Versus Nonprice Competition," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 108(1), pages 61-76.
    3. Pickering, J F, 1974. "The Abolition of Resale Price Maintenance in Great Britain," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 26(1), pages 120-146, March.
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    7. William S. Comanor & John B. Kirkwood, 1985. "Resale Price Maintenance And Antitrust Policy," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 3(3), pages 9-16, March.
    8. Hughes, John S & Magat, Wesley A & Ricks, William E, 1986. "The Economic Consequences of the OSHA Cotton Dust Standards: An Analysis of Stock Price Behavior," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 29-59, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Joseph Farrell & Paul Pautler & Michael Vita, 2009. "Economics at the FTC: Retrospective Merger Analysis with a Focus on Hospitals," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 35(4), pages 369-385, December.
    2. Kawaguchi, Kohei & Qiu, Jeff & Zhang, Yi, 2022. "Competitive Effects of Resale Price Maintenance Through Inventory: Evidence from Publishing Industry," SocArXiv wma6p, Center for Open Science.
    3. Bakó, Barna & Kálecz-Simon, András, 2012. "Vertikális korlátozások - növelik vagy csökkentik a jólétet?. Érvek az irodalomból [Vertical constraints - do they increase or reduce welfare?. Arguments in the literature]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(10), pages 1138-1159.
    4. Xiao, Ping & (Jack) Chen, Xinlei & Chen, Yuxin & Lu, Wei, 2021. "Violation behavior in vertical restraint: Empirical analyses in the case of retail price maintenance," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 953-973.
    5. Frank Mathewson & Ralph Winter, 1998. "The Law and Economics of Resale Price Maintenance," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 13(1), pages 57-84, April.
    6. Giorgio Zanarone, 2009. "Vertical Restraints and the Law: Evidence from Automobile Franchising," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 52(4), pages 691-700, November.
    7. Emanuele Giovannetti & Laura Magazzini, 2013. "Resale Price Maintenance: An Empirical Analysis of UK Firms' Compliance," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 123(11), pages 582-595, November.
    8. Michael Baye & Matias Barenstein & Debra Holt & Pauline Ippolito & James Lacko & Jesse Leary & Janis Pappalardo & Paul Pautler & Michael Vita, 2008. "Economics at the FTC: The Google-DoubleClick Merger, Resale Price Maintenance, Mortgage Disclosures, and Credit Scoring in Auto Insurance," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 33(3), pages 211-230, November.
    9. Elif Cemre Hazıroğlu & Semih Gökatalay, 2016. "Minimum resale price maintenance in EU in the aftermath of the US Leegin decision," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 42(1), pages 45-71, August.
    10. Robert W. Crandall & Clifford Winston, 2005. "Does antitrust policy improve consumer welfare? Assessing the evidence," Chapters, in: Colin Robinson (ed.), Governments, Competition and Utility Regulation, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. John Asker & Heski Bar-Isaac, 2010. "Exclusionary Minimum Resale Price Maintenance," NBER Working Papers 16564, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    12. Jürgen-Peter Kretschmer, 2014. "How to deal with resale price maintenance: What can we learn from empirical results?," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 38(2), pages 343-368, October.
    13. Dertwinkel-Kalt, Markus & Wey, Christian, 2023. "Resale price maintenance in a successive monopoly model," DICE Discussion Papers 395, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics (DICE).
    14. Alexander MacKay & David A. Smith, 2017. "Challenges for Empirical Research on RPM," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 50(2), pages 209-220, March.

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