IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/mde/wpaper/0147.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Collusion in Two-Sided Markets

Author

Listed:
  • Yassine Lefouili
  • Joana Pinho

Abstract

This paper explores the incentives for, and the effects of, collusion in prices between two-sided platforms. We characterize the most profitable sustainable agreement when platforms collude on both sides of the market and when they collude on a single side of the market. Under two-sided collusion, prices on both sides are higher than the competitive prices, implying that agents on both sides become worse off as compared to the competitive outcome. An increase in cross-group externalities makes two-sided collusion harder to sustain, and reduces the harm from collusion suffered by the agents on a given side as long as the collusive price on that side is lower than the monopoly price. When platforms collude on a single side of the market, the price on the collusive side is lower (higher) than the competitive price if the magnitude of the cross-group externalities exerted on that side is sufficiently large (small). As a result, one-sided collusion may benefit the agents on the collusive side and harm the agents on the competitive side.

Suggested Citation

  • Yassine Lefouili & Joana Pinho, 2020. "Collusion in Two-Sided Markets," GEE Papers 0147, Gabinete de Estratégia e Estudos, Ministério da Economia, revised Apr 2020.
    • Handle: RePEc:mde:wpaper:0147
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.gee.gov.pt//RePEc/WorkingPapers/GEE_PAPERS_147.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2020
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dewenter, Ralf & Haucap, Justus & Wenzel, Tobias, 2011. "Semi-collusion in media markets," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 92-98, June.
    2. Jay Pil Choi & Heiko Gerlach, 2013. "Multi-Market Collusion with Demand Linkages and Antitrust Enforcement," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 61(4), pages 987-1022, December.
    3. Federico Boffa & Lapo Filistrucchi, 2014. "Optimal Cartel Prices in Two-Sided Markets Access," Working Papers 14-19, NET Institute.
    4. Mark Armstrong, 2006. "Competition in two‐sided markets," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 37(3), pages 668-691, September.
    5. Kaiser, Ulrich & Wright, Julian, 2006. "Price structure in two-sided markets: Evidence from the magazine industry," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 1-28, January.
    6. David S. Evans & Richard Schmalensee, 2013. "The Antitrust Analysis of Multi-Sided Platform Businesses," NBER Working Papers 18783, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    7. Raphael Thomadsen & Ki-Eun Rhee, 2007. "Costly Collusion in Differentiated Industries," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(5), pages 660-665, 09-10.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lefouili, Yassine & Pinho, Joana, 2020. "Collusion between two-sided platforms," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    2. Lefouili, Yassine & Pinho, Joana, 2020. "Collusion between two-sided platforms," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    3. Peitz, Martin & Samkharadze, Lily, 2022. "Collusion between non-differentiated two-sided platforms," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    4. Marco Antonielli & Lapo Filistrucchi, 2011. "Collusion and the political differentiation of newspapers," Working Papers 11-26, NET Institute, revised Nov 2011.
    5. Jullien, Bruno & Pavan, Alessandro & Rysman, Marc, 2021. "Two-sided Markets, Pricing, and Network Effects," TSE Working Papers 21-1238, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    6. Martin Peitz & Sven Rady & Piers Trepper, 2017. "Experimentation in Two-Sided Markets," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(1), pages 128-172.
    7. Amelio, Andrea & Giardino-Karlinger, Liliane & Valletti, Tommaso, 2020. "Exclusionary pricing in two-sided markets," International Journal of Industrial Organization, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    8. Marc Ivaldi & Catherine Muller-Vibes, 2018. "The differentiated effect of advertising on readership: evidence from a two-sided market approach," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 29(3), pages 363-376, September.
    9. Stühmeier, Torben & Wenzel, Tobias, 2011. "Getting beer during commercials: Adverse effects of ad-avoidance," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(1), pages 98-106, March.
    10. Matthew Gentzkow & Jesse M. Shapiro & Michael Sinkinson, 2014. "Competition and Ideological Diversity: Historical Evidence from US Newspapers," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(10), pages 3073-3114, October.
    11. Hui Li & Qiaowei Shen & Yakov Bart, 2018. "Local Market Characteristics and Online-to-Offline Commerce: An Empirical Analysis of Groupon," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 64(4), pages 1860-1878, April.
    12. Christos Genakos & Tommaso Valletti, 2011. "Testing The “Waterbed” Effect In Mobile Telephony," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 9(6), pages 1114-1142, December.
    13. Xin Tang & Haibing Lu & Wei Huang & Shulin Liu, 2023. "Investment decisions and pricing strategies of crowdfunding players: In a two-sided crowdfunding market," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 1209-1240, June.
    14. Junseok Hwang & Dongook Choi & Jongeun Oh & Yeonbae Kim, 2009. "Competition in the Korean Internet Portal Market: Network Effects, Profit, and Market Efficiency," TEMEP Discussion Papers 200925, Seoul National University; Technology Management, Economics, and Policy Program (TEMEP), revised Nov 2009.
    15. Marleen Marra, 2024. "Estimating and Auction Platform Game with Two-Sided Entry," Working Papers hal-03393068, HAL.
    16. Affeldt, P. & Argentesi, E. & Filistrucchi, Lapo, 2021. "Estimating Demand with Multi-Homing in Two-Sided Markets," Other publications TiSEM 1317bf39-d02e-4f61-a34f-e, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    17. Filistrucchi, L. & Gerardin, D. & van Damme, E.E.C. & Keunen, S. & Klein, T.J. & Michielsen, T.O. & Wileur, J., 2010. "Mergers in Two-Sided Markets - A Report to the NMa," Other publications TiSEM f901d1fe-8878-444e-a685-8, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    18. S. Sriram & Puneet Manchanda & Mercedes Bravo & Junhong Chu & Liye Ma & Minjae Song & Scott Shriver & Upender Subramanian, 2015. "Platforms: a multiplicity of research opportunities," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 26(2), pages 141-152, June.
    19. Lapo Filistrucchi & Damien Geradin & Eric van Damme, 2012. "Identifying Two-Sided Markets," Working Papers - Economics wp2012_01.rdf, Universita' degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Scienze per l'Economia e l'Impresa.
    20. Rattanasuda Poolsombat & Gianluigi Vernasca, 2006. "Partial Multihoming in Two-sided Markets," Discussion Papers 06/10, Department of Economics, University of York.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Collusion; Two-sided markets; Cross-group externalities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • 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

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:mde:wpaper:0147. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joana Almodovar (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/geegvpt.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.