6533b859fe1ef96bd12b6e4c

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Cartels Uncovered

Ari HyytinenFrode SteenOtto Toivanen

subject

Finnish-Soviet tradekilpailupolitiikkajel:L4001 natural sciencesjel:L41jel:L0jel:L60competition lawjel:L00010104 statistics & probabilitykartellit0502 economics and business050207 economics0101 mathematicsta511lainsäädäntöidänkauppa05 social scienceskorporativismiantitrust policykilpailuoikeuslaitAntitrust; cartel; competition; detection; Hidden Markov models; illegal; legal; leniency; policy; registry.jel:L4antitrust; cartel; competition; detection; Hidden Markov models; illegal; legal; leniency; policy; registrykilpailuGeneral Economics Econometrics and Financecartelscorporatism

description

How many cartels are there? The answer is important in assessing the efficiency of competition policy. We present a Hidden Markov Model that answers the question, taking into account that often we do not know whether a cartel exists in an industry or not. Our model identifies key policy parameters from data generated under different competition policy regimes and may be used with time-series or panel data. We take the model to data from a period of legal cartels - Finnish manufacturing industries 1951 - 1990. Our estimates suggest that by the end of the period, almost all industries were cartelized.

http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:jyu-201810304555