Tracing the Base: A Topographic Test for Collusive Basing-Point Pricing

Arbeitspapier

Basing-point pricing is known to have been abused by geographically dispersed firms in order to eliminate competition on transportation costs. This paper develops a topographic test for collusive basing-point pricing. The method uses transaction data (prices, quantities) and customer project site locations to recover the basing-point(s) from which delivered prices were calculated. These bases are compared to the locations of the production mills in a test that discriminates between competitive and collusive basing-point pricing. We define a measure for the likelihood of collusion that can be used to screen industries that traditionally apply delivered pricing for the presence of cartels. We operationalize this screen with a software. The test is hard to beat for cartels using this otherwise elusive form of price-fixing. When a cartel was found to have abused the basing-point system, our method can be used to estimate antitrust damages.

Angaben zum Objekt

• Sprache: Englisch

Verweise und Beziehungen

• Erschienen in: Series: Tinbergen Institute Discussion Paper ; No. 09-007/1

Klassifikation und Themen

• Klassifikation: Wirtschaft ; Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices ; Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law ; Hypothesis Testing: General
• Thema: basing-point pricing ; cartels ; detection ; antitrust ; damages ; Räumlicher Wettbewerb ; Preismanagement ; Kartell ; Makroökonomischer Einfluss ; Kartellrecht ; Rechtsdurchsetzung ; Theorie

Beteiligte, Orts- und Zeitangaben

• Ereignis: Geistige Schöpfung
• (wer): Bos, Iwan ; Schinkel, Maarten Pieter
• Ereignis: Veröffentlichung
• (wer): Tinbergen Institute
• (wo): Amsterdam and Rotterdam
• (wann): 2009

Weitere Informationen

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/87086
• Letzte Aktualisierung: 10.03.2025, 11:45 MEZ