Legal and illegal cartels in the European cement industry

Arbeitspapier

Due to being much better documented, legal cartels have recently attracted the interest of many researchers who aim to understand the functioning of illegal cartels in detail. This paper contributes to the question of what we can learn from legal cartels by taking a closer look at the cement industry which has a rich history of both legal and illegal cartels. We undertake a cross-country comparison for Austria, Germany, Poland and Norway, providing narrative evidence for many traits of the cases based on a variety of detailed sources. We identify similarities between legal and illegal cartels in aspects such as monitoring efforts, information exchange, the importance of industry associations and the role of capacities, whereas we also find substantial differences in the allocation of clients, reactions to deviations and pricing schedules.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: ZEW Discussion Papers ; No. 15-066

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Monopolization; Horizontal Anticompetitive Practices ; Legal Monopolies and Regulation or Deregulation ; Metals and Metal Products; Cement; Glass; Ceramics
• Subject: cartels ; collusion ; cement

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Fink, Nikolaus ; Frübing, Stefan
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW)
• (where): Mannheim
• (when): 2015

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/119313
• URN: urn:nbn:de:bsz:180-madoc-398165
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:46 AM CET