TY  - RPRT
A1  - Andres, Maximilian
A1  - Bruttel, Lisa Verena
A1  - Friedrichsen, Jana
T1  - The Leniency Rule Revisited: Experiments on Cartel Formation with Open Communication
T2  - CEPA Discussion Papers
N2  - The experimental literature on antitrust enforcement provides robust evidence that communication plays an important role for the formation and stability of cartels. We extend these studies through a design that distinguishes between innocuous communication and communication about a cartel, sanctioning only the latter. To this aim, we introduce a participant in the role of the competition authority, who is properly incentivized to judge communication content and price setting behavior of the firms. Using this novel design, we revisit the question whether a leniency rule successfully destabilizes cartels. In contrast to existing experimental studies, we find that a leniency rule does not affect cartelization. We discuss potential explanations for this contrasting result.
T3  - CEPA Discussion Papers - 24 
KW  - cartel
KW  - judgment of communication
KW  - corporate leniency program
KW  - price competition
KW  - experiment
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-491696
SN  - 2628-653X
N1  - This project, including the design and hypotheses, was preregistered at OSF before data collection had started (osf.io/ubhz8).
IS  - 24
ER  -