This paper studies the effects of seller concentration and static market power on tacit collusion in extensively repeated laboratory posted-offer markets. Contrary to the implications of some earlier research, we find that tacit collusion does not become pervasive with extensive repetition. In a ‘strong no power’ design persistently competitive outcomes are observed in markets with three or fou...

Tacit Collusion in Auctions and Conditions for Its Facilitation and Prevention: Equilibrium Selection in Laboratory Experimental Markets Jin Li Massachusetts Institute of Technology Charles R. Plott California Institute of Technology The paper studies bidder behavior in simultaneous, continuous, ascending price auctions. The purpose is to create (possibly extreme) conditions under which tacit c...

We study tacit collusion in repeated auctions in which bidders can only observe past winners and not their bids. We adopt a stringent interpretation of tacit collusion as collusion without communication about strategies that we model as a symmetry restriction on repeated game strategies: Strategies cannot discriminate among initially nameless bidders until they have become named through winning...

The paper studies bidder behavior in simultaneous, continuous, ascending price auctions. The purpose is to create (possibly extreme) conditions under which tacit collusion develops quickly, naturally and reliably; study models of its development, and then study institutional and environmental remedies that would cause it to evolve into competitive behavior. Special environments were implemented...

increasing overall liberalization and improving reliability indexes are the two prime but often conflicting objectives of electricity markets. proper embedding of regulatory intervention of price caps provides an effective means to tradeoff between these two objectives. surprisingly, in the context of the infinitely repeated game paradigm, as in the case of actual electricity markets, the domin...

We test whether a non-binding price ceiling may serve as a focal point for tacit collusion, using data from the credit card market during the 1980s. In our sample, most credit card issuers face a state-level interest rate ceiling, and well over half match their ceiling. We develop an empirical model that can separately identify the instance in which an issuer matches its ceiling because it is b...