Competition Policy
A Game-Theoretic Perspective

This entirely up-to-date book uses the latest game theory to analyse anti-competitive behaviour among firms and to consider its implications for competition policy.

Louis Phlips (Author)

9780521498715, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 19 October 1995

292 pages, 28 line figures
23.4 x 15.6 x 1.6 cm, 0.41 kg

This book uses game theory to analyse anti-competitive behaviour among firms and to consider its implications for competition policy. Part I focuses on 'explicit collusion': the author proves that 'four are few and six are many', and shows how cartels can be enforced under imperfect and incomplete information. Part II on 'tacit collusion' discusses the informational requirements of collusion detection in noncooperative repeated games. In Part III on 'semicollusion', excess capacity is shown to reinforce collusion. Part IV is devoted to the detection of predatory pricing. In this book, Louis Phlips applies the latest economic theory to a discussion of several European antitrust decisions and empirical studies. The presentation of case studies, combined with a clear exposition of the theory, will make this book invaluable to teachers and students of competition policy.

Preface
Acknowledgements
1. Preliminaries
Part I. Explicit Collusion: 2. Four are few and six are many
3. Cartel laws are good for business
4. Cartel enforcement
Part II. Tacit Collusion: 5. Information sharing among oligopolists
6. Repeated games with collusive outcomes
7. Price leadership and conscious parallelism
8. Collusion detection
Part III. Semicollusion: 9. Excess capacity and collusion
10. Collusion in R & D
Part IV. Predatory Pricing: 11. Predation in theory
12. Evidence on predation
13. Antitrust implications.

Subject Areas: Economics of industrial organisation [KCD]