confer credibility to such arrangements even in environments where firms lack commitment power, thereby inducing collusion …

mechanism to implement collusion among retailers, building on the natural ‘complementarity’ between retail and wholesale prices …. When efficient collusion is not sustainable, this complementarity allows retailers to rely on inefficient input supply …

bidders into bidding less aggressively and so allow a ring member to bid more aggressively. Collusion increases the …

firms and in the amount of funding they seek. The model can encompass collusion between clients and auditors, arising from … the joint provision of auditing and consulting services: deflecting collusion requires less ambitious standards. Finally …, banning the provision of consulting services by auditors eliminates collusion but may not be optimal in the presence of …

We develop a theory of the emergence of merchant guilds as an efficient mechanism to implement collusion among …