formation, and discusses how corporate governance and firm agency problems affect optimal law enforcement against cartels, both … in terms of sanctions and leniency policies. Many of the conclusions appear applicable, with minor changes, to non-antitrust … forms of collusion, such as collusion between auditors and management, and more generally to corporate and organized crime. …

An antitrust authority deters collusion using fines and a leniency program. Unlike in most of the earlier literature …, our firms have imperfect cumulative evidence of the collusion. That is, cartel conviction is not automatic if one firm …

We study cartel contracts using data on 18 contract clauses of 109 legal Finnish manufacturing cartels. One third of … organization, or external threats. Cartels use three main approaches to raise profits: Price, market allocation, and specialization …. These appear to be substitutes. Choosing one has implications on how cartels deal with instability. Simplifying, we find …

show that any vertical merger facilitates upstream collusion, no matter how large (in terms of capacity or size of product … collusion than a similar merger with a smaller buyer. This formalizes the idea expressed in the U.S. and EU non …

The paper reviews the recent evolution of leniency programs for cartels in the US and EU, surveys their theoretical … discussed appear relevant to the fight of other forms of multiagent organized crime - like auditor-manager collusion, financial … fraud, or corruption - that share with cartels the crucial features that well designed leniency and whistleblower programs …

We review current methods for calculating fines against cartels in the US and EU, and simulate their deterrence effects …

Leniency programmes (or policies) reduce sanctions against cartel members that self-report to the Antitrust Authority …. We focus on their ability to directly deter cartels and analogous criminal organizations by undermining internal trust … destabilize and deter cartels by (a) protecting agents that defect (and report) from fines; (b) protecting them from other agents …

to several other crimes sharing cartels' strategic features, including corruption and financial fraud. …

. Our results are particularly relevant in light of the recent developments in U.S. and European antitrust policies. …