We hypothesize a particular source of cartel instability and explore its relevance to understanding cartel dynamics …. The cartel instability is rooted in the observation that, upon cartel formation, the relative positions of firms are often … fixed which may lead some growthconscious members to be discontent. This incongruity between a cartel member’s allocated …

A challenge for many cartels is avoiding a destabilizing increase in non-cartel supply in response to having raised … price. In the case of the German cement cartel that operated over 1991-2002, the primary source of non-cartel supply was … imports from Eastern European cement manufacturers. Industry sources have claimed that the cartel sought to control imports by …