This paper reports an experiment conducted to examine market performance and mergers in an asymmetric differentiated product oligopoly. We find that static Nash predictions organize mean market outcomes reasonably well. Markets on average respond to horizontal mergers with price increases as...

This paper reports results of an experiment design ed to investigate the nature of cooperation and punishment. Subjects are matched in a series of two-person, two-stage games with a sequential equilibrium that supports first-stage cooperation with a credible threat of subsequent punishment....

Even when markets seem to alternate between collusive and non-collusive phases, the price differences are difficult to interpret since a breakdown in collusion may be caused by a demand decrease that would have reduced prices in any case. This makes the laboratory an ideal setting to study...