In a setting where retailers and suppliers compete for each other by offering binding contracts, exclusivity clauses serve as a competitive device. As a result of these clauses, firms addressed by contracts only accept the most favorable deal. Thus the contract-issuing parties have to squeeze...

We consider how technologies that eliminate sources of demand uncertainty change the character and prevalence of coordinated conduct. Our results show that mechanisms that reduce firms' uncertainty about the true level of demand have ambiguous welfare implications for consumers and firms alike....