collusion. It is shown that a vertical merger between an upstream firm and a downstream cartel or fringe firm promotes … downstream collusion, under certain conditions on the market size. However, for low market concentration, a vertical merger with … a cartel firm hinders collusion. Moreover, a welfare analysis shows that consumer surplus increases with the vertical …

differentiated markets. I firstly review some classical literature on collusion between two firms producing goods of exogenous … the market may have contradictory effects on the incentive of firms to collude: it can make collusion easier for bottom …

stakes of collusion. On the other hand, it creates an asymmetry between the integrated firm and the unintegrated competitors … cooperative equilibrium, which potentially harms collusion. As we show, the optimal collusive profit-sharing agreement takes care … the asymmetries in the non cooperative state. As a result, vertical integration generally favors collusion …

This paper analyzes the impact vertical integration has on upstream collusion when the price of the input is linear. As … discount factor needed to sustain this equilibrium is then shown to be unambiguously lower than the one needed for collusion in …

We examine the effects of (passive) cross-holdings in the downstream market on the sustainability of upstream collusion … higher degree of cross-holdings reduces upstream collusion. Our results are robust for a wide class of demand functions (that …