We study empirically the price effects of upstream cartels that sell through downstream retailers to final consumers. We focus on a German coffee producer cartel that colluded under two different regimes: (i) involving wholesale prices in 2003 and (ii) with additional resale price maintenance...

Der vorliegende Beitrag befasst sich mit aktuellen Wettbewerbsproblemen im deutschen Lebensmitteleinzelhandel. Im Mittelpunkt der Analyse stehen der zunehmende Konzentrationsprozess und seine Determinanten. Darauf aufbauend diskutieren wir Aspekte der Marktabgrenzung insbesondere im Hinblick auf...

In der wettbewerbsbehördlichen Fallpraxis gewinnt die Bestimmung von Nachfragemacht zunehmend an Bedeutung. Bei Fusionsvorhaben im Einzelhandel kann Nachfragemacht ein Hauptgrund für eine Untersagung bzw. für Auflagen sein. In diesem Beitrag wird die aktuelle Diskussion zur Bestimmung von...

This paper analyses the extent of inter-format retail competition between supermarkets, discounters and drugstores in Germany, using data from the German market for diapers. We estimate a random coefficient logit model at the individual household level. Based on consumer substitution patterns,...

Given various recent antitrust investigations on the retail sector, we deal with uncovering demand systems substitution patterns for a particular market (diapers) to investigate the inter-format competition (supermarkets vs. discounters vs. drugstores). Using the uncovered demand system we...

Research on bargaining power in vertical relationships is scarce. It remains particularly unclear which factors drive bargaining power between negotiating parties in a vertical structure. We use a demand model where consumer demand determines the total pie of industry profits. Moreover, we apply...

We examine how different pass-through rates, from input- to final consumer prices, and different vertical contracts affect upstream market definition. Our theory model predicts that, under reasonable conditions, higher pass-through rates lead to definitions of larger upstream markets. Data...

This paper analyzes the effects of a merger between a German supermarket chain and a soft discounter on consumer prices. We exploit geographic variation in prices within retail chains and brands and use a difference-in-differences estimator to compare regional markets with a change in market...