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 …

We provide a comprehensive quantitative assessment of cartels and the related cartel enforcement process in the … European Union (EU) from 2001 to 2015. In a first step, we present a detailed characterization of all cartel cases decided by … the European Commission (EC) with respect to various criteria such as the number of involved firm groups, cartel market …

informed about the strength of a cartel case. I show that the Competition Authority can then exploit firms' uncertainty about … leniency), which overall raises both cartel desistance and cartel deterrence. Finally, I discuss the policy implications of the …

breakdown of a German cement cartel. We find that, first, after the breakdown of the cartel, cartel members reduce net prices to … a far larger extent than gross prices and that, second, noncartel members slip under the price umbrella of the cartel to …

of cartel investigations by the European Commission (EC). We use a data set consisting of 579 firms groups convicted by … undisputed key contribution of a faster and more efficient handling of cartel investigations by the EC. …