Legal cartels, Mergers and Common-Ownership

Hard-core cartels are an incredibly common phenomenon with an enormous negative impact: cartels decrease welfare through increased prices and restricted output, and recent research suggests a link to mergers and common-ownership. Detecting and deterring cartels is therefore a central priority for antitrust authorities worldwide, and directly affect the mission areas in the European Horizon-2027, as cartel convictions have occurred in all sectors.
In this project, we will address some of the main antitrust authorities’ challenges. We propose to formalize the relationship between common ownership, mergers, cartels and antitrust policies.
We will start by developing a theoretical framework of strategic risk and common-ownership. To eliminate the usual issue of sample selection bias in cartel studies, we will use a unique dataset of legal cartels in our empirical estimations. This research aims at generating a breakthrough in our understanding of the relationships between common ownership, merger and collusion.

Student requirements for this project
A 2.1 level 8 honours degree or higher in a relevant degree