I’m sure implicit collusion exists in the real world, I’m not so convinced there are “plenty of real world business examples” which are purely implicit and, for example, do not involve regulatory capture. My impression is that industries which successfully build high barriers to entry and enjoy abnormal profit rates generally do so with the help of government agencies.
It doesn’t have to be, if the relevant issue is not whether the overall position of the author is correct, but whether the specific relevant examples are legitimate.
Regulatory capture is certainly a pervasive and significant problem. When given the option to pursue that kind of advantage, corporations would be foolish to pass it up; they’d only be outcompeted by other corporations which were not so reserved. But that doesn’t mean that in the absence of regulatory capture, implicit collusion (or even explicit, when the industries can get away with it) will not occur.
The book doesn’t look unbiased :-)
I’m sure implicit collusion exists in the real world, I’m not so convinced there are “plenty of real world business examples” which are purely implicit and, for example, do not involve regulatory capture. My impression is that industries which successfully build high barriers to entry and enjoy abnormal profit rates generally do so with the help of government agencies.
It doesn’t have to be, if the relevant issue is not whether the overall position of the author is correct, but whether the specific relevant examples are legitimate.
Regulatory capture is certainly a pervasive and significant problem. When given the option to pursue that kind of advantage, corporations would be foolish to pass it up; they’d only be outcompeted by other corporations which were not so reserved. But that doesn’t mean that in the absence of regulatory capture, implicit collusion (or even explicit, when the industries can get away with it) will not occur.