Hub‐and‐Spoke Collusion With a Third‐Party Pricing Algorithm
研究了一家数据分析公司通过其定价算法协调竞争对手价格的新型轴辐式合谋，发现该公司的效率反而促进了合谋，效率越高则合谋带来的超额利润越大，提醒反垄断机构关注此类市场。
ABSTRACT A data analytics company delivers an efficiency by supplying a pricing algorithm that allows prices to more effectively respond to demand variation. In this setting, I consider a new form of hub‐and‐spoke collusion: A data analytics company (hub) coordinates the prices of competitors (spokes) through its pricing algorithm. A novel finding is that the data analytics company's efficiency is a facilitating factor for collusion; a rise in this efficiency increases the supracompetitive markup and the incremental profit from collusion. Thus, markets in which a third party's services are solidly grounded in efficiency still warrant scrutiny by competition authorities because they are more prone to the emergence of collusion and anticompetitive harm.