• DOI:10.2139/ssrn.1917657
• Corpus ID: 15663838

Cartels As Rational Business Strategy: New Data Demonstrates That Crime Pays

@inproceedings{Lande2012CartelsAR,
  title={Cartels As Rational Business Strategy: New Data Demonstrates That Crime Pays},
  author={Robert H. Lande},
  year={2012}
}

• R. Lande
• Published 2012
• Economics

Cartels have always been the highest concern of antitrust. They overcharge consumers many billions of dollars every year and there is a strong consensus that they should be sanctioned heavily. Yet, until now no one has ever seriously attempted to analyze whether cartel sanctions are at the optimal level. This article is the first to undertake this formidable task. Rather surprisingly, it demonstrates that the combined level of United States cartel sanctions has been only 7% to 17% as large as it should be to protect potential victims of cartelization optimally. To remedy this the average level of United States anti-cartel sanctions should be approximately quintupled.