How Cartels Really Work, Episode 1: What Makes Something a Cartel?

Opublikowano: 2026-09-08

Two gas stations are using AI to price their gas. They both come out at $4.50. “That’s a cartel? Not always. Common costs, standard competitive interdependence, tacit collusion, and an agreement between the AI agents—or an old-fashioned agreement between the humans running the firms—could all result in the same price. In Episode 1 of How Cartels Really Work, EconWorks poses an apparently simple question: What is a cartel? We consider the difference between * parallel pricing, interdependence, * conspiracy of silence, * communications, * deal, * and direct price-fixing. Then we complica...