How Cartels Really Work, Episode 5: The Race to Confess

Opublikowano: 2026-10-06

A leniency program appears to generate a straightforward game theory problem for cartels. Suppose some firms agree to collude. Each wants to make cartel profits, but each knows that another cartel member may go to the government first and seek leniency. So what are you waiting for? If everyone wants to confess before everyone else, then backward induction makes the confession happen earlier and earlier. The logical prediction is surprising: the cartel should not form, in the end. But cartels do exist. In Episode 5 of How Cartels Really Work, we examine the gap between that...