Fixing Markets, Not Prices : Policy Options to Tackle Economic Cartels in Latin America and the Caribbean

Fixing Markets, Not Prices : Policy Options to Tackle Economic Cartels in Latin America and the Caribbean

Collusive agreements among firms slow productivity growth, undermine economic efficiency, and hinder poverty reduction. When competitors agree to limit competition by forming economic cartels, poor households may pay up to 50 percent more for essential goods. Despite their numerous adverse consequen...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: World Bank
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:
ECONOMIC CARTELS
MARKET COMPETITION
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
ANTITRUST LAW
COMPETITION POLICY
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/148021625810668365/Fixing-Markets-Not-Prices-Policy-Options-to-Tackle-Economic-Cartels-in-Latin-America-and-the-Caribbean
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35985
id okr-10986-35985
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-359852022-02-08T05:11:01Z Fixing Markets, Not Prices : Policy Options to Tackle Economic Cartels in Latin America and the Caribbean World Bank ECONOMIC CARTELS MARKET COMPETITION CORPORATE GOVERNANCE ANTITRUST LAW COMPETITION POLICY Collusive agreements among firms slow productivity growth, undermine economic efficiency, and hinder poverty reduction. When competitors agree to limit competition by forming economic cartels, poor households may pay up to 50 percent more for essential goods. Despite their numerous adverse consequences, cartels remain common across many markets. In many LAC countries, policies to foster competition and eliminate cartels are weakly enforced or nonexistent. However, recent successes in cartel detection offer new insight into how to police and prevent collusive agreements. As they implement aggressive and far-reaching post-pandemic recovery efforts, LAC countries have an opportunity to establish a foundation for competitive markets that incentivize efficiency and deliver broad-based gains in employment and income. This report provides novel evidence on the prevalence of cartels in LAC and offers concrete policy options for identifying and breaking up cartels that reflect the country context and market realities. This report draws on a new, comprehensive dataset of cartel agreements uncovered in LAC over the last four decades and presents a sequence of policy options for dismantling cartels and preventing cartel formation. The report also offers tools to guide policymakers in deciding which policy options are most appropriate to the local context, including a taxonomy of factors that facilitate cartelization and an index to gauge the institutional independence of competition authorities. 2021-07-21T13:58:01Z 2021-07-21T13:58:01Z 2021-06-30 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/148021625810668365/Fixing-Markets-Not-Prices-Policy-Options-to-Tackle-Economic-Cartels-in-Latin-America-and-the-Caribbean http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35985 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work Economic & Sector Work :: Corporate Governance Assessment Latin America & Caribbean Caribbean Latin America
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic ECONOMIC CARTELS
MARKET COMPETITION
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
ANTITRUST LAW
COMPETITION POLICY
spellingShingle ECONOMIC CARTELS
MARKET COMPETITION
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
ANTITRUST LAW
COMPETITION POLICY
World Bank
Fixing Markets, Not Prices : Policy Options to Tackle Economic Cartels in Latin America and the Caribbean
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
Caribbean
Latin America
description Collusive agreements among firms slow productivity growth, undermine economic efficiency, and hinder poverty reduction. When competitors agree to limit competition by forming economic cartels, poor households may pay up to 50 percent more for essential goods. Despite their numerous adverse consequences, cartels remain common across many markets. In many LAC countries, policies to foster competition and eliminate cartels are weakly enforced or nonexistent. However, recent successes in cartel detection offer new insight into how to police and prevent collusive agreements. As they implement aggressive and far-reaching post-pandemic recovery efforts, LAC countries have an opportunity to establish a foundation for competitive markets that incentivize efficiency and deliver broad-based gains in employment and income. This report provides novel evidence on the prevalence of cartels in LAC and offers concrete policy options for identifying and breaking up cartels that reflect the country context and market realities. This report draws on a new, comprehensive dataset of cartel agreements uncovered in LAC over the last four decades and presents a sequence of policy options for dismantling cartels and preventing cartel formation. The report also offers tools to guide policymakers in deciding which policy options are most appropriate to the local context, including a taxonomy of factors that facilitate cartelization and an index to gauge the institutional independence of competition authorities.
format Report
author World Bank
author_facet World Bank
author_sort World Bank
title Fixing Markets, Not Prices : Policy Options to Tackle Economic Cartels in Latin America and the Caribbean
title_short Fixing Markets, Not Prices : Policy Options to Tackle Economic Cartels in Latin America and the Caribbean
title_full Fixing Markets, Not Prices : Policy Options to Tackle Economic Cartels in Latin America and the Caribbean
title_fullStr Fixing Markets, Not Prices : Policy Options to Tackle Economic Cartels in Latin America and the Caribbean
title_full_unstemmed Fixing Markets, Not Prices : Policy Options to Tackle Economic Cartels in Latin America and the Caribbean
title_sort fixing markets, not prices : policy options to tackle economic cartels in latin america and the caribbean
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2021
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/148021625810668365/Fixing-Markets-Not-Prices-Policy-Options-to-Tackle-Economic-Cartels-in-Latin-America-and-the-Caribbean
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35985
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