Overview

"The goal of ""Global Price Fixing"" is to describe and analyze the origins, operation, and impacts of global cartels in the markets for lysine, citric acid, and vitamins. The work is fundamentally a historical approach to understanding the interplay among personal motivations, economic forces, and the enforcement of the competition laws of the major industrial nations. The first chapter highlights the renewed importance of international price-fixing conspiracies after an absence of nearly 50 years. Two following chapters provide background on the economics theory and legal principals relevant to understanding cartels. Nine following chapters comprise the economic core of this book. Three chapters are devoted to each of the three cartels selected for intensive study: citric acid, lysine, and vitamins. The next four chapters then concentrate on the legal fallout from the discovery of the three cartels by the world's antitrust authorities. Chapter 17 provides a description of a few additional selected cartels with features not found in the lysine, citric acid, and vitamins cases. The penultimate chapter considers whether the antitrust resources of government agencies and private plaintiffs are sufficient to deter global price fixing in the foreseeable future. This final chapter attempts to identify major themes that appear throughout the book and to provide a summary of the ultimate impact of the global-cartel pandemic of the 1990s."

Full Product Details

Author:   John M. Connor
Publisher:   Springer
Imprint:   Springer
Edition:   2001 ed.
Volume:   24
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 3.30cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   1.093kg
ISBN:  

9780792373339

ISBN 10:   0792373332
Pages:   598
Publication Date:   30 September 2001
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

1. Introduction.- Purpose and Scope.- Importance of the Cases.- Sources and Methods.- Organization.- 2. The Economics of Price Fixing.- Basic Theory.- Price Fixing Defined.- Cartel Theory.- Conditions Facilitating Collusion.- Effects of Collusion.- Cartel Histories.- 3. Anticartel Laws and Enforcement.- Market Power.- The Sherman Act.- Prosecuting Price Fixing.- Anticartel Enforcement Abroad.- International Cooperation.- 4. The Citric Acid Industry.- The Product.- Technology and Early Development.- Market Size and Growth.- The Structure of Production.- Members of the Cartel.- International Trade Patterns.- Costs of Production.- Selling Practices.- 5. The Citric Acid Conspiracy.- Triggering Events13.- Meetings and Methods13.- Citric Acid Price Movements.- The Role of Cargill.- The China Problem.- The Cartel Is Unmasked.- 6. Economic Impacts of the Citric Acid Cartel.- Price Effects.- Effects on Production.- Effects on International Trade.- The Customer Overcharge.- Conclusions.- 7. The World Lysine Industry.- The Product and Its Uses.- Technology of Production.- History of the Industry.- Market Size and Growth.- Structure of Supply in the 1990s.- Members of the Cartel.- International Trade and Investment.- Selling Practices.- 8. The Lysine Conspiracy.- The Price War of 1991–1992.- Meetings and Methods.- The Cartel is Unmasked.- 9. Economic Effects of the Lysine Cartel.- Price Effects.- Production Effects.- Effects on International Trade.- Effects on Profits.- The Customer Overcharge.- Conclusions.- 10. The Global Vitamins Industry.- Origins of the Industry.- Companies.- Market Structure.- Market Size and Growth.- Trade and Location of Production.- 11. The Vitamins Conspiracies.- Formation of the Cartels.- Global Cartel Connections.- How the Conspiracies WereOrganized.- 12. Effects of the Vitamins Cartel.- Price Effects.- Profits.- Customer Overcharges.- 13. U.S. Government Prosecution of the Cartels.- The Antitrust Division.- The Biggest Mole Ever Seen.- Enter the FBI.- The Grand Juries3.- The FBI Raids.- The Lysine Guilty Pleas.- The Citric Acid Prosecutions.- Prosecution of the Vitamins Cartels.- High Fructose Corn Syrup: The Forgotten Cartel?.- Impact on Civil Cases.- Were the Fines High Enough?.- 14. Antitrust Prosecutions by Foreign Governments.- Lysine.- Citric Acid.- Vitamins.- 15. The Chicago Criminal Trial.- The Main Issues.- Pre-Trial Motions.- The Trial Opens.- Witnesses for the Prosecution.- The End Game.- The Verdict.- The Sentencing Phase.- 16. The Civil Suits.- The Federal Lysine Case.- The Federal Citric Acid Case.- The Federal Corn Sweeteners Cases.- The Vitamins Cases.- Indirect Purchasers’ Cases.- Effectiveness of Civil Antitrust Penalties.- 17. More Global Cartels.- Food-and-Feed Ingredients.- Other Global Cartels.- More Cartels to Come?.- Corporate Recidivism.- 18. The Business of Fighting Cartels.- A Boon for Law Firms.- Can the Antitrust Agencies Cope?.- Are New Laws Needed?.- Antitrust Sanctions: An Overall Appraisal.- 19. Global Price Fixing: Summing Up.- Market Structure Matters.- Escalating Antitrust Sanctions and Deterrence.- Financial Impacts of Antitrust Sanctions.- Corporate Governance Structures.- The Fate of Individual Conspirators.- The Social Costs of Global Cartels.- Antitrust Prosecutors: Methods and Reputations.- An Antitrust Tragedy.- References.

Reviews

...an immense and marvelous book...[written in a style] ...that entertains as well as informs [and that] should become a basic resource for almost everyone interested in industrial organization economics. Professor Connor's treatise ...is skillfully written and meticulously researched, providing readers with seldom-seen glimpses into the development, maintenance, discovery, and, ultimately, punishment... [of price-fixing conspiracies.]' Review of Industrial Organization

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