Did the National Industrial Recovery Act Foster Collusion? Evidence from the Macaroni Industry

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Auburn University System; Auburn University; University of Iowa; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050714000618
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 831-862
• 关键词: great-depression; cartel formation; IMPACT; Heterogeneity

摘要

We use plant-level data from the Census of Manufactures to study collusion in the United States macaroni industry during the Great Depression. The National Industrial Recovery Act was passed in 1933 to promote recovery through industry coordination of economic activity. While there is no change in the price-cost margin after the law is passed, a variety of markers of anti-competitive conduct suggest that collusion indeed increased. Prices became less responsive to changes in cost, the dispersion of prices decreased, and the persistence in prices increased.