What types of cartels (or collusive institutions) do we have?

1. Cartels – associations of independent firms that restrain competition and exploit market power. - Sales conditions; costs, prices and profit margins; allocation of territories or customers; productive capacity allocation. Pooling of such information make it easier for firms to co-ordinate pricing policies. 2. Trade associations – provide members with information on industry sales, productive capacity, creditworthiness of customers, etc 3. Joint ventures – association between two or more otherwise competing firms. Firms enter into joint ventures to: - combine firm resource to increase efficiency - overcome entry barriers and enter new markets - develop joint research and development undertakings 4. Agreements on information exchange, e.g. info on Retail sales and market shares of each member at national, regional, county, dealer territory and postcode sector level for each model. 5. Semi-collusion – firms collude in some activities and compete in others 6. State-sponsored collusion – government imposes cartel conditions on firms