Historical and Experimental Examination of Government- Sponsored Cartels

这个项目为研究人类的行为提供了有价值的新见解 政府支持的卡特尔中的公司，并开创了一种新的 经济史研究方法论 分析重大历史问题。 部分新 研究涉及进一步的实证分析的形成 政府支持的柑橘卡特尔， 卡特尔内部的生产配额，以及 那些违反规定的公司和那些遵守配额的公司 分配。 研究的另一部分涉及 开发所观察到的卡特尔模型， 在自然环境中测试模型的实验- 发生的机构。 方法论研究特别令人兴奋，因为它 解决了历史研究中的一个基本问题。 模型 用来“解释”历史事件的理论往往无法被检验 不适用于独立数据的外部有效性。 然而，在历史分析中，通常情况下， 没有独立数据。 实验室优势 研究人员可以复制一个微观世界， 实验室中的历史事件提供独立的 验证 该项目解决了我们对公司行为理解上的一个空白 在政府支持的卡特尔下， 从当前监管的角度来看， 政策 历史上很少有分析。 政府支持的卡特尔中企业的个体行为。 这是我们认识上的一个重要差距， 总是指望政府保护， 竞争压力。 我们需要更多地了解 过去，个别公司在监管下的表现如何， 以便在这一领域制定明智的政策。

This project contributes valuable new insights into the behavior of firms in government-sponsored cartels and pioneers a new methodology in economic history by linking laboratory experiments with analysis of important historical questions. Part of the new research involves further empirical analysis of the formation of the government-sponsored citrus cartel, the structuring of firm production quotas within cartels, and the characteristics of those firms that violate and those that adhere to their quota allotments. Another part of the research involves the development of models of the observed cartels and the design of experiments to test the models in the context of naturally- occurring institutions. The methodologically research is especially exciting because it addresses a fundamental problem with historical research. Models developed to "explain" historical events often cannot be tested for external validity without application to independent data. Yet, it is generally the case in historical analysis that such independent data arenot available. The advantage of laboratory experiments is that the researcher can replicate a microcosm of the historical event in the laboratory to offer independent verification. The project addresses a gap in our understanding of firm behavior under government-sponsored cartels both from a historical perspective and from the perspective of current regulatory policy. There has been little historical analysis of the individual behavior of firms in government-sponsored cartels. This is an important gap in our understanding because industries are always looking to the government for protection from competitive pressures. We need to know a great deal more about how individual firms have behaved under regulation in the past in order to make well-informed policy in this area.