Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • March 2017
  • Article
  • Review of Industrial Organization

Challenges for Empirical Research on RPM

By: Alexander MacKay and David A. Smith
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

This article discusses the empirical challenges that researchers face when demonstrating the existence and effects of resale price maintenance (RPM). We outline three approaches for finding price effects of RPM and the corresponding hurdles in data and methodology. We show that the quantity test that was suggested by Posner (1977; 1981) does not identify the change to welfare when demand-enhancing effects are considered generally. Finally, we present some solutions to the challenge of identifying welfare effects, and we suggest guidelines for future research.

Keywords

Antitrust Issues And Policies; Antitrust Law; Resale Price Maintenance; Welfare Economics; Price; Competition; Research

Citation

MacKay, Alexander, and David A. Smith. "Challenges for Empirical Research on RPM." Review of Industrial Organization 50, no. 2 (March 2017): 209–220.
  • Find it at Harvard
  • Purchase

About The Author

Alexander J. MacKay

Strategy
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • 2021
    • Faculty Research

    Dynamic Pricing Algorithms, Consumer Harm, and Regulatory Response

    By: Alexander J. MacKay and Samuel Weinstein
    • 2021
    • Faculty Research

    What Drives Variation in Investor Portfolios? Evidence from Retirement Plans

    By: Mark Egan, Alexander MacKay and Hanbin Yang
    • 2022
    • Faculty Research

    Rising Markups and the Role of Consumer Preferences

    By: Hendrik Döpper, Alexander MacKay, Nathan H. Miller and Joel Stiebale
More from the Authors
  • Dynamic Pricing Algorithms, Consumer Harm, and Regulatory Response By: Alexander J. MacKay and Samuel Weinstein
  • What Drives Variation in Investor Portfolios? Evidence from Retirement Plans By: Mark Egan, Alexander MacKay and Hanbin Yang
  • Rising Markups and the Role of Consumer Preferences By: Hendrik Döpper, Alexander MacKay, Nathan H. Miller and Joel Stiebale
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College