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
  • 2019
  • Working Paper
  • HBS Working Paper Series

Collusion in Markets with Syndication

By: John William Hatfield, Scott Duke Kominers, Richard Lowery and Jordan M. Barry
  • Format:Print
  • | Language:English
  • | Pages:72
ShareBar

Abstract

Many markets, including markets for IPOs and debt issuances, are syndicated: each winning bidder invites competitors to join its syndicate to complete production. Using repeated extensive form games, we show that collusion in syndicated markets may become easier as market concentration falls and that market entry may facilitate collusion. In particular, firms can sustain collusion by refusing to syndicate with any firm that undercuts the collusive price (and thereby raising that firm’s production costs). Our results can thus rationalize the paradoxical empirical observations that the IPO underwriting market exhibits seemingly collusive pricing despite low levels of market concentration.

Keywords

Collusion; Antitrust; IPO Underwriting; Syndication; "Repeated Games"

Citation

Hatfield, John William, Scott Duke Kominers, Richard Lowery, and Jordan M. Barry. "Collusion in Markets with Syndication." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 18-009, July 2017. (Revised June 2019.)
  • SSRN
  • Read Now

About The Author

Scott Duke Kominers

Entrepreneurial Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • October 2023
    • American Economic Review

    Matching Mechanisms for Refugee Resettlement

    By: David Delacrétaz, Scott Duke Kominers and Alexander Teytelboym
    • July 13, 2023
    • Harvard Business Review Digital Articles

    Threads Foreshadows a Big—and Surprising—Shift in Social Media

    By: Scott Duke Kominers and Liang Wu
    • May 2023
    • Faculty Research

    Twitter Blues: Does Paid Verification Check Out?

    By: Scott Duke Kominers, Das Narayandas and Kerry Herman
More from the Authors
  • Matching Mechanisms for Refugee Resettlement By: David Delacrétaz, Scott Duke Kominers and Alexander Teytelboym
  • Threads Foreshadows a Big—and Surprising—Shift in Social Media By: Scott Duke Kominers and Liang Wu
  • Twitter Blues: Does Paid Verification Check Out? By: Scott Duke Kominers, Das Narayandas and Kerry Herman
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
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College