This thesis examines the competitive impact of a trade or industry association. It focuses on the role of such associations in coordinating or orchestrating members to engage in cartel or collusive behaviour, and the effectiveness of such acts. More importantly, it seeks to provide empirical evidence of the presence of coordination and compliance between the association and its members. Providing empirical evidence for the presence of such actions has been a central and difficult issue in uncovering cartel or collusive behaviour by antitrust agencies around the world. / The thesis uses the Indonesian cement industry as a case study, because there have been many assertions that the Indonesian Cement Association has been involved in cartel-like behaviour (market sharing and quota distribution arrangements among members) for some time. Such behaviour was recognised and even sponsored by the Indonesian Government. However, following the change in the regulatory regime as a response to the Indonesian financial crisis of 1997, those assertions largely disappeared. Many Indonesians believed that since such arrangements were prohibited, the cartel-like behaviour of the Association had disappeared. / The general findings suggest that there exist some variations in the behaviour of the Association and its members between the pre-crisis period and the post-crisis period. During the pre-crisis period, when such arrangements were still in place, evidence of co-ordinated effort carried out by the Association in relation to most of its members was found. It was also suggested that in the long run, all members of the Association complied with the scheme. It is therefore reasonable to infer that the Association was behaving as an effective cartel. In contrast, during the post-crisis period, when such arrangements were allegedly no longer present, mixed results were found regarding the evidence of a coordinated and compliance relationship with the members. For that reason, it is plausible to suggest that the Association, even if it still carried out cartel-like behaviour, was not an effective cartel. / The structured analysis in this thesis offers a complementary framework for antitrust agencies to enhance their efforts to detect the presence of cartel practices, particularly those conducted by trade associations and when direct evidence is not available. In addition, the framework will also increase the capacity of antitrust agencies to adopt a more proactive role rather than waiting for whistleblowers. The framework can potentially also be used to indicate the existence of other forms of collusive behaviour such as tacit collusion, whereby conspirator firms may act in concert without any formal agreement. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2006.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/267140 |
| Creators | Machmud, T.M. Zakir Sjakur. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | copyright under review |
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