"Market power inside the Belgian coal industry, 1901-45: A new empirical industrial organization approach"
Résumé
We analyse the impact of economic cycle on firms' ability to sustain a collusive behaviour inside the Belgian coal industry during the first half of the twentieth century. We consider a two-equations system that comprises a coal demand function and a domestic supply function. The system is estimated on the 1901-1945 period with annual data gathered through personal searches. The economic cycle is modeled by considering its two main dimensions, namely its slope and its level. Econometric results do not contradict results obtained by J. Haltiwanger and J. E. Harrington (1991).