Back to members

Richard Lowery

Institution

University of Texas at Austin

PhD Year

2009

richard.lowery@mccombs.utexas.edu

FTG Membership

Member

Website

https://sites.google.com/site/richardlowery/

Featured Work

Facilitating Collusion with Spot Price Contracting

Jul 24, 2026

Richard Lowery

We investigate the competitive effects of spot-price contracting, in which a buyer and seller contract to transact at a future date at the price prevailing in that market at that future date (the "spot price"); such contracts are ubiquitous in the beef-processing industry, among others. We show that spot-price contracting can facilitate collusion: when such contracts are available, firms can maintain monopsonistic prices at much...