TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ashenfelter,Orley
AU  - Graddy,Kathryn
TI  - Anatomy of the Rise and Fall of a Price-Fixing Conspiracy: Auctions at Sotheby's and Christie's
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 10795
PY  - 2004
Y2  - September 2004
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10795
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w10795.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Orley C. Ashenfelter
Industrial Relations Section
Firestone Library
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ  08544
Tel: 609/258-4040
Fax: 609/258-2907
E-Mail: c6789@princeton.edu

Kathryn Graddy
Department of Economics, Mail Stop 021
Brandeis University, P.O. Box 549110
415 South Street
Waltham, Massachusetts
02454-9110
E-Mail: kgraddy@brandeis.edu
AB  - The Sotheby's/Christie's price-fixing scandal that ended in the public trial of Alfred Taubman provides a unique window on a number of key economic and antitrust policy issues related to the use of the auction system. The trial provided detailed evidence as to how the price fixing worked, and the economic conditions under which it was started and began to fall apart. The outcome of the case also provides evidence on the novel auction process used to choose the lead counsel for the civil settlement. Finally, though buyers received the bulk of the damages, a straightforward application of the economic theory of auctions shows that it is unlikely that successful buyers as a group were injured.
ER  -