| Abstract: | Oligopoly has been among the first topics in experimental economics.Over half a century, some 150 papers have been published. Eachindividual paper was interested in demonstrating one effect,but in order to do so, experimenters had to specify many moreparameters. Thus they have generated a huge body of evidence,untapped so far. This meta-analysis makes this evidence available.More than 100 of the papers lend themselves to calculating anindex of collusion. The database behind this paper covers some500 different settings. The experimental results may be normalizedas a percentage of the span between the Walrasian and the Paretooutcomes. In the same way, results may be expressed as a percentageof the distance between the Nash and the Pareto outcomes. Foreach and every one of the parameters, these two indices makeit possible to answer two questions: How far is the market outcomeaway from the competitive equilibrium? And how good is the Nashprediction? Most importantly, however, the meta-analysis shedslight on how features of the experimental setting interact witheach other. Most main effects and many interaction effects areindeed statistically significant. |
