Changing structure in the world nickel industry

• DOI: 10.1177/0003603X8402900306
• Author: Robert D. Cairns
• Published date: 01 September 1984
• Date: 01 September 1984
• Subject Matter: Article

The Antitrust Bulletin/Fall 1984

Changing structure

in the world nickel industry

BY ROBERT D. CAIRNS*

I.

Introduction

561

The 1970s may be called the decade of the international commod-

ity cartel. The most (in)famous

of

these cartels, OPEC, has been

the author

of

the present economic and financial crisis

of

the

West, and has reaped fabulous sums for its members. The success

of

OPEC

has incited producers of other commodities to attempt

to extract monopoly rents from consumers in the industrialized

and developing countries alike.

In a classic analysis

of

cartels, Stocking and Watkins found:

"Structural weakness, defection

of

cartel members, entrance

of

new producers, or technological displacement may greatly limit

the effectiveness

of

cartel control. In a dynamic society, contin-

ued control

of

the market through collusive action is difficult.":

Later, Scherer, in his important text, projected a weakening

of

price leadership discipline as an instrument of oligopolistic coor-

•Centre for the Study

of

Regulated Industries, McGill University,

Montreal, Quebec.

IGeorge W. Stocking

and

Myron W. Watkins, Cartels or Competi-

tion? The Economics

of

International Controls by Business and Gov-

ernment (New York: Twentieth Century Fund, 1948), p, 96.

@1984 by Federal Legal Publications, Inc.