An OPEC in Fantasyland? The NAB Television Code as Cartel (revised)

The U.S. Justice Department filed suit against the National Association of Broadcasters in 1979, charging that its Television Code restricted the supply of advertising. Had the case, which was settled by consent decree in 1982, gone to trial under a "rule of reason," the cartel effects of the code would have been examined. This paper employs a number of statistical techniques to see if the code provided cartel benefits. The results suggest that the decision to become a code member cannot be ascribed to cartel effects of the code.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61267/1/Hull_B_1986_Working_Paper_41_NAB_Television_Code_-_Revised.pd