Great school milk conspiracies revisited

This paper revisits a particular case involving two dairy processing compan ies accused of rigging bids in northern Kentucky school districts during th e 1980s. Evidence and arguments presented to support a conclusion of overt collusion are reassessed. Analyses of incumbency rates, market shares, bid levels, bid dispersions, bid distance relationships, exact bidding differen tials, and "bids from hell'' indicate that the two dairies may have been en gaged in tacit collusion instead of overt collusion.