Testing the hypothesis of collusive behavior among OPEC members

This paper presents a test to discriminate among collusive and competitive behavior by producers of exhaustible resources. In contrast to previous stu dies (Griffin, 1985; Jones, 1990), which are based on static models, our ap proach is based on of the dynamic implications of the optimization problem faced by a competitive producer. We use this framework to test the hypothes is of collusive behavior within OPEC between 1983 and 1991. The existence o f future markets allows us to sidestep the difficult issues related to the estimation of future prices and demand. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.