Legal cartels and social contracts: Lessons from the economic foundations of government

Abstract

A cartel is a group of oligopolistic firms that agree to act collectively as a monopolist in some industry or economic enterprise. Discusses the social contract of the Southwest Conference (a legal cartel) using some of the principles of constitutional economics. Viewed from a contractarian framework (following Sobel and Holcombe), the Southwest Conference represent an inter‐university constitution or social contract, whose successes and failures are analysed with graphic models and historical evidence.

Citation

Mixon, F.G. (1996), "Legal cartels and social contracts: Lessons from the economic foundations of government", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 23 No. 1, pp. 37-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/03068299610108863