Cartelized Oil Market with Alternative Energy Supply

Author

Faculty of Economics, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

This paper presents an oil price cartel model. The aggregate reaction functions for non-cartel producers and for substitute suppliers are included. The former group acts as a price-taker, while the latter expects oil prices in production of its non-oil energy resources. This expectation about prices affects a cartel’s oil demand and, thus, gives intertemporal price elasticities It turns out that if these elasticities are positive, Hotelling’s rule does not apply to a cartelized market in which a cartel behaves as a price-maker.