Welcome to the webpage of Robert Clark

Current positions

• Professor, Stephen J.R. Smith Chair in Economic Policy, Department of Economics, Queen's University

• Affiliated professor, Department of Economics, HEC Montreal

• Bank of Canada Fellow, 2022-2026

• Fellow, Centre interuniversitaire de recherche en analyse des organisations (CIRANO)

• Faculty advisor, John Deutsch Institute

Research

Work in progress

• Centralized procurement and delivery times: Evidence from a natural experiment in Italy, with Decio Coviello and Adriano DeLeverano

• The role of intermediaries in selection markets: Evidence from mortgage lending, with Jason Allen, Jean-François Houde, Shaoteng Li, and Anna Trubnikova.

• Age, debt and house prices, with Jason Allen, Ken Chow, and Nicolas Vincent.

Articles

• Algorithmic pricing and competition: Empirical evidence from the German retail gasoline market, with Stephanie Assad, Daniel Ershov, and Lei Xu, revision requested, Journal of Political Economy.

• Complementary bidding and the collusive arrangement: Evidence from an antitrust investigation, with Decio Coviello and Adriano DeLeverano, revision requested, AEJ: Micro.

• Collusion in the US generic drug industry, with Chris Fabiilli and Laura Lasio, revision requested, International Journal of Industrial Organization.

• Why do some products fail? Evidence from the entry and exit of Vanilla Coke, with Yiran Gong, revision requested, Quantitative Marketing and Economics.

• Hub-and-spoke cartels: Theory and evidence from the grocery industry, with Ig Horstmann and Jean-François Houde, revision requested, American Economic Review.

• Resolving Failed Banks: Uncertainty, Multiple Bidding, and Auction Design, with Jason Allen, Brent Hickman and Eric Richert, revision requested, Review of Economic Studies.

  • Winner of the 2020 Public Utility Research Prize for the best paper in regulatory economics at the International Industrial Organization Conference

• The Geographic Flow of Bank Funding and Access to Credit: Branch Networks and Local-Market Competition, with Victor Aguirregabiria and Hui Wang, revision requested, American Economic Review.

• Incentivized Mergers and Cost Efficiency in the Electricity Distribution Industry, with Mario Samano, forthcoming, Journal of Industrial Economics.

• Identifying Algorithmic Pricing Technology Adoption in Retail Gasoline Markets, 2022, with Stephanie Assad, Daniel Ershov, and Lei Xu, AEA Papers and Proceedings, 112, 457-460.

• Debt-relief programs and money left on the table: Evidence from Canada's response to Covid-19, 2022, with Jason Allen, Shaoteng Li and Nicolas Vincent, Canadian Journal of Economics, 55, 9-53.

• The strategic response of banks to macroprudential policies:Evidence from mortgage stress tests in Canada, 2022, with Shaoteng Li, Review of Finance, 26, 187-216.

• The Industrial Organization of Financial Markets, 2021, with Jean-François Houde and Jakub Kastl, Handbook of Industrial Organization, vol. V, edited by Kate Ho, Ali Hortaçsu, and Alessandro Lizzeri, Elsevier.

• Autonomous Algorithmic Collusion: Economic Research and Policy Implications, 2021, with Stephanie Assad, Emilio Calvano, Giacomo Calzolari, Vincenzo Denicolo, Dan Ershov, Justin Johnson, Sergio Pastorello, Andre Rhodes, Lei Xu and Matthijs Wildenbeest, Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 37, 459-478.

• Search frictions and market power in negotiated price markets, 2019, with Jason Allen and Jean-Francois Houde, Journal of Political Economy, 127, 1550-1598.

• Bid rigging and entry deterrence: Evidence from an anti-collusion investigation in Quebec, 2018, with Decio Coviello, Jean-François Gauthier and Art Shneyerov, Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, 34, 301–363.

• Diversification of Geographic Risk in Retail Bank Networks: Evidence from Bank Expansion after the Riegle-Neal Act, 2016, with Victor Aguirregabiria and Hui Wang, RAND Journal of Economics, 47, 529-572.

• The Effects of Publicity on Demand: The case of anti-cholesterol drugs, 2016, with Andrew Ching, Ig Horstmann, and Hyunwoo Lim, Marketing Science, 35, 158-181.

• Price controls and market structure: Evidence from gasoline retail markets, 2015, with Juan Esteban Carranza and Jean-Francois Houde, Journal of Industrial Economics, 63, 152-198.

• The effect of mergers in search markets: Evidence from the Canadian mortgage industry, 2014, with Jason Allen and Jean-Francois Houde, American Economic Review, 104, 3365-3396.

  • Association of Competition Economics Prize: Best Paper in Competition Economics published in 2014.

• Booms, Busts, and Price Dispersion, 2014, with Nicolas Vincent, Economics Letters, 124, 399-401.

• Price dispersion in mortgage markets, 2014, with Jason Allen and Jean-Francois Houde, Journal of Industrial Economics, 62, 377-416.

• The impact of explicit communication on pricing: Evidence from the collapse of a gasoline cartel, 2014, with Jean-Francois Houde, Journal of Industrial Economics, 62, 191-228.

• A model of advertising format competition: On the use of celebrities in Ads, 2013, with Ig Horstmann, Canadian Journal of Economics, 46: 1606-1630.

• Collusion with asymmetric retailers: Evidence from a gasoline price-fixing case, 2013, with Jean-Francois Houde, American Economic Journal: Micro, 5: 97-123.

• Capacity-contingent pricing and competition in the airline industry, 2012, with Nicolas Vincent, Journal of Air Transport Management, 24: 7-11.

• Virtual borders: Online nominal rigidities and international market segmentation, 2012, with Jean Boivin and Nicolas Vincent, Journal of International Economics, 86(2): 327–335.

• Strategic buying to prevent seller exit, 2011, with Mattias Polborn, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 20(2): 339-378.

• Information provision in financial markets, 2010, with Moez Bennouri and Jacques Robert, Annals of Finance, 6(2): 255-286.

• The effect of advertising on Brand Awareness and Perceived Quality: An empirical investigation using panel data, 2009, with Ulrich Doraszelski and Michaela Draganska, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, 7(2): 207-236.

• Advertising restrictions and competition in the children's breakfast cereal industry, 2007, Journal of Law and Economics, 50(4): 757-780. (National Post article)

• The potential for electricity market restructuring in Quebec, 2007, with Andrew Leach, Canadian Public Policy, 33(1) 1-20.

• Coordination and status influence, 2006, with Samuel Clark and Mattias Polborn, Rationality and Society, 18(3): 367-391.

• Information and crowding externalities, 2006, with Mattias Polborn, Economic Theory, 27(3): 565-581.

• Advertising and coordination in markets with consumption scale effect, 2005, with Ig Horstmann, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, 14(2): 377-401.

CV (pdf)

Conference organization

Interactive Online IO Seminar, IO^2, Spring 2021: program

Interactive Online IO Seminar, IO^2, Summer 2021: program

Interactive Online IO Seminar, IO^2, Fall 2021: program

Canadian Economic Association Meetings: 2021 CIRANO-JDI-PHELPS-RIIB Sessions on Competition Policy and Regulation: : program

Canadian Economic Association Meetings: 2022 CIRANO-JDI-PHELPS-RIIB Sessions on Competition Policy and Regulation: : program

Montreal Summer IO Conference 2012: program

Montreal Summer IO Conference 2013: program

Montreal Summer IO Conference 2014: program

Montreal Summer IO Conference 2015: program

Montreal Summer IO Conference 2016: program

Montreal Summer IO Conference 2017: program

Montreal Summer IO Conference 2018: program

Montreal Summer IO Conference 2019: program

Montreal Summer IO Conference 2020: program (cancelled due to covid)

Montreal Summer IO Conference 2022: program

Conference on Financial Intermediation and Regulation 2017: program

Conference on Financial Intermediation and Regulation 2018: program

Conference on Financial Intermediation and Regulation 2019: program

Conference on Financial Intermediation and Regulation 2020: program (cancelled due to covid)

Conference on Financial Intermediation and Regulation 2021: program

Conference on Financial Intermediation and Regulation 2022: program