Score contribution per author:
α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count
In this paper we assess the impact of multimarket contact of banks on their market power by means of a simultaneous equation model, in which the divergence of price from marginal cost is a function of multimarket linkages. The model is estimated using aggregate data from the Italian regions for the years 1997–2009. Our results show that multimarket contact is positively and significantly correlated to the market power index, and is also connected to both home and non-home market concentration. The evidence is robust to changes in model specification and multimarket contact measures, and supports the idea that firms which have a greater amount of contact are more likely to collude.