Have Indonesian rubber processors formed a cartel? Analysis of intertemporal marketing margin manipulation

A high level of market-power within the rubber processing industry limits the spread of the wealth generated with exports in Indonesia’s Jambi province. The market-power of the crumb rubber factories is based on a high level of concentration. With an Auto-Regressive Asymmetric Threshold Error Correction Model, we study the price transmission at these factories. The extent of the threshold effect is studied, as well as the rents that are redistributed from the farmers to the factories. This is the first paper to quantify the additional distributional consequences of intertemporal marketing margin manipulation based on cartelistic or oligopsonistic market power.