Hidden Price-Fixing Signaled by Revolving Door: Cutting Research

Companies that fix prices and hide it may be easier to spot than you think, according to researchers Tanja Artiga Gonzalez, Markus Schmid and David Yermack.

Their analysis of 216 U.S. companies that between 1986 and 2010 attempted to obscure strong cash flows from “regulators, analysts, customers, and at times, even their own boards of directors” found consistent patterns, the three wrote in a March working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).