The authors examine Securities and Exchange Commission filings from retailers and consumer and durable goods manufacturers to shed light on slotting practices. They find that slotting fees are used in both the consumer and the durable goods manufacturing industries, though different norms regarding slotting fees exist between product categories. Logit results find no support for an economic efficiency hypothesis but are more consistent with a power school perspective on slotting fees. The data imply that slotting fees are not likely to be a traditional antitrust issue, because the data reveal no evidence of unreasonable increases in profits resulting from slotting fee use.
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