Profit maximization, industry structure, and competition: A critique of neoclassical theory

Supply theory sans profit-maximization

We utilize the analytical construct of a stochastic supply function to provide an aggregate representation of a finite class of standard deterministic supply functions. We introduce a consistency postulate for a stochastic supply function that may be satisfied even if no underlying deterministic supply function is rationalizable in terms of profit maximization. Our consistency postulate is none...

Ownership Structure, Profit Maximization, and Competitive Behavior

We question the broad applicability of the assumption of profit maximization as the goal of the firm and investigate how variance in objective functions across different ownership structures affects competitive behavior. While prior work in agency theory has argued that firms may fail to engage in profit maximizing behaviors due to misalignment between the goals of owners and managers, we conte...

Supply Chain Network Design Under Profit Maximization and Oligopolistic Competition

In this paper, we model the supply chain network design problem with oligopolistic firms who are involved in the competitive production, storage, and distribution of a homogeneous product to multiple demand markets. The profit-maximizing firms select both the capacities associated with the various supply chain network activities as well as the product quantities. We formulate the governing Nash...

Customer Selection and Profit Maximization

Profit Maximization and Supermodular Technology

A dataset is a list of observed factor inputs and prices for a technology; profits and production levels are unobserved. We obtain necessary and sufficient conditions for a dataset to be consistent with profit maximization under a monotone and concave revenue based on the notion of cyclic monotonicity. Our result implies that monotonicity and concavity cannot be tested, and that one cannot deci...